Sporting KC begins 2024 season with a draw. Here’s a recap of the MLS opener

Sporting KC started its 2024 season on the same field where its 2023 season ended.

And while Sporting KC got on the scoreboard first in Saturday night’s affair, the team couldn’t come away with a win, drawing 1-1 with the Houston Dynamo.

Sporting manager Peter Vermes —who managed his 500th MLS match on Saturday — felt the performance, and particularly getting a point on the road to start the season, was a good building block going forward.

“You’re always putting layers on when you start a season,” Vermes said, noting there’s extra emotion and an intense atmosphere when you’re on the road for a team’s opener. “We did a good job of withstanding the pressure.”

Even so, the first half very much resembled two teams playing their first 45 minutes of the regular season. Neither team was crisp. The ball movement never matched the timing of the runs, and clear-cut chances were hard to come by.

And as Vermes said, Sporting withstood the pressure from Houston, which had more of the possession in the first half. Houston even put the ball in the back of the net just before halftime, but it was called back through video review for offside.

Sporting (0-0-1) started the party in the second half with Erik Thommy blasting home the team’s first goal of the 2023 season with a left-footed shot that found its way into the bottom left corner. He picked up a loose ball in the midfield and dribbled into the box before firing off his shot.

Vermes called it a really good individual play by Thommy. The German playmaker said he just saw space to attack.

“If I see space, I go,” Thommy said. “At the end I just had to decide if I played Daniel (Salloi) or not.”

Salloi was making a run in from the left wing, and Thommy said passing to Salloi was his first choice until the gap opened up for a shot.

Eight minutes later, Houston equalized after a few missed marking assignments. Coco Carrasquilla played a pass from deep in his half to a wide-open Ibrahim Aliyu, whose headed pass across the front of the goal was sent into the net by Gabriel Segal.

Vermes said afterward he wished the players would’ve closed Carrasquilla down quicker.

“We’ve gotta do a better job reading that coming across the field,” Vermes said. “And then the way we defended it, defensively on the back line, we just never paid attention quickly to where their guys were actually trying to penetrate from, for us to then defend the ball to get goal-side as quick as possible.”

Johnny Russell and Alan Pulido came off after 60 minutes because, according to Vermes, they weren’t fit for 90 minutes yet. That gave Stephen Afrifa, who had a strong preseason showing, a big opportunity. He was on the field when the goal went in, and Vermes felt it was a good experience for him despite Afrifa displaying some nerves heading into the game.

Alenis Vargas, Zorhan Bassong and Memo Rodriguez all made their Sporting KC debuts as well.

“It was good for a couple of those guys to get their feet wet,” Vermes said, “and then (to) experience what it’s like to have to hold onto a result and maybe steal two more points at the end if possible.”

Sporting will turn its attention to the Philadelphia Union for the 2024 home opener, kicking off at 7:30 p.m. from Children’s Mercy Park on March 2.

This story was originally published February 24, 2024 at 9:57 PM.