Sporting KC
New lineup, similar show: Sporting Kansas City draws at Philadelphia Union
Coming off a 4-1 loss at home to Seattle Sounders last Saturday, Sporting Kansas City’s trip to Philadelphia to take on the Union ironically meant the only way to go was up. Defensively anyway. Sporting gained a shutout but failed to score for the fourth match of the young season. The point for the 0-0 draw was highlighted by a veteran’s return, a new player’s debut, and the return of another.
No wins and only two goals in five matches had been the start for Sporting Kansas City (0-3-2) in the 2023 MLS season. The last time the club went without a win in their first five was 14 seasons ago in 1999. A lack of productivity does not lead to continuity, nor does a lack of responsibility. Thus, Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes made a number of changes to his First XI for their Saturday evening match at Philadelphia Union:
The squad for #PHIvSKC#SportingKC | @BlueKC pic.twitter.com/vzEL1g6syQ
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) April 1, 2023
Newly signed Dany Rosero made his debut at left center back, as did Robert Castellanos at right center back, while Robert Voloder switched from left center back to left back. Backstopping them for the first time in 2023 was veteran goalkeeper Tim Melia. Additionally, Nemanja Radoja gained his first start at defensive midfield, pushing Remi Walter to the number eight, and Team captain Johnny Russell got his first start after returning to the lineup with a substitute appearance last week.
The Union (2-3) – the defending Eastern Conference Champions – had lost three of their last four and had their 24-game streak at home without a loss busted by Orlando last week. Combined with a clash with Liga Mx side Atlas FC in the Concacaf Champions League quarterfinals ahead on Tuesday, tonight’s match was especially important for the Union.
Both sides endured a weather delay before the match kicked off at 7:40pm CT, over an hour late.
Why this match mattered (checks notes from two weeks ago for Sporting Kansas City):
- The longer the scorewinless streak drags on for Sporting, the more it affects the team. With two more losses, Sporting would reach the team record of seven on a row to start a season.
- Points matter in every part of the MLS schedule.
- Sporting’s fans, though faithful, thirst for joy.
- The new entries into the lineup have a chance to cement more playing time.
- For the Union, a win gives confidence and momentum heading into Tuesday’s quarterfinal first leg.
Decisive actions
Low key
Rosero dominates the dojo… with an acrobatic hitch kick attempt from a poor clearance that flew just wide of Andre Blake’s net in the third minute.
What was said? Russell took a free kick around the 31st minute. Just before he did, he clearly heard something said that inspired a “What the…?” look in his countenance.
Kansas City, we have a threat: Rosero, who definitely came to play on the night, dove to get a piece of a cross in the 37th minute and forced a self-defense type save from Blake, showing again that he is an attacking threat in the box.
Melia moment…s: After right back Graham Zusi and Rosero were split, Melia made big to eliminate the Union’s first serious threat in the 54th minute. Five minutes later, the vet went jet, going airborne for a dramatic save. But a more dramatic one waited in the 79th. The 36-year-old went vertical to deny a drive near the upper right corner of his net.
Subs
Sporting had to blow an early sub and an early sub window when Radoja had to exit due to an apparent hamstring issue (a continuation actually). Roger Espinoza stepped on in place.
For the first time since November of 2021, Alan Pulido stepped onto the pitch for Sporting Kansas City in the 62nd minute for striker Willy Agada. As part of a double switch, Khiry Shelton came on for Russell.
The Big ones
See Melia above.
Tactical focus
Sporting moved the ball smartly flank to flank and everywhere in between, most importantly through the middle of the park where there was ample space. Would KC be able to take advantage?
Let’s get it out there, it was a wide open midfield for both sides in the first half. Sporting’s midfield organization took a hit with Espinoza coming in for Radoja and Walter moving back to the six. But defensive organization be damned! Let the players play.
More confrontational… was Sporting individually. Rosero, Castellanos, Radoja, and Voloder were more physical and tighter in their marking than previous iterations.
In the second half, the Union began to find teammates in spaces between lines and eat away at Sporting’s midfield.
Telling stat
At halftime, Philadelphia had no shots on goal.
By the end, the teams were even in shots at four, but the Union won the xG battle.
Moment of the match
Melia’s save were critical. However, the injury to Radoja loosened the midfield for the Union.
Sporting Kansas City Man of the match
Goalkeeper Tim Melia, in his first start of the season, did what a goalkeeper is supposed to: He kept his side in the match.
Going forward
Sporting will host the winless Colorado Rapids (0-3-3) next Saturday night at Children’s Mercy Park, while the Union will travel to TQL Stadium to face Eastern Conference leaders FC Cincinnati (4-0-2).
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Low bar, but it was the best result of the season. I fully expect the first win next week.
Really liking the new site! Figured with a new era I’d get out from behind the goofy user name.
For the first 30 I thought we looked solidly mid-table. Radoja seemed serviceable. Nice to see Remi finally get a run higher up. I liked Rosero and frankly Castellanos was better than I expected.
With a game like that, and Vermes talking about in being knock-down and not finesse I continue to be mystified by not putting Felipe in. Sure Roger is the original bulldog but what would we have lost putting a young guy in when Radoja went down.
We really need to take a hard look at our medical and training. The number of hammys over the last two years seems beyond coincidence. And it’s young guys too like Pierre and Cisneros. Maybe it’s a strange drill or maybe it’s some piece of training equipment but something seems to be increasing our risk of hamstring injury.
