Connect with us

Sporting KC

Sporting KC extends winless streak with loss in Minnesota

Mistakes doom SKC to seventh straight defeat

Published

2 years ago

on

Losing is not easy on anyone | Credit: Thad Bell

Sporting Kansas City fell 3-1 to Minnesota United FC Saturday night. In MLS play, Kansas City is now winless in ten matches with seven straight defeats. The last league win was in Toronto on March 31st. Sporting KC has won their last two U.S. Open Cup games.

Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes made a few changes after the loss at home against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Tired legs from five games in fifteen days may have played a large part in the rotation but some of it was “Manager’s choice”. Memo Rodriguez returned to the starting midfield after being suspended for card accumulation. The normal starting front line began the game on the bench for the second straight match. Marinos Tzionis started on the left, Wily Agada at center forward and Alenis Vargas on the right. Tim Melia got the nod in goal after John Pulskamp played Wednesday.

Minnesota was the better side through most of the first half but Sporting KC managed to hold their own for the first half hour. SKC’s best opportunity came when Vargas was pulled down right on the edge of the box. The resulting free kick was not on the frame.

The home side took control in the 33rd minute when Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi, Minnesota’s leader scorer, added to his total. Bongokuhle Hlongwane took the ball wide before whipping a cross through SKC’s box. Oluwaseyi was making the back post run with Jake Davis tracking him. Oluwaseyi pulled up. created a little space and was open to head the ball back past Tim Melia.

Minnesota took the lead and momentum into half.

Vermes subbed out Tzionis and brought in Johnny Russel to start the second half. Sporting KC came out with some energy and looked like they were starting to gain confidence and a hint of momentum through the early minutes. That changed a few minutes after Robin Lod checked into the match.

In the 67th minute, Oluwaseyi took the playmaker role and fed Finnish star Robin Lod for a goal to double the lead. Lod broke straight down the middle of the field unmarked. Lod easily connected and blasted one right down the middle of Kansas City’s goal.

Minnesota took a big step at putting the game out of reach in the 83rd minute. A cross into the area was headed away by Khiry Shelton but it went directly to  Kervin Arriaga on the far side of the box. The Honduran midfielder had enough time to bring the ball down before powering a shot from a narrow angle past Melia to make it 3-0.

Sporting KC made an effort to fight back. SKC Captain Russell received the ball near the center circle and dribbled towards the goal. He unloaded a shot from approximately 25 yards away from goal that rocketed past Dayne St. Clair for a consolation goal.

The game ended 3-1 but not without a little bit of extra curricular activity before the final whistle.

On a bright note, former Sporting KC and Minnesota United defender Ike Opara was recognized at half time. Opara was in Minnesota as an assistant coach with SKC II who will face Minnesota United 2 Sunday evening.

Losing feels lonely | Credit: Thad Bell

Sporting Kansas City: Tim Melia; Jake Davis (Khiry Shelton 75’), Dany Rosero (Robert Voloder 71’), Robert Castellanos, Zorhan Bassong; Nemanja Radoja (C) (Alan Pulido 62’), Felipe Hernandez, Memo Rodriguez; Alenis Vargas (Daniel Salloi 62’), Willy Agada, Marinos Tzionis (Johnny Russell 46’)

Subs Not Used: John Pulskamp, Andreu Fontas, Tim Leibold, Stephen Afrifa

Minnesota United FC: Dayne St. Clair; DJ Taylor (Joseph Rosales 43’), Kervin Arriaga, Michael Boxall (C), Miguel Tapias, Devin Padelford (Jordan Adebayo-Smith 81’); Carlos Harvey (Hassani Dotson 62’), Wil Trapp; Sang Bin Jeong, Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi (Teemu Puuki 80’), Bongokuhle Hlongwane (Robin Lod 62’)

Subs Not Used: Clint Irwin, Victor Eriksson, Zarek Valentin

Scoring Summary:
MIN – Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi 7 (Bongokuhle Hlongwane 1, DJ Taylor 2) 33’
MIN – Robin Lod 5 (Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi 4, Devin Padelford 1) 67’
MIN – Kervin Arriaga 3 (Unassisted) 83’
SKC – Johnny Russell 2 (Unassisted) 86’

Misconduct Summary:
MIN – Devin Padelford (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 16’
MIN – Carlos Harvey (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 25’
SKC – Nemanja Radoja (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 32’
MIN – Tanitoluwa Oluwaseyi (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 64’
MIN – Joseph Rosales (Yellow Card; Unsporting Behavior) 88’

Stat SKC MIN
Shots 11 12
Shots on Goal 1 7
Saves 4 0
Fouls 16 15
Offsides 4 3
Corner Kicks 4 4

Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referee: Adam Garner
Assistant Referee: Mike Nickerson
Fourth Official: Eric Tattersall
VAR: Greg Dopka
AVAR: Jonathan Johnson

Related Topics:

Managing Editor

24 Comments
Subscribe
Notify of
guest

24 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
skcfanipromise

The problems with SKC go deeper than Vermes, maybe, but you still have to dig him out first before you can fix them.

