Graham Zusi’s career is an indicator of a key theme at Sporting KC. Here’s what we mean

He had always been an attacking player.

Graham Zusi grew up as a forward. He played at The University of Maryland as a forward and has competed at both midfielder and winger for Sporting Kansas City.

So when SKC coach Peter Vermes asked Zusi in the build-up to a 2016 game against the L.A. Galaxy to play right wing-back, it took him by surprise. All season to that point, he’d been playing as a left winger.

Scouting the Galaxy, Vermes was convinced his Sporting squad could exploit L.A.’s weaknesses with Zusi at wing-back.

Zusi’s answer: “Alright, let’s try it. If you feel like we can exploit them, then great, let’s do it.”

Zusi went on to assist on Sporting’s only goal that night in a 1-1 draw, calling it “pretty incredible” how effective he was in the new position.

He would go on to play just one more game on defense that season — helping SKC register a clean-sheet victory over Vancouver — but this was the first chapter in the next stage of Zusi’s ever-evolving career.

Now 34 and in his 13th year with Sporting, Zusi has arguably been the most flexible player of the Vermes era in Kansas City. Since being drafted by the club in 2009, he has made at least 10 appearances in five different positions: right back (121), right wing (43), left wing (42) attacking midfield (33) and central midfield (12). He has made at least one appearance in 10 positions.

The only two positions he’s never played: left back and goalkeeper.

“He’s a team guy,” Vermes said of Zusi. “His mentality, his attitude, a team-first mentality has been a big pillar of who he is.”

But Zusi’s versatility isn’t unique at Sporting KC. Throughout Vermes’ tenure at the club, players such as Jimmy Medranda, Roger Espinoza and, more recently, Gianluca Busio have shifted around the field.

Vermes thinks the more of “those types of guys” a team has on its roster, the better the team is in the long run. He specifically points to Kansas City’s looming Wednesday home game against San Jose, in which the team will be missing two players to international duty, two to MLS safety protocols related to COVID-19, and one because of personal leave.

Having versatile players on the roster can be traced, at least in part, to Vermes’ own evolution as a player.

For much of his career, Vermes spent his life as a forward. But around the age of 28 — just before the inaugural season of Major League Soccer — he transitioned to centerback. Playing that position would lead to Vermes winning MLS Defender of the Year honors as he anchored a Kansas City back line that won the 2000 MLS Cup.

“For me, it was a little later on in my career and maybe I was just a little more experienced,” Vermes said. “I just felt a little bit better about things. I guess I had the right attitude.”

Zusi moved from the attack to defense in 2017 at age 30. It was a seamless enough transition, and one that required literally zero discussion among the coaching staff at Sporting KC.

Following the end of the 2016 season, then-newly appointed U.S. Men’s National Team coach Bruce Arena invited Zusi to a January USMNT camp. Arena had previously coached the L.A. Galaxy.

“Hey Zus, I want to bring you into the January camp, but I want to bring you in as a right back,” Zusi recalls Arena saying. “Do you remember the game that you played against us? I want you in that kind of role.”

Zusi was all for it. He captained the U.S. to a 1-0 victory over Jamaica as a right back. But when he returned to KC for preseason camp — arriving late due to his international call-up — he lined up as a right back during practice there, too.

No discussions. He just decided it himself.

“I look back at that and that’s always kind of a comical moment because we literally didn’t even have a discussion about it,” Zusi said. “It just happened. And it’s been that way ever since.”

By now, midway through the 2021 season, Zusi has made most of his Sporting KC appearances at right back: 78 more, in fact, than the sum of his appearances at right wing.

It was a pretty easy transition for the veteran. He said he had to learn some intricacies, like acknowledging that he is the last line of defense and how to cover and trust his centerbacks, or how to read a long ball from an opponent.

But ultimately, the change was simple because of how Sporting KC plays. The same could be said of guys like Ilie Sanchez, who recently dropped from midfield to centerback, or Espinoza and Medranda.

“We all defended our butts off. Regardless of where you are on the field, we always said that the first line of our defense was our forward four up top,” Zusi said. “So having that defensive mindset, that wasn’t the difficult part.”

He also thinks that moving around the field throughout his career, especially to defense, has helped extend his career. He recently became the first player in Sporting KC history to log 300 regular-season appearances with the club.

“It can extend your lifespan in the league,” he said. “Barring the kind of freak injury that you couldn’t do anything about, my body still feels really good. I think that that change (to defense) had something to do with that.”

This story was originally published July 20, 2021 at 10:29 AM with the headline "Graham Zusi’s career is an indicator of a key theme at Sporting KC. Here’s what we mean."