The Worst Blown Lead in Sporting KC History?

For the Glory KC is back with the 196th episode of the show!

Before we get to the podcast, if you’d like to support us, we talked at the start of the episode about Upside. It’s an app you can use to buy gas, eat out and in some cities buy groceries and get cash back for buying what you are going to buy anyways. If you want to support the podcast by doing what you are already doing, join Upside with our affiliate link.

Sporting Kansas City entered Saturday night with low expectations. At least from your podcast co-hosts. But they went and got our hopes up by taking a very early 3-0 lead. Then in the second half, in what is perhaps the worst collapse in Sporting KC history, the Philadelphia Union stormed back to win 3-4, with the help of their 16-year-old wunderkind, Cavan Sullivan.

Sheena and I work through what went right and what went wrong. There were some very high highs, before some very low lows. Was it a change in tactics? Was is bad play? Bad coaching? All of the above? Should Taylor Calheira have subbed himself out when he got hurt? Should referee Katja Koroleva learn how to call a consistent game? Can it be a little bit of everything?

We answer those questions and more before getting to a small roster and General Allocation Money (GAM) update for Sporting KC. Dejan Joveljic’s return to Kansas City will be delayed until 2027 (at least) and some insight into Or Blorian’s health problems that are keeping him out for the year.

Before SKC blew a game, the KC Current did the same thing. They lost 2-0 on the road to the San Diego Wave. They never gave the illusion they were going to win though. Plus, Vlatko Andonovski landed a job with the Chicago Stars as the new CSO. We have thoughts!

In the Digital Crawl, we hit one more topic:

• Indianapolis creeps closer to MLS expansion and weirdly we give Sheena’s history with the city of Indianapolis

Here is a rundown of sections and start times:

• Intro – 0:00
• Sporting KC – 8:52
• KC Current – 1:22:18
• Digital Crawl – 1:46:31

Upcoming Games

• KC Current vs. Denver Summit, SAT, Sept 26th at 11:30AM CST
• Sporting KC @ Houston Dynamo, SAT, Sept 26th at 7:30PM

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled.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 FTGKC BlueSky, so that’s a great way to get her takes. 

You can follow us me on BlueSky (@ChadCSmith). Also, you can find the podcast on other social media platforms: @ForTheGloryKC on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook or you can email us at ForTheGloryKC at Gmail.