Editorial: Is it Time for Sporting KC to Part with Wicky?

On March 31, 2025, Sporting Kansas City “mutually agreed” to part ways with the longest tenured manager in all of Major League Soccer. Peter Vermes was gone, just six games into the 2025 season and only in the second year of a five-year extension. Yes, Sporting KC are still paying Vermes for another two plus seasons!

The end came after a legendary run. Vermes was the head coach for 609 matches in all competitions, at that point more than half of all the games the club had ever played. And there was a ton of success in that time. The team lifted four trophies. An MLS Cup in 2013 and three US Open Cups (2012, 2015 and 2017). They made the playoffs in 11 of PV’s seasons at the helm, including eight straight trips from 2011-2018.

Sporting KC was Peter Vermes and Peter Vermes was Sporting KC.

The unwinding of that bond was going to take a while. It was going to be painful.

KC limped through the rest of the 2025 season under interim coach Kerry Zavagnin, picking up 28 points (27 of which came after the coaching change).

Before the season had ended, came some hope. Sporting KC announced the hiring of David Lee as the President of Soccer Operations from New York City FC. The MLS world saw it as a coup. An established, successful leader who had helped lead NYCFC to winning an MLS Cup.

Things started slow. There was a lot of quick roster turnover and not much of a front office to speak of. Frankly, there still may not be much of a front office nearly a year into this process, but those hires have been made and are coming.

On January 5, 2026, on the eve of preseason, Raphael Wicky was announced as Sporting KC’s new coach.

Initial Reactions

When Wicky was hired, reactions were tepid. On For the Glory KC (Wicky conversation around the 35-minute mark), I said, “it doesn’t move the needle much for me. I’m not excited by [the rumored Wicky hire].”

And it’s easy to see why. He had an abysmal run at the Chicago Fire as their coach and didn’t make it through his second season. He a couple stops in the Switzerland topflight at Basel and BSC Young Boys. He didn’t last a year at Basel and while he won trophies in year one at Young Boys, he was gone the next season.

Sporting KC’s Reddit thread was mixed. Some folks saw reasons for hope (his record in the Swiss league) and others used words like “underwhelmed.” There were definitely a lot of folks pretty down on the hire. Then others wanted to write off his time with the Fire because the team was so bad.

Then he inherited this Sporting KC roster.

Not Much to Work With

Sporting KC are in rough shape. They are dead last in all of Major League Soccer. Not just in the standings, in plenty of other categories.

And there is no denying that Wicky wasn’t given much to work with, at least at the beginning of the year. In the first transfer window, he signed exactly five guys that weren’t basically on some form of minimum deal.

The only players notably above the minimum were Lasse Berg Johnsen ($1.19m), Capita Capemba ($658k), Calvin Harris ($375k), Diego Borges ($330k) and Stefan Cleveland ($237k). That left seven other additions, that were at best, players with potential and at worst, cast-offs from other clubs.

That doesn’t even mention trading Daniel Salloi on the eve of the season. A move that makes sense to get a return for a guy that is probably walking for free, but left Wicky with little to work with.

The summer has been much better, but with an asterisk. New starters have been brought in all across the board. Andre Luiz is the headliner, and he’s shown why in recent weeks. He’s joined by Owen Wolff, Moises Mosquera, Or Blorian and Emir Karic. All starters. But Wolff just made his debut coming off injury and Blorian’s surprise surgery will keep him out for the year.

About that asterisk. Dejan Joveljic and Manu Garcia, the team’s only two Designated Players entering the season, are gone. With no replacements set to arrive until possibly the winter.

This has probably been the strongest argument for keeping Wicky. Not that he’s out here killing it, but who could succeed under these circumstances?

About Those Collapses

While Sporting Kansas City only ranked 14th in dropped points from a winning position, it’s hard to drop points if you never lead. SKC have only held the lead in nine of their 26 matches this season, better only than CF Montreal. They simply haven’t had a lot of leads to blow. Until recently.

In two of the last three games, Sporting KC have blown multigoal leads to walk away with nothing. First on the road at FC Dallas, up 2-0 early before losing 3-4 in a wild affair.

Then this past weekend, they were up 3-0 on the Philadelphia Union before giving up four goals in around 10 minutes to lose 3-4.

Who is to blame for losing so often from a winning position? Is it the players? The coaches? Surely a combination of both, right? When speaking with the media on Tuesday, if there was blame for the coaches, Wicky didn’t say it.

“The first goal we conceded was a very poor defending on our right side, with Andre with Justin and with Lasse, where we didn’t show any urgency when [Cavan] Sullivan dribbles through three guys.” That is true. We watched that happen.

But the mistakes start earlier.

Taylor Calheira had been down behind the play and was limping trying to get back. The ball hits the referee in the 63rd minute and play stops for a drop ball. Calheira should probably go down, and the coaching staff should probably tell him to go down, because SKC’s defense need all 11 players involved. He continues to hobble and play restarts, and the team is confused and out of their shape with Stephen Afrifa openly holding his arms up in confusion as players walk by him.

