Wooden Spoon Update: Can Sporting KC Avoid Dead Last?

It’s a stat you’ve probably heard before. Sporting Kansas City is in some rare air when it comes to the Wooden Spoon. They are the only team of the original 10 Major League Soccer squads to never finish dead last in the standings. Not as the Wiz. Not as the Wizards. Not as Sporting KC.

Every other team, including the defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny, have the ‘honor’ of bringing up the rear in MLS. The Colorado Rapids, Columbus Crew, D.C. United, Dallas Burn/FC Dallas, LA Galaxy, New England Revolution, NY/NJ Metrostars/Red Bulls, San Jose Clash/Earthquakes all finished last at least once. Every single one of them!

And for much of 2026, it looked like Sporting KC were guaranteed to finally join that list.

What is the Wooden Spoon?

The trophy no team wants. It is “awarded” to the team that finishes the MLS season with the worst record.

Not officially created until 2015, The Independent Supporters Council (ISC) tells the story of an idea that was tossed around for a while to shame owners who weren’t putting in as much effort as others (considering this year’s contenders, Peter Mallouk and Arthur Blank hardly seem worthy with their investments). The Chicago Fire supporters actually created it, and a random wooden spoon that was brought to a game ended up on the trophy.

In 2017, it got a rebranding. The Anthony Precourt Memorial Wooden Spoon. In “honor” of the then Columbus Crew owner Anthony Precourt who manipulated MLS into give him Austin FC as an expansion team to avoid him moving another MLS original in the Crew.

ESPN did a lovely feature on this trophy that is worth a deeper look.

Current Standings

Sporting KC find themselves in the “lead” for the Wooden Spoon, sitting dead last in MLS with 18 points through 24 games played.

The current Spoon holders, D.C. United, find themselves all the way up in 24th with 29 points and are probably safe. Though technically, with nine or 10 games remaining for each of our “contenders,” there are 27 to 30 points on the table.

But no one is going to run the table.

Look at those point per game totals! They are the only four teams in the league averaging less than a point per game. Abysmal stuff.

It’s worth noting, Sporting KC has a game in hand on their competitors, so if they win, they are suddenly in a tie for last place.

Tiebreakers

The first tiebreaker is wins. SKC and Montreal are level on wins at five and Atlanta and Columbus have six each. If Sporting KC want to avoid the spoon, they need to get ahead of a team and not be tied because after the wins tiebreaker comes goal differential. SKC are at an abysmal -33 and seem unlikely to make that up, though that 3-1 win over LAFC sure helped.

Then it’s goals for as the next tiebreaker. We can skip head-to-head (because it’s only intraconference and these teams are all in the East) and it gets to a bunch of other stats that won’t come up.

If SKC are tied, they better have more wins, because it’s basically a lost cause after that.

Strength of Schedule

Sporting KC having a game in hand is really all that favors them here. They have the toughest schedule the rest of the way, partially because the other teams all play each other, with CF Montreal actually playing both Columbus and Atlanta United.

But you know what they say about games in hand. It doesn’t matter if you don’t take advantage of them and these teams aren’t finding a ton of wins.

Looking at straight points per game (PPG) to figure out the toughest schedule is probably inaccurate. Home and Away splits matter a lot. In MLS this season, home teams average about 1.65 PPG and road teams are at about 0.95 PPG.

SKC’s schedule gets a bit easier factoring that in, but the team they are closest to in the standings, Montreal, get an even easier schedule.

Venue PPG is weighted to factor in if the game is home or away.

Ranking the Contenders

If you look at the summer transfer window, Columbus and Atlanta seem like they did the most to improve themselves. Atlanta added Swiss international forward Breel Embolo and he has played the last few games. Ironically, they are 0-1-2 in that stretch and Atlanta hasn’t won since their 2-1 win over Sporting KC back on August 23rd. It was their third win in a row, which brought them out of the basement, but they’ve since stalled.

Columbus added two DPs this summer, former NYCFC forward Santi Rodriguez and Spanish attacking midfielder Brais Mendez. Despite that, and both players starting to contribute, the Crew are in terrible form. They are 1-6-1 in their last eight. But they play Montreal next, so that could help.

Speaking of teams in bad form, CF Montreal are bottoming out. The team also added a DP, but a very non-traditional one. They brought in 37-year-old Alexis Sanchez who already had six appearances but no goal contributions since arriving in the summer. Montreal have lost four in a row but looking back further it doesn’t get much better. In their last 14, they are 1-7-6.

None of these teams are blowing it out of the water, but CF Montreal is easily the team that is the most catchable. They are in terrible form, and they made a “big” addition that is least likely to help. Compare Sanchez to the DPs Atlanta and Columbus added, or breakout star Andre Luiz for Sporting KC, and you can see the path out of last place.

Sporting KC’s Remaining Schedule

As you can see, there are some winnable games. The Portland Timbers, Real Salt Lake and Austin FC are quite bad on the road and Minnesota United are stunning terrible at home. They don’t need to win them all, but if they can pick up a few wins, that might be enough.

The journey starts on Saturday against the red-hot Philadelphia Union. Once Spoon contenders themselves, Philly have climbed to seventh in the Eastern Conference standings and are winners of four straight and eight of their last 10. If they win again on Saturday, they’ll have won as many games in a row as SKC have won all season.