Sporting KC Wasted a Weekend with so Few Left in 2025

For the Glory KC is back with the 146th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City really wasted our time this weekend. Sure, the game was close, only losing 2-1 to Real Salt Lake. But any idiot could see this lineup wasn’t going to work. A midfield three of Nemanja Radoja, Jacob Bartlett and Jake Davis. Where is the offense coming from? Why is Radoja playing the 8? He has a single position, being a defensive midfielder in a single pivot. A role he’s spent almost no time playing in 2025. Which is fine, let Barlett get those minutes. Or even better, let Davis and Zorhan Bassong play in a double pivot (Bassong was suspended for this game).

And why is Joaquin Fernandez playing any minutes for this team? He has shown he hasn’t done enough to earn a new contract. His deal runs out at the end of 2025 and his exorbitant salary has not been earned. Ian James picked up a concussion, so he wasn’t available. But new loanee Alan Montes is. See if he has enough talent to keep around beyond the expiration of his loan this season. They have a purchase option. I have a dream formation he’d fit right into.

Worst of all, the game was so conservative, and Kerry Zavagnin didn’t go offensive until the team was down 2-0. It felt like a wasted game. We’ll get into that, and other thoughts from the RSL game before moving on to other topics like the KC Cauldron “Hot Seat,” an injury update for SKC and England possibly coming to KC for the World Cup.

Finally, the KC Current couldn’t pull off yet another win. They played to a 0-0 draw with the Washington Spirit without the injured Temwa Chawinga. Temwa should be fine according to Vlatko Andonovski.

Vlatko on Temwa's injury: "Temwa was close. It's going to be day-to-day going into the next game." "If any of the players have any injury or slight risk of getting any injury, they aren't going to play. We did it with Lorena last week." #KCBaby #KCvWAS

— Chad Smith (@chadcsmith.bsky.social) 2025-09-14T01:55:44.504Z

The game was another hot one, featured a red card and the Spirit showed why they are the 2nd place team in the NWSL.

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

• USMNT bounce back versus Japan
• St. Louis City owners battle with their supporters
• Wooden Spoon race update

Here is a rundown of topics and start times:

• Sporting KC waste a week of our lives against RSL – 10:04
• SKC injury news and Cauldron Hot Seat – 34:08
• No Temwa, no winning for the Current – 43:06
• Digital Crawl – 57:23

Upcoming Games

• SKC II @ North Texas SC, Sun. Sept 14th at 7:30PM
• SKC II vs. Whitecaps 2, Fri, Sept 19th at 6:00PM CDT
• KC Current vs. Seattle Reign, Sat. Sept 20th at 6:30PM 
• Sporting KC vs. Vancouver, Sat. Sept 20th 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.

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