With the 2020 MLS season on temporary hold, SportingKC.com is taking daily strolls down memory lane with an "On This Day" web series that celebrates memorable moments in team history. As one of Major League Soccer's proud charter members, Sporting has a decorated past full of thrilling victories, amazing goals, momentous off-the-field developments and more. "On This Day" pays tribute to these specific instances, turning back the clocks while treating fans to nostalgia and club history lessons. To catch up on the series as it unfolds, visit SportingKC.com/OnThisDay.
A pair of fresh faces ran the show in Sporting Kansas City's thrilling 4-0 beatdown of the Houston Dynamo on March 7 at Children's Mercy Park.
The last time Manager Peter Vermes' men took the field, Mexican striker Alan Pulido and Israeli midfielder Gadi Kinda found the back of the net to continue their scintillating starts to life in Major League Soccer.
By scoring in the 2020 home opener last month, Pulido and Kinda became just the third Sporting duo to have scored in the team’s first two games of a regular season. The first twosome to achieve the feat was Chris Klein and Miklos Molnar in 2000, setting the stage for a banner year that culminated with an MLS Supporters' Shield and an MLS Cup.
The second such occasion took place 15 years ago today at now-demolished Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. On April 16, 2005, Klein and Jack Jewsbury bagged first-half goals to give the Kansas City Wizards a 2-0 lead over the MetroStars.
Having scored a fortnight earlier in the club's season opener—an entertaining 3-2 triumph over the Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead Stadium—Klein and Jewsbury would be the only duo to score in Kansas City's first two matches of an MLS campaign until newcomers Pulido and Kinda came around.
Unfortunately for the Wizards, New York's Sergio Galvan Rey struck twice in the second stanza and the game ended in a 2-2 draw. The 2005 season would also mark the end of Kansas City's five-year playoff streak, although Klein and Jewsbury both enjoyed strong seasons individually. Klein hit regular-season career-highs with seven goals and nine assists, while Jewsbury finished the year with four goals—his most ever in a Kansas City uniform and a total he wouldn't surpass until notching seven with the Portland Timbers in 2011.
