Sporting KC
Sporting KC fall 3-2 to Galaxy after conceding three in second half
The comeback loss stings that much more on a cold night in KC.
A dominant first half for Sporting KC was quickly erased as the LA Galaxy scored three goals in nine minutes to take the points. A cold night at Children’s Mercy Park made the 3-2 comeback loss sting that much more.
Peter Vermes deployed a new formation – a 4-2-3-1 – putting both Agada and Pulido on the field at the same time. They started with Agada up top, and Erik Thommy on the right wing for an injured Johnny Russell, but the formation was quite fluid. The two strikers got their wires crossed in the box a couple times early on as they figured out how to share the field in those moments.
It's about that time ⏰#SKCvLA | @BlueKC pic.twitter.com/J515xEFHYx
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) March 24, 2024
Sporting KC had a flurry of chances in the opening stages, but the scoring didn’t get started until the 34th minute. SKC was electing for short corners with Thommy to play the ball in from a better angle. It fell to Daniel Salloi at the far post, who found Radoja in front of goal for an easy finish. It was the Serbian’s first goal for the club since arriving last season.
Nemanja Radoja with his first goal in Sporting blue!
Tune in now to #SKCvLA on #MLSSeasonPass on@AppleTV: https://t.co/LL5fzMqIXM pic.twitter.com/kKHLyxgjWU
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) March 24, 2024
Willy Agada doubled the lead with the last touch of the first half. It came off the sixth corner kick of the game for the home side, who finished the half with 17 shots. There may have been some questionable defending, but Willy will happily open his account for the year.
Sporting KC should have scored another in the first minute of the second half, but Agada chose to pass in stead of shoot. From there, everything changed.
The Galaxy scored two goals in three minutes, and they could have scored a couple more over this time as well. First it was Eriq Zavelta in the 72nd minute.
Chaos in the box 🤯
Game on as Eriq Zavaleta makes it a 2-1 game. pic.twitter.com/lGLw9w9RAp
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) March 24, 2024
Then Dejan Joveljic tied things up before the home fans knew what hit them. The onslaught continued and the Galaxy got the third goal in the 82nd off the foot of Mark Delgado.
It’s a disappointing result for SKC who were in position to move into second place in the Western Conference with a win. In stead, it’s the Galaxy sitting behind Minnesota United at the top of the table.
Next Saturday SKC travel to Canada to face Toronto FC.
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We’re 5 games in and have already dropped 7 points from a leading position, that’s bad.
I’m not super surprised, but still, that was ridiculous. There’s no other words for it. They made halftime adjustments, Vermes didn’t. We dropped points. Rinse and repeat
Ugh Vermes: “…that 10 minute span crushed us”
Oh did it? Who would have thought that collapsing and letting in 3 goals in 10 minutes would do that.
The whole 2nd half was terrible though too. Vermes can’t just own up.
I was in the stadium and after the first goal went in you could just feel the recognition in the stands from everybody. We all knew that we were going to give up that lead. Everybody was looking down toward the bench to see who the sub was going to be to get one of those midfielders or defenders off the pitch and it never came. After the second goal, the place started clearing out. Tons of people heading to the parking lot knowing what was to come and Peter still didn’t make that defensive sub.
For me, this is worse than the 7-1 or whatever it was loss to Portland a couple years ago because it was a game that we utterly dominated for a long chunk only to completely fall apart in the end because we refused to bring on fresh legs. For me, this is the “Vermes out” moment. A game, at home, against a good team that we should have beaten and we drop all three points because our coach refuses to make any kind of cover adjustment.
Yeah fans are [understandably] more antsy this year. They/we are tired of saying “get em next time”, “we played so we’ll except for # of minutes that determined the game“, “we just need insert name and we’ll be back on track”, etc.
Vermes once again didn’t take a single bit of accountability and deflected and he’s already doing what he always does as far as tactics and personnel go.
I’ve been very Vermes-out (or at least a move away from the coaching position) for the past 3-4 years, but each year I wait a bit before I start putting my stance out there. Not this year though; he looks like he’s learned nothing the last few years, and his tactics/lack of tactics is already showing.
I’m so ready to be done with him.
