The slumping past and confident future of Sporting Kansas City
Like oppressive humidity and social media clogged with back to school photos, Sporting Kansas City’s annual summer slump and accompanying fan freakout have become familiar institutions.
The 2018 version came a little earlier than usual, but come it did, and now three consecutive shutout wins present an opportunity for boast — and a demand for more.
“We’re a better soccer team than we have been in the last so many years,” coach Peter Vermes said.
The conversation came in his office at the club’s training center. Vermes did not specify a time period, but the question referenced 2013, the last time Sporting won the MLS Cup. That was also the last time Sporting had home-field advantage in the postseason, which is not a total coincidence, and puts a brighter light on the club’s final 10 matches — starting with Minnesota at home this Saturday.
The most common knock on Sporting is about to either be conquered or confirmed, without much room in between.
Sporting and LAFC are tied for second (though Sporting has a match in hand) in the Western Conference, three points behind FC Dallas. The playoffs won’t start for 71 days (from Tuesday), but it is not a stretch to say their postseason success will be determined with how they perform now. Recent history is our guide.
Last year, Sporting went 3-5-4 in the last three months of the regular season. It finished one point shy of the No. 4 seed, and lost at Houston in extra time.
In 2016, Sporting went 3-3-4 in the last three months. That year’s team finished one point shy of the No. 4 seed, and lost at Seattle.
In 2015, Sporting went 5-7-3 in the last three months, and finished in a three-way tie for fourth but lost the tiebreaker and was given the No. 6 seed. Next came a loss at Portland.
In 2014, Sporting finished one point shy of a home playoff game, and lost at New York after holding a second-half lead.
That’s four seasons in a row, each within a whisker of hosting a playoff game. Instead, Sporting KC ended each of those seasons on the road, the last three after a late-season fade. The details are even more agonizing.
In 2015, Sporting led with 2 minutes left in extra time but gave up a goal on a throw-in, and eventually lost in penalty kicks — one potential game-winner hit both posts and missed. In 2016, Sporting lost on a goal that should’ve been disallowed for an offside violation. Just as bad, Vermes’ team had a goal incorrectly wiped out for another offsides call.
The margins are brutally thin, but then, that’s the point. Those types of matches tend to favor the home side. Sporting is 7-2-3 at home and 5-4-3 on the road. Combined, the six teams currently in position for the Western Conference playoffs are 44-10-21 at home and 24-33-16 on the road.
This is as plain as it can be said: Sporting has lost its last seven road playoff games, and won its last four.
Still, Vermes pushes back a little on the soccer importance of hosting, saying only that last year, Sporting KC was inferior to its playoff opponent.
“The other years, whatever you want to say, we just fell on the wrong side of the ledger,” he said. “If we win the first game, then we have a two-game series. We didn’t get there, and we should’ve, in all three of those years.”
That’s notable because the losses in 2015 and 2016 were each to the eventual champion. Vermes’ point could actually be considered an argument for the importance of home playoff games — you tend to get better breaks at home than on the road — but either way he is pushing to host for one very significant reason:
Ownership wants it.
Sporting has not hosted a playoff game since beating Real Salt Lake in snowy penalty kicks five years ago. That’s a long time, particularly for a club that is (justifiably) so proud of its ability to consistently compete and operates in a small market — financially, home playoff games are a boost.
Sporting has won the Open Cup in two of the last four years, but even with other MLS clubs generally taking the competition more seriously in recent years, the main prize and focus remains the MLS postseason.
Back to the main point now: All of this makes Sporting’s finish even more important than it otherwise would be — to succeed in the postseason, to better the club’s reputation, and to make money.
Vermes has a point when he calls this his best team in years. Felipe Gutierrez’s return from injury gives Sporting KC another top-level talent, a virtually full squad with Diego Rubio, Johnny Russell, Daniel Salloi and the recent (re-) acquisition of Krisztian Nemeth.
It’s clearly the team’s best attack since 2013, and if the defense isn’t quite the stingiest in the league anymore, it’s still strong with Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, Ike Opara and Seth Sinovic’s recent return to form. If Tim Melia isn’t the league’s best goalkeeper, he’s close.
For a franchise that prides itself on avoiding pits, this squad is eminently capable of a memorable peak.
That won’t be decided for months. But some of the most important work in winning another championship is going on right now.