Major League Soccer
Sporting KC fall 1-0 at Real Salt Lake
It got chippy in Sandy, Utah with old rivals butting heads. Chicho Arango scored the lone goal for Real Salt Lake as Sporting KC extend their winless streak to five games.
Peter Vermes was forced into several changes at The RioT. Among those, John Pulskamp got his first start of the year in goal. Plus Robert Voloder was at CB in place of an injured Dany Rosero.
That new lineup was facing an RSL side who came into the match on a six-game unbeaten run. They have been red hot on the back of Arango who is putting up MVP numbers this year. His match winner tonight brought his total to nine goals and three assists.
While the visitors did have a few good chances in the first half, RSL dominated with 63% possession, four corner kicks, and eight shots.
Another change for Sporting KC was a surprise start for Marinos Tzionis. It was a big opportunity for the 22-year-old. He hadn’t made an appearance since October and hadn’t been playing much with SKCII either. Moreover, he was playing out position in the midfield.
The result was truly terrible. His touch was off. His decision making was poor. Sporting KC were unable to keep possession and string together passes through the midfield. Unsurprisingly, Tzionis was replaced at halftime by Felipe Hernandez.
The attack just wasn’t sharp enough for Sporting KC. Johnny Russell was back in the lineup making things happen, but even he was let down by a bad first touch in the box on the biggest chance of the half. Alan Pulido was largely silent and Daniel Salloi could only muster a long range shot right at the keeper.
The years of bad blood between these two teams began to boil in the second half.
I'm not sure what the definition of dissent is anymore. Katranis, who was down for a while until Voloder played it out, then was immediately fine, complained all the way up the field to Tim Ford. #SportingKC #RSLvSKC pic.twitter.com/dT8qVLKAcO
— Chad Smith (@PlayFor90) May 5, 2024
The home side was lucky to keep all their players on the field.
Vera has clearly lost his mind! #SportingKC #RSLvSKC pic.twitter.com/bfG1V0mDdZ
— KC Soccer Journal (@KCSoccerJournal) May 5, 2024
Vermes couldn’t liked the way things were going and he was actually quite quick to make substitutions. Alenis Vargas came on for Russell in the 61st and then Agada for Pulido in the 74th.
The deciding moment came in the 81st minute. It felt inevitable after inching closer and hitting the post minutes before. It was the RSL #9 – who was playing as a #10 – with a textbook header off a set piece.
CHICHOOOOO! ✌️
The Colombian's ninth goal of the season puts the home squad in the lead.
📺 Free on Apple TV: https://t.co/BkAsC3eOl3 pic.twitter.com/u3IhjqIfG0
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) May 5, 2024
It’s back-to-back losses for SKC. Winless in their last five. That puts them in 10th place in the Western Conference with 10 points.
This next week bring US Open Cup action and SKC are traveling to Nebraska to face Union Omaha on Wednesday.
Preview: SKC heads south to face Austin FC
2024 MLS Salaries Released
2024 Sporting KC Salaries Released
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Vargas doesn’t look like to me he’s giving it his all when he’s out there.
Mannn I thought it was just me! He got 30 minutes and I remember him really only being active for one of those minutes. The team was even attempted to force feed him the ball and still nothing. On top of that, he didnt move an inch toward his man on the set piece and gave up the goal. idk if he was hurt or not, but that lack of effort was unacceptable.
skc to me used to feel like the greatest thing since sliced bread
that was years and years ago
now they are just dry and stale
I’m aiming this question at you due to your user name, but this is open to everyone. I ask this question respectfully and am hoping for thoughtful, realistic answers. To those that are so adamantly Vermes out, over the last 5 years (2019 season through now) what team would you rather be? I’ve got Columbus, Philadelphia, LAFC, and Seattle (only cause they won champions cup). I am far from thinking Vermes is above criticism, but I have also been a sports fan long enough to have seen several above average teams move on from good coaches, and go into the tank for years. (i grew up a sacramento kings fan, and thought Rick Adelman should be fired. the kings didn’t go to the playoffs for 17 years after he was). are sporting perfect? no! have they been fairly competitive over the last 5 years compared to the rest of the league? Yes! If you would take one trophy and 3 bad seasons, then there might be a couple more teams on the list, but sporting have maintained being a top third of the league team, which is fun to watch. MLS is bigger than it used to be, and better and better talent is coming. when pulido was bought, he was a top level mls talent. now he is not, and according to the roster construction info, he isn’t being paid like one. sporting misunderstood the assignment on the u-22 players, but over the next 10 months, they will get 2-3 swings at a dp, and 2-4 swings at u-22. if the problem is you’re bored of this team, hiring Porter, or Nevell, the types of coaches sporting would realistically hire, isn’t going to make it magicaly more exciting.
