Sporting KC
Sporting KC Lose at Home Amid “Vermes Out” Chants
10 games into the MLS season and Sporting Kansas City remain winless as they lose to CF Montreal at home 2-0.
Sporting Kansas City entered the 10th game of the Major League Soccer (MLS) season still searching for their first win. They welcomed CF Montreal for the first time since 2019, after defeating them in Canada in 2022.
Sporting KC rolled out a slightly altered lineup with Jake Davis replacing Cam Duke at right back, as Graham Zusi was still unavailable for selection. Robert Voloder was inserted back into the starting lineup for the suspended Andreu Fontas. Also, Gadi Kinda appeared on the bench again, after starting midweek against the Tulsa Athletic in the US Open Cup.
XI…but 𝑖𝑛 𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛#SportingKC | @BlueKC pic.twitter.com/CVslGtPYED
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) April 30, 2023
Montreal found themselves a bit shorthanded with a heavy injury report entering the game. Newly acquired midfielder Bryce Duke found himself in the starting lineup, but the team was without Romell Quioto, Lassi Lappalainen and Mason Toye.
Notre XI contre @SportingKC 👊
How we line up in Kansas. #CFMTL pic.twitter.com/rfzOqTpjca
— CF Montréal (@cfmontreal) April 29, 2023
First Half
Sporting KC, as they do, came out in control of the match early. They earned a couple dangerous free kicks, and it seemed Montreal’s strategy was to foul and foul frequently. Despite that, the first good chance of the half came from a ball cut back to the top of the box that was stung towards a diving Tim Melia who would haul it in. In the 25th minute Montreal nearly opened the scoring with a buildup that saw Sporting players scrambling with challenges before a cross found the foot of Offor and was shot off a diving Melia’s face before it trickled out for a corner kick.
Victor Wanyama would find himself the first in the book when he fell to the ground fighting for a ball with Espinoza and grabbed ahold of his shorts to stop an attack. I’m not sure the attack was that promising, but the letter of the law, it’s a booking. In the 30th minute, Rosero followed it up with a yellow of his own. After fouling Offor coming over his back for a ball, he slide in before the play had been restarted to kick the ball away (and may have gotten the man too).
Sporting would get their best chance up to that point when Daniel Salloi settled a bouncing ball on the top of the box and blasted a shot towards the net that was parried over for a corner kick. On the subsequent corner there was a hint of a PK as Wanyama pulled down Dany Rosero and after the ball went out for another corner, it seemed there was a slight delay, but the VAR never signaled for a full review by the center ref.
From there, things completely fell apart.
In the 35th minute, Montreal would open the scoring. They worked a ball, methodically, but not that fast, right through the heart of the defense. Davis was caught up the field a bit on the right, so Rosero rolled over to cover, pulling Voloder out of position. Eventually, Logan Ndenbe was left two on one for a ball to be rolled through to Bryce Duke who slid the shot past Melia. Watching the replay, there were a lot of Sporting players just jogging back on defense, including all three midfielders.
Bryce Duke puts it away and gives @cfmontreal the lead late in the first half! pic.twitter.com/kONzETKE1G
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 30, 2023
There was a hint of offside on the goal, but after a delay, the game was restarted.
After the goal, Sporting KC looked lost. In the only minute of stoppage time a ball was played up the right side of the attack and then slipped into the box where Johnny Russell was on the wrong side of his runner, Aaron Herrera, who played a slow rolling ball back across the box, through Voloder’s legs before it’s knocked into the net by Choiniere.
Mathieu Choinière is in red-hot form🔥
After a goal last week, Choinière already has 1G/1A at HT of this #CFMTL clash vs #SportingKC, putting him up to 2G/2A on the year
He'd playing like someone who wants a #CanMNT call… in midfield, to boot👀pic.twitter.com/0DrkVYROXO
— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) April 30, 2023
The second goal was immediately followed by a “Vermes Out” chant from The Cauldron. 0-2 at the half.
Second Half
To start the second half the only change was the removal of Robi Voloder for Robert Castellanos.
In the 52nd minute Sporting showed mild signs of life with a ball over the top to Daniel Salloi who beats Herrera and blasts a shot off the keeper. The rebound fall to Erik Thommy who plays a square ball to Pulido whose touch lets him down and he ends up getting a yellow card for a nasty challenge as he tried to recover the ball. If Pulido doesn’t even touch the ball, it probably falls to Russell for a golden chance. But this is how things are in 2023 for Sporting KC.
Espinoza went in the book in the 57th minute after another turnover off of a throw in. It was a smart foul from Espinoza to stop a counter, but he was very animated to Jake Davis who had made the throw to put it at his feet.
