Sporting KC
A new low point for Sporting KC
After being shutout at home to the Colorado Rapids, Sporting KC has hit rock bottom in last place of MLS. Things need to change.
The players knew it, the club knew it, and the fans knew it. The match against the Colorado Rapids was a massive chance to get the first win of the season and get things going in the right direction. And they failed.
Sporting KC has hit rock bottom, which we had hoped happened last year. They now sit in last place of MLS after another shut out loss. Shades of Blue is joined by long-time Cauldronite Zachary Cobb to help cope with the current state of the club we love.
The most loyal fans, including ourselves, are fed up. While there may be a handful of positives to hang your hat on, like the arrival of centerback Dany Rosero, it’s hard to image a scenario where this season ends up a success.
You can hear the defeat in the voices of Peter Vermes & Johnny Russell as we listen to their postgame comments.
“I’d like to score some goals.” – Peter Vermes
We also get to hear Thad, leaking confidence, ask PV what can be done in training to change things. Because there’s always a silver lining on cloudy days!
From top to bottom, this club has been falling short. The players on the field aren’t performing and the gameday experience for fans has gone stale. Tate Steinlage said it very well on Twitter: “The club feels faceless, a team playing in KC rather than the embodiment of KC. And that’s a massive problem and shift from where things were.”
Vermes certainly has questions to answer – and I always appreciate his candor – but for me ownership bears the brunt of this. The club feels faceless, a team playing in KC rather than the embodiment of KC. And that’s a massive problem and shift from where things were.
— Tate Steinlage (@SteinlageT) April 9, 2023
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We’re 4 points out of the playoffs with 5 months left in the season. If the newcomers to the team build chemistry and we hit a stride, we could get hot at the right time. I agree things look bleak now, but all is not lost in April.
This is still where I am Brad.
The team looks REALLY bad, but it’s a long season. It’s wild to me they are only four points out. It’s how broken the MLS playoffs are. If PV can’t get them together and get them to the playoffs in this format, he should absolutely be fired.
They are taking too long to get going for any of our likings, BUT they still have 27 (!!) games to go. I haven’t completely lost hope yet.
Edit: BTW, were you a commenter on TBT? If so, what was your username? Either way, welcome!
Sneaking into the playoffs to get shellacked by Seattle or LAFC is not an acceptable season.
So no. I don’t care how close the playoffs appear to be. Because making the playoffs is an expectation. Not a success.
This is where I’m at.
I’d actually rather miss the playoffs than sneak in and get bounced.
This team needs to be fighting for home field playoff games or the season is a bust.
Frankly, i hate the playoffs and wish we just played for the shield. But we’re basically already out of Shield contention.
I would love to see the league get rid of East and West conferences and just go to a format where each team plays every team once (home-away alternating years) and then either a rotating group or permanent group of “rivals” to play twice to get the 34 games. The regular season points winner should be recognized more as league champion, and then keep the MLS cup as a postseason tournament for the top 8. Never going to happen, but it’s a format that would at least get a real regular season champion and not such a joke of a playoff.
Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. It’s not completely balanced, but it never will be. I’d like to see every team every year for sure.
I don’t think sneaking in is fine either (and they can do more than that if they start winning soon). But I think sneaking in probably cools PVs seat a bit.
Ownership has not shown ambition since Jake Reid took over. Even if you think Vermes had so much institutional knowledge you can’t let him go after “1 bad year,” the idea that he could return everyone from a technical staff that produced a dumpster fire last season is unacceptable. And the 5yr extension was both unmerited and tone deaf.
Now the team continues to show a complete lack of ambition going forward. No identity in any section of the field. Nothing that would make me believe this is a Peter Vermes team, other than the long-term injuries. And there is no statement from ownership this isn’t good enough. No accountability for anyone but Ben Sweat. Who was bad. But certainty not the sum total of bad in the team.
There needs to be serious examination in the technical staff. Starting with Brian Bliss and the Assistant Coaches. Because Vermes has lost all right to fill his staff with Yes-Men.
Idk how much to put on Reid. I certainly put the gameday experience on him. But how much do we put the Vermes extension on Reid?
It’s very clear from the pursuit of Ronaldo that Mike Illig has a very big hand in things. Did the PV extension come from Reid or from the owners?
Reid was named president in 2016 and added CEO in 2018. I think the team has done some nice things in those years. Under Reid we won a trophy and got to the conference finals. They made a big push to get home playoff games after years of road losses. But then the bottom fell out in 2019, 2022, and seemingly 2023. I agree that Vermes should be on the hot seat. I just don’t know how much should be thrown at Reid v Heineman/Illig/etc
Oh man does this resonate with me, Shawn. I have also been saying this for a year. He needs new ideas that come with new people, not his same, “trusted” team he wants to go into battle with. Vermes’ response to Thad’s postgame question about coaching in training was so telling, “We do them every day”. Now I understand he’s not going to give away training secrets but it was a classic Vermes answer that deflects responsibility.
Also, I reject the whole “small market” argument. This isn’t a smaller market than St Louis, Minnesota, Austin, Columbus, or Cincinnati. Those clubs can find players to fit how they want to play and get results.
SKC isn’t missing on roster construction because of market size. Quite aside from the fact that SKC has a history of being one of the larger social media footprints in the league. So it isn’t a “small club.” That’s an excuse.
You don’t need to be a New York or LA club to have an identity. To know what you want to accomplish on the field and build a roster to do that. You just have to have a vision.
Which Sporting used to have. But clearly lacks now.
