See photos of Messi, Inter Miami vs. Sporting KC in one of coldest pro soccer matches ever

Is Mother Nature a fan of Kansas City sports franchises or does the maternal keeper of the weather just have it in for teams from Miami?

That’s what it seemed like Wednesday night when Sporting KC and Inter Miami squared off in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match at Children’s Mercy Park where the temperature at kickoff was just 9 degrees. The matchup was similar to a game played a little more than a year earlier when the Kansas City Chiefs defeated the Miami Dolphins in an AFC Wild Card playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium where the temperature plummeted to -4 degrees. It was the 4th coldest NFL game ever.

Wednesday night’s game in Kansas City, Kansas, ranks fairly high in record low temperatures to play a professional soccer game. Another CONCACAF Championship Cup game in 2018 played in Colorado between the Rapids and Toronto FC had a game time temperature of 3 degrees. That is the coldest game. There are at least 4 other matches played at 7 degrees or below. One of those games involved a team from Moscow playing in Siberia.

The game stood in stark contrast to a Copa America match between Peru and Canada at Children’s Mercy Park last June where the heat index hovered around 100 degrees at kickoff. A referee collapsed due to the excessive heat during that game.

Though it seems like a given that a Kansas City team would have the edge over a team from balmy Miami in a game where the wind chill dipped into negative figures, that was not the case on Wednesday. Another force of nature, Miami’s Lionel Messi, couldn’t be stopped by Sporting KC or the arctic chill. Messi’s goal in the 55th minute, the only one scored all night, was enough to freeze out Sporting 1-0. The temperature at the end of the game, 2 degrees.

Here are photos from frigid Children’s Mercy Park.

This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 11:12 PM.