Sporting, who only start playing after giving up two goals, found more life in the 58th minute when Salloi lofted a beautiful cross to the far post where Russell karate kicked it at the keeper who somehow dove to force a corner.
In the 62nd minute, Gadi Kinda subbed on for Thommy, marking his first MLS game minutes since 2021.
In the 66th Daniel Salloi was played a ball by Gadi Kinda and Salloi tried to work a moment of individual brilliance beating three defenders and shooting a rocket of a shot towards the upper 90, but once again the keeper parries it out for a corner.
Around the 77th minute a “Hey Vermes, it’s all your fault” chant broke out in the Cauldron.
Sporting KC almost scored in the 90+7′ of stoppage time but it was called back for offside before the game mercifully came to an end.
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This team needs a Ted Lasso breakthrough. There is no chemistry. Everyone is pressing. No one knows when to literally press. The fourth thing, it doesn’t matter! I think it should have finished 2-1. This team is 10% away from turning a massive corner if they can figure out what that fourth thing is
10% is generous when it looks like they’re giving 60% effort most of the time. I think there was only one counter attack or won possession where the players showed any kind of hustle.
I can’t tell if your 10% comment is serious? But this team is more like 10% away from the stadium being empty and the franchise moving to Las Vegas than 10% away from fielding a good team this year.
I don’t want to harsh your vibe, but that was the other worst team in the league we just lost to. By multiple goals. At home. So if we find that 10% and turn a corner, what happens?
With an extra 10% they only let Morris score 3 goals next time
No spoon!
there’s got to be some kind of catchier option
Agreed. But it’s the sentiment that counts.
The Cauldron hasn’t been creative for a long time.
The whole midfield and both centerbacks’ gave up completely and let Montreal literally walk the ball through the entire defensive half for a goal. Rosero looks like he regrets coming here, Voloder has absolutely no situational awareness whatsoever as a defender, Espinoza can do nothing but knock guys over, Thommy has no creativity in his passes, everything that made Pulido special is gone, Russell is too old for this shit, and Vermes sees all that and says “two subs are enough. Tzionis and Hernandez could’ve changed the attacking patterns if nothing else and they both waste away. And there are no answers on this roster.
This season is over. Vermes should resign if he’s not fired. Nobody on this roster should be brought back when their next contract is up. Complete teardown and rebuild as soon as possible.
Right, and none of this is new. The results have never been this bad, but the formula has been mostly the same. Barely use any subs; if guys like Tzonis, Duke, and Hernandez sub in at all, it’s for less than 5 minutes; take 100 shots a game at home without scoring and lose by getting carved up on one counter attack. These are all known flaws that Vermes managed to overcome for a long time, but the bottom has fallen out now.
Imagine being Felipe and Tzionis, and being on a team that’s scored 3 goals in 10 games. Imagine being those guys and realizing that you won’t get to play no matter how inept the starting attackers are. It’s lunacy.
I can’t get over this. It’s such a long-running dynamic but it still baffles me, especially this season. At this point why would any young player want to sign with SKC knowing they’ll pick up more splinters than playing time?
For this comment to come from you Andy, who’d I’d say is a rational defender of PV, feels like it means a lot.
Tzoinis wasn’t even in the 18 for this match!!! And I have yet to hear why
If Petey hasn’t lost the locker room yet, he’s about to. These guys are unmotivated and checked out. I don’t think we’re going to get an impassioned letter from anyone on this team.
Watching CCL and Open Cup Wednesday night was the most fun I’ve had all season, no thanks to Sporting. Those games were exciting, engaging and dramatic; they commanded my attention. Something this group appears to be incapable of.
My herbal refreshment helped tonight, though. I just should have played Benny Hill on a loop and it would have been the perfect comedic performance.
Johnny Russell, in the post match interview: “I don’t know how you fix it…I want to be completely honest; we just don’t look anything like the team that we were. I don’t know, I genuinely don’t know how you fix it.”
Tells you everything you need to know about the locker room dynamics.
This one stood out to me: “I can’t understand what’s going on. What we are doing, who we’ve become out there. And it’s troubling. That’s a problem in itself not being able to find the answers and find the way out of it.”
If your captian – the one who should be having the most communication with Vermes and have the best idea of whats going on – is being that honest and straight up saying he doesn’t know what’s going on or what they need to do, that means there’s a MASSIVE organizational breakdown.
Wow – yeah that is extremely damning. Russell’s quotes tonight suggest a total breakdown in communication between players and coaches. Big yikes.