Credit: Apple TV

Moments later, Cavan picks up the ball on the left of the attack, Luiz, Reynolds and Berg Johnsen all come over and don’t do much to defend him. Then Jacob Bartlett is dragged out of position and misses his tackle as well. Frankie Westfield shoots, Damiani gets a deflection and Philly has a goal.

It happens. Teams make mistakes. But Wicky’s staff is slow to react. They leave the injured Calheira out there and another goal goes in.

When asked about it after the game, he said he needed to watch it again but didn’t think Calheira played a part. Or that (unprompted) Jacob Bartlett being on the field played a part.

They finally pull the injured Calheira, but another goes in right away. Three goals in four minutes. Only then does Wicky adjust bringing on Zorhan Bassong and Owen Wolff.

After the game, Wicky said Philly didn’t change, Sporting KC did. And SKC were playing different. Hoofing the ball long and getting away from their style. But the Union changed. Quinn Sullivan subbed on and was playing a very different role than Indiana Vassilev, who he replaced. Philadelphia also made a tactical switch in the back to allow Kai Wagner to get into the attack more.

With time to reflect over the weekend, Wicky took no blame. “After that [first] goal, we basically collapse mentally because it’s not tactically and we stopped doing our jobs in defending.”

Basically, it’s the players fault, not mine.

He didn’t use those words, but he proclaims his tactics were sound.

If they players aren’t doing what you want on the field. Make a change. He let three goals go in before making a non-injury related sub. If they are kicking it long against your advice, sub that player out. Pass a message from the players nearest you to his peers. Have your captain come over after one of the numerous goals and give him directions.

Wicky even seems to wave that criticism away.

“That is always very frustrating. It is not the first time that we react like that. We need, in those moments, a few guys on the field who take this in their hands because it’s difficult from the outside to have any impact in those moments.”

It’s true you can’t call a timeout in soccer. But there are ways to convey a plan.

In the locker room after the game, captain Lasse Berg Johnsen told us after the goal they didn’t communicate how they were going to play. “If we’re going to press them for the next minutes or we’re gonna keep playing, or are we gonna go longer and go for second balls?”

Wicky was asked about his halftime talk after that loss. “We said in halftime,” began Wicky, “we’re gonna keep playing. We have to keep playing. We have to keep being brave. We have to keep showing up. Keep fighting.”

Is that the extent of the halftime speech or were there more tactical directions? Maybe Wicky was being vague in the presser, and it was specific. But if it was, the message wasn’t received and it’s on the staff at that point to make a change.

Instead, it was a full collapse. The worst one in recent memory in a season full of bad games.

Could Someone Else Do Better?

It’s tough to say. But there is a guy on the staff already that knows what to do in MLS. Dominic Kinnear is an established MLS coach. He led the San Jose Earthquakes (who eventually became the Houston Dynamo) to a Supporters’ Shield in 2005. After they moved to Houston, he won back-to-back MLS Cups in 2006 and 2007.

He’s not been quite as good since then, but he’s still had success. Even as an interim coach (twice) with the LA Galaxy, he got okay results.

Right now, Sporting KC would kill for okay results.

Kinnear has another thing going for him. He has coached some stingy, blue-collar, difficult to break down defenses. Something Kansas City are in desperate need of. They’ve found their scoring ways recently, but they’ve got little to show for it with three points in the last three games, despite scoring three goals in each one of those matches.

And he has experience coaching in a 4-4-2. But a more defensively sound one. Keep in mind, Sporting Kansas City are the only MLS team to not earn a shutout all season!

There is no guarantee he’d do better, but it’s hard to imagine doing much worse.

So… Should Wicky be Fired?

It’s clear Wicky wasn’t given a lot to work with. The roster has improved, but it’s been a slow process. For that reason, David Lee may be reluctant to cut ties with Rapha Wicky. It would be a bit of an indictment on him for his slow roster build and on him for potentially getting his first coaching hire in Kansas City wrong.

However, sometimes it’s best to move on from a mistake sooner rather than later.

Many have advocated for giving Wicky this year and the Sprint Season. But I’ve seen enough at this point. He’s been out coached in many games. He’s made baffling tactical decisions. There is one example above, but there are plenty more. Sure, he wasn’t given a lot, but he also did worse than expected with what he was given.

Sporting KC are on the verge of a historically bad season. They are approaching 1999 levels of futility. They are also in danger of ‘winning’ the Wooden Spoon. A trophy no team wants.

Sporting Kansas City are the last original MLS team to never finish dead last.

For a few minutes on Saturday, with CF Montreal losing and SKC winning, they were in 29th place. At this point, that’s the goal. Build towards next season and don’t finish dead last.

No coach was likely to be very successful given the hand Wicky was dealt. But the level of futility Sporting KC has reached this year is mind boggling.

It is time for David Lee to look at making the tough decision.

Update: This article originally had Sporting KC dropping 24 points from winning positions in error. They have dropped just 16 points overall (some from first being tied).