Podcasts
Sporting KC and a Tale of Lowered Expectations
A new For the Glory KC is out and it was a rough week in KC soccer. No wins, three losses and a draw. It’s not all bad though.
For the Glory KC is back with the 83rd episode of the show!
Sporting Kansas City are now winless in five straight. Heading into the Real Salt Lake game, it never really felt like they were going to win, but they kept it close for a long time. There were six changes to the lineup, as well as four subs used. The offense wasn’t clicking but John Pulskamp nearly came through with some hero ball.
Sheena and I weigh in on that lineup choices, all the missing players for illness (Radoja) and injury (Rosero and Walter). Plus, is this the last we’ll see of Marinos Tzionis? It felt like he was setup to fail playing out of position with zero minutes in MLS or MLS Next Pro this year.
One of my favorites, Alenis Vargas, has some answering to do for that performance against RSL. I advocate for the ‘kids’ all the time, but this was a terrible shift from Vargas that might see him relegated back to SKC II or the proverbial Vermes ‘doghouse.’
And we absolutely can’t avoid talking about this bizarre situation between Daniel Salloi and Brayan Vera.
Here is the full sequence. You can see Vera and Salloi jockeying for position and as Vera tries to shed Salloi he does look like he whacks him in the head. Not sure if it's intentional or not.
You can even see him seemingly tell Pulido later he bumped his head. #SportingKC #RSL pic.twitter.com/xQuhzaxWUb
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) May 5, 2024
It wasn’t all downer news around Sporting KC though. Jake Davis signed a long-term contract extension, which is a welcome addition. And it seems really likely that Alan Pulido took a pay cut, which is a big deal.
The Kansas City Current nearly lifted our weekend up before a four-hour delay in the game and a flukey second half goal that allowed the Houston Dash to draw level. Despite the Current outshooting the Dash 29-8, including 14-3 with shots on goal, they couldn’t pull off a win and find themselves at least temporarily out of first place looking up at the Orlando Pride.
What a weird goal for Houston… Franch and Wheeler get it all wrong. Wheeler should just let Franch pick it up but she kicks it off her.
Wheeler had just come in for Mace who went down injured. #KCBaby #HOUvKC pic.twitter.com/Jc6gAuBIg8
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) May 5, 2024
The way the rain delay was handled and the scheduling nightmare it has left the Current in was the ire of Vlatko Andonovski in the post-game press conference. We have thoughts!
Included in the game discussion on the broadcast was the news that Gabby Robinson may be getting a look for the United States Women’s National Team. Go Gabby!
Interesting to hear Gabrielle Robinson in the conversation for #USWNT inclusion on the broadcast. She got zero love last year in any rookie of the year conversations, probably because the Current just weren't winning. Those that watched knew she was a special prospect last year.
— Daniel Sperry (@sperrydaniel94) May 5, 2024
In the Digital Crawl, we hit a few topics, including:
- Sporting KC II fall short against North Texas, but win awards for April
- The 2027 Women’s World Cup isn’t coming to the US or Mexico
- Plus: The Columbus Crew advance in CCC, Kelley O’Hara plans to retire and more
Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):
- Sporting KC lose to RSL – 4:18
- Jake Davis signs a new contract – 41:18
- Alan Pulido may have taken a pay cut – 43:59
- KC Current vs. the Houston Dash and the weather – 47:57
- KC Comets come up just short – 1:16:54
- Digital Crawl – 1:23:00
Upcoming Schedule:
- Sporting KC at Union Omaha – Wednesday, May 8th @ 7:00 PM CT
- KC Current at Seattle Reign – Wednesday, May 8th @ 9:00 PM
- Sporting KC vs. Houston Dynamo – Saturday, May 11th @ 7:30 PM
- Sporting KC II vs. Colorado Rapids 2 – Sunday, May 12th @ 2:00 PM
- KC Current vs. North Carolina Courage – Sunday, May 12th @ 5:00 PM
Spotify took away our ads, so we 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.
Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.
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KC Current No Longer Perfect at Home as they Tie Louisville
SKC winless in seven after 3-2 loss at Austin FC
Rumor: Sporting KC Linked to 21-Year-Old Venezuelan Midfielder
Sporting Kansas City vs Austin FC Match Thread
The ownership is content to finish 9th and sneak into the playoffs. Why shouldn’t we be content with that as well?
That is a good point. I think this quote from the folks making the power ranking is a good reason not to be content though. So SKC are the oldest team, give up the most goals in the league after 69 minutes, can’t pass the eye test and have terrible underlying numbers…this is not a recipe for satisfaction or contentment.
“With this weekend’s 1-0 loss at RSL, SKC still haven’t won a game since March. They have 11 points through 11 games and it’s starting to feel like we saw a mirage when this team went on their second-half-of-the-season run last year. There’s not much reason to expect this to course-correct right now. In addition to failing the eye test, SKC’s underlying numbers are among the worst in the league.”
Vera did appear to hit thommy, but no camera angle could show if it was to his face/neck. I rewound and saw that Vera reached out under the refs arm. That partly why the VAR check took so long.
If he reached out under the refs arms, it’s really hard to tell. The ref seemingly has ahold of Vera’s left arm and his right arm is nowhere near Thommy. I feel like Thommy flopped to the ref’s contact to him? It’s hard to tell. It sorta took away from the real nonsense that was all Vera’s on this play (both his initial strike of Salloi and lifting him up).
Tzionis was no more “set up to fail” than Jake Davis was last year. If anything, Davis was put in a worse position because a) Tzionis has played as a right side mid for us before and Davis had not played as a right back b) they were essentially asking Tzionis to do what he usually does and he didn’t but they were asking Davis to do an entirely different job than what he done for SKC2 and c) Tzionis actually had top flight experience playing with a lot of these guys coming into the game and Davis did not when he got his first look last year.
Davis wasn’t going to be denied though and he rose to the occasion while Tzionis withered.
I wonder if tzionis had trained to be more a 10 than box-to-box. With Namanja as a late scratch – tzionis didn’t have him or memo to play with? Not excusing him in totality, but just additional context for the lack of cohesiveness.
I tend to disagree a little. Davis had played right back before. Not with the first team. And Tzionis had played in the midfield, but the spot he was playing was not what he’d done before. That right-sided eight is the more defensive of the two and he was specifically crapped on by PV last year for not working back defensively.
PV said they were trying something with him but it didn’t work. Maybe that’s true. I tend to think Tzionis is just not that good. I do feel for him almost never playing LW, where he’s most comfortable. But when he’s played over there he’s looked bad or ineffective too. I’m not here to defend the guy, but it didn’t seem like a good formula for success either. If he has someone like Remi next to him in the midfield that will do the work that he won’t, he’d have more freedom to play more like a 10. Which may have worked, but even then I have my doubts.
I see him do well with tight passes and free-moving players. He had some great touches and moments, but then he also has moments where he gets totally isolated and teammates don’t know how to move to work the ball out of that position as it isnt part of the system or playbook.
He is a player that needs specific development and he hasn’t changed since arriving. So what have we been doing with him outside of paying obscene money just for him to sit.
I think Tzionis let PV get into his head with his style of coaching and now he can’t get out of his own head. I think he is constantly overthinking things. I just don’t think PV and Tzionis gel as coach and player. I wish they would trade him so he has a chance to flourish somewhere else.
I disagree with you Chad. I actually think Tzionis could be very good…I don’t think he has the ability to play the way PV demands.