Sporting Kansas City II

Sporting Kansas City II is a MLS Next Pro club affiliated with Sporting Kansas City of Major League Soccer. For the 2022 season they will play their home games at Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as well as Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri. They were formerly known as the Swope Park Rangers. The club is headquartered alongside Sporting Kansas City at Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas.^[1]

Sporting Kansas City II

Nickname(s)	Rangers, SPR, SKCII
Founded	October 22, 2015; 8 years ago (2015-10-22) as Swope Park Rangers
Stadium	Rock Chalk Park Swope Soccer Village^[1]
Capacity	2,500 3,500
Owner	Sporting Club
Head coach	Benny Feilhaber
League	MLS Next Pro
2023	3rd, Western Conference Playoffs: Conference Quarterfinals
Website	Club website
Home colors Away colors
Current season

History

On October 22, 2015, the team was officially announced as the USL's 30th franchise, as were the Swope Park Rangers name, color scheme and logo. The Rangers replaced Oklahoma City Energy FC as SKC's USL affiliate, and was named after a nickname for SKC reserve squad in 2008.^[2][3] The team is Sporting Kansas City's third USL affiliate in the team's history, after previously having partnered with Orlando City SC and Oklahoma City Energy FC.^[4] Canadian Marc Dos Santos, who led Ottawa Fury FC to the NASL Soccer Bowl in 2015, was named the first head coach of the Rangers on November 20, 2015.^[5]

The Rangers finished their inaugural season in 2016 with a 14–10–6 record and finished fourth in the Western Conference. The side advanced to the 2016 USL Cup Final, becoming just the second team in USL history to do so in its inaugural season. The Rangers beat LA Galaxy II, Orange County SC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2 en route to the final where the side eventually fell 5–1 to New York Red Bulls II at Red Bull Arena. Goalkeeper Adrian Zendejas and winger Tyler Pasher were each signed by parent club Sporting Kansas City at the end of the season.

Following the conclusion of the 2016 season, Marc Dos Santos departed to take over at newly founded NASL club the San Francisco Deltas. His assistant for the 2016 campaign, Nikola Popovic, took the reins ahead of the 2017 season. The side continued to have success as Popovic led the team to a 17–8–7 record in the West and another fourth-place finish. Sporting KC also signed four more players from SPR during 2017 in Amer Didic, James Musa, Kharlton Belmar and Kevin Oliveira. Popovic resigned as head coach on November 17, 2017, after leading Swope Park to their second consecutive conference championship.^[6]

On September 30, 2019, the club announced that it would re-brand as Sporting Kansas City II ahead of the 2020 USL Championship season.^[7]

MLS Next Pro

The club announced on December 6, 2021, that it was joining the inaugural 21-team MLS Next Pro season starting in 2022.^[8] Former Sporting Kansas City player Benny Feilhaber was named the team's head coach for the 2022 season.^[9]

Location

The team is headquartered out of Children's Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kansas. For the 2022 and 2023 seasons, they split matches between Rock Chalk Park at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas, as well as Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri.^[2][3][1]

When the team was known as Swope Park Rangers they played at Swope Soccer Village in Kansas City, Missouri as permanent home venue for the 2016 and 2017 USL seasons, although occasional matches were played at Children's Mercy Park during those first two seasons. For the 2018 season, the Rangers moved to Shawnee Mission District Stadium in Overland Park, Kansas for home USL matches. The move to Shawnee Mission South District Stadium was in response to new USL stadium standards, requiring seating for at least 5,000 fans, that were not met by Swope Soccer Village. The 7,500-seat Shawnee Mission South District Stadium had received $6 million in improvements between fall 2016 and spring 2017. After just two home matches into the season, the Rangers announced that all home matches would be moved to Children's Mercy Park for the remainder of the 2018 USL season. The move came just days after allegations were reported that there had been issues with the quality of the artificial-turf field at Shawnee Mission South.^{[10][11][12][13]}

Players and staff

Roster

As of March 11, 2024^[14]

No.	Pos.	Player	Nation
24	DF	Kayden Pierre (^[A])	United States
28	DF	Chris Rindov (^[A])	United States
30	FW	Stephen Afrifa (^[A])	Canada
31	MF	Danny Flores (^[A])	United States
33	DF	Nati Clarke	United States
35	DF	Jonathan Robinson	United States
36	GK	Ryan Schewe (^[A])	United States
38	FW	Maouloune Goumballe	United States
39	MF	Ethan Bryant	United States
41	GK	Carlito Saylon (^[B])	United States
42	DF	Jacob Bartlett (^[B])	United States
47	FW	Kamron Habibullah	Canada
49	DF	Coby Jones	United States
50	FW	Ryan Reid	United States
52	MF	Cielo Tschantret (^[B])	United States
67	FW	Pau Vidal	Spain
70	MF	Roberto Hațegan	United States
72	DF	Brandon Munson (^[B])	United States
74	DF	Demarre Montoute	Canada
76	MF	Johann Ortiz (^[B])	United States
77	MF	Haris Ališah (on loan from FK Sarajevo)	Bosnia and Herzegovina
80	MF	Jake Swallen	United States
81	MF	Ethan Schaefer (^[B])	United States
90	FW	Medgy Alexandre	Canada
91	GK	Jacob Molinaro (^[B])	United States
96	DF	Ian James (^[B])	United States
98	MF	Sebastian Cruz	United States
99	FW	Beto Avila	United States
—	DF	Mason Visconti	United States

