Sporting KC’s Vermes hopes for 34-game season once lengthy MLS postponement is lifted

It’s been just 26 days since Sporting Kansas City dismantled the Houston Dynamo 4-0 at Children’s Mercy Park to put an early stamp on the Western Conference.

Five days later, MLS announced that the season would be postponed for a month due to the coronavirus pandemic. That postponement has since been extended until May 10. The peak of the virus’ spread might not hit the U.S. until late April or early May, and that date could be pushed back even further.

But despite the lengthy postponement, Sporting KC head coach Peter Vermes still wants to play a full 34-game regular-season schedule, plus the MLS postseason.

“I think every team would love to see us play all the games. If that means we have to play Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday, something like that, I think most of us would say that we’d do it,” Vermes said Thursday. “Just because we want to uphold the integrity of the competition as best as we can, but I think it depends on when we return.”

MLS has been in constant contact with other major U.S. professional leagues regarding the prospect of playing games again, but the league is in a precarious decision regarding its own structure.

Both the NBA and NHL were approaching postseason play, with options ranging from declaring a champion based on the regular-season standings to an abridged postseason. MLB has yet to even start its season and offers the chance to test out the viability of a shortened regular season — an idea that has been a hot topic in the baseball world for quite some time.

But MLS faces a unique situation.

Just two weeks into the season, it’s far too early to declare a champion based on regular-season standings. Additionally, there’s little room for movement regarding a shortened season, with the only option being the removal of home-and-home fixtures within conference play.

This would lead to a much shorter 25-game season — each team would play each other only once — and would also create competitive disadvantages in terms of tougher road schedules within conference play.

There isn’t even an option to shorten the postseason, with the league’s new playoff format leading to a maximum of just four games for playoff teams.

The only saving grace for MLS is that its new playoff format, integrated last season, bought the league an extra month of time at the end of the season.

“We can see us playing the MLS Cup again in December in this situation,” Vermes said. “I would think that the format of the playoffs from last year would be kept in place, there’s still a lot of time to work with and I don’t think anything is off the table at the moment.”

The situation has left the league with little option but to plow on once play resumes. Vermes’ suggestion of midweek games throughout the season is the most likely outcome.

But for a Sporting KC team that is the fourth-oldest in the league (Sporting players average 26.6 years of age), such a proposition could be devastating. Vermes’ side proved susceptible to injury and fatigue in 2019.

The lengthy layoff will also lead to a “mini-preseason,” according to Vermes. Although Sporting’s players have been undergoing individual fitness programs at home and via Zoom with teammates, Vermes is readying multiple models to prepare his squad for potentially the most rigorous season in MLS history.

Aside from Gianluca Busio, who’s still a minor and was sent back home to North Carolina at the request of his family, the rest of the squad has remained in Kansas City.

‘’We have to build ourselves back up from a physical perspective,” Vermes said. “That’s going to be the main priority: physical.

“I think everybody is going to try to work toward being sharp and all those things from a soccer perspective. But I think the first part is the fitness because you’re trying to make sure that they guys, when they return, that they’re not in a position to get injured. So that’s going to be the main priority.”

This story was originally published April 2, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "Sporting KC’s Vermes hopes for 34-game season once lengthy MLS postponement is lifted."