Sporting Kansas City (4-10-4, 16 points) will play host to the New York Red Bulls (8-5-5, 29 points) at 7 p.m. Sunday at Children’s Mercy Park as the club celebrates Fourth of July weekend with the team’s annual Americana theme night featuring a pre-match naturalization ceremony and post-match fireworks on the eve of Independence Day.
Tickets are available on SeatGeek as Sporting KC plays the 200th MLS match at Children’s Mercy Park on a night in which Peter Vermes will coach his 500th game for the club in all competitions.
The longest tenured head coach in Kansas City professional sports history, Vermes has served as Sporting’s manager for 14 straight seasons dating back to 2009. Vermes is Major League Soccer’s all-time leader in matches coached for one club and he has won the most MLS matches among all players and head coaches in league history.
A three-time finalist for MLS Coach of the Year, Vermes was inducted into the National Soccer Hall of Fame in 2013 and was named the first ever MLS Sporting Executive of the Year in 2018. Vermes has won three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles, the most among current MLS coaches, and remains the only person to win MLS Cup as a player and a coach with the same club.
Vermes began his playing career in New York when Major League Soccer launched in 1996 and on Sunday will lead his squad against a Red Bulls side that currently sits atop the Eastern Conference table after a dramatic 2-1 come-from-behind win over Atlanta United FC on Thursday. Sixteen-year-old homegrown forward Serge Ngoma scored the game-winning goal in the 89th minute – becoming the youngest player to score in MLS this season — to cap off a late rally for New York’s fifth straight home win.
The Red Bulls opened the season with seven consecutive road victories across all competitions and lead the league with five away wins in the regular season, however they have gone 0-3-1 away from home since with 2-0 defeats in each of their past three road trips and will be looking to snap a 294-minute road scoreless drought on Sunday.
The cross-conference clash will be a rematch of the 2017 U.S. Open Cup final and features two teams which have booked berths to play in the 2022 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup semifinals on July 27. Should both sides pull off road victories to advance to this year’s U.S. Open Cup final, Kansas City would be the host of the finale this September.
The Red Bulls, who have qualified for the playoffs each of the last 12 years, last won in Kansas City in 2014 and on Sunday will be making their first trip to Children’s Mercy Park since 2019.
Sporting is 4-1-1 against New York in the last six meetings across all competitions and won the most recent encounter, prevailing 2-1 in the 2021 season opener to give SKC a slight edge in the all-time regular season series (22-21-14) between the MLS charter clubs.
Sporting Kansas City will be aiming for the team’s first win of the year against an Eastern Conference opponent (0-3-2) in a match that will feature two elite Scottish wingers going head-to-head. Sporting KC captain Johnny Russell leads the team with seven goals in all competitions this year – and ranks third in MLS with 76 combined goals (45) and assists (31) in the regular season since the start of 2018 – while New York newcomer Lewis Morgan leads the Red Bulls with 10 goals in all competitions, scoring his eighth of the regular season on Thursday.
Sunday’s showdown will be locally televised on 38 The Spot with three hours of coverage beginning at 6:30 p.m. Sunday. The broadcast will also stream live on SportingKC.com and in the Sporting KC app for viewers in Kansas and Missouri (excluding the St. Louis area per MLS policy), as well as ESPN+ for out-of-market subscribers.
Local radio broadcasts will also air on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.
- Story from Sporting KC