Sporting KC
Sporting Kansas City vs Houston Dynamo Match Thread
It’s win or go home for Sporting KC as they take on the Houston Dynamo in the quarterfinals of the MLS Cup playoffs
Sporting Kansas City vs Houston Dynamo
Time: 6:00 pm CST
Location: Shell Energy Stadium, Houston, Texas
How to Watch: Apple TV MLS Live
Line: Sporting KC +310, Houston Dynamo -140, Draw +270
Referee: Guido Gonzales Jr
The Teams
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Sporting Kansas City
12-8-14, 44 points
8th in the West
Head Coach: Peter Vermes (15th season)
How they got here: 8th in the West
Defeated San Jose in the Wild Card Round
Defeated St. Louis City SC in the Western Conference Quarterfinals (2-0)
Injury Report: OUT: Kortne Ford (Achilles surgery), OUT: Logan Ndenbe (torn ACL), OUT: Kayden Pierre (hamstring), OUT: Felipe Gutierrez (knee), QUESTIONABLE: Dany Rosero (facial injury)
Houston Dynamo
14-9-11, 51 points
4th in the West
Head Coach: Ben Olsen (1st season)
How they got here: Fourth in the Western Conference
Defeated Real Salt Lake 2-1 in Western Conference Quarterfinals series
Injury Report: OUT: Ifunanyachi Achara (knee), OUT: Tate Schmitt
Across State Lines: Da Silva Joins Milwaukee on Loan
Sporting KC announces coaching staff
Juice Boxes and Post Game Stats: Comets Record 200th Win
Roster Tracker USMNT World Cup 2026: Weah, Sands, Wright tally
Sporting KC are Under New Ownership
The Moves Keep Falling Through, but Sporting KC have a Ton to Spend
Illig Family Selling Majority Stake in Sporting KC
Rumor: ESPN Has Sporting KC Paying over $1 Million for Cesar Inga
Sporting KC signs free agent forward Calvin Harris
This game is also on FS1, which is great for exposure but also makes me doubt the supposed 6:09 start time because cable games always insist on a longer lead time for intro puffery. Just like we saw against St. Louis.
I’m swinging wildly between confidence and apprehension. More than any other team, I associate Houston with ending SKC seasons, during a brutal three-year stretch:
2016 USOC loss
2017 three of their final four games were against Houston: back-to-back loss and tie to push SKC down the standings into a first-round loss against…Houston.
2018 USOC loss
So it would be especially nice to exorcise those a big tonight.
Typically Fox does a pregame in the time allotted for the game. So if it is listed at 6, they take 15 to 25 minutes for a pregame. Today their broadcast starts at 5:30 so that is their pregame. I think MLS/Apple will try to keep the two playoff games from overlapping, so not sure if they forced that difference in this case.
Looks like you’re right. First time I’ve seen a cable broadcast take the sensible approach.
It’s funny those games jump out, I’m thinking further back to the 2011 and 2012 playoffs before Sporting KC finally got right in 2013.
And I agree on the start time, who knows. Having the Chiefs game possibly overlap sort of makes me want the SKC game to start a little late.
The 16-18 arc resonates especially strongly with me as it overlaps with when I started following the team more seriously.
While we wait for this game, did anyone read Sam’s story in the Star today where he interview Mike Illig and Johnny Russell about the famous “retreat?” It’s the start of their turn around and the “firepit” dance they do.
Really good stuff.
https://www.kansascity.com/sports/spt-columns-blogs/sam-mcdowell/article282273068.html
Sneaky of Houston to have their seats lots of different colors, so it’s harder to see how empty the stadium is.
Lots of turnovers tonight. Daniel has not looked sharp.
We’re playing like absolute crap. Letting Escobar run unmarked is inexcusable
That’s a handball. We just got fucked
All day. It’s ridiculous that it didn’t even go to review. That’s an automatic red as well. Massive call
With that said, we look bad and like we don’t have a plan
Agreed 1000%
I disagree with it being the wrong call. that is the exact same call that made st louis go nuts when they played the non-playoff game in KC. His arm was at his side, and he was clearly trying to bring his arm back in. they have pretty consistently not called this a handball all year.
That’s the thing though. He was moving his arm in, which means it wasn’t near his body in a natural position to start. The angle from behind shows that he was 6+ inches away from His body when it hit him
I have to agree that it looked non-handball to me. Arm tucked tightly into the side, no motion. Would’ve been worth a full VAR but not enough to overturn to me.
Did you see the angle from behind the net? How was that tucked tightly?
I did not; was it on the broadcast? Did I blink? I only saw the front-angle ones where the arm looked pretty tight to the body.
