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Missing the playoffs won’t force major changes at Sporting KC
Frustrated fans would like to see major changes across the organization. But would Sporting KC missing the playoffs accomplish that?
The past two seasons have been rough on Sporting KC fans. Their team started the season historically bad and may very well miss the MLS Cup Playoffs for the second year in a row. It all comes down to a Decision Day in which SKC will need help in order to sneak in to the postseason.
Amidst all this perfectly reasonable frustration, some fans have wondered if they even want Sporting KC to make the playoffs. Perhaps two straight years of missing the playoffs will serve as a wake up call for the powers that be and will force major changes at the club. Including with Manager Peter Vermes.
But how likely is something like that to happen? Should you root against SKC in the final game? We dove into the debate on the newest episode of Shades of Blue!
After crawling through the first ten games of the season without Alan Pulido or Gadi Kinda (or a single solitary win), Sporting KC turned things around. Since May, their points-per-game puts them level with the MLS league leaders. All of whom SKC have beaten this season, by the way. In the eyes of the ownership, this simple fact alone will be enough to show them the world isn’t falling apart.
There are many lessons to be learned and questions for the front office, coaches, and players alike. Ones they absolutely will not be bailed out from by sneaking into the playoffs on the final day. But choosing to actively root against your team in the final game, and to miss the playoffs, is not going to force the changes you want to happen.
Nobody wants to sneak in only to be slapped by sT. LoUiS CiTy fC CiTy Sc again. But how incredible would it be to send them home… at their home? That’s why sports are amazing. That’s what being a sports fan is about.
It’s horrible! It’s great! Bring it on.
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Sending you guys some dogecoin for the fine.
If they don’t make it nothing will change with the front office. There were tons of very valid reasons to see most of last year as an aberration going into the offseason. When Thommy and Agada came in and a few past-their-prime players with high ceilings got and stayed healthy they were fantastic last year. You can kinda sorta see why a front office person might think that they only needed a few pieces to compete. This season proved that it was probably more than just a few, but that, again, the top of the roster is really freakin good.
If they miss the playoffs I honestly fully expect a lot of roster turnover this offseason. This past offseason is literally the only time ever under Vermes that a less-than-expectations season wasn’t met with double digit roster turnover, and I really think it’s because of the false sense of security that last couple months provided. Now they know, and I fully expect lots of change.
If they STILL suck after that, or if I’m flat out wrong which means that they absolutely will still suck, then I could see them making some FO changes.
The tough thing to swallow is the perceived lack of ambition. ‘Better than average’ has been good enough for a long time around this organization. When that’s your goal it’s easy to tip the other way. Y’know, other good teams don’t utterly collapse when there’s an injury crisis. Ours does regularly. And the vaunted academy pipeline is a joke under Vermes. He’d rather sign a high floor 35yo than play a high ceiling youth and suffer through the mistakes. And that sums up the ‘good enough’ mentality. The team is not designed to win trophies, it’s designed to hang around and have a fighting chance. That is no longer good enough for me.
The worst part of this whole collapse might be that you and Farmhand don’t come around here no more.
I’m lurking. Just don’t have much to say for the most part. AKA Chzbro nailed my perspective already.
Trying to keep a healthy balance between maintaining a mentally healthy space from this team and continuing to root on gameday as long as there’s a chance.
Also, I’d personally add Kat to the list of commenters I miss.
Thanks, Eric! Like Farmhand, I’ve still been lurking. My main reason for not posting as much is that (on top of my existing disability) I tore ligaments in my right shoulder and followed that almost immediately after healing by dislocating my left shoulder. Both made typing just difficult enough to make me not want to bother. The hydrocodone probably contributed as well.
Woof. Best wishes for dealing with that.
Maybe I’m gullible, but I really don’t think that “better than average” is the goal and I don’t think they’ve shown a lack of ambition at all. Yes, the post 2022 offseason was underwhelming but they made two huge signings during the 2022 summer window who turned the whole season around and one of them required some clever maneuvering to not break the DP rules. And they didn’t sit on their hands after that. They still brought in a new 6, left back, and multiple spine guys.
Every offseason in the past half decade before that, other than the weirdest offseason in MLS history between 2020 and 2021 where COVID hamstrung most MLS teams abilities to do much in the international market, they shown plenty of ambition IMO. We got guys like Walter, Pulido, Kinda, Fontas (who was 28 and captaining a La Liga team at the time), Russell, Gutierrez 1.0, and Nemeth 2.0 over those periods. We tried to bring MLS experience in with guys like Ford and Uri and Sweat. We filled all 3 U22 slots immediately. To me the problems are with scouting, not with ambition. Most of these guys they brought in were either firmly on their national team or right on the fringes. They just didn’t work out here for various reasons.
