After breaking winless skid, Sporting KC senses renewed energy within the group

Fewer than 48 hours after securing their first victory in five weeks, Sporting Kansas City players filed into the training facility, and veteran Brad Davis noticed a discernible difference in temperament.

For more than a month, the walk onto the practice field had been accompanied by the cloud of a winless skid.

This week ...

“You get to come out with a smile,” Davis said. “There hadn’t been a lot of smiling recently.”

With one victory, the simple things have changed for the better. But has the big picture?

Sporting KC didn’t just break its winless skid Sunday against Orlando City SC — it shattered a franchise record with 34 shot attempts in the process, recording seven more than any other match in club history.

A blip? Or a trend?

“There’s a difference because the guys are building off something. They can feel it. They can sense this is who we are,” Sporting coach Vermes said. “It’s almost a comfortable feeling because they’re used to it. It was uncomfortable before because we weren’t doing the things that are more prone to our identity.”

The change in disposition stems from an alteration of play. In its previous two home matches, Sporting KC has utterly controlled the game in each instance, returning to its high press, constant pressure and focus to drive toward the goal.

“It’s a result of the energy we’re bringing to the game,” Davis said. “We feel like this is a group that isn’t very good unless we have the right attitude to attack the game. And it has to be all of us. If we’re all putting that effort in, we can really get after teams.”

Vermes insists the club’s style of play hasn’t changed, but the product certainly has. Sporting KC has attempted 51 shots in its past two outings at Children’s Mercy Park.

The performance Sunday against Orlando — which concluded in a 2-1 Sporting KC victory — followed a scoring drought that spanned more than 300 minutes. The mentality to push forward, in that case, was seen as a solution to the scoring woes.

But not a temporary one.

“I don’t think we should drop off,” Vermes said. “I’m not saying we’re going to get (34) shots in the game again, but our objective is that we want to play with the same intensity and same commitment going forward.”

Sporting KC will play its next two matches at home, starting with Saturday’s tilt with rival Real Salt Lake. That provides an opportunity to quickly get back in the thick of the Western Conference playoff race.

Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake are tied for the sixth and final playoff spot.

“We’ve shown ourselves what we’re capable of doing. We just have to go out there and have the mentality to do it,” Davis said. “These are times, for me, when you can truly become a team. When you go through what we went through over those seven games, and you don’t point fingers and still go about your business, you come out on a high. It makes it all that much better on the other side.”

This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 4:35 PM with the headline "After breaking winless skid, Sporting KC senses renewed energy within the group."