Podcasts
Sporting KC get Crushed by St. Louis, Penso and the Schedule Makers
Analysis from a double game week for Sporting KC and the KC Current with thoughts on LAFC, St. Louis City and Racing Louisville.
For the Glory KC is back with the 35th episode of the show.
On this week’s episode, Sporting Kansas City have another up and down week. LAFC forward Denis Boaunga called them the hardest team they’d faced all year in a 1-1 draw and then they were obliterated in the first game against St. Louis City SC three days later. Sheena and I have plenty of thoughts on STL and few about LA as well.
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The Kansas City Current also had a double game week with less success. They managed to lose twice against Racing Louisville and we’ve got some concerns, particularly about the defense. Plus, Sheena and I come up with who we’d trade to get a starting quality CB.
Here is a quick rundown of topics (and approximate start times):
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- SKC get Crushed by St. Louis and Penso and the Schedule Makers – 4:37
- Sporting KC draw LAFC – 30:48
- KC Current lose to Louisville twice – 48:36
- Digital Crawl – 1:05:05
Peter Vermes directing traffic. #SportingKC pic.twitter.com/MG9reAWDJn
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) May 18, 2023
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The temporary intro/outro music is by Kristian Leo and is from the song “Ride it Like You Mean It.”
Transcript from Revoldiv available after about 24 hours. Click the link, then search “For the Glory KC” for a free transcription (or you can transcribe any podcast you’d like).
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I know it’s easy for me to say as it’s not me that’s getting the blowback, but I think part of the reason you guys catch flack online is because you put so much attention to it. I don’t catch every episode because I listen to so many that it’s inevitable some fall through the cracks, but the ones I do catch there’s usually a chunk that goes on about negative online interactions. Just my opinion, but I think the more attention and evidence that it bothers you the more it eggs on that sect of people to continue to harass you. Again, not an attack just some feedback.
Overall though, I can sympathize with the team as far as scheduling. But, I also think we’ve known that for awhile. I think I posted elsewhere that Peter chose to be more competitive in La and then punted more or less on the 1st game we face an actual rival to the team at St. Louis on national television. Just doesn’t make sense. I know he tried to make the adjustments he could and rotated where he could. But to start Leibold who wasnt great mostly due to working him back to the team, gadi who’s also working back, and zus who is still mostly working in during a rivalry game just……makes no sense to me. I’ll give that Ben had spurts during la where he looked good, but he’s liable still for a few nervy moments. I guess you can say the same for John but it begs the question who is the future. , at the point you have to argue no one really knows. I don’t know if John did enough to lose the spot, and I don’t know that Ben has done enough to push for the spot but maybe there’s something else going on.
It was also disappointing to me that the team just kind of fell apart. St. Louis to their credit came in guns a blazing and hyped and we just looked timid from the beginning. Once it was 2 it was pretty much over. It was impressive and disappointing to me davis came in and was the only player who seemed to care. He was getting on the St. Louis players and didn’t back down, where as everyone else was head down and only really barked at the ref.
Just all around disappointing
That’s fair! I think it’s still a new environment for us the podcast life is interesting and we are still navigating around. We actually hadn’t been talking about the online backlash since the Reddit issue about a month or so ago. In this episode, we tried to point out everyone seemed to be receiving negativity online from STL fans. I wasn’t trying to focus on us, but I could understand how it would be perceived that way seeing as I had a specific example from Chad. Plus, the few comments that went over my head. I found it to be more comical than previous times. However, it’s good feedback and always appreciated!
I agree with you, about Leibold. It feels like a misstep from PV to not put more focus into the STL game. I understand the schedule issues, but for the rest of history, the inaugural game between these two teams will be, we didn’t show up and played awful. It won’t take into consideration any of the other factors we’ve all mentioned. It’s something STL will hold over KC. It also makes me think, PV doesn’t understand or care about the rivalry between these teams, and bragging rights means a lot between two rival teams. Perhaps, I’d feel better with this whole STL loss if we won in LA. The effort wasn’t there, but it felt different than in the other games where we lost. In those games, we looked defeated and lost. I didn’t feel that way Saturday night, it just felt like we were tired and unprepared.
I agree on looking unprepared. I honestly didn’t see the tired. At least not until it no longer mattered.
Otherwise, I agree on Vermes seeming to have prioritized LAFC over St Louis. And I am no less pleased than you.
