2020 Season Preview: Sporting Kansas City

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2020 Season Preview: Sporting Kansas City

A common refrain of Sporting Kansas City season previews from offseasons past is “get a center forward.” Here are some quotes from past ASA and MLSsoccer.com previews to that effect:

  • “Up top, SKC again has depth, but are still lacking a proven MLS goal-scorer.”

  • “There are a few questions, though, with Kristzian Nemeth stepping into the club's starting center forward role.”

  • “However, the talk will almost always turn back to that No. 9 position. It's not that Sporting have been completely deficient there over the years, it's just that they've never really found a solution that stuck.”

  • “What Vermes hasn’t done (yet) is land the forward #SKCnation yearns for.”

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Offseason Outlook: Sporting Kansas City

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Offseason Outlook: Sporting Kansas City

Since sending Dom Dwyer to Orlando halfway through 2017, Sporting Kansas City have been without an above average center forward. Dwyer’s 2016 season was the last year an SKC player finished in the top 10 in MLS in goals. Since then, Kansas City’s leading scorers have logged just 8, 11, and 12 goals. In MLS 3.0, lacking an elite striker up top is a little bit inexcusable.

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Setting the Table Week 29: Gressel, Guttierez, and getting ready for the playoffs

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Setting the Table Week 29: Gressel, Guttierez, and getting ready for the playoffs

Welcome to Setting the Table. Each week we take some time to focus on the best chance creators in MLS from the last weekend. If you want to see the best chances that were wasted check out Lowered Expectations. Here we focus on chances that ended with the ball in the back of the net.

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Little Things from Week 29: Orlando's bunker, Higuita's strength, and Colorado missteps

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Little Things from Week 29: Orlando's bunker, Higuita's strength, and Colorado missteps

Sporting KC survived at home against Orlando on Saturday, winning 1-0 on a Felipe Gutierrez strike. They were missing three potential starters (Daniel Salloi and Diego Rubio on int’l duty, Ike Opara on yellow card suspension) and consistently lacked ideas in the final third. But Orlando didn’t generate anything, so SKC walked away with three points.

Under James O’Conner, OCSC have bunkered. Their defensive line is deep, the midfield is tight to the backline and they often sit 11 in the defensive half. At some point, they’ll have to figure out how to do more than that.

They struggled to possess the ball against Sporting, who are a notoriously difficult team to possess the ball against. That doesn’t make abomination this any better from Orlando:

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