Welcome to Breakdown 2025: “A Sporting Kansas City 6th minute could-have-been”

Welcome to Kansas City Soccer Journal’s Breakdown of the Match (BOM). After each Sporting Kansas City or Kansas City Current match, yours truly will breakdown a significant, unique, and/or interesting moment that happened in the 90+ minutes. A missed opportunity. A tactical matter. Some anomaly. An example of the principles of the game. The impact of a player’s subtle or dramatic movement. Or something completely different.

There are no prejudices when it comes to the beautiful game or this series, except that it will always be at least bent towards Sporting Kansas City or the Kansas City Current. So please be on the lookout for the BOM every week and feel free to suggest what the breakdown should be by reaching out at @spkclife or @KCSoccerJournal on X (formerly Twitter).

This week’s Breakdown will come from Sporting Kansas City’s 2-1 MLS home opening loss to San Jose Earthquakes last Saturday evening.

By the third minute, Sporting Kansas City was already down 1-0. By the 19^th minute, it was two.

But the seeds for the deficit were planted in San Jose’s 3-5-2 formation, with 21-year-old American Beau Leroux providing a solid base at defensive midfield. Bottle up Kansas City’s three-man midfield (4-3-3 in stated formation) with superior numbers (because Sporting does not have individual creators up top?) and have numbers behind the ball when Sporting counters or builds.

Besides gaining the victory – even after Kansas City was up a man for 38+ minutes – San Jose intercepted 19 SKC passes and forced 27 throw-ins on the home side.

What Sporting Kansas City needed for continual success was quick and dynamic play via their wide men and their new playmaking midfielder Manu Garcia. Garcia has, in two CONCACAF Champions Cup matches and two MLS matches, proven he has the skills to be a difference-maker.

The question then becomes: Do Garcia and his compatriots have the intuitive soccer brains individually and cohesively to create advantageous situations that lead to high expected Goals (xG) chances?

In the seventh minute of Saturday night’s match, we found out they do… and don’t, at this point.

The 11-second series takes place from 6:04-6:15, began by left center back Robert Voloder heading the ball forward to left winger Erik Thommy in the middle left channel just into Earthquakes’ territory.

Credit: Apple TV

With a subtle touch of his right foot, Thommy smartly flicks forward to striker Dejan Joveljic in the space between San Jose’s backline and midfield. Joveljic plays back to Thommy, who, as he glides into the center channel, returns: the old up-back-and-up. Sporting’s new striker then plays back for midfielder Zorhan Bassong advancing in the middle right channel. The four-touch sequences takes all of four seconds. It’s effective and attractive football.

When Bassong plays wide right to new winger Shapi Suleymanov, Sporting has a 5v7 disadvantaged break. Yah, you read that right – 5v7 disadvantage. However, San Jose is backtracking in a hurry. There is space; there is possibility.

Credit: Apple TV

What does Sporting Kansas City need now? Numbers to cover every danger area: back post; top of box; penalty spot; and near post and to create options for Shapi on the ball so the numbers-up defense commits. Or the moment will rely solely on individual brilliance from Shapi. 1+1+1+1+1 needs = 5. Sporting is seemingly a man short. How will the runners and Shapi respond?

Joveljic fades slightly to the back post with his hand up. Running centrally, Thommy stops in two steps. Trailing the play in the middle right channel is Bassong. After playing a wonderful ball to release Shapi, he continues to run straight. Garcia leaves himself space to receive a cut back at the top of the box.

Having spied his runners – and getting no overlap from a coming fifth – Shapi chooses his only option. Smoothly and quickly pushing the ball past his mark, Shapi looks to cross. Seeing the movement, both Thommy and Bassong run into the near post danger area. Redundancy is rarely productive.

The predictable actions mean an easy read for San Jose’s defense, thus the danger presented by Sporting’s artful buildup is swept away like an armed old maid swats a fly.

Sporting had worked the ball inside then outside. A cut back inside would have presented a more enticing moment. But that would have required an overlap of Shapi to help him shake his mark and to force the rest of the San Jose defense to make a decision – the old in and out and back in. Where was right back Jake Davis? Center midfielder Jacob Bartlett? Left back Tim Liebold?

The early returns on Sporting’s attack during this rebuild are promising with swift and skillful approaches such as this one early on versus San Jose. But as the match often showed, the numbers in attack and a cohesive ingenuity are not there yet.

Expected for so early in the season or a sign of a season-long slog to come?