Another round of Sporting KC vs. Matt Besler’s Austin FC, with different circumstances

The first meeting between Sporting Kansas City and expansion Austin FC, just over a month ago, already feels like a pivotal moment in the season.

Sporting scored two goals in the final eight minutes and won 2-1 at Children’s Mercy Park after trailing for much of the game.

The victory halted a two-game winless skid for Sporting and, taking into account a loss to Houston in the KC club’s next game, a potential four-game winless streak. Following the Houston loss, KC has picked up three straight wins, scoring three goals in every game en route to second in the Western Conference.

For Austin, it was the last time Los Verdes scored in a game.

Austin, Major League Soccer’s plucky newcomer led by Sporting KC legend Josh Wolff and KC native Matt Besler, began its season with two wins in three tries and was on the cusp of making it three in four before Sporting’s late comeback. Austin has failed to record a win since and has tumbled to 11th place in the Western Conference.

But Sporting isn’t being lured into a false sense of security, and neither should its fans.

To put it simply, Austin probably isn’t a team that will still be mired in 11th place at the end of the season.

“They’re a very good team,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said Thursday. “They have very good quality players, they’re organized, I think they have a really good understanding of how they want to play.”

The Texas team has a brutal eight-game road stretch to start the season. Austin’s home venue, the new Q2 Stadium, is in the final stages of construction — so Austin FC hasn’t been able to play a home game so far this season.

Austin’s trip to Children’s Mercy Park will be the last of the eight-game stretch before the club returns to the Lone Star State for its June 19 home opener.

It’s the kind of stretch that’s brutal on a team both physically and mentally.

“Flying here and then knowing you’ve got to go the next weekend and got to fly again, it’s a challenge that every player experiences,” KC winger Khiry Shelton said. “It’s not always fun.”

Austin started its life in MLS with a tough 2-0 loss at LAFC’s Banc of California Stadium, where it’s hard for any team to win. That was followed by solid victories at Minnesota and Colorado before the bubble finally popped in Kansas City.

Sporting endured a similar road-heavy early schedule 10 years ago while awaiting completion of Children’s Mercy Park. KC started that season, 2011, with 10 road games, winning just once and losing six times.

Once the new stadium was done, KC lost just three of its remaining 24 regular-season matches. SKC finished with the best record in the Eastern Conference and clinched the top seed for the playoffs.

“I know the feeling,” Vermes said. “It’s tough to manage that, but there’s also a nice cherry at the end, and that’s a brand new stadium for them to play in and they’ll get a lot of home games. So I’m sure that’ll bode really well for them, as well.”

But here’s the kicker. Saturday’s contest may be Austin’s eighth straight game on the road, but like the rest of the league the team is coming off bye week for the Concacaf Nations League. For the first time this season, Austin will enter a game with fresh legs and fresh minds.

Vermes said the break might make it hard for his own team to sustain a rhythm. He expects both teams to be a “little rusty.”

Shelton thinks Sporting’s players needed the break — and that may well be the case for Austin, too.

“I think for us it was in that first week just giving them some time away mentally,” Vermes said. “Making sure that we kept the guys and maintained in that first week physically as best as we could.”

Sporting will be without Alan Pulido, who’s still on international duty with Mexico. Pulido is the club’s top goalscorer this season, with five in six starts. Four have come in SKC’s last three games.

Vermes offered no clue as to what Sporting would do in his absence. Gianluca Busio could play in Pulido’s spot, and Shelton is another options: He played eight games in 2020 and 16 in 2018 at center forward.

“We’re missing a big piece,” Shelton said of (Pulido). “He plays a big role in this team, but I think we still have threatening attacking pieces.”

This story was originally published June 10, 2021 at 2:12 PM with the headline "Another round of Sporting KC vs. Matt Besler’s Austin FC, with different circumstances."