Felipe Hernandez has been sneakily impressive in Sporting Kansas City’s midfield

It’s incredibly hard to stand out from the crowd at Sporting Kansas City in 2021.

For starters, Gianluca Busio, the most sought-after American teenager this summer, is stealing all of the headlines in midfield. In front of him, Daniel Salloi’s goal contributions make him one of the most efficient players in the league this season while Alan Pulido is just behind him in the Golden Boot race.

But in recent games, there’s one player in Sporting KC’s midfield who has been sneakily impressive: Felipe Hernandez.

In a world where the best rising stars are getting younger and younger (stand up, Busio), attention has often been diverted away from the 23-year-old Hernandez.

But the spotlight was finally on Hernandez on Wednesday night when fired home the third goal of Sporting Kansas City’s 3-1 win over the Colorado Rapids at Children’s Mercy Park.

“I would say he had a good, all-around game,” Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes said. “And to cap it off with the goal he scored is tremendous. It’s a big goal, to put the game at 3-0 as opposed to 2-0.”

Hernandez has slowly worked his way up the Sporting KC organizational ladder.

Having moved from Colombia to a small town just outside Nashville, Tennessee in his youth, Hernandez got his start at Sporting Nashville Heroes, a SKC academy affiliate. A tryout with the academy proper led to Hernandez’s arrival in KC and he’s since worked his way through the academy, Sporting Kansas City II and eventually the first team.

His goal on Wednesday night signaled the first time in a club history a player who started from an academy affiliate scored for the first team.

His strike into the far corner of Colorado’s goal was produced via a swift one-two passing sequence with Salloi on the left corner of the Rapids’ box in the 64th minute.

“I looked up and the ball is in the goal, I kind of just blinked, but heard everything,” Hernandez said. “My teammates were celebrating with me and it was a big moment for me and even better that we got the three points.”

Just an hour early, a near-identical pattern of play led to Hernandez assisting Salloi for the second goal of the game.

It’s a link-up that hasn’t been seen since 2015 when the pair of them played together in the Sporting KC Academy. It’s a stark fact that puts into the light how early Salloi broke through at KC (in 2017), compared to Hernandez’s later breakthrough in 2020.

“He’s a great player, obviously. We played together at the academy, so it’s funny that we play together now,” Salloi said. “He gave me the assist in the first half, I gave him the assist in the second half, so I think these are always great things and I’m very happy for him.”

The longevity of Hernandez’s time spent in the academy system and with Sporting KC II would have worn most players down.

Vermes acknowledges that it was “probably difficult” for Hernandez to see players younger than him such as Busio and Jaylin Lindsey to be earning meaningful professional minutes before him.

When Hernandez was 17, around the time players destined for the top start earning recognition in today’s game, he admits it was hard for him, too.

“It would get to me a little bit,” Hernandez admitted after Wednesday’s game.

He would have countless conversations with Vermes and SKC II coach Paulo Nagamura about the situation. They would tell him to never let anything stop him and take the opportunity when it came.

And Hernandez certainly took that opportunity.

He made 16 appearances in 2020 for Sporting KC, doing everything right aside from finding that golden goal to throw him into the spotlight. Despite doing everything a coach could want from a tenacious, attack-minded midfielder, he was still in the shadows of others.

“He always kept his work ethic, always kept his mentality, and sometimes that makes you stronger than other guys,” Vermes said. “That’s one of the other reasons why I think he’s performing and done well.”

That’s why Wednesday’s goal was even more meaningful for Hernandez.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “First off I just want to thank the fans, the best fans in the league, and they just made it more special.”

This story was originally published June 24, 2021 at 8:04 AM with the headline "Felipe Hernandez has been sneakily impressive in Sporting Kansas City’s midfield."