I agree, it could be a little bit more of a consolation saying you at least got 3 points there. But, I also still think it is still disappointing because it’s finally an opportunity to actually have a rival in the league since Minnesota isn’t really one and salt lake has kind of gone by the wayside over the years. It’s something we as fans had been looking forward to and Peter seemed content to punt on this game in favor of competing in La. I get not wanting to be embarrassed, but I think most people would of been understanding to lose if it meant you were at least competitive in this game. It also sheds more light on the concerns with this team that while 3 changes seems like a lot, it was 3 changes we’ve been seeing all season long. Zusi for Davis, gadi for thommy, Leibold for ndenbe that were all preplanned out in the second half anyway. If that’s all the depth you have that you don’t feel comfortable rolling our tzionis or hernandez at least for more than a cameo or even at all in one of those fixtures that’s an issue. I was really critical of the Roger sub. I get we aren’t playing for anything at the end besides pride, but Felipe hasn’t had hardly any mins outside of open cup lately. I fail to see why he couldn’t of gotten a run out instead of Roger.
I would’ve been fine with Roger coming in if he had sent a message about their “style.”
But…nah. That might be something rivals do.
Yeah I read a comment where someone said they had never cheered for Roger to get a red card until then, but he just kinda seemed like he came on and continued the overall feel of “let’s just get through this and get out of here”. That’s why I said it was good and bad that Jake hit the field and brought some fire. He was making tackles, he got in players faces and was chippy when he was out there. While everyone just kind of seemed stale.
I never like to punt on games, but IMO, there was no way MLS was ever going to let this end in anything other than 3 points for STL. They weighted the deck from the time the schedule came out and put their thumb further on the scale with that terrible refereeing. I am usually not one to complain about congestion or referees, but in this instance, it cannot be overlooked. At minimum, the league should have had BOTH teams playing a midweek match, arguably, a midweek away match. MLS knew exactly what it wanted; PV’s decisions and the players collective apathy on Saturday night simply indulged MLS.
MLS cannot make a schedule where every team plays games on Wednesday if they have to play on the weekend.
Sure, it’s OK to be annoyed about it. But this isn’t different than any other league in the world. These balance out over a season. And it’s not about “making sure one team wins.”
The standard of refereeing is another issue. There’s no disputing St Louis gets away (and not just vs SKC) with committing many more fouls a game than their opponents. MLS referees do not seem to think persistent fouling is card-worthy.
It just struck me that PV seeming to treat the LAFC and STL matches the same (if not prioritizing the former) reminds me of back in 2019 when SKC were on a deep CCL run and PV insisted on starting the same tired players in early-season MLS matches that no one would have cared about punting on, and we got smoked by Monterrey and the whole season fell apart. It’s especially ironic since he’s quite willing to punt on USOC. That was an early warning sign to me of the problems his inflexibility could cause.
Almost no one would have cared about running out a USOC lineup against LAFC on the road if a rested first-choice team could have given STL a fair fight.
I almost said the same thing about running out a usoc lineup but then remembered there’s restrictions with skc2 callous. But even then, there’s enough homegrowns and academy players on the bench that could of been used especially since their playing time is gonna be sparse now that open cup is done for the year. It just goes back to the debate on why these guys are signed and on the bench if he doesn’t even feel comfortable actually using them. Rindov had a game or so with the full team I believe in open cup, duke has gotten a few cameos, tzionis gets 10 mins, and Hernandez occasionally gets in. It literally took us running out of rb’s to stumble on Jake davis. Imagine what else might happen if we actually used our bench.
Gadi wasn’t scissor tackled on the second goal. The back leg never made contact with him. He legit fell because he didn’t expect the tackle. Yes there should have been more yellows – and could have been called better… but sporting failed to show up. VAR only calls to the monitor if they believe there is a clear and obvious error. The pk was not a clear and obvious error. Yes he got ball (studs up), but he was also using his back to body the forward off without having clear control. Also from the rear angle it looked like he tackled through the attacker. Now was this just a good job of the st Louis attacker making things look worse (not diving but making it look like a more legitimate pk than what it was).
Salloi’s challenge was border red he came in with excessive force and hit a planted foot. Had he been quicker then it wouldn’t have been a foul.
The shots that we had – I mean, only two were really outstanding and forced big saves. So gk different again wasn’t it.
We were tired. That is it. Travel and lack of rotation was evident. The terrible rotation/subs in the LA and MNUFC games, which also showed extreme fatigue and exhaustion I might add, directly contributed to this result far more than the officiating.
That coupled with failure to adjust tactics are two of the biggest, controllable factors that led to this loss.