by Drew VanderPloeg and Cody Welton
A conversation on topics involving the MLS club Sporting Kansas City. Tactical breakdowns of match performances, discussion around personnel and their usage, and previews of upcoming matches. Some additional content around other USMNT and MLS news as appropriate. Want to participate in the discussion? Join us on the Podcast Discord: https://discord.gg/pkg4S85qR2
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1/14/2022
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April 17, 2025
<p>A frustrating Sunday afternoon in Children’s Mercy Park saw Sporting Kansas City fall to the Portland Timbers 4-2 in a match that was plagued by all too familiar defensive mistakes and lapses in concentration. Interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin tried to warn us in his press availability earlier in the week that this team would still lose games at times and while there was certainly continued progress in chance creation offensively, some familiar problems defending restarts came back to bite them and put them in an increasingly difficult, and ultimately insurmountable hole to climb out of.</p><p>On a positive note, it was perhaps the best game we’ve seen yet from Shapi Suleymanov, scoring a goal, also earning two yellow cards and a PK, and generally giving Portland’s left side all kinds of problems. And yet he was removed from the game after 55 minutes in an attempt to bring fresh bodies to attempt to press Portland even further that was unfortunately fairly ineffective. </p><p>This was one of several choices Kerry Zavagnin made in this game that were certainly different than we are used to seeing from his predecessor, and certainly showed a willingness to try things and recognize that a 4-2 loss and a 7-2 loss count the same in the standings. That said, it also reminded us that not all change is necessarily good, and it did seem to limit the effectiveness of the attack for a significant period of the 2nd half. We’ll dive into game #2 of the Kerry Experience this week and discuss what changes we see, and what we liked and didn’t like about the decisions he made.</p><p>Finally, Mike Illig sat down with Sam McDowell of the KC Star and offered some illuminating perspective on where he’d like to see this team go in the future, the Great Kevin de Bruyne Bake Off has begun as 4 MLS teams are now vying for his services, and a trialist appears at Sporting KC practice this week.</p><p>Music by The Spin Wires</p>
April 10, 2025
<p>A collective euphoric release of literal months of pent up energy was finally able to be expelled at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night as Dejan Joveljic slotted home two goals in the 2nd half of what had otherwise been a pretty cagey derby match with Pink Dog Food SC, meaning the good guys came away with a much needed 2-0 victory, and Kerry Zavagnin got an undefeated start to his time on the SKC sideline as interim head coach. </p><p>It was a match that did feel different in the stadium, both in atmosphere as well as the tactics on the field. While the changes were far from wholesale, Kerry did put his imprint on the match and the team in this game, and by and large the decisions he made seemed to work effectively, and addressed areas of need that we’ve highlighted a bit recently.</p><p>There were a number of standout performances, especially the two Designated Players that were brought here to help create goals, and we got to see them make good on that promise, additionally getting into combination areas centrally with each other, and giving all of us some sense of optimism about the potential of their partnership that was candidly hard to see before this match.</p><p>We will get into all of that and more this week, as well as discuss Tim Melia’s retirement, some more big moves in MLS, and what we thought of the USWNT’s performance in two friendlies against Brazil this week before doing a preview of this Sunday’s brunch match against the Portland Timbers.</p><p><br></p>
April 3, 2025
<p>Shockwaves were sent through the Kansas City and American Soccer Universe on Monday morning as Sam McDowell broke the news no one expected we would ever hear: Sporting Kansas City and Peter Vermes had parted ways. It was an unceremonious end to an almost two decade run on the technical staff of the club that included 4 trophies, as well as his playing career in KC that included the MLS Cup/Supporters Shield double in 2000. He will widely be remembered as a key component to the immense growth of soccer we’ve seen in Kansas City and the United States the last 30+ years, and his name will continue to hang proudly on the wall in Children’s Mercy Park.It was an unfortunate end to Peter’s time leading the club, but a necessary one for the team to start on a new journey towards meeting the high standards Peter created during his time here. Regrettably the team had fallen from that caliber in recent years, and ownership agreed that it was time to make a change to attempt to start a process to recapture that level of success.Mike Illig met with a large cadre of local and national media at Compass Minerals National Performance Center to discuss the decision and the plans to move forward. He spoke with a significant amount of candor regarding the amount of work ahead of him and the organization as they look to replace a head coach for literally the first time. Peter’s fingerprints are on every inch of the facilities in which he worked, and it will take quite a bit of time to unravel the vast responsibilities he took on his shoulders and place them on both current and incoming personnel.</p><p>In the meantime, Kerry Zagavnin, Peter’s longtime assistant, and someone who has been at the club for even longer than Peter when you combine his playing and coaching career, will take the reins on the sidelines coaching the team. Illig was very clear that Kerry had been promised this opportunity for some time, and that there was no other choice for who would step in as the interim manager while they both evaluate his performance as well as the potential candidate pool. It will now be Kerry’s charge to build and implement a tactical plan to address the significant needs of this team on the field, both offensively and defensively, and we will try to dig into some ideas of what adjustments we think could be made to help improve the on-field success of the team and build meaningful progress.</p><p>And if you hadn’t forgotten, our rivals from across the state come into Kansas City this weekend to try to keep that winless streak going. They are a staunchly defensive team that Zavagnin and the staff will have their work cut out for trying to break down and get a result against on Saturday.</p><p><br></p>
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