Why Sporting KC embraces underdog role as MLS playoff run resumes at Houston on Sunday

After three weeks off, Sporting Kansas City finally resumes its run through the Major League Soccer playoffs with a Western Conference semifinal showdown in Houston.

Why the three-week layoff? Sporting KC dispatched St. Louis City SC quickly via a two-game sweep, then took a pause for the FIFA international break.

This has afforded Sporting KC some valuable recovery time: Johnny Russell, Alan Pulido and Jake Davis have all disappeared from the injury report. Even Dany Rosero has a shot at playing against the Dynamo on Sunday after breaking his nose during Kansas City’s series-clinching victory vs. St. Louis on Nov. 5.

“I think that time off was perfect emotionally and mentally,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said. “Maybe from a soccer and a physical perspective, at times, it’s a little difficult to navigate.”

Sporting KC has been on a roll. Since the start of October, Vermes and company are unbeaten in five straight matches, including the playoffs — their longest unbeaten streak of the 2023 season/postseason.

If they extend that winning streak this weekend, they’ll do it on the road. Sporting KC is the lowest remaining seed in MLS’ remaining eight-team field.

That’s new territory for even the club’s most playoff-tested veterans. But that may not be a bad thing.

“When we’ve been in the playoffs, we’ve always had home-field advantage,” KC captain Johnny Russell said, “and it hasn’t really worked out for us.”

Since Russell joined Sporting KC in 2018, Sporting has made four of six possible Western Conference semifinals. The previous three appearances were at home. Sporting has advanced past this stage just once in that span, losing to the Portland Timbers — with home-field advantage — in the Western Conference Finals.

Sporting KC wasn’t particularly good on the road this year, going 3-8-6. But two of those wins came during their blazing stretch run to the playoffs, and they beat St. Louis in the opening match of their first-round playoff series.

“Maybe this is the change that we need,” Russell said. “We know how difficult it can be at times when you play at home. Teams come in with nothing to lose, and that’s the way we are going into the game, as well.”

Sporting KC is playing with house money at this point. Two months ago, few would’ve predicted Sporting would qualify for the playoffs, much less knock off the top seed in a series sweep.

“We’ve got to go in with the belief that we got ourselves here, and there is nothing to lose for us,” Russell said. “We are going into that game full of confidence, knowing that we can go on the road and cause upsets.”

Of the three remaining teams in the Western half of the 2023 MLS playoff bracket, Sporting KC is the only one that hasn’t lost on the road. In July, Sporting and the Dynamo played to a draw in Houston. More recently, Kansas City beat Houston 2-1 despite playing down a man for more than 65 minutes.

Then again, regular-season success means nothing in the postseason. That’s how Sporting KC are approaching this weekend’s match. And why not? That underdog, nothing-to-lose mentality has served them well thus far.

“We went into some really tough places the last few games of the year, and then in the playoffs,” Russell said. “So this is another difficult place to go. We know that.

“But we’ve shown that we can do it. So why stop now?”