"This Week in Sporting," presented by The Smile Generation, is a weekly series that highlights the biggest storylines and news updates from Sporting Kansas City. To visit the series archive, click here.
1. Victory over Vancouver
Daniel Salloi scored early and Alan Pulido struck twice as Sporting Kansas City (3-2-1, 10 points) rolled to a resounding 3-0 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC (2-3-1, 7 points) on Sunday afternoon at Children’s Mercy Park.
Sporting dominated their Canadian counterparts from wire to wire, outshooting Vancouver 27-9 and completing 91.4 percent of their passes—the club’s second highest clip in an MLS match since Opta began tracking the statistic in 2010.
Salloi drew first blood in the 28th minute, moving into eighth place in club history with his eighth game-winning goal in the regular season. Pulido was equally sharp in the final third, converting a 32nd-minute penalty and adding another goal on 58 minutes, while goalkeeper Tim Melia helped Sporting to their first shutout of the season in his 2021 debut.
2. Team of the Week
Sporting striker Alan Pulido has scorched his way to MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week accolades after bagging a brace in Sunday's resounding 3-0 win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC at Children's Mercy Park.
Pulido buried a 32nd-minute penalty kick to make the score 2-0 and added his second of the afternoon in the 58th minute, cutting into the penalty area and beating Vancouver goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau at the near post. The Mexican international also had a team-high three chances created, completed 23 of his 27 passes and won five of his seven duels as Sporting vaulted up to third place in the Western Conference standings.
3. The Way to San Jose
With a dominant 3-0 home win over Vancouver Whitecaps FC in the rearview mirror, third-place Sporting Kansas City (3-2-1, 10 points) will hit the road this weekend to face the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday night at Avaya Stadium.
The Western Conference clash will kick off at 9 p.m. CT with three hours of live coverage beginning at 8:30 p.m. CT on Bally Sports Kansas City, Bally Sports Midwest, BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app. Listeners can follow the action live locally on Sports Radio 810 WHB (English) and La Grande 1340 AM (Spanish), while the Sporting KC app will provide additional in-game updates.
4. No Other Watch Party
No Other Pub, a premier restaurant and sports entertainment venue in downtown Kansas City, will celebrate its highly anticipated reopening on Saturday when it hosts the official watch party for Sporting's match at San Jose. From 8:30 p.m. CT until the full-time whistle, No Other Pub will offer multiple specials including $2 off appetizers, $4 Michelob Ultras and $4 select call cocktails. Sporting will also conduct ticket giveaways for the club's home match on May 29 against Houston Dynamo FC.
5. Get Your Tickets
Single-game tickets for Sporting Kansas City’s final 14 home matches of the 2021 MLS regular season are now on sale at SportingKC.com/tickets. In accordance with updated health protocols issued by the Unified Government of Wyandotte County and Kansas City, Kansas, Sporting home matches at Children’s Mercy Park will return to full capacity beginning May 29. For more information, click here.
Upon returning to full capacity, Children’s Mercy Park will continue to adhere to a number of health and safety protocols, including mobile entry, cashless payments, hand sanitization dispensers throughout the stadium and increased cleaning and sanitization before, during and after matches. Mask wearing is strongly encouraged but not required under the Unified Government’s latest guidelines, and Children’s Mercy Park will offer a designated seating section where masks will be required for all ticket holders within that area.
6. Coming to Kansas City
Children’s Mercy Park will host five group stage matches in the 2021 Concacaf Gold Cup from July 11-18, including all three of the United States Men’s National Team games in Group B. At 10 p.m. CT on Thursday, tickets for all five Gold Cup matches in Kansas City will go on sale to the general public at GoldCup.org. Sporting Kansas City Season Ticket Members will have access to an exclusive Gold Cup pre-sale starting May 18 through SeatGeek.
7. SKC II in Action
Sporting Kansas City II (0-2-1, 1 point) faces a two-game road swing this week in the USL Championship, visiting LA Galaxy II (2-1-1, 7 points) at 9:30 p.m. CT on Wednesday and Indy Eleven (1-1-0, 3 points) at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday. Both matches will stream live on ESPN Plus and fans can follow @SportingKCII on Twitter for in-game updates.
8. The Push for KC 2026
As part of the on-going efforts to bring the 2026 FIFA World Cup to Kansas City, the KC2026 bid team has received endorsements from youth soccer associations located throughout the Midwest region. In addition to the Kansas State Youth Soccer Association and Missouri Youth Soccer Association, the Arkansas Soccer Association, Illinois Youth Soccer Association, Iowa Soccer, Minnesota Youth Soccer Association and South Dakota Youth Soccer Association have pledged their support the event. These associations represent over 310,000 youth soccer players, coaches and referees from across the Midwest.