I feel so awful for Russell. He’s given so much of his soul body to this team, it just feels terrible to watch him suffer for this. Him and Melia. They deserve better.
Then they look at their bank accounts!
Start Ethan Bryant.
Unfortunately they can’t. The rules of MLS Next Pro and MLS don’t allow it. However, I would love to see that.
I know. I’m hoping they sign him to the first team so he could play. But PV won’t play the other younger guys on the roster, even as subs.
Bryant won young player of the year in USL last season. I just want some of that juice he brings. Like the color commentator, Lloyd Sam, kept talking about last night that the team is lacking.
He did say this to the media after the game, but I think he can bring up guys twice and actually play them. Two games isn’t much. But you can maybe figure out which of these guys to give a first team deal to.
Each player could be signed for 4 short term loans per season, each lasting only 4 days. They can technically appear in an unlimited amount of cup matches within those time frames, but only twice in MLS play (we’re also limited to 4 total players on loan per game – another sidenote, he could be on the bench for 4 matches but play in only 2). Bryant (and some of the other players in the Tulsa match) have burned one loan but have 3 left, he also hasn’t played in an MLS game yet, so he would have 2 more opportunities for that.
Source: https://www.mlssoccer.com/about/roster-rules-and-regulations
Remember when 2018 was supposed to be a reset year? We brought in some new players, had the most dynamic offense the team has maybe ever had, and was a blown halftime lead from hosting MLS Cup. The consolation for blowing it against Portland in the West Final was that the future was really bright after a major facelift for the roster and style.
Well, it’s been 5 seasons since 2018 now, and 2018 was the best year SKC has put together since then. The roster construction since then has made no sense. Vermes seems stuck between signing MLS-ready veterans to compete now and committing to a youth movement. The result has been guys like Melia, Zusi, Espinoza, Fontas staying on the roster way past their prime. Jaylin Lindsey looked promising in 2021 and then got traded as a 21-year-old so Zusi could be the starter at 35 and 36.
It was clear in 2019 that refusing to sub during a packed schedule led to tons of injuries that sunk the season. Yet we still see the same roster every week and in a game like tonight have Espinoza go 90 minutes while Duke and Hernandez ride the bench. So, maybe SKC has had bad luck with injuries to key players, but Vermes refuses to get younger and actually let young guys play and still will not make subs.
The Pulido signing has also been a failure. It’s ridiculous the team could spend 10 million to get him but also can’t acquire talent around him. The result has been the team held hostage by his constant injuries.
Vermes traded Opara out of spite for wanting a $100,000 raise and has paid Fontas more than Opara wanted to be the slowest CB in MLS for 5 straight years. He fired Besler over the radio and keeps playing Espinoza 90 minutes.
Remember in the 2018 playoffs Patrick Mahomes was banging a drum in the Cauldron in a SKC jersey? This team had a chance to build something really special and be part of a golden age in KC sports. Instead they’ve become stale, mismanaged, refuse to adapt, and are in danger of becoming the Royals (which means 90%+ of KC barely care that they exist until/unless they have another miraculous shot at a championship).
The general blueprint for success is to keep the squad fresh by having a steady churn of young talent (both from youth team and outside signings) as well as healthy turnover of players that have outlived their usefulness. Hundreds upon hundreds of top flight clubs around the world understand this very basic concept. In fact, it’s a concept that’s universal to all team sports. I cannot wrap my mind around how Sporting has failed so hard at this.
I agree with 99% of this but I’ll never understand the internet-fan obsession with blaming anyone other than Ike Opara for his exit. His agent went to ESPN less than 10 Days after they were eliminated from the playoffs. The deadline to exercise options and make bonafide offers was imminent, some staffing contracts were over and needed to be renegotiated, end of season activities were underway. And Ike gives them 10 days to give him a raise before he goes and tells the world he wants out. In the same calendar year where he signed a new deal already.
This club gave him his shot. San Jose was over him and his brittle ankles. Nobody in the league was even curious except for SKC when they signed him. And because a guy who was a Captain in a European top flight and therefore had much higher market value comes in on more than Ike JUST agreed to earlier that year he says “screw all the option year guys, screw the bonafide offers, screw the staff contracts, screw the end of season exit interviews, screw the fan activities, screw the scouts coming in who need to debrief. Pay ME literally right now or I start making distractions in the media.” And people on the Internet say “man Vermes screwed that guy over.”
There is plenty to dislike about Peter Vermes, but Ike Opara put himself above the entire organization and forced a trade. He was the bad guy in that scenario.