It was on the broadcast. They showed it after the ref decided not to go to VAR
I’ll have to review all angles later.
Trying to bring your arm in doesn’t matter though; it was out and blocked the ball, and it definitely wasn’t a ball-to-hand situation.
The one STL was calling for hit Khiry’s shoulder. This hit the bicep/elbow.
just to clarify my st louis comparison, i was referring the fantas play in the non-playoff game. AZ and there german/Brazilian stricker went nuts, and he even got a card for yelling at the red. I believe it was around the 80th minute, maybe a little later
Pulido has to shoot that. Why take 2 or 3 extra touches when you’re getting closed down from all sides?
Regardless of whether that was or was not a hand ball (it was), why does Pulido not shoot?
3 week break, huh?
Houston absolutely deserve to be in front. We’re lucky to not be down by 2 or 3. Liebold cannot contain Dorsey and Davis is struggling with Quinones. Ceding possession is obviously not working, so we have to change our game plan. That being said, we’re one botched handball call away from being tied, so there’s still hope.
Yeah Leibold has looked like a mess. Davis just looks like he’s trying too hard and not focusing on the little things that will help him contain.
I dunno, to me they were stranded by the lack of defensive effort from Russell and salloi early on. Our midfield was absolutely non-existent and our fullback suffered for it.
Forgettable half. Houston with 3x as many chances and we’re lucky it’s only 1-0. We needed the luck of one of the few decent chances going in, it hasn’t happened. Handball or not, Houston’s lead is deserved.
With no halftime subs, there better be a massive change in play, or some new players better come on at the 60-65th.
Playing deep has not worked.
Sub in Thommy and get aggressive. If we concede again oh well. We’re already on the way out as it stands. Might as well try to do something.
So frustrating that Steve Clark decides to have an awesome game tonight. Credit to him, but man we should have one by now
Houston going full CONCACAF. This is so frustrating to watch.
Vermes needs to make a sub. Change something.
Time for Agada or something
Zusi was not exactly what i had in mind for “something”
At least he was playing with some urgency and moving the ball up the pitch.
Good ole 1 sub performance from Vermes so far. We have nothing to lose, get Agada on
Someone needs to start setting PV’s watch back 10-15 minutes before each game, so he makes subs at a time that might actually affect the game.
This feels like a last ride kind of thing for Espinoza and Zusi
This is the kind of urgency we needed all freakin game
Vermes out.
We got outplayed and out coached.
Pulido receeded into obscurity since renewing his contract. No urgency or change until too late in the game.
Outcoached by Ben Olsen at that.
Vermes critics just got un-silenced, and with good reason. If he can preen when they win, he can take shots when they lose.
That’ll leave a bad taste in the mouth for a while. But we’ll always have STL.
Did anyone really show up tonight besides Melia? Houston controlled that start to finish.
I thought Daniel grew into the game ok. Put some decent balls in. Fontas was ok. Everyone else stunk
Absolutely embarrassing. STL was easy to figure out and have a plan for, but Vermes had no idea what to do today – or any other time that requires changing tactics – and here we are. We deserve to be knocked out.
There’s no justification for waiting so long to sub when it was obvious a change was needed.
But hey, this will be chalked up to a successful season because we made the playoffs.
With that said, no one showed any intensity whatsoever until the last 10 minutes. How can you go the whole game not realizing you need to bump it up?
I was never off the train, even once we started playing: Vermes out.
His only possibly redemption was the cup or the final. This definitely was not redemption.
We didn’t just lose. They put on a passing clinic against us and made us look awful. Our press was so ineffective and there was no guidance on changing tactics.
We barely pressed for most of the match. Just seemed content to sit there
Geez, that’s the toothless offense we’ve seen before. Not on the same page.
Pulido has 0 playoff goals? That’s insane, TBH
How quickly we forget. Are there problems, absolutely, but Houston was the home team,, and playing to win too. the XG wasn’t that far off, and they scored on a set piece. SKC had three to 4 good chances, and defensive plays were made by Houston. Houston had 3-4 good chances, and finished 1. This was my first year with seasons tickets, and and from May till November, I had an amazingly good time watching and following this team. there have been three conference semi-finals so far, and they all ended 1-0. At the end of last season, we knew Sporting needed a left back, a 6, and a center back. There was a clear attempt at all three of those positions and atleast the 6 and center back worked out pretty well. the left back is questionable, but a player on the roster stepped up. I’m left looking forward to next season, and think they have a team that can continue to compete. Remember that teams with long term success don’t win the championship every year. I in no way think they couldn’t win this game, and actually very much think they had a chance. This one game sample size didn’t go the way I would have liked, but in no way think it was a failure
Ilyu SKC! Better luck next beer!!