Sporting KC jazzed to be letting fans back in stadium Tuesday. But first come the Loons

Peter Vermes remembers clearly the hubbub around Major League Soccer in 2009 when the Seattle Sounders joined the league.

An average of more than 30,000 fans packed Seattle’s CenturyLink Field for games that year, setting a new MLS average attendance record in the Sounders’ inaugural season. The club became just the second team to win the U.S. Open Cup in its first year of existence.

And the Sounders’ home support became the gold standard for MLS.

“All of a sudden their crowds were incredible and everybody thought that the crowd was going to be so good for them,” Sporting KC coach Vermes said Wednesday.

Indeed, the crowd was good for them. But perhaps more telling, in Vermes’ estimation, anyway, is that those throngs of fans were also good for visiting teams in Seattle.

“I think what they didn’t realize, and what everybody realized after a while, was it was great for both teams because players want to play in a great environment,” Vermes said. “The fans make it great, and so I think if you can have fans, that’s going to help both teams.”

Vermes’ recollection of Seattle’s home crowds comes as MLS teams start allowing fans back inside their stadiums for the first time since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sporting KC (4-0-1) resumes MLS play Friday against Minnesota United (3-2-0) in Minneapolis. Although that game will be played without fans, KC’s first home game since the MLS is Back Tournament in Florida, against the Houston Dynamo at Children’s Mercy Park Tuesday, will be played in front of a 14%-of-normal-capacity crowd — or about 2,500 fans.

“I can’t stress this enough, I think players feed off the energy in the stadium,” Vermes said. “I think our sport is pretty heavily weighted, in that the home-team advantage becomes a really big thing. So for us, (playing in front of) our fans is huge. Any fans that can be there is going to be a help.”

Vermes hopes that Kansas City can be a trailblazer for other markets as they consider whether to allow fans back inside their own stadiums for games. The club paved the way for individual workouts and small-group training this spring as teams returned to practice.

Sporting KC says it will have new safety protocols in place for home games, including temperature checks upon entry, seating pods in the stands with more than 6 feet of space on all sides, and re-imagined foot-traffic flow around the concourse.

“Hopefully we can be a leader again in this arena and hopefully it spurs on confidence in other areas,” Vermes said. “Because all along it’s been a goal of ours to try to get back to a sense of normalcy, if you will.”

But before that first home game arrives next week, Sporting must prepare for its second showdown with Minnesota in a six-game span.

The Loons defeated Sporting 2-1 in the opening game of the MLS is Back tourney following a late red card assessment to goalkeeper Tim Melia and two subsequent stoppage-time goals for Minnesota.

That game came following Sporting’s four-month layoff from MLS action. This time around, the break for Kansas City is only three weeks, which Vermes sees as a positive for his squad.

The first five days after they returned from Orlando provided off-time for the players to spend with family, but then it was straight back to the practice field.

“Just mentally it was really good for everybody to get away,” Vermes said. “The last two weeks have been more focused on getting back and preparing not only for the first game but six games in 24 days.”

“So I think the training has been excellent and the attitude of the guys, the intensity, has been tremendous.”

Vermes’ men have already been handed a boost ahead of Friday’s game: Minnesota goalkeeper Tyler Miller is out for the season with a hip injury. The 27-year-old goalkeeper was sensational during LAFC’s blockbuster first two seasons in the league and has helped Minnesota to an undefeated start in 2020.

Miller’s replacement will be goalkeeper Greg Ranjitsingh, who has played just two MLS games in his career and none in the past year. His backup is USL goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair.

“It’s something that, as a forward, it’s nice to hear, but at the same time I’m not focused on them,” Sporting KC winger Khiry Shelton said.

Shelton has been in blistering form since returning to Sporting following a stint in Germany with SC Paderborn. The winger has scored three goals and registered an assist in five games this season. He scored Sporting’s sole goal against Minnesota last month.

“I’ve been here, and the guys have been here, and we’ve been together as a team — working on what we need to work on to prepare ourselves for the game,” Shelton said.

This story was originally published August 19, 2020 at 5:46 PM with the headline "Sporting KC jazzed to be letting fans back in stadium Tuesday. But first come the Loons."