Less than three months after Sporting Kansas City's 2018 season came to a screeching halt in a two-leg playoff series, the competitive portion of 2019 begins with yet another cup tie to be decided on aggregate goals.
Sporting begin the Concacaf Champions League with likely the toughest draw of any MLS entrant, playing Liga MX stalwarts Toluca in the first round, with the first leg slated for Children's Mercy Park on Thursday night (7 p.m. CT | YahooSports.com, UDN).
But despite the difficulty of the challenge and the lingering sting of last year's postseason disappointment, when Sporting lost the Western Conference Championship to the Portland Timbers, captain Matt Besler insists his squad are confident ahead of Leg 1.
“Physically we feel good,” Besler said in a press conference on Wednesday. “I think it’s the fastest we’ve reached checkpoints throughout the season of, playing a 45-minute game and 90-minute game. But for the most part we’re extremely healthy.”
Toluca are already seven games into their regular season, which could pose issues for a Sporting team still gaining their fitness. But coach Peter Vermes and his staff had a plan from the end of last season, and were also opened camp a week earlier than teams not playing Champions League games.
“I think that the players did a really good job in the short offseason that we had following a program that we put together, to hopefully have them come back into preseason with a good, solid foundation of fitness," Vermes said. "It helped us get playing a lot quicker than we normally would in preseason."
Vermes also said a relative lack of roster turnover should help his squad's prospects. And for players like midfielder Ilie Sanchez, the chance to become the first MLS team to win the Champions League outweighs any inconvenience in scheduling.
“This year it’s a priority for us,” he said. “For many of us, it’s a new competition to play in. We are excited to be part of the competition, and also to see [that] the club is getting into these tournaments.”
Attacker Daniel Salloi is also relishing the challenge.
“You don’t really know what to get from the other team. You watch their clips, but it’s difficult to play against a team from a different country. So I’m very excited. I think the whole team is. It’s Champions League, and I think everyone would want to play in the Champions League.”
Toluca haven’t won since their second match of their 2019 Clausura campaign, and have scored only once in the last month. However, Sporting defender Graham Zusi doesn't believe that means his club are catching their Mexican opponents at the right time.
“A lot of times a team who is struggling in one competition, will put a lot of focus in another," Zusi told MLSsoccer.com. "This could be that competition for them.”
Toluca have already lost once to a coach well known in MLS circles, former FC Dallas boss and current Club Tijuana chief Oscar Pareja.
Vermes was mum on whether he reached out to Pareja for advice. But he expects his players will be able to lean upon their own previous experiences.
“The good thing is there are a lot of international players on our team that have played in Concacaf competitions like World Cup qualifying and Gold Cup. So I’m hoping that some of that will play out in this tournament for us, and we need to lean on those guys for this kind of competition.”
As for what to expect from this Toluca side? A good fight, for one.
“We expect a high-flying team,” Zusi said. “They’re very good on the counter, as a lot of the Liga MX teams are. But I think if we’re concentrated and we stay disciplined for the full 90 minutes, we can take care of our home leg and go down there and see what we have to do.”
