How confident is Sporting KC heading into 2nd leg vs. Messi, Miami? ‘Belief is 1,000% there’
Sporting Kansas City has had a busy slate to start the 2025 season. Sporting will finish a stretch of three games in seven days with a Concacaf Champions Cup match at 7 p.m. Central on Tuesday night (FS2).
It’ll be yet another battle with global superstar Lionel Messi, just nearly 75 degrees warmer.
“The elements were very difficult for both teams,” Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said in a news conference Monday morning. “That for sure is not something you would want to play in if you had your choice.”
The forecast high in Miami is 79 degrees on Tuesday — a far cry from the conditions in Kansas City last Wednesday, and even on Saturday in Austin where it was 40 degrees and raining the majority of the time.
Throw in the early season fitness (or lack thereof) and the busy start hasn’t been easy for either team.
Both Vermes and Inter Miami coach Javier Mascherano have voiced their displeasure with the early fixture congestion caused by the schedule of Concacaf’s premier club competition.
“I’ve always said that I’m not a big fan that we start this competition before we even start MLS,” Vermes said. “I think you should have a few games under your belt before you get into the competition.”
Sporting has had its own experience with that in past iterations.
In 2019, Sporting began its season in Concacaf play nearly two full weeks before the season started. After playing in Toluca, Mexico, in the middle of the week, Sporting traveled to Los Angeles to open MLS play, then made the quick turnaround to play in Panama all before its home MLS opener.
All the hoopla aside, Sporting still has a shot, and crazier things have happened in these Concacaf Champions Cup ties, too. All Sporting needs to do is find a way to, well, win.
While Sporting didn’t get the job done at home last week, the 1-0 loss still keeps Miami within reach. According to goalkeeper John Pulskamp, that’s one of the positives SKC took from that Wednesday night match.
“That puts us in a position now where: a victory where we score two or three, despite being tied on aggregate, that could really help us,” Pulskamp said Monday morning.
It’s easier said than done on the road, especially against a team as deep and talented as Inter Miami, with or without Lionel Messi in the mix. Sporting hasn’t scored a goal yet, and to advance, they’ll need to do at least that.
Manu Garcia and Dejan Joveljic played the second 45 minutes with Daniel Salloi and Erik Thommy. The attack quickly looked like it could impose its will instead of trying to hit on the counter attack. The signs are there that, sooner or later, there will be a breakthrough.
If Sporting is to make a comeback in this tie, it’ll have to start with more meaningful and longer spells of possession. That’s tough to do on the road, and against a team like Inter Miami.
It’ll also take a level of belief from the Sporting KC players, too.
“I think the belief is extremely high, as it should be,” Pulskamp said. “I think we’re all in a very good place. … The belief is 1,000% there that we are coming here to compete and to win, with the full belief and expectation that that’s what we need to do.”
Daniel Sperry covers soccer for The Star. He can be reached at sperry.danielkc@gmail.com.
This story was originally published February 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM.