Everything you need to know about Sporting’s start to the Season

Sporting Kansas City’s season will begin on Feb. 29 after ending the 2019 season in 11th place last October. 

Seven players ended their contracts in the offseason, including Benny Feilhaber, Jimmy Medranda and Seth Sinovic, all of whom have been on the team for over seven years. According to freshman Thomas Mancuso, a center midfielder for U-15 Sporting Academy team, Sporting KC isn’t likely to suffer from the losses. 

“Once you are a higher-level team, you start to look for players all around the country,” Mancuso said. “Even if you lose older players, they are still scouting anyways. I think now it’s easy for the team to find a replacement.” 

Sporting’s top players — defender Graham Zusi, midfielder Roger Espinoza, defender Matt Besler and midfielder Felipe Gutierrez — are set to return. In the 2019 season, Felipe Gutierrez lead the team with 12 goals out of 29 attempted shots on goal. Many players last year were injured, including Espinoza with a knee injury and Besler with a hamstring injury. This caused the team some difficulty adjusting to the substitutes. 

“The year before, [Sporting] did really well, so they were used to playing with the same players,” Mancuso said. “But as soon as a lot of them got hurt and they applied new players, that took a really big effect on how the team played all together.”

This season, the team received new secondary jerseys. According to SportingKC.com, the jersey features “a dark indigo base with sporting blue swiss dots.” In addition to the new jerseys, Children’s Mercy Park — where Sporting plays — will feature several new concession stands such as BRGR Kitchen + Bar, Port Fonda, a Taco Republic food truck and a Parisi Coffee kiosk. 

The season will begin in February for the first time in 25 years, with most previous seasons beginning in March. Tickets are available to purchase at Sportingkc.com/tickets.