I don’t know if I blame Ike or his agent in that case. But I agree for him to ask for a 2nd raise in less than 12months and give a deadline of 10 days didn’t leave Vermes room to maneuver.
And it seemed to me Fontas was brought in to replace Besler, not Opara. If anything, Opara should have been mad at his agent for not getting him more at his less-than-12-month-ago contract negotiation. CBs aren’t paid elite money, but they can be paid quite well when they are a foundational piece. Maybe it wasn’t obvious how important Ike was to SKC’s success (at least to Ike and his agent) until after the 2018 season.
I agree with you – that’s 100% on Ike (no different than any other athlete that’s pulled the same crap).
Yet – he’s back with the team that screwed him over as an assistant coach.
WTF.
Clean house, starting at the top and all the way down.
#VermesOut
#BlissOut
#WeDeserveBetter
I have complete confidence that the sporting director will quickly identify that the manager has run out of ideas and cannot get the best out of the mediocre talent he has been handed. It should be an easy decision for the sporting director to cut ties with Vermes, given the abysmal results so far this season.
Hey, at least we got new chants.
But hey, at least St Louis didn’t gain any points on us tonight. :/
I can’t find another silver lining. Another month of this, and there might be bagheads in the stands.
I was planning on wearing one for the next match. Wondered if security would let me. I mean they did confiscate someone’s wooden spoon from the stands tonight.
I bet they’ll try to confiscate my #VermesOut scarf too…
Maybe it looked different on TV vs my spot in the third row, but from there (and with my one eye) it appeared there was still a lot of effort from the guys. Walter and Johnny in particular. If we have some players who have given up, I couldn’t seem them from my spot. That said, if it’s not effort then either 1) We’re not physically talented. This seems to be the case for Pulido who can’t get the touch even when he’s fed well or for Johnny who can’t take on players 1v1 anymore (much less the 1v2 that he often draws). And everyone in the league knows Roger is drawing medicare. That aside there is still a lot of talent on that pitch. So is it 2) We don’t know what we’re doing. Well we hear the club drills shapes and finishing drills, but we don’t see anything like that on the pitch. 30 yard shots just aren’t going to beat keepers today. For me this has to be the issue. We’re lost and not finding anything. So with that, I’m officially #vermesout as of tonight.
On both goals a committed midfield gets back and at least complicates those plays. The second goal in particular, there’s no way that ball should roll like the last putt in Caddyshack across the entire goal mouth, with no one even putting a touch on it. But in both cases, the midfield is still jogging, or simply ballwatching.
Now, sure, Roger doesn’t quit. But he needs oxygen after 15mins. He shouldn’t even be on the roster at this point. Let alone starting more matches than not. He can’t make recovery runs anymore. Which is damning of the tactics, because he was on the right and Jake Davis was being expected to bomb forward. Walter doesn’t. And Thommy looks defeated every time the ball turns over.
Which is a huge part of the problem. Look at all the goals that are SKC in possession, turnover, 1 pass, breakaway. What’s the solution to this? Well, a big part of it is team balance. Which Vermes tactically refuses to maintain. But another part is the immediate counterpress. Turnovers happen. Fine. But you don’t throw your hands in the air and mope. You immediately pressure the defender so he can’t make an accurate, forward, outlet pass. But that’s not happening. So 1 pass, our midfield is dispensed with, and it’s 3v3 or 2v1 the other way.
What I saw was a team that was a step slow everywhere on the pitch. Montreal was “sporting fit” and outran and pressed us to death. I think that is in large part age, seven of our starting 11 last night were 28 or older. There is absolutely no reason to have Roger Espinoza out there for 90. I love him for what he is and what he’s given to the club, but he is a diminished player and if we don’t have someone who can take those minutes away from him, it’s a failing of both coaching and player acquisition and unfortunately that is one and the same. It may be time to blow the whole thing up.
I just feel bad for the team man. As a fan this has been really tough to watch (the downward spiral of fans etc.).
Something has to change obviously but maaaannnn hearing those chants can’t feel good at all..
I’ll say this, chants against the manager are subtly different from against the team. Don’t know if the distinction matters to players, but it feels different to me. It (should?) tell players where the anger is directed.
PV’s “I accept responsibility” is one of the most hackneyed and empty slogans in business and politics. It’s empty nonsense. Show me HOW you accept that. Show me that you know how your approach is wrong. Show me that you’re willing to self-evaluate. Show me what you’re going to change about what YOU do.
The way PV says it, it’s code for “the players aren’t doing what I expect them to and I need to find a way to make them”, i.e. his tendency to throw players under the bus. Especially since he’s also the one who chose the players in the first place.
