After letting a second-half lead slip away in their last outing, the host Chicago Fire renew their rivalry with fellow Midwestern foe Sporting Kansas City on Saturday night.

While the Fire (4-2-2, 14 points) are unbeaten in their last five matches across all competitions (4-0-1), they blew a 3-1 second-half lead against FC Cincinnati on April 18. Evander’s penalty kick in the 79th minute and Dje D’Avilla’s own goal seven minutes later engineered Cincinnati’s 3-3 come-from-behind draw.

“For us, there were a couple things we did wrong, and a lot of that is correctable. We looked at the video and worked on it. It’s something we want to stay focused,” Fire head coach Gregg Berhalter said.

Though Kansas City (1-6-1, 4 points) is currently at the bottom of the Western Conference, that’s “a little bit misleading,” Berhalter said.

“They have played better at times than the results show, and they pose some problems. For us, it’s being really focused on what we’re trying to do, being aggressive and trying to set the team up for success,” he said.

Sporting KC have dropped five in a row across all competitions, including a 3-0 upset loss to USL Championship side Colorado Springs Switchbacks in the U.S. Open Cup Round of 32 on April 14. They have been outscored 16-3 in that span.

It’s far from what SKC head coach Raphael Wicky anticipated, ahead of his first meeting against the club he helmed for just shy of two seasons in 2020 and 2021.

“When you look at all these games, there’s always moments where we’re good, that we’re in the game, and then very quickly we make a mistake or we concede, and then we’re quickly out of the game,” Wicky said. “So that is always frustrating, but that is where I think we have to keep going.”

Chicago forward Jonathan Bamba (personal matters) will remain out against Kansas City, per Berhalter. Defender Leonardo Barroso (lower-body injury) is out as well.

Wicky was 12-26-14 in 52 matches as the Fire’s head coach.

Hugo Cuypers has netted half of Chicago’s 12 goals. Dejan Joveljic has four of SKC’s seven to lead the visitors.

–Field Level Media

Two months into the regular season, Nashville SC built the best record in the Eastern Conference while juggling matches in the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

Now, Nashville will have had a rare full week’s rest when it hosts Charlotte FC on Saturday.

Nashville SC (6-1-1, 19 points) had Wednesday off while much of the league was in action. They also didn’t have a midweek Champions Cup fixture for a change: Nashville beat Club America on aggregate last week and will tussle with Mexican power Tigres UANL in the semifinals beginning April 28.

“I think when you actually get a full week of training, you can really focus on yourself for periods of time,” Nashville head coach B.J. Callaghan said. “Obviously when you’re playing every two days, a lot of it has to do with recovery and thinking about what you’re going to do for the opponent.”

Recovery helps, too. Callaghan said Nashville’s top scorer Sam Surridge, who hasn’t played since April 11 due to a hamstring injury, is back at practice and available for selection. He’s tied with Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi for third in the league with seven goals.

That April 11 match was the first meeting between regional rivals Nashville and Charlotte this year. Edvard Tagseth and Patrick Yazbek scored in either half to lift Nashville to a 2-1 road win.

“We didn’t play well in the first half against Nashville. We never got the ball back,” Charlotte coach Dean Smith said this week. “I didn’t think we pressed as well as we could’ve, with the intensity that we needed to. We certainly need to go and do that.”

Charlotte FC (4-3-2, 14 points) have dropped two of three in league play, most recently taking a 4-1 road loss to Orlando City on Wednesday. That was Charlotte’s highest yield of the season, yet Smith insisted his team played better than in its previous match, a 2-1 win over New York City FC. Defender Morrison Agyemang, 21, had his first career goal.

Smith said defender and U.S. men’s national team captain Tim Ream (adductor) will miss one more match but should be ready for May 2 at the New England Revolution.

“I think they’ve had to make a few adjustments with Tim Ream out,” Callaghan said, “but I think what you always get from Charlotte is a really well-coached team, organized in a lot of phases and again, that highlights a lot of — I would say, some of their individual attacking qualities really are able to come out from that.”

–Field Level Media

St. Louis City SC has never lost or tied in six matches against the San Jose Earthquakes in their four-year existence.

If current form holds for both teams, that streak figures to end Saturday night when San Jose invades Energizer Park in a fixture of Western Conference squads.

After routing Austin 5-1 on Wednesday in northern California, the Earthquakes (8-1-0, 24 points) boast the top record in MLS and are tied with Vancouver for the best goal differential at plus-18.

Meanwhile, St. Louis (1-4-3, 6 points) is coming off a 4-1 loss last Saturday at Seattle that extended its MLS winless streak to three matches (0-1-2). Not only is it once again struggling to score goals — it has seven in eight matches — but its defense has conceded at least once in every match.

Midfielder Marcel Hartel didn’t have a real answer when asked why the team continues to struggle to finish its chances.

“That’s a good question,” he said. “We speak about it after every game — analyze the goals we concede, the goals we score. We defend good as a collective. … We have to score more goals. We have good opportunities in every game.”

The return of Eduard Lowen could help St. Louis unlock its offense. He played briefly at the end in Seattle and scored in stoppage time.

As for San Jose, its only problem might be overcheering. The team is scoring nearly three goals per match and its defense, an issue last year when it missed the playoffs, is maintaining its shape beautifully.

It’s adding up to another magical second season for coach Bruce Arena. If the Earthquakes earn the Supporters’ Shield, it would be the fourth team Arena has coached that has earned that honor in his second year with that squad.

“We won nine games last year. We have eight now,” he said. “I attribute it simply that they grind it out, they work hard every day and they like each other.”

Oussemi Bouda and Preston Judd each have five goals, while four other players have scored two goals each.

–Field Level Media