Sporting Kansas City made a huge statement of intent in Week 5, crushing the Montreal Impact 7-1 to give the club plenty of momentum heading into their Concacaf Champions League semifinal against Monterrey on Thursday.
Where does the romp figure in the MLS history books? First, SKC joined a small group of four other teams to score seven or more goals in a game (Galaxy did it twice in 1998):
- June 4, 1998: Dallas 1, LA Galaxy 8
- May 6, 1998: LA Galaxy 7, Colorado Rapids 4
- July 4, 2001: Kansas City 0, Chicago Fire 7
- May 21, 2016: NYCFC 0, New York Red Bulls 7
- September 13, 2017: Atlanta United 7, New England Revolution 0
- March 30, 2019: Sporting Kansas City 7, Montreal Impact 1
The Week 5 drubbing was also just the 12th time in MLS history that a team has won a match by six goals or more.
Curiously, the first team to win by six was the Kansas City Wizards (SKC's previous moniker), who beat the New York Red Bulls (then the MetroStars) 6-0 on June 20, 1999.
SKC accomplished the feat one other time before Saturday, beating Vancouver 6-0 on April 20, 2018, and they were also on the losing end of a 6-0 match against FC Dallas on September 1, 2009.
Other contests with a six-goal differential took place in 2006 (Red Bulls 6, Real Salt Lake 0, on August 26), 2009 (RSL 6, New England Revolution 0, on April 25), 2014 (LA Galaxy 6, Colorado Rapids 0, on September 5), and 2018 (RSL 6, Colorado 0, on August 25).
Before Saphir Taider's 89th-minute goal went in to close the margin to six, SKC had the chance at a 7-goal win, which still remains the greatest ever margin of victory in an MLS match.
