Sporting KC takes remarkable consistency into pivotal Decision Day showdown against RSL

The first time Peter Vermes stepped to the podium as the new head coach of the Kansas City Wizards in 2009, he outlined his expectations.

Vermes said he wanted to field a team that could drive the tempo of a game, for every player to be Sporting Fit (this would soon become his hallmark) and for his club to be consistently competitive year after year.

The name of the team has changed since then, but Vermes is still the coach, and those expectations have remained. Moreover, they’ve consistently been met.

Sporting KC fans can be forgiven for having a sour taste in their mouths at the moment. The club has lost three of its last five and squandered a chance to lock in the No. 1 seed in MLS’ Western Conference ahead of Sunday’s annual Decision Day — the final day of the league’s regular season when seeding for each conference is cemented ahead of the MLS playoffs.

But this fact also remains: Sporting KC has already ensured its berth in the playoffs and still has every chance to clinch that No. 1 spot. Vermes’ squad sits a mere point behind West-leading Seattle entering Sunday’s match against Real Salt Lake at Children’s Mercy Park, while the Sounders must travel north to Vancouver to play the red-hot Whitecaps, who have accumulated the most points in the conference since Sept. 19.

The chance to steal the top seed from the Sounders is right there for the taking, in other words, and doing so would signal the third time in four years that Kansas City has finished atop the West, having also done so in 2018 and 2020.

That’s some remarkable consistency, even by the standards of Vermes’ trophy-laden tenure in Kansas City.

“To be able to compete and always be a competitor at the end of the year, it takes an incredible intestinal fortitude of a group to do that and I think a really strong culture,” Vermes said. “And I commend the players on their toughness, their mentality, and I commend the club for the culture that we have.”

Sporting KC’s run of regular-season success can largely be attributed to the current squad’s willingness to buy into the culture that Vermes outlined in that initial news conference.

In 33 games so far this year, Sporting has controlled 50% or more of possession in 25 games, dictating tempo with regularity. Most of this year’s core players are Sporting Fit, with 11 playing 25-plus games. And the consistency Vermes covets has been Sporting’s calling card: 17 wins and a record of 7-1-0 in games following a loss.

Pretty stout season for a Sporting side that sold arguably its best player, Gianluca Busio, halfway through, and whose star striker, Alan Pulido, has been sidelined by injuries in more games than he’s played.

“That takes a lot of work,” Vermes said. “It doesn’t just happen. It just takes a group that is committed to doing that (work) week after week after week, day after day, and the guys have done a really good job of that.”

Midfielder Remi Walter has been here for less than a year, but he understood the assignment before setting foot on the field in April. The French midfielder knew he was joining a tightly knit squad that was aiming for a second straight No. 1 seed.

“Every year is the same ambition (in KC),” Walter said, “so I’m very happy and proud to be here on this team, and it’s very good for me to increase my level year after year because we have a very good team.”

The only time this year that Sporting has failed to follow a loss with a win occurred in the past week, when KC fell 2-1 to Minnesota Sunday 3-1 at Austin Wednesday.

Vermes maintained immediately after the loss in Austin that blaming the defeats on tired legs would be a weak excuse, but he conceded on Friday that a recent run of four games in 12 days has been “a lot on the group.”

Now Sporting KC has just one regular-season game left, and Vermes and his players alike are approaching it with gusto.

“I just think that it’ll be good after this game to get a little bit of a break and get prepared for our next game,” Vermes said. “They’re doing good and they’ll be ready to play on Sunday, and now we’ve got to get ready for the playoffs.”

This story was originally published November 5, 2021 at 4:17 PM with the headline "Sporting KC takes remarkable consistency into pivotal Decision Day showdown against RSL."