Sporting to Open 2022 Season on the Road

MLS today announced the home openers for all 28 teams for the 2022 season. For the fourth straight year and tenth time 12 years since the rebranding to Sporting, Sporting KC will open the season on the road. Sporting will have the earliest league game in their history when they travel to Mercedes-Benz Stadium to take on Atlanta United at 2pm on Sunday, February 27th. According to Atlanta United’s announcement of the game, it will be on national television that day.

It’ll be Kansas City’s second trip to play at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Sporting won their only other game there 2-0 in 2018 thanks to goals from Daniel Salloi and Gerso Fernandes.

Six days after the opener, on March 5th Sporting will have their own home opener, against the Houston Dynamo. The game will be another afternoon kick off, starting at 2:30pm on that day. It’ll be the second time in three years that Sporting will host the Dynamo for their home opener, having previously hosted them in the second game of the 2020 season.

Kansas City last hosted First Kick in 2018, a game that Sporting lost 2-0 to New York City FC. The only other time since the club rebranded to Sporting that KC hosted their first game of the league season was 2015 when KC tied the New York Red Bulls 1-1. KC though has made a habit of getting results in their openers on the road, amassing a 6-2-1 (W-L-D) record in their nine away First Kicks. They’ve won their last two defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps in 2020 and the New York Red Bulls in 2021.

The rest of the 2022 schedule is set to be released before the end of the year.