Also–he deserves credit for piling them so high.

Last edited 1 year ago by skcfanipromise
5
Reply
A&W

I say this every week: but no coach in the world can win with these guys right now. The players are utterly broken. There is talent in the roster, we saw it last year, but they are broken psychologically and are all playing to their absolute floor right now. A coaching change will not fix anything.

-9
Reply
ar_jhawk

A coaching change is exactly the fix that nearly every team in the history of sportsball has implemented to fix a problem like this. It’s where the phrase you can’t fire the team so you fire the coach comes from. I’m beginning to think A&W is Vermes’s burner account.

7
Reply
jdkus11

I’m sorry, but I’ve seen this comment every week and I disagree with it every single time. When we started this season, people felt optimistic because of the run we had last year. I had a ton of doubts because we lost two veteran presences and our best creative midfielder and replaced them with a journeyman midfielder, an unproven left back, a green winger, and a rookie keeper. Memo has turned out to be a good signing, but none of them can move the needle on this roster. Our entire front line is streaky and overpaid, Thommy has tons of energy but is not a creative presence, and our backline has been susceptible for years now. This team was never built to be a winning team. There’s a reason why we’ve dropped so many points from winning positions; it’s because our talent is not good enough! If we tear things down, there are definitely some players worth keeping, but a lot of this roster could and should be dropped to make way for the future. And I know you don’t like it when people say this, but PV has played a big role in constructing this roster through his position of sporting director and by dictating which players he wants to slot into his system.

The argument of “but we have good players” doesn’t hold water when we keep losing like this. At some point, you have to face the truth that we are lacking in talent.

5
Reply
skcfanipromise

I get it, you’re frustrated with SKC, and you know that firing Vermes won’t fix anything / everything. But no one claims #vermesout as a panacea.

…When you have players who are “utterly broken,” that’s a coaching problem.
…When you have “talent in the roster,” but you’re not seeing it on the field. That’s a coaching problem.
…When players are “broken psychologically,” that’s a coaching problem. It might be the biggest job of a coach.
…When players are “playing to their absolutely floor,” guess what. It’s a coaching problem

And it’s a coaching problem that there is always lower to go (let’s hope Vermes doesn’t lose the locker room.)

The team has a lot of problems. One of them is a coaching problem. I don’t know how you see it any other way. Everything you say points to the opposite of what you believe. It’s irrational. It’s Bargaining.

#vermesout is not a cureall, it’s just the first shovelful. Beneath all that clay, compressed by the years of SKC doing things Vermes’ way, is fertile soil. As you say it, there’s even “talent in the roster.”

But SKC has to start digging.

Fans want to see the shovel strike dirt.
Fans want to see, planted beneath the clay something. Anything.
Fans want to have a reason to care about the next game, the next year.
Fans want optimism.

What they have right now is apathy.

Because Vermes has crushed optimism. There’s too much “wait until…” Wait until everyone is healthy. Wait until we sign this player. Wait until the academy produces. Wait until we’re ten games in. Wait until substitutions happen sooner. Wait until players learn new positions in which to play. I could go on and on.

Like someone said on a podcast, “it’s always something.”

Fans need something new to wait for. A new coach is literally the easiest way to give them that. And the best. That’s why it’s better to watch SKC lose with a new coach than with Vermes.

It’s always something. Salloi knows it. He said as much in his “year after year” quote. It’s the closest I can remember a player alluding to a coach without using the coach’s name.

SKC very much as a coaching problem. It’s baffles me that you claim otherwise, until I remember that you’re just a fan of the team like all of us.

p.s. next up is Anger.

Last edited 1 year ago by skcfanipromise
5
Reply
Kat

What the fuck, man. 

Sporting has become a hollow, lifeless shell of the club I randomly found and fell for ten years ago. No accountability, integrity, or leadership from anyone in the organization. These guys have quit on each other. Doesn’t matter how talented they are or who/how their coach is if they have no trust in each other.

I don’t think a bro-down hoe-down at the ranch is going to do the trick this time.

7
Reply
KCOutsider

I’ll admit it. I watched St. Louis vs Miami last night instead. I’m a fan of anyone playing Miami and it was a scintillating match. I guess we can be glad that SKC didn’t suffer Vancouver’s fate, though that was exactly what people like me were warning about when they scheduled that game. Aren’t we all glad we exposed lots of new people to exciting SKC soccer this year while pissing off the loyal fan base?

It’s truly shocking to watch the utter collapse of an organization that was once a talisman of MLS stability and success. Though I’ll disagree with you and A&W that no other coach could get better results.

3
Reply
Kat

When I say talent doesn’t matter, I’m echoing a discussion I saw on here from a few days ago where some argued that if the players are talented enough, then the coaching shouldn’t matter. I disagree with that. If your head isn’t in the game and you don’t trust your teammates your results are going to trend negatively. Sure, a different coach (coaching style, etc) would likely yield different results, but we’re also talking about applying that to a team with no identity or leadership. Granted even a marginal upswing would be welcome at this point, but this team is broken well beyond having a petulant toddler as coach.

