Kansas City begins their 3rd season as the rebranded Sporting Kansas City and they came out with a bang this offseason. New kits, new kit sponsor, new players (new DP), new stadium name, players going to England, it was sort of like a mini rebranding. The only thing that didn’t change was the team name. With the competition tougher and Sporting adding CONCACAF Champions League to their schedule, it will be a long and grinding season.
There’s no doubt Sporting will be playing in a 4-3-3 this season. Head Coach Peter Vermes loves the 4-3-3 and it’s been successful so far. As far as what the projected starting XI will be, let’s see who will be playing in Sporting Blue this season.
Goalkeepers
Jimmy Nielsen will once again be the #1 Keeper for Sporting KC. The MLS Goalkeeper of the Year should be able to maintain his terrific play and will be a surefire starter for the MLS All Star Team. Eric Kronberg and USMNT U-20 goalkeeper Jon Kempin will be backups to Nielsen. I can see Kronberg being used as trade bait either during the season or next offseason. Kronberg is a very capable starter and Kempin has proven to be a capable goalkeeper in his limited time so Kronberg may be a valuable commodity for a team needing a goalkeeper.
Defenders
Similar to the goalkeepers, the starting defenders will also be the same as last season. Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic will handle the right and left sides of the defense while MLS Defender of the Year Matt Besler and MLS Defender of the Year Finalist Aurelien Collin will take the middle. This setup along with Nielsen have been the rock that helped Sporting become such a dangerous team and it’ll pay that the five of them will be together again for another season. Expect to see Yann Songo’o backup Myers as Right Back while Josh Gardner backs up Sinovic as Left Back. The rest of the defenders will be taking up as center backs. Reliable backup Lawrence Olum and newly signed Ike Opara will be the main backups while Kevin Ellis and Kyle Miller will likely get Open Cup experience.
Midfielders
The Midfield will look somewhat different this year. Sporting waived Julio Cesar who went to Toronto and Roger Espinoza signed with Wigan Athletic so that leaves two open starting spots. Paulo Nagamura will take one midfield spot but what will happen with the other two? Taking two different approaches to each spot, Sporting will promote former Barcelona youth player Oriol Rosell to take Cesar’s defending midfielder role while new signing USMNT International Benny Feilhaber to take Espinoza’s role as an attacking midfielder. Backups Peterson Joseph, Mikey Lopez and Michael Thomas will all probably get playing time at various points in the season. All have been very capable of being suitable backups and should be able to get some good play out of them when asked. Even though he seems to be up on the wing at this point, Graham Zusi may come back to play in the midfield if Sporting runs into any depth issues.
Forwards
This will definitely be the more unknown group but the great thing about that is that this is the deepest group. There are at least six players who can be every game starters in a forward setting and if Kei Kamara comes back from his loan at Norwich City, it’ll make seven. Designated Player Claudio Bieler will be in the central forward role and then Sporting has a number of options on each wing. Graham Zusi will take one of those spots, most likely on the right while CJ Sapong will take the left. Bobby Convey and Jacob Peterson will be the backups on each wing while Soony Saad takes over as Bieler’s backup until Teal Bunbury comes back from his torn ACL in a few months. Saad has been impressive in preseason play and may result in a breakout season for the third year player.
Season Prediction
Sporting Kansas City will be going for four trophies this season and there’s no doubt in Peter Vermes’ mind that they are going after all four of them. Realistically, I can see them winning one trophy at most. With the schedule grind and travel requirements, it’s going to be a tougher road for Sporting to be lifting up some silverware. Sporting is my choice to win the Supporters Shield but they won’t repeat as US Open Cup Champions or win the MLS Cup. I do believe they will advance past the Group Stage in the CONCACAF Champions League. Along with hosting the All Star Game, expect another memorable season coming from Kansas City.
(image courtesy of sportingkc.com)
