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Does the first win bail out Sporting KC ownership?
How does this impact ownership’s response to the letter from The Cauldron?
Sporting KC defeated the Seattle Sounders over the weekend for their first win of the season, officially making them the greatest team in the world again.
Beating the first place team on the road is as good of a response from the players as anyone could dream of, but the letter from the Cauldron last week addressed the ownership and front office staff. On this episode of Shades of Blue, we’re discussing how this win affects the situation. Does it bail them out from responding at all?
Erik Thommy had a great game after a run of poor form. The 28-year-old played a role in both goals, scoring the first and assisting the second. Alan Pulido got on the scoresheet for the first time since 2021 and reminded us all what it feels like to have a quality striker. Jake Davis is also getting a lot of praise for his a breakout performance at right back. Finally, Sporting KC fans have plenty to cheer about!
The win is a wonderful start and if they continue to do so, that will heal all wounds. It’s a no-win situation for the ownership group, but the Cauldron specifically requested a response. The owners and/or front office need to show them something sooner rather than later. But what will that look like? A carefully crafted letter? Or an invitation to a face-to-face meeting?
It’s a double-game week with a US Open Cup match with the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday. Now that he’s got more healthy bodies for the first time in a year, what will Peter Vermes do with the lineups this week?
Start – Reliving the first win
14:30 – Don Garber & US Open Cup match
23:00 – Cauldron Letter & Response
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It shouldn’t at all. B/c the Cauldron letter went well beyond Ws and Ls. It addressed the full match-day experience. Which, on a road game, they have no control over.
And MLS is going to MLS. Not even expansion year Cincinnati went winless. For all of Vermes’ “There are no must win except finals,” talk, we need to take at least 7pts from the next 4 to even be in shouting reach of the playoffs. And getting spanked in the 1st round of the playoffs is not the bar for SKC.
The cauldron letter was weak and, if the team keeps winning more than they lose, it will be forgotten. I’m not saying it’s right. I’m oof saying there aren’t problems. I am saying that this team is about to start winning
I don’t think the letter was weak. It didgo as far as I wanted. But it addresses the issues fans have.
And of course winning fixes everything. But I sincerely doubt this team is going worst to first this season.
Let’s see what they do from here on out before we change our tune. It took a lot of us a long time to get here and one good day won’t make it right.
I agree that this stems the tide, especially since it was on the road at the best team in the West, but ownership still has a lot to answer for. Chicago and NYRB just fired their head coaches and they’re both above us in the standings. The circumstances surrounding those may have more to due with things off the field (ie. not letting players go to a World Cup or being cool with a player’s racism), but nonetheless they were let go. As we’ve all said, PV’s job is way too safe because of that 5 year extension, but he should still be feeling just as much heat.
On a side note, does anyone know what happened with Preki and our coaches after the game? I saw there was some shoving but never did hear if we learned what went down.
I did not hear about this Preki thing until your comment. Maybe because I was on a social media blackout since I was watching the game so late on Sunday.
I’d like to know more.
I saw that too, on the Apple Tv broadcast. I was looking around twitter and even watched Brian Schmetzer’s post game press conference, but didn’t see any mention of it. It looked like it was Ash Wallace getting into it with Preki, while seattle coaches were holding Preki back.I didn’t see how it started, though. Vermes just walks away with ASh & Zoran seemed like he was trying to talk to Preki or one of the Seattle coaches before the camera cut away.
Edit – you can see it in the Apple Tv replay still. Jump to 1:44:00
Good stuff, guys; thanks for doing these.
I agree with a lot of what was transcribed, but wanted to look at what was said about Jake Davis.
I’m 100% behind giving him a longer look. In my opinion, that comment should have stopped right there. No qualifiers about until he has a rough game – that’s part of why younger players seem to struggle under Vermes. They know that they’ll be buried if they make a mistake. (Cameron Duke says hello here.)
Run Davis out there every match until he shows consistently that he doesn’t have what it takes to play in MLS.