My problem with the team is the rigidity to adhering to a prefabricated plan which isn’t even a guarantee will work. Subs aren’t dependent on game flow, but rather who is only x mins fit. Instead of changing tactics, formations, or game dependent subs he just continues trusting the process even when it’s not working and then the obligatory “I felt like a goal was coming” line after a tie or loss.
The dependency on injury prone veterans has long been concerning. While the rest of the league has gone towards developing players, the club has gone towards high risk/high reward players to compete now and kicking the can on what the future is. The league wants to be transactional, yet we have made 1 move in the short distance. So we are failing on the league incentive to sell, and failing to compete now. I know injuries are cloudy and can be ever here timeline wise. But I fail to see how success could be just making it to the playoffs without any realistic chance of contending after the narrative this season was, we don’t need seismic additions/subtraction because we are getting our dp’s back and actually being able to tactically change the game week to week with our lineup to just fielding whoever seems to be in ok enough shape and hope for the best 2 weeks in, continuing the “wait until these guys are really back”. It’s been 2 years, how much longer are we supposed to wait.
I agree to one degree or another with everything said here, but I’m also exhausted with being pissed off and thinking about how/why all the time. Actually looking forward to taking a break from caring this weekend and not even knowing the result until midweek.
I was waiting to comment until I saw the MLS power rankings. Frankly, SKC are 25th which is surprising. So bottom of the league and 25 out of 29 in power rankings. This is pretty close to the bottom. The funny thing is that I feel better about SKC right now than I have in the last 6 months. I believe that things are going to start getting better. By June, I really feel SKC will be playing some good soccer. I don’t look forward to the ugly next few games, but I think we (fans) will be rewarded with some pretty soccer in the 2nd half of the season. I still think 2023 will go down as a bust, but I don’t need a trophy…I just want to not be embarrassed by my favorite teams. After SKC-Colorado and Leeds-Crystal Palace this past weekend, I really need a decent game to watch. 🙂
I agree that I see so many potentially good pieces that it just has to get better at some point. And this is why multiple trophy paths are good. If SKC can get its crap together, they could still make good runs in Leagues Cup and USOC, which would be cool. How many times have we seen some random MLS bottom-feeder win USOC? Why not us?
Love your optimism Howlie! that’s kind of how I’ve been feeling.
Also stunned that they are 25th and not last or next to it.
I think after seeing this game (and watching it from the South Stand), obviously something isn’t clicking. We can’t take a half-decent fist touch in the midfield, and we look disconnected up front. This is half due to the most stubborn coach of Peter Vermes I’ve ever seen, but the other half to the players. The manager can only control so much, but at some point, you have to realize it isn’t working. Until Gadi returns, Salloi shouldn’t start. This sounds crazy but can you think of a time this year where other than his deflected and lucky goal, he looked completely dangerous or more than Willy or Erik? He looks invisible. Start Thommy on the wing. He can do his fancy moves and make his runs without the risk of losing the ball in a dangerous place. Put Remi and Felipe at the 8 and Radoja at the 6. If we wanted to we could do the same thing with a 4-4-2 putting on Willy at forward and taking off Felipe, which I like more. This allows the two polar-opposite strikers to play off of the wingers AND one another. Something that hasn’t happened. Sucks to be a Sporting fan. Guess I’ll cheer in the Prem.
The offense is clearly not working, and we haven’t seen anything new in about a decade. Playing wide through the full backs worked in 2012 when we had several guys who could score with their heads, but we haven’t had that in years. It’s so predictable I don’t see how we ever start scoring.
Playing out wide worked when we were a high press team, but since we’ve moved toward playing out of the back, possession style attacks, the defense can easily put 8 guys around the box and make crosses next to impossible. The rare times Pulido’s been healthy, his skill in the middle makes everything more dynamic. But unfortunately he’s barely played in 4 years here.
On the right, Russell and Zusi pass back and forth until Russell runs to the end line and tries to cross back from an impossibly tight angle.
On the left, Salloi and Thommy are always right on top of each other and never make passes that give the receiver a chance to score. All the midfield passes to the top of the box go to someone who’s double-teamed and back to goal.
I would love to see a new formation and different options, but I’m also sure we’ll never see it with Vermes.
There’s not really a great place to put this on here so I picked the bummer thread. It is so amazing to me that the Vanzeir incident has been so suppressed by the league. It’s gross. Every team should be making a statement.
I know the company line is probably “MLS is still investigating, we can’t say much!” But the general silence league-wide is deafening and simply re-posting what players are saying comes across as performative. Plus nearly all the coverage is about the RBNY’s actions instead of also how the incident and aftermath affected the players and people watching. One of Sporting’s own social media people tweeted a thread about how it is hard enough being a black soccer fan without having to watch blatant racism like this not be addressed immediately, in the moment without delay. Yeah, people need to be held accountable but supporting and providing space for those affected is just as important.
Yesterday there was a discussion about racism in football on the champions league show w Kate Abdo and Thierry Henry and Micah Richards. It was infuriating and so sad to see Henry so angry and helpless at the persistence of this, frankly, bullshit response sport wide to what is absolutely a rampant and uncontrolled problem.
https://youtu.be/l1RnyneLqlA
I encourage everyone to watch this.
That’s a wild video. It feels like with all the cameras and microphones they should be able to find at least some of these fans who are abusing the players and ban them.
Also, how is that “inciting the crowd?” He’s shushing them. That’s super common as a celebration of a road player. If fans are going to commit violence because they are being shushed, ban them too. I’m not sure if this is hooliganism or what, but it’s obviously something we aren’t really experiencing in America (or at least I haven’t).