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.
By the spring of 2013, Sporting Kansas City and the Houston Dynamo had developed a bitter rivalry as two of the best clubs in Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference. Houston had eliminated Manager Peter Vermes' side in each of the previous two postseasons, but the pendulum swung in 2013 as Sporting exacted revenge in more ways than one.
Just about everyone will remember the 2013 Eastern Conference Championship, which saw Sporting prevail 2-1 after a thrilling second-leg victory at Children's Mercy Park in late November. What might be lost on the more casual MLS observers would be what Vermes' men accomplished on a humid night in Houston on May 12, 2013.
Entering this particular match between the clubs, Houston was riding the waves of history. The Dynamo had gone an MLS-record 36 games unbeaten on home turf and had yet to lose at BBVA Compass Stadium, which coincidentally had opened 365 days earlier—on May 12, 2012. Heading into the fixture, Sporting stared down a long list of unfavorable facts:
- Houston was 26-0-10 in its last 36 home games in all competitions, including a 21-0-9 mark in the regular season.
- Houston was 16-0-7 in MLS matches played at BBVA Compass Stadium.
- Sporting was 0-5-3 in its previous eight regular season visits to Houston, having gone over seven years without a win.
As the saying goes, records are made to be broken.
French center back Aurelien Collin scored the game's lone goal in the 73rd minute, flicking a header past Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall off a booming throw-in from Seth Sinovic. Collin's tally gave Sporting a 1-0 victory, handed the Dynamo their first-ever loss at BBVA Compass Stadium and snapped Houston's long-standing home unbeaten streak.
Sporting would get the first and last laughs in the 2013 installment of its budding rivalry with the orange-clad Dynamo, ousting Dominic Kinnear's side en route to hoisting the MLS Cup title.