id rather the team be SKC sans Vermes
All of the other teams have something in common. They made changes to win championships. Change is the dirtiest word to PV. None of those other teams have had the same manager for 14 years.
I also believe we can hire a manager from outside of MLS. A change in manager would auto cut a handful of PV’s preferred friends and family players. No longer would we suffer Salloi and his weak play. No more Shelton.
It’s just hilarious to me seeing a manager like Tuchel. Wins champions league, gets fired by Chelsea. Has his new team in the semifinal of champions and he’s already fired No matter if they win or not because of how league play went. This is called expectations, something our ownership has made it clear, they have low expectations.
The U-22 initiative, dp signings and roster construction all fall on PV. That’s enough to move on. Gm’s get fired for bad contracts. Shelton should get him fired, but even that’s not enough.
Hire a young hungry manager from Europe with ties to a legitimate club. So this new coach has ties to a talented youth pool who may want to follow for minutes. No one wants to play for PV. He’s well known for running starters into the ground.
This is my 4th season as PV out. That’s not going to change. He’s the Carl Peterson of MLS. Always pointing to barely making a playoff that half the league makes as a point of success. That is not success, hardware is.
I understand your frustration with the current roster. If sporting were in a non-salary budget league, i would agree with the lack of roster action being fireable.
My point is, this is MLS. if your goal is trophy or bust, most years are bust for most teams. How many bad years would you take for 1 trophy? By the way, bad seasons don’t garentee trophies. Ask the 76ers.
My implied question, which I should have been more clear about, is realistically, what would happen if Vermes is fired? Hire a “young hungry manager from Europe” sounds great. Who is coming? Minnesota may have gotten one, but Rooney fits that description and he was a disaster in DC.
And what have you seen from ownership that make you think they would make that hire. Look at the Wilkinson hire, and their loyalty to Vermes. If they do fire him, I’m pretty sure they would go with the retread MLS coach.
At the moment, I would love to be a fan of Miami, or Columbus. Columbus specifically, is clearly doing things right. Maybe Sporting gets a new coach hire correct like they did with Nancy. Maybe they fire him, and their season goes like New England.
Good point about ownership. Who says PV didn’t provide input for the Wilkinson hire? I firmly believe ownership blindly trusts PV. On one hand, that’s great. I’ve seen owners block managers from being successful. I don’t think that’s why we’re failing. It’s too much control for too long.
Yes, hardware is the goal. It’s why people buy tickets. To be part of the championship story. That’s literally what every team is selling. When you admit winning isn’t the goal, there goes your fans. When we roll out the same beat up line up with the same coach year after year, what are we doing? Same tactics. Same flaws. Same results.
If PV remains manager, I want him to win us a cup before his contract expires. He needs to move on from what he can’t coach and go back to what he knows. Why did we win MLS cup? A bruising defense and a world class goal keeper. Our offense was so bad, our only goal in the final was a cb goal. Thank you Mr. Collin. Losing is far more boring than 1 to 0 wins.
Miami…. they did it. Got the best player in the world. His buddies are signing for cheap to help him. Brilliant move by Beckham. Any player in the Saudi league was available at the right price. This team has barely spent money since inception. Why not splurge on Benzema? CR7? Those guys don’t care where they play, they only care about the check.
LAFC was cooked, brought in Bale and Cheillini. Mls cup winners. What is our summer move? We know with who we have, we can’t beat a young team like Houston. What changes? Do we just roll with who we have again?
I’m okay with this season going bad because of a new hire. I’m not on board with watching PV blow another season. He keeps players too long because he probably feels like he was made to retire before he felt it was his time. Just tired of the crazy.
“When we roll out the same beat up line up with the same coach year after year, what are we doing? Same tactics. Same flaws. Same results.”
