OPINION: Something to Cheer For…Again

“Vermes Out!” “Get rid of the whole team.” “Scrap them all and start over.” “There is nothing to save here.”

It seems like these are the repeated phrases that the Sporting Kansas City fanbase has been shouting match after match. Season after season. Yet somehow here we are again. The dying days of the season and we, as a fanbase, have something to cheer about.

Looking back over that last few seasons, we can all say that overall, they have been a disappointment. I’m not saying that the negativity in the fanbase isn’t warranted to some degree, but somehow there is always a little something out there. They dangle a little carrot on a string in front of the fans and say ‘See. You love us. We are so much fun. It’s the end of the season and you’ve got something to cheer about.’ How do they keep doing it?

I myself am an eternal optimist when it comes to this team, so you won’t catch me spewing negativity (very often), but even I have felt the pessimism that we have all felt over the last few years, but man this team always finds a way to remind me why I love them so much.

2022

Even before the 2022 season began the team gave the fans news that would set us up for negativity. On January 11, 2022, Sporting Kansas City announced that Alan Pulido would miss the season after knee surgery. Not too far into the season, on April 29, we learned that Gadi Kinda would be out for the season as well. Already not a good start.

Then the team started playing and the negativity just got worse and worse. The team went 2-6-2 over the first 10 regular season games. It didn’t go much better after that. Through June 23 the team struggled mightily with a record of 5-13-5. The negativity was loud. Five wins through the month of June was bad. There wasn’t much to feel positive about as a fan of Sporting.

Then June 23 arrives, and the team announces two new signings. William Agada and Erik Thommy join SKC and seem to be the answer to all of our prayers as the team goes 6-3-2 after they arrive. Sure, the team didn’t make the playoffs and finished 12th in the West, but after such an atrocious beginning of the season we had reasons cheer.

The team only lost one of their last eight games and won the last six they played at home. We were having fun again as a fanbase. The crowds were back and were loud and excited. Podcasts and journalists were talking and writing in a more positive way. We were able to put that beginning of the year behind us. Two new great signings, our two best players would be back. We had hope and belief that 2023 was going to be one of the best teams we had seen in a long time.

2023

The season began without many big roster changes. We lost Uri Rosell, Kaveh Rad and Nicolas Isimat-Mirin. None of those would be big losses. We signed a few new people. Nemanja Radoja, Tim Leibold, Danny Flores, Robert Castellanos. Good additions for the few places we might need people to fill in.

But we shouldn’t need too much. We were bringing back our two best players from injury! Right?! Well…not so much. The team started 0-3-3 in the first six matches. But Pulido and Kinda didn’t return until April, so we had a chance to quickly turn it around. Right?! We signed a new defender, Dany Rosero on March 31. That will help keep us from giving up so many goals. Right?! Nope!

The team lost the next five games. Ten matches with no wins. I don’t think in my years of fandom I had ever heard so much negativity and hatred about the team. The owners, the coaching staff, the players. They were all being dragged through the mud. According to some of the fanbase they were all just the worst players, team and coaches that had ever lived. And then May 7 rolled around and the team went to Seattle. A traditionally difficult place to play. We were all prepared for another game without a win. Right?!

Nope! Somehow Sporting pulled out a victory and then after that were one of the best teams in Major League Soccer. They went 12-7-5 after that first win in May. They again turned around the fan base. They took us from the most negative and down I’d ever seen and then they did it again. They squeaked into a home wildcard playoff position, and we again had a team that we loved supporting.

We cheered them on to a penalty shootout win over San Jose. And then had the most fun together booting St. Louis City from the playoffs in Children’s Mercy Park. We felt for the team when they lost in Houston on some unbelievably bad calls. But the season ended on such an amazing high. They had done it. They had taken us from the dark days of the early season to something to cheer about by the end of the season. Again. We were having fun again.  Should we allow ourselves to believe that we could enter the 2024 season with some hope that the team that we saw from May to November would be the team that started us off on a positive note? They would do it. Right?!

2024

Nope! The bad news for 2024 actual started in 2023. We learned that Logan Ndenbe had torn his ACL in November, and he would miss a big chunk of the 2024 season. Then in December we learned that Gadi Kinda had left the team to return to Israel.

Things were not off to a good start. Little did we know that 2024 would be a repeat of the beginning of 2023. While it didn’t take 10 games to get a win it was still a rough start. 2-3-5 in the first ten matches. The negative rumbling were beginning. Vermes Out signs appeared in the stands. Conversations of how are we not good? What has happened to our best players? Can this team turn it around in May like they did last season?

Nope! The team lost 10 of the next 12 games. I thought the negativity of last season was bad, but booing our own coach and our own players at home? That seemed about as low as we can go. The Vermes Out crowd got the attention of the ownership group who quickly told us you might as well stop complaining because he’s not going anywhere. But Vermes insures us that the team will improve. He has more money to spend than ever before so maybe next year??

Yet somehow here we are in September and yet again this team has given us something to cheer for. The regular season may not be something to cheer about this season. The team isn’t mathematically eliminated so who knows. It will take a real miracle for them to make the playoffs so if that happens, we would have completely turned it around.

But the regular season isn’t what has given us something to cheer about this season. This season it is the US Open Cup that has us still feeling hopeful and positive in September. Sporting beat Indy Eleven to make it to the Finals of the Open Cup and will head to Los Angeles to play LAFC in the Finals on September 25. The end of September will arrive with Sporting Kansas City playing for the opportunity to win a Cup. Playing for a Cup is the goal for every team every season so it will once again give the fanbase a chance to end the season with positivity moving forward.

I’ve heard a few people say they are disappointed in the team’s success in the Open Cup because they think that it will just give the leadership of the team the opportunity to say, ‘I told you so. See we were never that bad,’ and then not do anything to change anything. But this optimist isn’t listening to that.

When a team that has struggled so mightily over the last several seasons gives you something to cheer about. You take it. We, as a fanbase, have had a lot of reasons to complain and be negative and speak loudly about the things we’re angry about. But somehow, every time we reach that point, the team gives us something to cheer for.

So, when September 25 arrives, no matter what is happening in the regular season, I hope you will join me in quieting the negative noise. Let’s just take the opportunity that we have. This team has given us another chance to have something to cheer for. We should just take it. Right?!