Sporting Kansas City’s CONCACAF match against Miami is one of coldest in soccer history
When Sporting Kansas City won a penalty-kick shootout against Real Salt Lake in the MLS Cup Final on Dec. 7, 2013, it was 20 degrees at Children’s Mercy Park.
That was balmy compared to Wednesday night’s CONCACAF Champions Cup match between Sporting KC and Inter Miami.
The temperature at kickoff was just 9 degrees. The Fox Sports broadcast said it was 7 degrees. Fortunately for the players on both sides, Sporting Kansas City installed an electric field heating system at Children’s Mercy Park in 2019.
But single-digit temperatures are a rarity for a soccer game not just in the United States, but also the world.
Here are some of the other coldest soccer games on record from around the world. There doesn’t appear to be records kept on frigid temps for soccer games, so this is not a comprehensive list.
3 degrees: A CONCACAF Champions League match in 2018 between the Rapids and Toronto FC in Commerce City, Colorado began in 3 degree weather. It was a night for the teetotalers as the beer taps froze, the Denver Post reported.
5 degrees: The U.S. men’s national team defeated Honduras 3-0 in a World Cup qualifier in St. Paul, Minnesota on Feb. 2, 2022. The temperature at kickoff was 5 degrees, per the U.S. Soccer Federation. Other reports that day put the temperature at kickoff at 2 degrees.
5 degrees: Dynamo Moscow played a game in 2008 in Tomsky, Siberia that was 5 degrees at kickoff. Yep, Siberia.
6 degrees: The Colorado Rapids defeated LAFC 2-1 in a CONCACAF Champions Cup match on Tuesday night at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, and it was 6 degrees at kickoff.
7 degrees: A 2010 Europa League game between Rosenborg and Bayer Leverkusen began when it was 7 degrees in Trondheim, Norway.
This story was originally published February 19, 2025 at 7:49 PM.
