"This Week in Sporting,” is a weekly series that highlights the biggest storylines and news updates from Sporting Kansas City.
1. Home Opener Incoming
The 2022 MLS regular season has officially kicked off and soccer is returning to Children’s Mercy Park this Saturday. Sporting Kansas City will host Houston Dynamo FC in a rivalry renewal on Saturday at 2:30 p.m. CT. While this has been the shortest MLS offseason in Sporting KC history, it has been far too long since Sporting KC played at the Blue Hell. Tickets are still available at SeatGeek.com for the 2022 home opener. The two teams faced each other three times last year with Sporting winning both of their home matches against the Dynamo but losing their one road match in Houston.
Led by first-year head coach and former Sporting KC midfielder and SKC II head coach, Paulo Nagamura brings the Dynamo into Kansas City after a scoreless draw against Real Salt Lake on Sunday. Houston had a complete front office overhaul this offseason bringing in a new head coach in Nagamura, and a new general manager in Pat Onstad. They made a splash signing, spending a club-record $4.3 million Paraguayan forward Sebastian Ferreira. Sporting will welcome Houston to Children's Mercy Park for the 16th time on Saturday. Sporting boasts a 6-2-6 record against the Dynamo at Children's Mercy Park.
2. Sporting suffers defeat at Atlanta
Sporting opened the season at Atlanta United and suffered a 3-1 defeat to the Five Stripes. It was the largest crowd in an MLS match involving Sporting KC as 67,523 fans packed Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the season opener. Atlanta netted a goal in the 20th minute and then doubled their lead in stoppage time of the first half.
Sporting was not lacking in chances but could not beat the Atlanta backline until Daniel Salloi cut the lead in half in the 85th minute. With Sporting dumping bodies forward trying to find the equalizer, Atlanta put the game on ice in the 89th minute on a breakaway goal. Sporting still paces MLS with 10 season-opening road wins in club history, but is now tied with the LA Galaxy for season-opening wins with 15.
3. Salloi Picks up Right Where He Left Off
Salloi started the season off on the right foot with a right-footed blast off a Felipe Hernadez corner kick in the 85th minute of Sunday’s match. The Hungarian International paces MLS with 16 regular season goals from open play since the start of 2021. He became the eighth Sporting player in club history to score in back-to-back MLS season openers. After being a finalist for MLS MVP last season, Salloi certainly is off to a great start in 2022.
4. 38 The Spot Debut
Saturday’s match is not just the first home match of the season but also this season's first broadcast on 38 The Spot, Sporting KC's new broadcast partner. Sporting KC will be the first MLS club to incorporate TRACAB technology into their broadcast, providing fans with never-before-seen advanced match analysis.
Fans have unprecedented access to Sporting KC’s broadcast with streaming available in the Sporting KC app, as well as online at SportingKC.com. Saturday’s match will also be broadcasted nationally on UNIVISION and TUDN as one of Sporting’s 10 nationally broadcasted matches.
5. SKC II Updates
Last Tuesday, Sporting’s MLS NEXT Pro affiliate, Sporting KC II, announced the club would be playing select home matches at Rock Chalk Park in Lawrence, Kansas. Later in the week, SKC II’s schedule was announced with the club kicking off the inaugural MLS NEXT Pro season with two road matches before playing their first home match of the season on Sunday, April 10 against Houston Dynamo 2 at Rock Chalk Park. With preseason ongoing, head coach Benny Feilhaber and assistant coach Ike Opara are hard at work building the SKC II roster before the season kicks off on March 27.
6. Open Training on Wednesday
This Wednesday, March 2, Sporting KC will host an open training session at Children’s Mercy Park. Fans can reserve their seat at SeatGeek.com and admission is free. Practice will be from 10 to 11 a.m. CT. Following the conclusion of training head coach and sporting director Peter Vermes, and team Johnny Russell will field questions from the media. There will not be opportunities for pictures or autographs.
7. The Sporting KC Show on 810 WHB
The Sporting KC Show presented by Michelob Ultra on Sports Radio 810 WHB is back this week with a new episode on Wednesday night. Usual hosts Nate Bukaty and Aly Trost will recap the season opener, look ahead to the home opener and will have interviews from the technical staff and first team. Fans can also find The Sporting KC Show here if they are unable to tune in live.