I’mcurious how much of the roster you would like to see turn over before you say it is the same line up year after year. Go back to who started in the 2021 playoff game, and 6 of the thirteen players that played in that game are no longer with the team. go back to 2020, and it is only 3 of 15 still with the team. It very much looks like the players that were identified and brought in aren’t at the level they need to be.
This issue is actively trying to be addressed. They made a bad decision, in the first attempt, but hopefully they will bring in someone that dedicate the time needed to scout and identify talent. The team is set up that they can move on from half the roster if they choose this off-season. Maybe you are correct and the only way for sporting to ever win a trophy is for Vermes to not be the coach anymore. I just think there is a higher chance that skc would be the Earthquakes without Vermes. I know the easy response is that skc hasn’t been much better than the Earthquakes, but atleast skc has had some fun players and fun stretches over the last few years
I’ll never understand why so many people who want Vermes gone seem to think that he does absolutely everything in the club and that nobody else does anything still. It was definitely like that from when he took over coaching for Onalfo until the mid 10s but they tripled the size of the coaching and technical staff since then for the express purpose of making sure that Peter Vermes does not do everything anymore.
Everyone from the club who had talked about it has made it pretty clear over the last few years, especially this year when they were hiring a new Sporting Director and in the big interview that Peter gave before the Miami game, that Peter Vermes is not involved in scouting at all anymore, that he is not super involved in acquiring foreign players anymore, and that he hasn’t been involved in the salary side since Bliss was promoted. Literally all that’s left is intra MLS scouting and deciding who to re-sign.
Peter also made it very clear in that big interview that all he wants to do is coach and build the program, from the academy to the pros, and that he’s been reducing his roster side responsibilities for years to devote more time to it.
That’s why they were switching Peter’s title to be CSO and were hiring a sporting director with roster building experience . They wanted a person who could take over the player personnel role that Bliss has and the “boss of all technical staff” role that Vermes has so those guys could focus on the other parts of their jobs.
As for the horrible decision to hire Wilkinson, Peter couldn’t even tell the people asking the questions what the process was other than the fact that there was some agency they were working with. When they asked if any women were consulted he said that there are women in the ownership group so he supposes so. That doesn’t sound like something that an egotistical Mastermind would say.
I think it’s a fair question, but my response is that it’s not about where we’ve been, it’s about where we’re going. If you look at 2010-2018, our average finish on the western conference table was 3rd, we qualified for the playoffs every single year except 2010 (and that was back when you had to be a top 5 or 6 team to qualify), and we won 4 trophies in that period.
From 2019-2023, our average finish is 7th, we have no new silverware, a rapidly aging team, have missed the playoffs twice (would have been 3 times under the old playoff rules), and currently find ourselves in 10th. To me, this isn’t just a temporary rut, this is the decline that comes after hitting the peak.
It’s not that I’m trying to minimize Vermes’ achievements, which have been plentiful, but I just think it’s time for a new chapter. Every manager goes stale at some point, no matter how good, and I think that’s where we’re at with Vermes.
2019: Missed playoffs (11th of 12 in West); ended season with 5 losses, 1 draw last 6 games
2020: 1st in west; lost 0-3 at home in playoffs to Minnesota
2021: 3rd in west; lost last 3 regular season games; blew 1-0 home lead in playoffs (lost on a stoppage time counter-attack)
2022: Missed playoffs (12th of 14 in west)
2023: 8th of 14 in west; worst opening 10 games in MLS history
2024: 1/3 way through the season, out of playoffs (10th of 14 in West)
They’re on track to miss the playoffs 50% of the years you’re highlighting in a league where 60-70% of teams make the playoffs each year, depending what asinine format changes the league decides to make that season.
Including the in-progress season, they’re average finish in the six years is 7.5 out of 12-14 teams in the west. That’s not top third in the league, it’s outside the top half. And that’s with the benefit of a 1st place finish that is now five seasons old.
I really hope that you do have fun watching them, but I rarely do any more. It’s become inevitable that any close game will turn into a loss on a sloppy late goal.
