Sporting KC preaching patience, belief to emerge from historically bad start

The situation Sporting KC players and coaches find themselves in, just 10 matches into the MLS season, is unprecedented in club history.

Only one club has accumulated fewer points through 10 MLS regular-season matches — ever. The 2019 Colorado Rapids had two draws in their first three matches and failed to win until their 12th match of that season.

It’s a dire situation at the moment and one Sporting players know they have to get themselves out of. Goalkeeper Tim Melia called it uncharted waters on Tuesday and said the club must find a way to regroup.

“You can (either) put your head in the sand and wait for somebody else to do something or you can take action,” Melia said. “We’ve got to come together as a group, and we’ve got to execute on the field. And that’s the mentality all of us are (taking) into this game over the weekend.”

One area Sporting must cut out quickly — perhaps starting in Sunday’s 3:30 p.m. Central match against Seattle — is the near-instant deflation when conceding a goal.

“It’s gotta stop,” Melia said.

Melia says that’s something the team has discussed internally.

“We’re gonna get scored on. That’s gonna happen,” Melia said. “It’s gonna happen many more times this season, and we have to be in a place where we can use that as motivation, not as something that kind of knocks us off.”

Understandably, the players are frustrated with where they’re at. And with only three goals in 10 matches, a key problem thus far has been the attacking play.

So what’s wrong with the attack? As many have noted, including those on the roster, players too often are trying to do it themselves instead of letting the situation come to them. A level of patience in the final third isn’t there because players are pressing.

“Guys are trying to take the onus on their shoulders, but it’s not working,” Melia said. “So we need to go back to our blueprint, understand that we are a team. We need to work together to have success, and that’s what we need to do.”

Per FBref.com, Sporting KC has the second most touches inside the opponent’s final third in MLS, yet they have the 11th lowest amount of touches inside the middle third. That’s also true of the opponent’s penalty area.

Melia acknowledged that players seemed to be “running around a little bit as individuals,” but in a good way.

So how do they solve their issues? It seems simple enough to get more touches in the opponent’s penalty area, which will lead to more chances and more goals. More touches inside the penalty area would likely lead to more shots inside the penalty area as well.

To get there, though, it’s going to require a level of patience.

“There’s a high level of patience that needs discipline in the game,” Sporting manager Peter Vermes said. “Sometimes it’s in your positioning. Sometimes, it’s you with the ball and your decision-making.”

Vermes provided the example of players getting impatient because they haven’t found the right shot yet — and then taking a bad shot to get a shot off.

“When you’re on your game, you don’t think about those things,” Vermes said. “When you’re not on your game like we haven’t been, then you’re thinking about those things. We’re trying to get out of the thinking part of the game and (be) more instinctive.”

Choose a figure of speech, whether it’s “uncharted waters” or “unprecedented times,” most of it applies to what Sporting is going through right now. Players, staff and fans alike in the situation feel it. But Vermes doesn’t want to wallow in the bad.

“Anybody could sit there and wallow all day long and blah, blah, blah,” Vermes said. “I’m just trying to find a solution.

“I know that we have a good group. I believe in the group. I’ve said that many times. I know that probably people think that I’m crazy, but that’s okay. That’s how I get through what I do, and I believe in our guys. We’ll find ourselves.”