Sporting KC’s schedule for first two games of 2020: At Vancouver, home against Dynamo
The first two games for Sporting Kansas City’s 2020 Major League Soccer schedule are out.
Three words of advice: Bring that scarf.
Will the weather be chilly? Perhaps, because MLS is about to embark on its earliest start to a regular-season campaign yet. Sporting KC opens on the road Feb. 29 against Vancouver Whitecaps FC, then returns home for its opener at Children’s Mercy Park on March 7, a Saturday, against the Houston Dynamo.
The Vancouver match starts at 9:30 p.m. Central Time, the Houston match at 7:30. Sporting KC’s full schedule is due to be released later this month.
There are two new teams this year in the now-26-team MLS, and the earlier launch to the season allows for an increased number of games leading up to the start of the playoffs in late October into November, culminating with the MLS Cup.
The two new teams for 2020 are Nashville SC and Inter Miami. The former will join the Western Conference along with Sporting KC, while Inter Miami will be part of the Eastern Conference. Nashville is more than 500 miles to the east of KC, but Sporting will be the Music City club’s closest Western Conference foe.
The new alignment keeps balanced the number of teams in each conference, at 13 apiece.
Each team will play a 34-game regular-season schedule, facing conference opponents two times: once at home and once on the road. The other 10 games for each team will be against squads from the other conference. Notably, 2020 will mark the first time that teams will not play every other side at least one time — Sporting will not play three of its Eastern Conference counterparts, though which three is for now unknown.
Each team will play 17 home matches and 17 away.
Ticket packages for Sporting KC’s 2020 season are on sale now at SportingKC.com. Single-game tickets for games during the first half of Sporting’s season will go on sale early in the new year.
The club in 2020 will be celebrating its 25th season as well as the 20-year anniversary of the 2000 season that culminated in both Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup titles.
Sporting KC has beaten the Dynamo in five straight matches at Children’s Mercy Park, and has won its last two road games at BBC Place in Vancouver.
Sporting has won 13 season openers (13-7-4) as an original member of MLS, tied for most in the league. Peter Vermes’ side is also 14-3-7 in home openers, 3-1-5 at Children’s Mercy Park.
This story was originally published December 5, 2019 at 11:10 AM with the headline "Sporting KC’s schedule for first two games of 2020: At Vancouver, home against Dynamo."