Why that yelling heard at Sporting KC’s Compass Minerals training facility is a good thing

The morning looked a lot like any other Sporting Kansas City practice at the Compass Minerals National Performance Center.

A small-sided game was taking place on one of the three fields at the Kansas City, Kan., facility. Off to the side, a couple of players, including new signee Jamil Roberts, were participating in a shooting drill on mini-goals. Andreu Fontas was building up his fitness by running around the three fields.

And above all else Wednesday morning, an angry Scotsman could be heard yelling at his teammates and pushing them to do better.

Johnny Russell’s words were a little too colorful to put into print. But in PG-13 terms, he wasn’t very happy to see sloppy giveaways keep leading to goals, even in practice.

“That’s just part of it,” Russell said after practice.

The 31-year-old was appointed Sporting KC’s captain during the preseason, and so far he’s provided everything coach Peter Vermes could’ve hoped for.

During Russell’s tirade Wednesday, he didn’t shout at any particular player, but his team as a whole.

“I would never single someone out and berate them,” Russell said. “I’m not that kind of person.

“Everyone makes mistakes. If I had something to say to someone, then I would wait until we were off the field and go and say it to them then in a more civilized manner than you heard out there.”

Of Russell’s outbursts, Vermes was succinct:

“That’s what you need in every team,” the coach said.

There’s a fine line between what a team needs and what it doesn’t when it comes to such vocalization: “I don’t need a bunch of pundits out on the field,” Vermes explained.

In Vermes’ estimation, a “pundit” is the type of player who comments on every play or berates teammates for trying something new without offering any sort of solution or advice when it doesn’t work out.

Those were the sort of players who’d most irk Vermes during his own days as a player, and who he’d go in on hardest during practice.

“If somebody is trying something that’s positive and they make a mistake, for me, that’s not the time to be the pundit,” Vermes said. “You have to accept that they’re trying something; it didn’t work, you get on with it.”

The long-time manager is never afraid to make his own voice heard, either. It’s not out of place to hear him yelling above a crowd of 18,000-plus at Children’s Mercy Park.

It’s that way in practice, too.

“I think a big part of my responsibility is I feel moments where the guys are maybe — a team, or a few guys, or a whole team — going through the motions,” he said. “I have to create the environment.”

Vermes’ philosophy is that the environment created during practice will translate to competitive games — which, not incidentally, is another place where he doesn’t want to see (or hear) player-pundits.

It’s all based on the same concept; There’s no point, Vermes reasons, in chastising a player and offering no alternative solution. The only difference in a game is that Vermes and the players he coaches must develop solutions in real-time.

That’s where Russell, as the team’s captain, comes in. As the manager on the field, he’s expected to bark out orders, shout encouragement and guide his Sporting KC teammates during games.

The atmosphere that starts on the training ground at Compass Minerals and plays out in front of 18,000 fans doesn’t mean Russell is immune to criticism.

“It’s not only me as a captain that does that,” Russell said. “It’s the guys all over, and if I’m not playing to the standards that I should be, then I expect someone to hold me accountable, as well.

“We’re all here for one thing, and it’s to win. If that’s what it takes to get a little bit extra out of someone, or switch someone back onto their game, then I’m sure anyone on the team will do it.”

This story was originally published June 17, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Why that yelling heard at Sporting KC’s Compass Minerals training facility is a good thing."