That being said, I absolutely think some major changes need to happen, but given the organization’s structure I’m skeptical of how successful that could be mid-season. Ownership let the rot spread to this extreme, and will be hard pressed to turn it around without some major growing pains and additional setbacks along the way.

Not saying it isn’t a good idea to shake things up sooner than later, just that it might only be a band-aid for a bullet hole.

Last edited 1 year ago by Kat
4
Reply
ar_jhawk

The good news – we still have Kat. The bad – we may have lost KC Outsider to StL.

3
Reply
KCOutsider

LOL, that really would make me a KC outsider outcast.

As for Kat’s comment, I don’t have any clear expectation that a mid-season coach swap would fix things, and a much deeper overhaul is needed. But I’ve also seen too many examples of a coach swap in various sports lighting a fire under a team that got stale (as a hockey fan, see the 2019 Blues going from worst in the league to Stanley Cup champions after a coach swap, and this year’s Oilers).

I’m not even sure I WANT a sudden resurgence as that would paper over the deeper issues, just like last year did. I just dread going the rest of the season at this level of malaise.

0
Reply
ar_jhawk

But if it is #VermesAllTheWayOut that would be a coaching change as well as an organizational shift, so it would be several shovel fulls to use someone aboves metaphor.

I love stability. I generally can’t stand organizations that change their coaches like underwear. But sometimes the time has come.

0
Reply
jdkus11

Honoring Ike at the game against us is just kicking us while we’re down. It’s time for PV to go. You never want to see someone that means so much to a club go out like this, but it seems clear that he needs to exit.

9
Reply
Kcwookie

you have to ask yourself why did he leave? Was it because of PV’s aversion with paying anyone?

Last edited 1 year ago by Kcwookie
3
Reply
jdkus11

Actually, overpayment is something that I would argue we’ve been struggling with for years. We have too many players on bloated contracts (and I’m not just talking about Shelton) that are sucking away cap space without contributing relative to the amount they’re paid. There are only a few players I can think of in recent years that have been driven away for money reasons: Ike (which us not wanting to pay him is ridiculous), Ilie (which could be argued either way), and Gutierrez (who had a rough injury history). Outside of that, players get moved because they get on his bad side or because they never should have been signed in the first place.

1
Reply
KCOutsider

Interesting that the “only a few” players who you cite as having left because of underpayment are arguably three of the best we’ve seen on this team in a long time (Opara, Ilie, Gutierrez). Whereas the bloated ones keep getting signed to extensions (Shelton, Pulido). I sense a pattern: PV’s a secret commie.

0
Reply
GV dude

Agree on everything but Ike. He had just won dpoy. SKC resigned him to the contract he wanted. He wanted more money after one year and was traded. I don’t disagree with what Vermes did there. Opara was great when he played. A lot of people forget he was constantly injured. SKC paid him and carried him. He went public when he didn’t get what he wanted in negotiations. Personally I wish Busio and EPB would come back.

2
Reply
A&W

I think 99% of the problems with this team rest on the shoulders of Nemanja Radoja. He is maybe the worst defensive 6 we’ve ever had. He does absolutely nothing to shield the back line, he never rotates to cover gaps, he chases ghosts on almost every play, and he’s literally never in the box. He showed such promise last year, but this year he’s just non-existent.

The back line isn’t aquitting itself well by any means, but a lot of these problems don’t happen with a stronger midfield and the 6 is the heart of that. And ours is trash on the defensive side of the ball.

-17
Reply
ar_jhawk

Peter, stop.

3
Reply
Mister Murse

Walter and thommy being gone hurts a lot. I wonder how much better we would use vargas and tzionis with them in.

We used to dunk on mnufc. Now we are treated to this. Oh how the turn tables have turned.

I’m glad ownership wants to win. I really see the owners’ success being demonstrated.

Front office kansas city shuffle time!

2
Reply
Wes

These guys make way too much money to play a game and not come out with mental and physical effort. As fans, we pay thousands of our hard earned dollars to see this team and all I’m seeing is $750k for Khiry Shelton to be tall, Davis giving up after getting his bag, Pulido becoming a $3.6 mil prima dona and extending a coach millions when he doesn’t have it anymore. Financially, this team has no idea what they’re doing. 

3
Reply
Mister Murse

It isnt easy being tall… I have been trying for decades and still come up short.

5
Reply
Jake

I’m one inch from being as tall as Khiry Shelton. I also can’t jump and am not great at heading the ball. No one has paid me $750k a year to be tall.

1
Reply
Mister Murse

You must be marketing yourself wrong. That one inch makes a difference, probably tops you out at 350k. Sorry, man.

2
Reply
WonderfulWizHeWas

.

Last edited 1 year ago by WonderfulWizHeWas
0
Reply

Recent Comments

Facebook

24
0
Make your voice heard. Leave a comment!x
()
x