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Climb the mountain: How Sporting can advance to the Champions League Finals

Graham Zusi - Sporting KC at CF Monterrey - April 4, 2019

Faced with a 5-0 deficit against Mexican club CF Monterrey, Sporting Kansas City has a mountain to climb in the decisive second leg of the Scotiabank Concacaf Champions League Semifinals on Thursday at Children’s Mercy Park.


Kickoff is slated for 8 p.m. CT and tickets for the pivotal matchup—included in Season Ticket Member packages—remain available at SeatGeek.com. A Sporting comeback would be monumental, as no team in the 57-year history of the Concacaf Champions' Cup and Concacaf Champions League has overturned a first-leg deficit of four or more goals.


So what result must Sporting secure on Thursday in order to shock the world and advance? Let’s dig into the scenarios.


  • Sporting wins the series with: a six-goal victory.
  • Monterrey wins the series with: a win, a draw, a loss by four or fewer goals, or a five-goal loss in which they score at least once (6-1, 7-2, etc.)
  • The series goes straight to penalty kicks with: a 5-0 win for Sporting


If Sporting wins Thursday’s match by a 5-0 scoreline, the teams will be level on aggregate and on the away goals tiebreaker. That would send the clubs straight into a penalty shootout—no extra time will be played—to decide the series winner.


For fans who can’t make it to Children’s Mercy Park on Thursday, the fixture will stream live in English on YahooSports.com and the Yahoo Sports app while airing live in Spanish on Univision Deportes. Listeners can also catch the action locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and ESPN Deportes KC 1480 AM (Spanish), with the new Sporting KC App providing additional in-game updates and exclusive offers.