Playing Fantasy Sporting Director for Sporting KC in 2024

For the Glory KC is back with the 105th episode of the show.

This week, we do what we’ve teased off and on for months. We play Fantasy Sporting Director (move aside Mike Burns!) for Sporting Kansas City. It’s something we did last year too.

I imagine, you may want to play along as well. We’d love to hear from you in the comments, or on the various social media accounts we plug at the end of every podcast, who you would or wouldn’t keep. There are 16 players that are either out of contract or on options years. Do you bring people back at a discount? Move on entirely? How much turnover do you foresee.

We’ve already made the case the overhaul may not come this offseason, though movement definitely will. Sheena and I agreed on a few moves, but there was a surprising divide on a few players and some relatively big names we’ve decided to move on from (though we did a fair amount of waffling).

We also both briefly discussed the reaction to my editorial from the week, “Blame Ownership, Not Vermes, for Sporting KC’s Failings.”

Additionally, the KC Current deserve our attention after another win to wrap up their 2024 regular season. They have scored more goals than any team in NWSL history, and they did so in an essentially meaningless game. Well, it wasn’t meaningless for the Chicago Red Stars, but you couldn’t tell from their play in the first half. Chicago fell to 8th place and hit the road to face the Orlando Pride, while KC already knew they’d be hosting the North Carolina Courage next weekend in the opening round of the playoffs.

Sheena and I briefly talked about the happenings in MLS including upsets of Real Salt Lake, Inter Miami and the Columbus Crew in the playoffs. Plus, FIFA playing games by putting Miami in the Club World Cup against MLS’s wishes.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

• Alenis Vargas gets a call-up
• The US U-17 Women win Bronze at the World Cup
• And San Diego has a stadium problem ahead of MLS Expansion next year

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

• Fantasy Sporting KC Sporting Director – 4:30
• My ‘Controversial’ Vermes Editorial – 55:38
• KC Current won a meaningless game – 1:05:46
• MLS Updates – 1:16:06
• Digital Crawl – 1:22:46

Upcoming Schedule:

• KC Current vs. North Carolina Courage – Sat. Nov 9th @ 11:00AM CST
• Sporting KC and SKC II seasons are over…

We recently turned on “Listener Support.” Don’t feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we’d appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot 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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