I don’t believe signing new players will make any difference. They made no moves of consequence after last season. For years now, the roster has been built around an aging top 11 guys and a totally incompetent bench that doesn’t get to develop because subs never happen. When half of the 30+ year old starters are inevitably hurt, there’s a built in excuse that the bench isn’t good enough to compete, just wait for the 10% of the season that the top pics are all healthy.
Jake Davis is the only player they’ve developed in recent years to make a consistent impact, and if Zusi’s hamstrings had held up, Davis would still be riding the bench behind him now. The few other exciting young players never get minutes and disappear.
To me (and I think a lot of people on here) it feels like they’re on the fast track to being the Wizards again. The entire organization feels stuck.
It is too bad you aren’t having fun being a fan. You are correct they haven’t been top of the league over the last several years. My point, which I have probably made poorly, is that in MLS, this is fairly standard.
Looking at the league, and I could be off on this, I didn’t specifically look up each team and am going off memory, there are only about 7 teams that haven’t missed the playoffs twice in the last several years. you discount the 1st place in the west finish cause it was 5 seasons ago, how many teams have one a 1 seed in the last several years? again, i count 7 or 8, again going off memory.
From June on last year, the team was amazingly fun for me to watch. Does any of that fun go away because they didn’t win a trophy? no. Would it have been more fun if they did? absolutely. I know we are on different sides of this argument, and I assume we will stay that way. I hope that you can either find joy in the team again. I just think if all your Fandom joy is purely based on winning a trophy, being a fan of a team in this league is going to be severely disappointing for you.
I am somewhere between where you seem to be on this topic and the hardcore outers. I recognize that SKC are, even given recent seasons’ struggles, in an enviable position compared to most MLS teams. I think Vermes is a pretty good coach in most respects. His tactical philosophy is sound, and his ambition is high. That being said, I also don’t think he’s adapted to one key element of MLS’s evolution: the length of the competitive season.
Good teams play for 10 or 11 months. The best teams played in every month last year. It doesn’t look like you can be consistently good when you only trust half your roster in those circumstances. The question then becomes though “does consistently good matter if you’re good at the right time?” It didn’t for the Chiefs last year. It didn’t for the Heat in the NBA either although they fell just short in the end.
Sports are full of these types of stories but the rub is that you eventually HAVE to turn it in to something and SKC hasn’t been able to with Vermes at the helm in a long time. I think that’s more to do with the lack of rotation and rest than anything else and Peter just doesn’t see that as a problem. For that reason, and the fact that Benny Feilhaber looks to be the opposite of Vermes on those things and wants to coach the first team someday, I am on the Vermes out train.
Will there be a pod this week?
Thank you! Lol. Even our media entertainment gave up this week. No match thread either.
I was going to try and ask someone for one, but didn’t think email would be the best option.
Just posted it tonight actually!
Memo at the 6 is baffling
I have a few thoughts about this game, but i’ll just start with this one. The midfield tonight was toothless, outside of one individual: Memo Rodriguez. Memo won 12 duels out of 18 tonight, every other midfielder COMBINED won 7 duels. I understand Tzionis not playing much or Felipe not playing much, or Thommy being more of an attacking player, but if you don’t start the game with bite in the midfield, you end up getting bitten.
I agree.
It seemed like thommy had to cover way more ground than usual with tzionis there.
I felt like we lacked the midfield movement to move the ball from back to front safely. As much as we can criticize tzionis – I do feel like he had some nice quick passes with Johnny and others at times.
I refuse to give Tzionis (or anyone, really) the “hasn’t played much” out card after Jake Davis didn’t play at all in MLS ever and put a stranglehold on a position he’d never played as a pro before through sheer willpower. He doesn’t have a third of Tzionis’s pure soccer ability but he was not going to be denied. When you’re young and you get your chance you deliver, otherwise you aren’t it
I feel like the threshold for Jake was lower than Tzionis – I also feel like Tzionis gets isolated which renders him more ineffective. Jake usually has much more support around him to prevent this and so he looks much better.
You still have a point about seizing opportunities as they come. I just don’t think we have any player development happening behind the scenes. Thus we set people up for failure.
Wow, never looked at it like that and you are 100% correct.
