As Sporting Kansas City’s 2022 MLS regular season home opener looms, SportingKC.com is rolling out a 15-day countdown until MLS is back at Children’s Mercy Park. Sporting began its 2022 campaign with a 3-1 loss at Atlanta United FC. The attention now turns to Saturday’s home opener against longtime rival Houston Dynamo FC at 2:30 p.m. CT at Children's Mercy Park.
The 2022 Preseason Countdown will provide fans with key storylines to keep an eye on as we approach Sporting’s home opener. From player highlights and coaching spotlights to new features at Children’s Mercy Park, the 2022 Preseason Countdown will highlight the many reasons to be excited for what’s ahead.
Earlier in the week, we took a deep dive into Saturday’s opponent, the Houston Dynamo, and yesterday we discussed Sporting’s success in MLS regular season home openers. Today in the next-to-last daily countdown we will talk about Sporting’s recent success against the Dynamo at Children’s Mercy Park.
In the past decade, Sporting has had Houston’s number at Children’s Mercy Park posting a record of 4-2-3 against the Dynamo in front of the Blue Hell in that time span. Houston’s last road win in an MLS match came at Children’s Mercy Park in August of 2020, but Sporting would go on to beat Houston by a combined score of 7-4 in the next two meetings in Kansas City.
Before the August 2020 Houston victory, the Dynamo had not won on the road against Sporting KC in six years. In August 2014, the Dynamo bested Sporting 3-1. Following that loss, Sporting and Houston played to a draw on three consecutive occasions at Children’s Mercy Park. The first draw was a 1-1 tie as Ricardo Clark’s 78th-minute goal erased Dom Dwyer’s early goal in the sixth minute. Neither side found an advantage in the final 12 minutes of the match.
The second draw was a barn burner. Sporting KC’s current color commentator Jacob Peterson scored in the 14th before Roger Espinoza doubled Sporting’s lead a little over 10 minutes later. Houston drew level, scoring two goals on either side of halftime. Dwyer netted one in the 81st, which looked to be the winner until Raul Rodriguez brought the game level in stoppage time. The third draw was a scoreless draw in the penultimate match of the 2017 season.
Following the three straight draws, Sporting launched a streak of three straight home victories against the Dynamo. In the first one, Daniel Salloi, Diego Rubio and Khiry Shelton all scored in the second half to erase a 2-0 halftime deficit and knock off the Dynamo 3-2. In the second win of the streak, Johnny Russell scored the only goal in a 1-0 Sporting win. The third and final win was the 2020 MLS regular season home opener in which Sporting demolished the Dynamo 4-0.
In the first game back at Children’s Mercy Park, following the COVID-19 shutdown, Houston beat Sporting but in 2021, revenge was served with Sporting winning twice. Saturday, Sporting can extend their home win streak against the Dynamo to three for the second time in club history. Fans can purchase tickets for the home opener at SeatGeek.com.
