KANSAS CITY, Kan. — With the season coming to a close and Sporting Kansas City’s playoff hopes getting smaller with every game, a midweek game against D.C. United at home saw third-string goalkeeper Kendall McIntosh make his first team debut.

McIntosh joined SKC in 2020 via the re-entry draft and has primarily featured with Sporting KC II.

On Tuesday with his family in the stands to witness his first career start, he faced two shots against and saved both to go along with some big clearances to hold D.C. United scoreless.

“There’s a lot of people in my corner that were kind of in my ear supporting me. I feel like I’ve had a good practice with myself, just being prepared,” McIntosh said. “And I think that as a goalkeeper and as a backup goalkeeper, one of the things that you have to do is always be read. I feel like if I stay ready, I don’t have to get ready.”

McIntosh is the first SKC goalkeeper to record a shutout in their MLS debut since Sporting Legend Jimmy Nielsen did in 2010.

“Going in there, I felt prepared and I felt ready. The team did what they needed to do. It’s obviously fantastic to be mentioned in the same sentence with Jimmy and I hope that it’s the first of many,” McIntosh said.

McIntosh called his rise to the first time a grind and manager Peter Vermes agreed. Vermes said he was impressed with his goalkeepers ability to stay calm when it mattered most.

“Sometimes you want to prove to everybody you can do all these different things and he was just simplistic in the game and that was tremendous,” Vermes said.

Sporting went on to win the game 3-0 and await results from other midweek matches on Wednesday to see if they live to fight another day, or are officially eliminated.