Sporting KC players, including Besler, resume workouts at the team’s training facility

When Matt Besler arrived at Sporting KC’s Compass Minerals National Performance Center for the first time in months Wednesday morning, he drove past a plethora of empty parking stalls.

He was looking for a very specific group of spots in the large lot outside the multi-million-dollar training facility in Kansas City, Kan.

Swinging his car around, he found exactly what he was looking for: a set of specially marked spots, each separated by three empty ones.

Pulling in between the pristine white lines, Besler put his car in park and donned a pair of latex gloves and face mask … then waited. Looking over toward a table and medical trainer at the entrance to the facility’s two northward outdoor fields, Sporting KC’s captain contemplated walking into the place he’s called home since its grand opening in 2018.

“You have to wait in your car until you get the OK from one of our trainers, who’s standing at a table — that’s basically to make sure that no one else is around,” Besler said Wednesday afternoon.

Besler and his Sporting Kansas City teammates were some of the first Major League Soccer players around the country to return to their training facilities Wednesday. The league has started permitting individual workouts at team facilities amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The other three teams to begin individual workouts at team facilities Wednesday included Atlanta United, Inter Miami and Orlando SC. The Houston Dynamo start Thursday morning.

Once Besler got the all-clear, he made his way over to the trainer’s table so his temperature could be taken. From there, he was allowed to take off his mask and gloves before sanitizing his hands and heading to the designated 37.5-by-60-yard space in which he’d practice.

“Driving into our training facility this morning, it felt great,” Besler said. “We haven’t had, you know, too much to look forward to lately, especially in terms of soccer. So I think this is uplifting news for everyone, and much-needed.”

Wednesday’s individual workouts marked the first step forward in a gradual return to league play. Sporting KC sits 2-0 atop the MLS standings, its most recent game a 4-0 win over Houston on March 7.

Once Besler arrived in his quadrant — the training center formerly known as Pinnacle accommodates eight such quadrants across two fields — he began a simple but effective technical workout with the soccer ball.

“When you’re on the field and you’re in your quadrant and you have a ball at your feet, there’s just so much more you can do in terms of ball-work,” Besler said. “A couple of examples that we were doing was just simply juggling for 30 seconds, then you take a little break, then you juggle again. You try and get some touches on the ball.”

The second half of the workout was spent on sprints and shorter running exercises.

“You can have a treadmill or a bike at home or you can even go on a longer run sometimes through your neighborhood, but it’s really hard to just get the sprints and change of direction,” Besler said. “So that’s what this opportunity is providing for a lot of us, which is awesome.”

The training complex will be open to Sporting KC players for workouts five days a week, closing only on Wednesdays and Sundays. All workouts remain optional under the new MLS guidelines, meaning players can continue working out solely at home if they choose.

“I think it’s the right move to open our training facilities because we’re programmed to work out,” Besler said. “As professional athletes, that’s in our DNA. It’s not like you can just tell us to stop working out ... I just don’t think that’s going to happen.”

“There’s only so much you can do (at home), and eventually players are going to go and find another solution because working out is how we make our living and our careers depend on whether or not we stay fit. Providing a safe environment for us to go and do that is, to me, a big step forward and one that totally makes sense.”

This story was originally published May 6, 2020 at 5:42 PM with the headline "Sporting KC players, including Besler, resume workouts at the team’s training facility."