#TBT The Last Home Game I Missed

I'm going to be a little selfish tonight with my Throw Back Thursday. This weekend I'll be coaching my son's soccer team at 5:25pm on Sunday. What that means is that for the first time in almost 10 years I'll be missing a Sporting KC/KC Wizards home game. Come Sunday, it will be 3,600 days since I last missed a KC home game, a 3-0 win over the expansion (and now defunct) Chivas USA on June 25th, 2005.

KC scored all three of their goals in the second half, with Jimmy Conrad starting things off with a goal just after half time. Davy Arnaud doubled the lead in the 70th minute, before Sasha Victorine finished things off in the 85th minute in front of over 13,000 people, many of them Chivas Guadalajara fans who attended Chivas USA games in away cities over the team's first few years. Sadly  there don't appear to be any highlights online that I can find now to share about the game.

I missed that game because at the time I was on my honeymoon after getting married. Since then, my wife has put up with me being gone to Wizards and Sporting games whenever the team is at home, and many times when they were away and I traveled as well.

Over these almost 10 years, I've seen KC go from being on the selling block to seeing the team be one of the envies of the league. I've gone from seeing games played in front of announced crowds four to five thousand at Arrowhead to sold out crowds of over 20,000 at Sporting Park. I've seen the team struggle at the beginning of seasons (2011) and end of seasons (2005). I've seen greats like Preki and Jimmy Nielsen retire from the game, I've seen the beginning of great careers like Roger Espinoza, Matt Besler and Graham Zusi start in KC.

During this string of games I've seen 156 league games, and 186 games in all competitions since the middle of the 2005 season. KC has gone 71-39-46 at home over that time frame in league play, averaging 1.66 points per game, scoring 239 goals while conceding 173. In all competitions I've seen KC play 186 games going 88-46-52 scoring 293 goals and allowing 202.

Well here's to starting another 10 year run, and go Orange Smash on Sunday!