Sporting KC players cleared to resume using team’s fields, per new guidance from MLS

Sporting Kansas City players could return to the outdoor practice fields at the team’s facility as soon as Wednesday, per new Major League Soccer guidelines introduced Friday.

The league’s directive allows for the use of outdoor team training fields across MLS for voluntary individual workouts.

Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes expects his team will be back working out at Pinnacle National Development Center by Wednesday. The club still needs to submit its protocol to MLS but doesn’t expect to hit any hurdles.

“I feel pretty confident that we’re really close, so we’ll present all of that to them here, they’ve asked and required certain things from every team and we’ll make sure that we have that available to us,” Vermes said. “But for all intents and purposes, we probably should be starting on Wednesday.”

The opportunity to conduct individualized workouts would begin to ease an almost two-month MLS-imposed moratorium on players working out at their respective teams’ sites during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Sporting KC hasn’t played a game since March 7, when the club beat the Houston Dynamo 4-0 at Children’s Mercy Park to improve to 2-0.

Friday’s announcement enables such workouts to soon take place in controlled environments that adhere to various best-practice safety protocols and social-distancing measures.

“This is a way for us to provide instead of a public place to have to go, they can come to a private space that is more geared to what they would normally do in those public spaces,” Vermes said. “The individual workout and field access to our private fields would provide more safety than the alternatives that they have available to them.”

The announcement will see players not based in Kansas City slowly filter back to the Midwest, such as midfielder Gianluca Busio who rejoined his family in North Carolina. Any player traveling from another state or country will be subject to safety protocols in accordance with the area they came from.

Another stipulation of guidelines is that the individual workouts are voluntary, meaning any player not willing to participate in workouts at club facilities is not mandated to. Vermes said that Sporting KC will accommodate players who choose to continue working from home by continuing Zoom practices.

Before any workout, according to MLS’ new guidance, each team must submit a club-specific plan to the league outlining its practice plans and how it will implement required health and safety protocols.

Some of the protocols involve basic hygiene, such as sanitation of equipment after use and restricting training facilities to only necessary staff and players.

Other league-imposed guidelines are more detailed.

For example, every player must complete a “Standard Screening Assessment” before arrival, and team officials must administer a temperature check to anyone who intends to enter a given team facility. Staggered arrival of staff, players and coaches will also be required in order to limit close contact between personnel.

As for the workouts themselves, the league stipulates that each field must be split into a maximum of four quadrants. Only one player will be allowed to train in each quadrant, and no equipment, including soccer balls, may be transferred between players.

Despite Pinnacle featuring three training fields, Sporting KC will only use two fields for individual workouts. This will give each player a 37.5-by-60 yard space to work out in.

“They’re basically gonna do a warm-up, a technical functional period within the session and then they’ll probably finish off with some type of fitness component,” Vermes said. “It won’t be the exact same thing each day, but I would say the ingredients would be very similar to that.”

Although players will be allowed to practice on teams’ outdoor fields, access to many amenities is still prohibited — including, but not limited to, locker rooms, team gyms and team training rooms. The only exception to this part of the rule is for players who are receiving post-operative and rehabilitation treatments and workouts through teams’ chief medical officers.

The league-wide moratorium restricting group training and full team training remains in effect through May 15.

This story was originally published May 1, 2020 at 2:34 PM with the headline "Sporting KC players cleared to resume using team’s fields, per new guidance from MLS."