It’s like a politician blaming his staffers or a CEO firing an associate manager. No.
The frustrating part is he’ll likely roll the same lineup out next week with the same approach, get shutout again, and worst of all… I’ll probably be watching it again.
I agree that there are significant issues with this team. I can’t remember ever seeing a club look less dangerous when they get a ball in or around the opposition’s box. It really feels like they move into the attacking third and then either don’t shoot when they have an open look, send a cross in on a wish and a prayer, get the ball stuck under their feet, take a heavy touch to lose possession, or…
And I also agree that their defense needs a lot of work. My son made the comment last night, “How many different centerback combinations have they used now?” It feels like Sweat was made an example of (not that he was in any way a solution) when the issues are much deeper than one outside back.
With all that said (and I know this is where I may lose some of you), I believe yesterday’s match had one goal scored by each team. Not that I’m claiming any sort of anti-KC conspiracy or anything, but I have watched Montreal’s first goal and Russel’s goal many times and I think that first goal was 100% offsides and that the KC goal shouldn’t have been disallowed. Would we be feeling differently this morning if Sporting had snagged a point at the end of second half stoppage time? Maybe not much different, but at least on the schedule 1-1 has a much better appearance than 0-2.
At the same time, that they were even in that position at home to weak competition (missing a number of their players), is maybe damnation enough.
Go KC Current!
It seemed like Pulido was in an offside position on Russell’s shot. Plus he was clearly impeding the keeper’s view of the flight of the ball.
I would not feel any differently had SKC drawn last night against the second worst team in MLS. It would still be zero wins on the season and, had the goal been allowed, only four goals scored on the season.
Vermes needs to go.
I don’t think the keeper had a chance to save that shot but by the letter of the law, offside was the right call
The last few weeks I haven’t really watched due to work, this week I had a gig. So, all that to say I, thankfully, missed watching this shit show or else I’d be more upset. What I will say that’s makes me a bit annoyed is the lengths the team and those associated will go to put on this “everything is fine” motif. It’s the Twitter posting of “it’s marathon, not a sprint” to highlight our win against a semi professional team. It’s the post game radio show (caught a snippet of that on the way home from my gig) that had “technical difficulties” that prevented them from taking calls or the post game news conference (allegedly people heard someone say that it wasn’t worth the hassle of taking calls and such when they thought they were off air). And it’s the Roger media quote about it’s not peters fault because they are the players playing (I thought it was funny he snuck in there that they have the freedom to improvise within the system). If they spent half the effort they were giving out trying to convince people everything is a’ ok, and more on actually playing a competent game I’d be more inclined to believe it and we’d be a lot more competitive.
It’s sad to me that the “locker room” guys like Zusi and Roger will campaign for their coach, and it’s left to Johnny to be realistic and say he has no idea how to fix the team. Those guys probably know they can’t speak the truth because this is the only team that’d not only sign them but continuoslh give them mins stunting the actual future of the team’s growth.
I am upset that i believed enough to put down a 5 dollar bet and lost 4 bucks when I cashed out. Maybe Peter will mail me the check to cover that
Not totally related, but does anyone know the full story of what was going on in the Cauldron? From what I’ve gathered:
A group started the “Vermes, it’s all your fault” chant, the some guy (not naming him, but I’ve seen his Twitter and there pictures/videos of him doing this) went up to the drums and started yelling at them, telling them to stop, etc. Then he fell down a few rows, a kid was laughing at him for falling, and apparently he got up and got in the kids face and started yelling. Some say he put his hands on the kid, but I haven’t seen anything to confirm that’s true.
He’s very outspoken on his page that fans need to support Vermes, fans “cannot be chanting for Vermes out”, & “supporter led anti coach chants are a joke”, and that is exactly the mentality that will lock this team into the bottom of the league for the next 10 years.
To me the story of the Cauldron is the leadership refuses to speak when the supporters have clearly had enough. That tells me they aren’t invested in holding the club accountable. Only in looking important. At best, they’re useless. At worst, they’re stooges for the Front Office.
This is an accurate assessment of Cauldron leadership rn. There basically isn’t any
The comment PV made about “there are just some players out there who aren’t as sharp as they should be” really made me mad. If they aren’t as sharp, don’t play them. Do your job behind the scenes and get them ready. Stop throwing your players under the bus in the media. That doesn’t work any more.
Tzoinis played very well on Tuesday night and then didn’t even make the 18 for Saturday. Why? Did we just bring him in to fill the U23 initiative? I like that we rewarded Davis for playing well, but we can’t reward Tzoinis?