Side note: where is our $4mil #9? All I’m seeing this year does nothing to validate why he’s being paid what he is. Agada has played an absolute fraction of the minutes Pulido has, and he’s made just as much of a contribution. Pulido is having way too many turnovers, and is dropping back way too much. It’s good that he’s willing to drop back, but I’ve seen points this season where he ends up behind our midfield. The #9 needs to be the #9
I agree with everything that you said, except I placed the blame for #9 on the manager. He has no one in the midfield to set him up and create the opportunities for him to score. He hast to build it all and he’s failing. Peter Vermes is directly responsible for this. if we want to complain about money, let’s complain about the money that he’s being paid. Vermes needs to go, he didn’t need five more years. He hasn’t done anything with the last decade. .
Yup – and to add:When other teams lapse against us for 10 minutes we don’t score 3 goals. When we lapse, they score. This points to how “the system” doesn’t work and at some point the quality players aren’t on the pitch offensively (that or we heat the quality out of them so they fit the system).
This wasn’t just one night. This is Ben year after year after year. We haven’t seen glory since 2013. I’m sure that Vermes will point to our side, making the playoffs last year as a success. We made it there by the skin of our teeth and got lucky that we played against the collapsing St. Louis. Our side did not belong in the playoffs at all.
For me, our manager wore out his welcome years ago. His labor philosophy is wrong. He has gotten rid of Quality players because they expected more money than he was willing to pay. He runs SKC on the cheap. It has nothing left in the tank to create the magic. 2028 is a long way off. My prayers he’s not here in May 2024. We need new blood and new ideas.
If you were at the match last night, there were a lot of seats empty. A decade ago it could’ve been 30° colder and people would been lining up to try to find tickets. SKC is becoming the Royals and I am no longer and haven’t been for a long time in Vermes‘s army.
Relax, don’t worry, 2029 is coming.
Vermes is a fine coach, but I’m exhausted by him. I feel stuck in some SKC purgatory as a fan, much of it my own doing, where I’m too focused on the team’s faults. Where are the substitutions? Why can’t they create quality chances? Why is the team so good at giving away points? Does Vermes adjust at half?
And why do games like this not surprise me anymore. Even with new players, it’s the same frustrating team. Winning feels lucky, losing feels deserved, and both Vermes and the refs feel inevitable.
SKC feels so close to being so good, but I’m not falling for that again.
Peter Vermes is not a fine manager. He has a washed up has been that won’t take responsibility for his feelings. It’s past time for the Fans to demand better. Without the fans, there is no reason for the team to exist. The owner group of SKC is pathetic. They are not giving the fans the product that they are paying for.
The Spanish language announcers said SKC needed midfield reinforcements about 2 minutes before the game flipped. Liebold was gassed and Thommy was too. If they put on Bassong and Hernandez there at 65’ in it could be a different game. Also, Puig just moved up the pitch about 20 yards and no one tracked him after that
I don’t have much to add as everyone on here has made some great comments. I’ll just say, last night’s match is a microcosm of everything that has been dysfunctional about this club for a few years now. And at this point, I can no longer muster up hope that things will change as long as Vermes and Co are in charge.
You are absolutely correct. Stupid is as stupid does. Maybe we are looking at this wrong, maybe it’s not Vermes who wants to run the team on the cheap? Maybe Vermes is just that inexpensive as far as management talent goes, that the owners group can’t afford to fire him. That at least makes more sense than anything else that I have seen.
I liked the 4-2-3-1. It fits our personnel better if we want to create dangerous chances. Pulido is not a true 9. He is a false 9. After coaching club soccer for years, it is clear to me that you cannot force a player into a role they are not comfortable with. In the 4-3-3, Pulido always drops deep anyway, leaving very little for our wingers to do other than cross to nobody in the box or drive for the goal. Agada is a true 9 goal hunter. And as small as he is, he can hold up play for Pulido to run off of, but we didn’t really see any of that yet.
Playing Pulido behind Agada is smart.
It will take some time for those two to gel in the middle. At times Saturday, they were playing on top of each other, making it too easy for the center backs to defend.
The down side is you get zero high press out of those two because they both have poor work rate on defense.
If SKC is going to absorb pressure, we need fast wingers who we can play long balls to that are capable of finishing on counters. It would have been good to see Afrifa and Vargas come on around 60 or 70 minutes in. But not having Fontas to play key passes didn’t help. Voloder isn’t that guy.