1. Signed to first team contract with MLS affiliate Sporting Kansas City.
2. Sporting Kansas City Academy player.

Technical staff

•   Benny Feilhaber - head coach^[9]
•   Ike Opara – assistant coach^[15]
•   Wan Kuzac Wan Kamal — assistant team administrator

Year-by-year

As of September 18, 2022

Year	USL Championship							Position		Playoffs	Top Scorer ^1
	P	W	L	D	GF	GA	Pts	Conf.	Overall		Player	Goals
2016	30	14	10	6	45	36	48	4th, Western	9th	Runners-up	Mark Anthony Gonzalez	9
2017	32	17	8	7	55	37	58	4th, Western	5th	Runners-up	Kharlton Belmar	15
2018	34	15	11	8	52	53	53	7th, Western	11th	Conference semifinals	Hadji Barry	17
2019	34	6	20	8	46	80	26	18th, Eastern	36th	Did not qualify	Wilson Harris	12
2020	16	5	10	1	21	30	16	12th, Eastern 4th, Group E	23rd	Did not qualify	Wilson Harris	8
2021	32	4	20	8	31	64	20	15th, Eastern	30th	Did not qualify	Enoch Mushagalusa	8
Year	MLS Next Pro							Position		Playoffs	Top Scorer ^1
	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Conf.	Overall		Player	Goals
2022	24	9	3	12	31	38	31	8th, Eastern	15th	Did not qualify	Rauf Salifu	6

^ 1. Top Scorer includes statistics from league matches only.

Head coaches

• Includes USL regular season, USL playoffs

Coach	Nationality	Start	End	Games	Win	Loss	Draw	Win %
Marc Dos Santos	Canada	November 20, 2015	November 21, 2016	34	17	11	6	050.00
Nikola Popovic^[16]^[17]	Serbia	November 21, 2016	November 17, 2017	36	20	9	7	055.56
Paulo Nagamura^[18]	Brazil	December 4, 2017	November 18, 2021	87	27	43	17	031.03
Benny Feilhaber	United States	January 12, 2022	present	24	9	12	3	037.50

Average attendance

Year	Reg. Season	Playoffs
2016	1,753	2,329
2017	1,015	1,724
2018	881	—
2019	505
2020	N/A
2021
2022

Honors

• USL Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 2016, 2017
• Western Conference
  • Winners (Playoffs): 2016, 2017

References

1. Belzer, Jared (February 22, 2022). "Sporting KC II to play at Rock Chalk Park during 2022 MLS NEXT Pro season". Sporting Kansas City. Retrieved February 22, 2022.
2. . United Soccer League. October 22, 2015. Archived from the original on October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
3. "USL expands to Kansas City in 2016 with debut of Swope Park Rangers". October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 22, 2015.
4. . United Soccer League. Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved October 23, 2015.
5. . United Soccer League (USL). Archived from the original on November 21, 2015. Retrieved November 20, 2015.
6. "Swope Park Rangers and head coach Nikola Popovic mutually agree to part ways". Sporting Kansas City. November 17, 2017. Retrieved November 17, 2017.
7. "Sporting Club's USL Championship team to become Sporting Kansas City II". Sporting Kansas City. September 30, 2019. Retrieved September 30, 2019.
8. "MLS NEXT Pro Unveils 21 Clubs for Inaugural Season". sportingkc.
9. Kovzan, Sam (January 12, 2022). "Benny Feilhaber named Sporting KC II head coach". Retrieved January 12, 2022.
10. "Swope Park Soccer Village Loses Both Its Marquee Tenants". Bizjournals.com. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
11. "Swope Park Rangers to play 2018 home matches at Shawnee Mission South District Stadium | Sporting Kansas City". Sportingkc.com. January 18, 2018. Retrieved February 15, 2019.
12. Villanueva, Araceli (April 24, 2018). "Swope Park Rangers Home Games Moved to Children's Mercy Park". The Blue Testament. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
13. Smith, Chad C. (April 14, 2018). "Swope Park Rangers vs OKC Energy Postponed". The Blue Testament. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
14. "SKCII Players". SportingKC.com. Sporting Kansas City. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
15. Kovzan, Sam (January 14, 2022). "Former MLS Cup champion and MLS Defender of the Year Ike Opara named Sporting KC II assistant coach". SportingKC.com. Retrieved January 14, 2022.
16. "Nikola Popovic and Alec Dufty join Swope Park Rangers technical staff". Sporting Kansas City.
17. "Nikola Popovic introduced as Swope Park Rangers head coach". Patrik Bergabo. Sporting Kansas City. Retrieved November 21, 2016.
18. "Paulo Nagamura named Swope Park Rangers head coach". Sam Kovzan. Sporting Kansas City. December 4, 2017.

External links

 

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sporting Kansas City II.

• Official website
• Sporting Kansas City II at USL Championship