From dawn to (past) dusk, Sporting KC tastes all extremes for MLS is Back start times

The past few days have presented a test of patience for Sporting Kansas City.

First, the club had to wait until late Thursday night to learn its Round of 16 opponent in the ongoing MLS is Back Tournament at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports in Orlando.

Following Wednesday night’s 2-2 tie between Minnesota and Colorado — and Sporting KC’s own win that morning — it was confirmed that Sporting won Group D and would play its first knockout-round game Sunday. But it took another 24 hours for Sporting KC to discover that Vancouver would be its next opponent.

Now, Peter Vermes’ team is waiting yet again ... this time, for a very late-night match against the Whitecaps on Sunday.

Kickoff time: 10 p.m. Central.

“I’m fine with it, I really am,” Vermes said. “Our focus was on the three games and to try to get good results there.

“I look at it now as we’re playing with house money, and so these games don’t affect the league table — it’s now just a tournament. We’ll take this next step and we’ll try to focus as much as we can on Vancouver.”

After losing its first two games of the tournament, Vancouver defeated the Chicago Fire 2-0 Thursday to qualify for the knockout portion of the tourney as a third-place team out of the group stage. Two second-half goals were the difference between the Whitecaps going home and advancing on goal differential.

The Whitecaps scored seven goals in their first two games of the tournament but opted for a different tactic against Chicago: hunker down and attack on the break.

Despite being outshot 27-4, the Whitecaps scored when it counted while keeping a clean sheet on the other end.

“We know that there’s some good improvisation (from Vancouver),” Vermes said. “Some real speed, some guys who can be really dangerous going forward that we’ll have to be very, very aware of.”

The Whitecaps employed a similar slowdown tactic in their season opener against Kansas City way back in March. Sporting KC won 3-1 as Vancouver sat deep in its own half for long stretches despite being the home team.

Vermes, however, cautioned against believing that Sunday night’s match will play out in the same fashion.

“I don’t think playing them earlier on in the year really makes much difference,” he said. “All of us have restarted this season down here and it’s been in a different way.”

Both teams will be wrestling with an increasing strain upon their players. Clubs that have advanced to the Round of 16 have played multiple games in a short span of time in high heat and Florida’s ever-present humidity.

Sporting KC’s Graham Zusi, Roberto Puncec and Alan Pulido have played every minute of the tournament so far, while a handful of other Sporting players have started every game.

That’s more than 270 minutes of action in just 11 days.

“You don’t really spend a lot of time training,” Vermes said. “You spend a lot of time recovering and looking at tactics that you’ll implement in the next game. You’re trying to get your guys as fresh and recharged as much as possible for the next opponent.”

With such a short break between Wednesday morning’s win and Sunday evening’s game, Sporting KC has mostly focused on regeneration. After their 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake Wednesday, a match that began at 8 a.m. Central Time, Sporting’s players had the rest of that day to themselves. The ensuing two days were all about regeneration, with only a short practice session Friday.

Holding midfielder Ilie Sanchez, whose only absence in the tournament so far was when he came off as a 94th-minute substitute against Minnesota, said it doesn’t matter when Sporting next plays.

Whether the game was Sunday or Tuesday, which would’ve been the scenario had Sporting finished in second place in Group D, Sanchez indicated that his team’s first knockout-stage match won’t be its last game of the tournament.

“If we expect to have a long run in this tournament, it doesn’t matter for us if we play on Sunday or Tuesday,” he said. “I think that the draw is what it is, and we will be ready for Sunday’s game.”

This story was originally published July 24, 2020 at 4:20 PM with the headline "From dawn to (past) dusk, Sporting KC tastes all extremes for MLS is Back start times."