Sporting KC 2019 Schedule released

Major League Soccer announced the schedules for each team and Sporting Kansas City was no exception. Sporting KC’s full 2019 34-game schedule is out. The 2019 home opener is against the Philadelphia Union on March 10 and the last regular season match at Children’s Mercy Park will be September 29^th versus the Portland Timbers. SKC will wrap up the regular season on October 6^th at FC Dallas.

The home schedule is pretty good for Sporting KC in 2019, there will be nine Saturdays, five Sundays, two Wednesdays and one Thursday. Of the four games on the schedule in June, none of them are at home but of the six games in August there will four in Kansas City. Fortunately none of them will be afternoon games (of course times may change).

The road schedule is not friendly to traveling supporters this year. On the road they will play five Saturdays, eight Sundays, two Wednesdays and two Fridays. The three closest road trips are Colorado on Sunday March 17^th, Minnesota on Wednesday September 25^th and Dallas on Sunday October 6^th.

Even with the MLS shrinking the length of the season and keeping the same number of games, the congestion is not too bad. At least when the regular season is taken into account it is not bad, with only two bad stretches. In late May SKC will host Seattle on the 26^th, then the LA Galaxy on the 29^th then traveling to Houston on June 1^st. Three games in six days.

The other bad stretch is in August when Sporting KC will play four game in twelve days. At home against Salt Lake on the 10^th, then at Orlando on the 14^th. Then back home for San Jose on the 17^th and Minnesota on the 22^nd. It will be a good time to test the depth and conditioning of Peter Vermes’ squad.

Of course CONCACAF Champions League and U.S. Open Cup play will add additional congestion for Sporting KC as well.

Quick notes:

• Sporting KC will face all the teams in the Western Conference twice, home and away and face each team in the Eastern conference once.
• SKC will open the season on the road against LAFC the same team they last played in the last game of 2018. It is the sixth time SKC open against the last team they played in regular season.
• MLS expansion side FC Cincinnati will be SKC’s sixth game of the year and third on the road. Sporting KC has handed the first loss to six different teams in their home stadiums and will be hoping to make it seven.
• Atlanta United, LA Galaxy, Vancouver Whitecap and the Columbus Crew have all recently added new/old managers. Former SKC asistant and Swope Park head coach Marc Dos Santos will return to KC on May 18th.
• Former Sporting KC forward Diego Rubio is now in Colorado joining well traveled Kei Kamara as a new Rapids’ striker tandem. SKC will see them on March 17th in Colorado and then again back home in September.