Who is Starter Quality of the Sporting KC CBs?

For the Glory KC is back with the 95th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City came back down to earth this week with two losses just days apart to get bounced from the Leagues Cup. First, there was a competitive game against Toluca FC that featured a beautiful Stephen Afrifa goal, only to come up short. But SKC won the expected goals (xG) battle and showed some promise.

Then Vermes benched Willy Agada and went back to Alan Pulido and the team had an abysmal 4-0 loss against the Columbus Crew that only had an xG of 0.1 over the 90 minutes. The Crew are really good, but they made Sporting KC look even worse. And perhaps, SKC aided them in that. They kept it close for 44 minutes and then it went completely off the rails.

Columbus Crew: 4 (2.65 xG)
vs
Sporting Kansas City: 0 (0.1 xG)#CLBvSKC | #Crew96 | #SportingKC | #LeaguesCup pic.twitter.com/9ovbjBDZc2

— MLS Statistics and Analysis 📊⚽️ (@mlsstat) August 10, 2024

Over the course of these two games, Sheena and I discuss some good news (returning injured players like Logan Ndenbe, Jake Davis and Dany Rosero) and a lot of bad news (Pulido playing the 10, Agada missing so many shots PV thought Pulido was the solution, etc.). In particular, we got to wondering if there is a starting center back among the five on the roster currently.

Right now, the team has Andre Fontas, Robi Voloder, Robert Castellanos, Chris Rindov and Rosero. Of those, the team can literally move on from anyone but Rosero by simply letting their contract expire (Fontas) or not picking up their options (all the rest of them). So, what should they do? That part of the conversation picks up at 39:34 in the podcast.

[Teaser for next week’s pod: With no Sporting KC game, we’re going to look at the whole roster and finally answer a prompt a fan asked us weeks ago about who we’d keep in a world without roster rules.]

The KC Current did what they do and won both of their games this past week. They won their group in the Summer Cup and then won their semifinal matchup against the North Carolina Courage to make it to the finals (which are in October for some reason).

Then we got into the roster movement the Current went through in the last week. Claire Lavogez is gone (though nothing has been officially announced), as is backup goalkeeper Hope Hisey. Then the team brought in a 33-year-old GK in Almuth Schult. What does it mean for AD Franch and Jordan Silkowitz? We give our thoughts.

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

• SKC II keep losing
• USMNT eliminated at Olympics
• My interview with Jake Reid
• A Sporting KC signing is coming
• Castellanos pronunciation
• Antoinne Griezmann isn’t coming to KC
• Lots of KC Current stories

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

• Sporting KC lose twice – 7:51
• Who is Starter Quality of the SKC Center Backs? – 39:34
• KC Current win two more times – 50:30
• Three KC Current moves – 1:01:32
• USWNT win the Olympics Gold – 1:13:00
• Digital Crawl – 1:30:04

Upcoming Schedule:

• No Sporting KC games until August 24th (Orlando City)
• KC Current vs. Mamelodi Sundowns (Women’s Cup) – Wednesday, August 14th @ 8:00PM CDT
• KC Current vs. either Atletico Madrid or Kobe (depending who wins/loses the first games)
  • Saturday, August 17th @ either 5:00PM or 8:00PM
  • All games at CPKC Stadium
• SKC II vs. Austin FC II, Sunday, August 18th @ 6:00PM (Rock Chalk Park)

We recently turned on “Listener Support.” Don’t feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we’d appreciate your donation.

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 FTG Twitter, so that’s a great way to get her takes.

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