Kansas City, Missouri – Sporting Kansas City’s preseason for the upcoming 2024 season begins this weekend as they prepare for their season opener on February 24. The team is gearing up for the earliest Major League Soccer (MLS) match in club history. Sporting KC swept rivals St. Louis CITY SC in the Audi 2023 MLS Cup Playoffs to reach the Western Conference Semifinals. Their top four players in terms of goal contributions from last season are all returning in 2024: Daniel Salloi (10 goals, 12 assists), Alan Pulido (15 goals, six assists), Erik Thommy (five goals, 13 assists), and Johnny Russell (nine goals, four assists).
Pulido, who was named the club’s MVP with 15 goals in 2023, and Thommy, who was the Offensive Player of the Year with 13 assists in 2023, provide Sporting KC with a dynamic duo of playmakers in the No. 9 and No. 10 roles. Russell and Salloi have also proven to be incredibly productive wingers in MLS over their six seasons together.
In a significant development for the 2024 regular season, Inter Miami CF will be traveling to Kansas City for the first time in club history to face Sporting KC on April 13. Inter Miami, an expansion team that entered MLS in 2020, had an impressive season in 2023. They qualified for the 2024 Concacaf Champions Cup as winners of Leagues Cup 2023 and finished as runners-up in the 2023 Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.
Led by co-owner David Beckham, Miami’s roster boasts some of the most accomplished newcomers in MLS over the last six months. Players such as Messi, Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets, and Jordi Alba have reunited after their successful stint at FC Barcelona from 2014 to 2020, where they won the FIFA Club World Cup and the UEFA Champions League together. Messi, currently considered the best player in the world, recently won his record eighth Ballon d’Or and is the only two-time recipient of the Golden Ball as the top performer at a FIFA World Cup.
The highly anticipated match between Sporting KC and Inter Miami on April 13 will kick off at 7:30 p.m. CT and will be exclusively available on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV. With MLS Season Pass being the first global streaming service to offer every match across a professional league in one dedicated destination, viewers in more than 100 countries and regions can enjoy the match.
GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, where Sporting KC plays their home games, has become an entertainment destination for the entire Midwest region. It features more than 73,000 seats and a quarter-million square feet of event space. In recent years, the stadium has hosted major concert tours, international soccer matches, college football games, motorsports events, and food and drink festivals. In fact, it has been selected as a match site for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Sporting KC’s preseason will lay the foundation for what promises to be an exciting season opener. With their top scorers from last season returning, the team is set to take on Inter Miami CF, a formidable opponent with a star-studded roster. Soccer fans around the world will have the opportunity to watch this highly anticipated match exclusively on MLS Season Pass on April 13.