Photo Credit Christian Gideon / LA Galaxy

Voice of Zack Murshedi with the LA Galaxy

By Greg Echlin

Twenty-four hours after a devastating tornado fizzled as it approached Children’s Mercy Park, the Los Angeles Galaxy took to the pitch after their own wayward route to Kansas.

Undeterred by a diverted overnight stay in St. Louis the night before, the Galaxy blanked Sporting Kansas City, 2-0, on May 29 with Zlatan Ibrahimovic providing a goal and an assist.

The traveling Galaxy party was scheduled to land at KCI around 6:30 p.m., May 28, the same time an EF-4 tornado ripped through the southern part of Lawrence, Kansas, before moving north and shredding homes and businesses in the nearby town of Linwood.  Debris from the atmosphere flew across the Missouri River and into Missouri.  Debris was deposited onto the airport runways and halted incoming and departing flights.

Rather than try to arrive on a late-night flight to Kansas City, the Galaxy chose to fly to KCI the next morning.

“I think we did the right choice,” said Ibrahimovic, who returned after serving a two-game suspension.  “The guys were calm.  They were in a good mood and in good spirits.  It was all positive.”

Zack Murshedi, the Galaxy manager of team administration, received a text from his Sporting Kansas City counterpart while in the air (Murshedi being thankful for having in-flight wifi) to inform him of severe weather in the Kansas City area.  Murshedi makes the calls on Galaxy team travel.

Once the pilot told the passengers that the commercial flight was proceeding to St. Louis, Murshedi said he started, as he put it,“getting into action.” While in St. Louis, the team was informed that it would take two hours for the debris to be cleared in K.C., so the Galaxy got off the plane.

But Murshedi didn’t feel optimistic about arriving in K.C. the same night.  “I figured, with airlines, they tell you one thing, but something else is really going on in the background,” he said.

From working with the MLS office in New York, hotel rooms were booked before the team even landed in St. Louis.

So after a restful night in St. Louis, it was business as usual the next day.  But at Children’s Mercy Park, there was one significant break in the game day routine: An announcement before and after the match requesting donations for the Red Cross.  A short distance away, the Red Cross was already in action.