Hey, I didn’t know we had another Eric! I’m still keeping a veil of privacy, though. Agree with everything you say.
I’m going to follow Yoda’s advice (never a bad idea, padawans and younglings) and “behind from the goofy username get.” Are you happy now, Chad? How do you register at this whaky site anyway?
We are still working on registration! I have lots of ‘wants’ but we’ll see how long it takes to get us there. Definitely more possibilities with being independent, but I don’t want to ask for too much too quick from our developer. Comments is a main area of opportunity for me though.
The team looked in control of the game until Radoja went out. Even then, I never felt like the Union deserved a goal. Of Melia’s 2 “big” saves, I thought he put a little mustard on the first. The second was good. But it wasn’t a better chance than a couple of saves Blake made.
What I’m disappointed in tactically is Blake wasn’t taking goal kicks all night (presumably because of his groin injury). But Sporting made no real effort to put him under pressure. It seemed to me a good plan would’ve been to put a press on Blake and encourage the ball back to him. Make him demonstrate he could play the ball at his feet. I’m also a bit disappointed that the team put Shelton on for Agada instead of taking the chance to discover if he and Pulido could play off each other. As usual, Shelton’s “Hold up play,” was directly responsible for 3 Union counters, and I saw nothing in his performance to indicate he had taken anything on board about his lackluster performances.
All in all, a draw was a fair result. But draws aren’t good enough.
Road draws are always good enough IMO.
We’re getting to a point where we need 3 points instead of 1. The shield is basically already out of play. We’re going to get too far behind to host a playoff match too. Gotta start getting Ws.
Normally yes, but not where we’re at. We’re 6 games in with 3 points. Draws are what you’re happy with here and there when you’re winning, but then gets few draws here and there. Tgats when you say that you can’t win them all.
For us, it’s that we can’t win AT all…
In a normal circumstance, I would agree.
But this is not a normal circumstance.
Early front-runner for Understatement of the Year.
Currently watching skc2 it looks like cam is playing left back. Curious if that’s a depth move for the first team
Yeah, I had the same though. Duke LB. Jake Davis at d-mid (eventually replaced by Danny Flores). Ozzie Cisneros played the right-sided #8 (he’s been moving all over in recent years to CF, wing, etc.). I thought he was good in the first half. Rindov at RCB.
I didn’t catch a ton of it, I didn’t even know it was on Apple until I went to play the new Tetris movie and saw it listed on there. Caught it right as Austin equalized. Did see Ozzie went out with some injury……so that tracks with this team
Yep, grabbing his hammy. I think that’s what kept him out a TON in 2022. I hope it was just a cramp, but that isn’t SKC’s luck.
It’s a bit worrying that he’s undersized, even at skc 2 level he looked tiny compared to others, and seems to be injury prone up to this point. Hope that maybe it’s a growing into his body type of deal that eventually gets worked out.
We all know the MLS site is just a bunch of league-puffery corporate hacks, with only Doyle offering anything close to independent analysis. But this was pretty bad even by his standards:
“…Philly, who’ve now taken just one point from the past nine on offer after a scoreless home draw against a Sporting KC side that hadn’t been tossing zeros against anybody.”
Emphasis mine. Literally half of SKC’s matches this season have been 0-0 draws. Why are you even pretending you cover the whole league, even an inch deep?
Yeah, three 0-0 draws this season for Sporting KC. It’s like all they can remember is Seattle dropping four and the other games didn’t happen.
If anything, it’s the offense that’s mostly been the problem for SKC in 2023. Ironic since so many of us (me included) thought they’d score all the goals.
The editor in me says it’s just bad phrasing. “Hadn’t” is doing too much work there; I think he’s using it to mean “hadn’t lately” since SKC had gone from pitching (near) shutouts to escalating goals against leading into the Union match. But it’s pretty sloppy in what was already a pathetically short take.
I feel like in normal circumstances, we would be very happy with a tie against Philly and not giving up any goals. Because of our abysmal start to the season, I feel tempted to be disappointed in this, but I’m going to shove Satan aside for right now and just be happy that we’re righting the ship after a terrible showing against Seattle.
I didn’t get to watch much of the game, but there were two specific moments that stood out to me that were frustrating when Thommy completely mishit a pass to Agada, stalling the attack and killing the play, and when he decided to dribble instead of dumping it off. I know those aren’t too specific, but I still feel like Thommy is trying to do too much or misplaying things that he should be doing better with. The Agada one was especially frustrating because he could have been one on one. I’ve noticed a trend with that with Thommy this season. I still think he’s a great player, but I’d like to see him pick his head up more and be more clinical with his passes.
Thommy this season is starting to remind me of an overexcited golden retriever. All over the place with chaotic energy, disrupting everybody else in the dog park. What we need him to be is a trained sheepdog. Same level of energy, but with a focused purpose that works well with other dogs and the human herders.
It is definitely a little confusing how he seemed to play better and work with everyone better when he has just arrived last year. Now he’s playing like the ex-collegiate player on recreational team: obviously talented, but trying too hard to be THE player, and in turn, wasting chances
The film breakdown PV did at the town hall talked about this in one example. It was showing how Thommy got this good result, but he worked so hard for it and he showed another example of simple movements that used less energy and led to the exact same outcome.
Doing too much. Hopefully it’ll come, especially as the player around him get better and he realizes he doesn’t need to do so much. Just play within himself.