I also don’t think you can blame Vermes for the academy. None of those dudes who have failed here have found success anywhere. Our best academy players of all time came from the Carolinas and Tennessee and we lost the ability to go after players in those territories so we’re stuck with less fertile ground. Now we don’t even have all of Missouri anymore. And it’s not for lack of trying. They consistently run out at least half academy kids for SKC2 and most of them just don’t have it, no matter who the coach has been, even at that level.
I definitely think there’s something to be said about guys like Hernandez and Duke stagnating when they got to the first team, but they came up at the same time as Busio and Salloi and both of those guys have thrived so it’s not like it’s failures across the board. And now Davis looks like the truth as well. The reality is that not every prospect pans out and that’s not always on the coach.
I’m pretty firmly on the Vermes Out train. I think his inability to adjust in games with effective tactical shifts or personnel changes is a death sentence in this era of MLS. I think his loyalty to mediocre people like Bliss and Savich or Shelton and Espinoza will ensure that we continue having scouting problems and issues getting the most out of guys on the field. But I don’t think keeping him around to see if he can turn it around again shows a lack of ambition and I don’t think that homegrowns washing out shows a lack of an ability to develop all homegrowns.
Good points. I think my “lack of ambition” perception falls on ownership and the gameday manager side of PV. Ownership because they have been so quiet during the bad days and because I just don’t see how you look at the recent past and offer Vermes a 5 year extension BEFORE the season. It’s okay for fans to forget our abysmal playoff record or the years we backed in amidst our then predictable end of season losing streaks, but it’s not okay for the owners to forget. There is no pressure for PV to succeed, which just isn’t acceptable.
As for the academy, I will admit that there is no way to really know. But let me explain why I think PV is bad for youth development. The current thinking in youth soccer is that training only truly translates to development when it is paired with meaningful games at a high level (relative to the player). In this way, the player might make big progress over a relatively short time (think Busio or Davis). This works until the player is 22 or 23, at which point he might improve but not dramatically (Vardy is one exception but mostly this seems about right). So, while you are right that no one PV cut has exploded anywhere else, I would argue that the damage to their development has already been done. While PV had them riding the pine for two years (or in Cam Duke’s case 5 years) instead of rotating them in or loaning them, their limited windows to make big strides were lost. Kids need to play somewhere (USL was ideal, MLSNEXT is not yet); Vermes only does so when there is no other choice.
I think the argument you all are having on this episode that if you don’t root for Sporting KC to sneak into the playoffs means you “aren’t a fan” is misguided.
First, as I’ve said long before 62 percent of the teams got into the playoffs, that’s a low bar. And I’m wondering if we consider 8th or 9th the playoffs if you lose the play-in game? It would seem to me that isn’t the playoffs.
Second, as I said on my pod (and the Slack), I think it’ll be used as an excuse years from now to say, ‘well we made the playoffs X out of Y years.’ No one will remember all the times they barely snuck in (which is already true — think of all the years they slid in as a low seed and were bounced immediately).
Last, while I know them missing the playoffs isn’t going to force a big change, it’ll be another chink in the armor. If SKC miss 3 of 5, it’s hard to say they made it 10 of 13 or whatever (I need to look up this stat). Technically that may be true, but sports are a lot of what have you done for me lately (and the answer will be not much). It may be an impetus for a larger turnover like A&W said (though the turnover can only be so big with the way these contracts are structured). It’s hard to justify bringing nearly everyone back for a third straight season if you missed in the prior two. I’d say it should be hard anyways, but people will point to the May through whatever run where they are near the top of the table.
I’ve been quick to dismiss the first 10 games too, but they were bad in them, and they are part of this season.
I will always root for this team. I get into every game. But I’m coming to the end of my rope on Vermes too. He blames injuries, and rightfully so, but he signed those players. He keeps bringing in old players. He keeps grinding them to dust in practice and with lack of rotation. And I’m convinced he’s never going to “play the kids.” His hand was forced on Davis, and he was his 4th choice (Zusi, Pierre [admittedly young], Duke [also young] then Jake). Just look at the ‘young’ signings from the last three years (current age in parenthesis):
2023-Flores (21), Afrifa (22), Rindov (22)
2022-Ndenbe (23), Voloder (22), Tzionis (22)
2021-Pierre (20), Davis (21)
I left off 24-year-old Willy Agada, but I had to cut it somewhere. Ndenbe is mostly a regular. Davis has forced his way in, but if Zusi’s option is picked up, I could see him being second choice in 2024 under PV.
(This should probably be an article… it got a little long.)