Defense and Villain Appreciation

For the Glory KC is back with the 132nd episode of the show after an unexpected week off.

Sporting Kansas City had a very busy week loaded with (frankly, ridiculous) travel. After nearly 5,000 miles, they picked up two hard fought points against St. Louis City SC and San Diego FC. The draw against their cross-state rivals definitely felt like a victory as they snatched the point from the jaws of defeat. The San Diego game was more of a slog, as though a team had travelled a ton, heavily rotated their lineup, missed one of their two Designated Players and were playing a superior opponent at home. Despite that, they still earned a draw.

Sheena returns after a brief hiatus, and we work our way through both of those games as well as a brief mention of the 1-0 loss to the Portland Timbers from last week we didn’t get to cover.

The theme of the three games was definitely defense, villains and goalkeeping. All three get high marks as Shapi Suleymanov and Jansen Miller tortured the St. Louis fans. Pulskamp also stood on his head across all three games. And Robert Voloder may have cemented himself as the starter next to Miller at center back, with a revolving door of fullbacks playing next to them.

Since our last episode, MLS also released roster compositions for all 30 MLS teams. Sporting KC have no surprises with two open international spots and the ability to add a Designated Player along with a U-22 Initiative player, or two U-22 signings. To aid in that addition this summer is $1,928,679 in General Allocation Money (GAM), of which at least $500,000 is burning a hole in their pocket and has to be spent. 

Also, we get into the movement of the LAFC/SKC game from a crowded week to an international break weekend.

The KC Current got back to their winning ways with us taking the last week off. They beat Bay FC 4-1 before heading on the road to take out the Orlando Pride 1-0. The biggest questions coming off the victory that further cemented their first-place status is, at what cost did it come? Alana Cook, Debinha and Temwa Chawinga all left the game injured.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few more topics, including:

• SKC II slightly improving on their struggles
• Former SKC player updates on CJ Sapong, Kei Kamara and Gianluca Busio
• Greg Vanney gets his contract extended after the worst start to a season in MLS history

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

• A Hard Fought SKC Point against San Diego – 6:36
• Sporting KC’s big comeback vs St. Louis – 18:41
• A quick look at SKC vs. Portland – 48:10
• Sporting KC have room to spend – 52:17
• KC Current slip by Orlando and crush Bay FC – 1:06:28
• Digital Crawl – 1:14:33

Upcoming Games

• SKC II vs. LAFC2, Friday, May 23rd at 6:00PM CDT 
• KC Current vs. Chicago Stars, Saturday, May 24th at 6:30PM
• Sporting KC vs New England Revolution, Saturday, May 24th at 7:30PM

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they’ll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

You can find For the Glory KC wherever you get your podcasts. Search “For the Glory KC” and be sure to subscribe! Here are some helpful links:

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Be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast. Five-star ratings and reviews will help others find the pod. On Spotify you can review on the mobile app by clicking the three dots. On Apple Podcasts, it’s much easier. If it’s not quite five-star worthy yet, feel free to let us know in the comments or on Twitter (@PlayFor90 or @ForTheGloryKC). Sheena essentially runs our FTGKC BlueSky, so that’s a great way to get her takes. You can also reach Sheena on BlueSky @iamsheens.

You can follow us me on BlueSky (@ChadCSmith). Also, you can find the podcast on other social media platforms: @ForTheGloryKC on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook or you can email us at ForTheGloryKC at Gmail.

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