I get your point, Tzionis had a great opportunity to take advantage of, and just didnt. And even worse, he looked really bad out there. I would say though, it is much harder to get that start in the midfield than at right back where Jake Davis started. Davis had the benefit of more time on the ball meaning he could afford to take more touches, playing in the midfield you don’t have that same courtesy. This is not a knock on Davis, but if he got his first start last season in the midfield, I don’t think you would’ve seen as strong a performance. So, I give a little ounce of grace for Tzionis position of starting after not having played since October of last season.
I dunno man, our wingbacks are often tasked with progressing the ball in the area of the field where most teams offer up the most pressure and quite often get isolated against some of the best on-the-ball players in the league and Jake Davis, having never played a defensive position professionally, immediately took to it. He was borderline 22 under 22 last year, in his first year starting at a position he’d never played at a high level.
Meanwhile Tzionis is dropped into a spot he HAS played with people he has played with in a game where the other team largely had the ball and was basically told “go do your thing” and he floundered.
I do think that in general terms you’re right, wingback is probably an easier job than attacking mid but I think all those caveats make this not a general situation and therefore make it all the more damning for Marinos.
And Davis isn’t the only example. Busio at the 6, Roger at the 8 when he was younger, Ellis at centerback (for at least a little while). It just feels like every time Tzionis plays he is somewhere between “sucks” and “underwhelming” and the voices from the corners of the internet whisper “but he was out of position” because he broke some defenders ankles once a couple years ago before he did nothing with the final ball. And yes, he was, but so were all those other dudes and they made it happen when they got their shot, at least for awhile. Tzionis never has.
No disagreement from me here. Tzionis just hasn’t been able to cut it at this level. Even when he was getting opportunities, he only showed flashes. I saw a tweet from Daniel Sperry the other day and he said something relevant to this discussion and spot on about Tzionis: “Tzionis looks like the same player as when he arrived at SKC”. Can’t put it better than that. Nearly everyone else has gotten better and he’s stayed the same.
Question on this note:
How much development so we really see and expect from Sporting?
I haven’t really looked at this aspect too close, but I fear we don’t have much in the way of player development in the organization. Critically hindering academy and young talent growth.
Whew!! That’s the real question here! Might need to a whole article on that. I truly cannot think of the last time we developed talent consistently. I know some might give SKC and PV credit for Busio’s development but I think he was always going to be a special talent, at SKC or anywhere. I think my biggest concern is something I said years ago about Vermes and SKC—I think they love development in theory, but not in practice. Vermes wants academy graduates in his team, but he will not give them opportunities to play with the first team to show their talents, meanwhile, he plays players with experience, who might be effective in practice, but their flaws show up in the game and they have limited upside. The truth is this: Vermes and SKC dont want to deal with the struggles that come with developing academy talent into the first team. Academy players will not develop by stagnating in the second team and never playing in the first team. That does nothing but drop their confidence and game sharpness. SKC and Vermes have to be okay with playing the long game as an organization: being okay with the headaches in the game that eventually pay off when academy players develop into strong MLS players. Until then, we wont ever see SKC develop players into solid MLS players.
I think that covers a part of my question. I’m also looking at things other development aspects as well (weak foot development, first touch, positioning) and I don’t think it is there. I fear so much “development” is just a matter of learning the system. I look at players that appeared horrible for SKC but do well in all other settings and it screams that something is fundamentally off about our process.
One examplar: Salloi is ineffective because his development stopped. He lost his speed and is now a one-trick pony. He is easy to throw off his game and still resorts to 2-handed shoves when frustrated. Would he have greater consistent contribution had he be developed adequately?
Jake, Memo, and Pulskamp had very entertaining and exciting games. Jake seemed to have the most uumph to his playing, he was chasing down balls, he had some great defensive plays, and some decent attacking runs. Memo was the only midfielder that had any bite to him, and he was playing out of position just as much as Tzonis was. Pulskamp has some beautiful saves that kept Sporting in the game as long as they were. Everyone else seemed flat, and nonexistent. Volader is only memorable because of that awful back pass he made. Johnny had a nice run but his first touch let him down in a game changing way. Salloi and Leibold were barely involved and seemed uncreative. Pulido could’ve been on the bench and the game wouldn’t have changed. Tzonis and Hernandez did nothing memorable. The team felt flat, and boring. Everyone was off last night. I think the fact that Vermes is waiting for the summer transfer window could come back and haunt him.
It’s like they learned absolutely nothing from last year