Sporting Kansas City opened up Children’s Mercy Park for the season with what has to feel like a heartbreaking draw at the hands of the Philadelphia Union, giving up the equalizing goal in the 5th minute of stoppage time after some dubious refereeing led to a late corner kick for Philly that they eventually converted. 

This of course meant that the replacement referees were a significant topic in the discourse following the match, as it was a fairly blatant error that allowed the sequence.

It was an improved performance over the Houston match, for sure, but Sporting is still struggling to create enough meaningful shots on goal to eliminate the opportunity for a referee error to have a significant impact on its results.

Alan Pulido has had a less than impactful start to the season on the stat sheet, but are his performances as bad as they seem?  We take this opportunity to analyze the numbers and see if there is any reason for hope that he is on the brink of rattling off goals like he did for most of the middle of 2023.

Finally - we dig into a number of Potpourri topics of discussion surrounding the KC soccer scene this week before a quick preview of the match at LAFC where it will not likely be snowing, which appears to be a significant competitive advantage for their opponents.