Sporting Kansas City Scouting Report: Mind the Banana Peel

See it, know it, avoid it. Also, cool shoes!

If that home loss to a limping Los Angeles FC side wasn’t in the sample, I would feel a bit less nervous about this one. Which is to say, I’m still a bit nervous. And that’s very much despite this…

Sporting Kansas City
1-5-1, 4 pts., 8 gf, 12 ga (-4); home 1-2-1, away 0-3-0
Last 5 Results: LDLLW
Strength/Location of Schedule
@ DC (1-2 L); v MIN (3-3 D); v LAFC (0-2 L); @ FCD (1-2 L); v STL (2-0 W)

Notes from the Field
Because they’re more mystery than I like, I clocked time over two of Sporting KC’s recent home results: the salvation draw versus Minnesota United FC from some weeks back and last weekend’s first-of-2025 win over St. Louis CITY FC; for reasons that look more misplaced with each passing week, I only glanced at their more recent home loss to LAFC…I got nuthin' besides, hype sticks, man...

Somewhat related, and no doubt because I only watched them at their best, I don’t get how Sporting KC isn’t better this season. Sure, Minnesota lit them up for three goals before they stirred – two of them easy as you like, the other a bomb from Hasani Dotson – but they kept their heads, stuck to what looked like the plan (still under Peter Vermes, fwiw), and fought back for their first point of the season. They never looked actually bad in that one, at least not any time I was watching, and most goals against played out more as a Minnesota sucker-punch (TM) than failure. Against that, Timbers fans should review some or all of the win over St. Louis to appreciate the worst-case scenario. Official stats be damned, SKC all but dissolved St. Louis’ press and strung together extended, suffocating spells of possession over both periods I watched (1st through the 15th, then 65-85). Any time St. Louis got on the ball, they struggled to do much with it; SKC defenders even shoved around Joao Klauss here and there. It took them most of the game to score their first goal and it took them many, many passes to create that goal. It felt like 20+, some under pressure, all of them under control, but the final look was clean, even slick. Just to note it, that could very well be the greatest moment of Sporting Kansas City’s season so far.

The portrait in his closet.

Notes on Formation & Personnel
Interim head coach, Kerry Zavagnin, stuck with the 4-3-3 (a recent sample) bequeathed to him by the seemingly eternal Peter Vermes (I assume we’re all actually dead now, consult your physician if you feel any of the following symptoms), but the personnel has been unstable as an isotope teetering at the end of its half-life. To give them prime example, the centerback pairing has changed six times in as many games before the St. Louis win. Youngster (23) Jansen Miller has been the constant over the past two, paired with either Joaquin Fernandez or the once-preferred Dany Rosero. Right back has been equally messy with Khiry Shelton (yes, that guy) stepping in for another youngster, Jacob Davis (23), over the past two games, but that could just be Davis stepping into the midfield where, just to note it, didn’t look exploitable. Lucas Ndenbe, a quality player, has started and ended at left back in every game I reviewed. The midfield three has been equally scrambled, but the last two games saw (still younger; 19) Jacob Bartlett and new kid/Spaniard Manu Garcia play on either side of Davis; they have or had Nemanja Radoja for that spot, but SKC presents as a team looking to get younger. The most recent front three has featured, from left to right, Daniel Salloi, Dejan Joveljic and the new and notable (Russian) Shapi Suleymanov. Again, having watched a lot of those players against St. Louis, I don’t know why this team isn’t better.

The Brief
To open with the big, obvious question, has Sporting Kansas City shaken off the stagnancy of Vermes’ tenure? My short answer: no idea. As good and capable as they looked in any given moment over all the video I reviewed, the words, “okay, but they’ve been bad,” never left the back of my head. The scoring has picked up – e.g., six goals over their past four games – and it hasn’t – e.g., three of those came after Minnesota switched off in a cold-ass game graced with snow falling down. Moreover, the goals they scored versus Minnesota (see above) looked different than the brick-shit-house build – a phrase I mean on both the level of being thorough and perhaps unnecessary – that yielded their first goal at St. Louis (again, see above, under "clean, even slick," but the other one versus St. Louis tracked more with the goals against Minnesota). Insofar as SKC has approaches to goal, I’d go with having Salloi stretch the field on one side and Suleymanov break it down on the other; relevant to the latter, both Minnesota and St. Louis double-teamed Suleymanov every time they could and SKC does appear to move the ball around with an eye to isolating him on the weak side. If any player carries the ball out of the midfield, it’s Garcia – and he looks like a combiner – and Zavagnin had or has Erik Thommy, a damn tricky player, to call in if/when things get stale on the left. Looking at the past two lineups, I see they also have Willy Agada, Memo Rodriguez, Radoja and Mason Toye on the bench. To be clear, the sum of all those players have “lifted” Sporting KC to the piteous high of 14th place in the West (and, for funsies, 26th overall). The point here is less to inflate SKC into a threat than to acknowledge that they have a lot of players who can be good – i.e., Suleymanov looks worthy of the double teams, Salloi is a slippery shit who can pull both a goal and a living, breathing rabbit out of his ass, and Joveljic is hanging in at 8th in the Golden Boot Race, so...

Drunk legend.

What the Portland Timbers Do About All That
Don’t panic, basically, but stay frosty and slam caffeine as if you can’t sleep and you know your mom sneaks gallons of vodka out of the towel closet. SKC will want to get on the ball and, Portland being Portland, they should let them while doing their best to keep things tidy and SKC in front of them. Given Suleymanov’s one-v-one skillz, Phil Neville may want to hold back Jimer Fory [/other guy/Claudio Bravo? UPDATE: Yeah, ain't gonna happen; turns out Fory is sitting out on a yellow card suspension; HT: Jeremy Peterman.] and use Juan David Mosquera to provide width/impetus up the right, while very much making some provision to cover a ball over the top or through the lines to, depending on who starts, Thommy or Salloi. Against that, some provision will need to be made for what Zavagnin and/or the ghost of Peter Vermes does with Ndenbe or Shelton; if either Mosquera or Fory goes forward, I expect a lot of long diagonals to go into the space behind them – and the extent to which the Timbers get pulled side to side will determine how the central players like David Ayala…and whomever starts beside him, plus Kamal Miller (probably) and Finn Surman (better be, goddammit) manage the central space. If I had to name a base-line goal, I’d go with preventing SKC from getting clean looks anywhere near the middle of the field. Yeah, yeah, Soccer 101, but that also looks like the main thing SKC looks to do when they get on the ball – i.e., spread the field, play crosses to attacking runs and, if/when that fails, pulling it back and looking to play through the space they’ve opened by spreading the field.

That was more stream-of-consciousness than usual, so here’s to hoping most of it makes sense. Overall, I don’t expect an easy game and, more to the point, I expect to feel like the Timbers have lost the plot here or there. Moreover, they have the legs to chase and press as needed (feel like this should have been higher up, SORRY!), so I’d expect some butt-clenching turnovers as well. My broad sense is that this game will turn on how organized Portland stays against the ball and the number of players they’re willing to throw forward when they get on it.

We shall see, we shall see…