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Before composing this seasons preview, I decided to go back and read what I had written last year. It showed that a lot has changed for Sporting Kansas City and its fans over a calendar year. Kansas City hosted the MLS All-Star Game and ended the season by hosting and winning the 2013 MLS Cup. Sporting also held strong in the CONCACAF Champions League by advancing to the knockout stage and saw the explosion of Dom Dwyer. The season wasn’t all good news. Sporting KC was upset by their MLS affiliate and now future MLS team Orlando City. Sporting also said goodbye to Jimmy Nielsen, who retired and became manager of Sporting’s new USL Pro affiliate Oklahoma City Energy FC. It is a time of celebration and a time of change for Kansas City. With all this change happening with SKC and the entire league in general, where will the defending champs stand when it’s all said and done in December? Better look at the roster to see how they’re going to succeed this season.
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Goalkeepers
This is the first season in a long time that the goalkeeper position has been up for grabs. Now that Nielsen has retired, longtime backup Eric Kronberg would seem to be the logical choice to become the #1 goalkeeper. Those plans became somewhat clouded when Sporting KC announced they signed Columbus Crew goalkeeper Andy Gruenebaum. Now as we get closer into the season, it looks like the job is Kronberg’s to lose but I have a feeling Peter Vermes won’t be afraid to pull the trigger and change it up. #3 goalkeeper Jon Kempin is almost certain to go on loan to either Oklahoma City or Orlando City leaving the two experienced keepers left to fight for playing time. I imagine Vermes will use this season to study both Kronberg and Gruenebaum and then sacrifice one to the expansion draft and then prepare to make Kempin the #2 goalkeeper.
Defenders
This will be the easiest section to figure out. MLS Cup MVP Aurelien Collin and USMNT regular Matt Besler will start as central defenders while USMNT winter trialists Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic take control of the right and left sides for the third straight season. Ike Opara will be the super sub for the center backs and will prove most helpful if Besler goes to Brazil for the World Cup and when Collin inevitably gets suspended due to yellow card accumulation. After those five, things get a little tricky. Josh Gardner is likely to be backup to Sinovic at left back while Mechack Jerome and Kevin Ellis will fight to try and be backup to Myers. The 16 year old wunderkind Erik Palmer-Brown, who was targeted by Italian juggernaut Juventus, will get playing time as well. He is a hot commodity in the global soccer world and Sporting KC knows they have a special player. That’s why they turned down Juventus.
Midfielders
Let’s get the easiest position out of the way, Oriol Rosell will start at central defensive midfielder. Paulo Nagamura will also factor into the midfield in a defensive and attacking role depending on the situation. The third midfielder, the attacking midfielder spot is a relative unknown. More than likely, Benny Feilhaber will be getting the most time but Graham Zusi and Soony Saad have played in that spot at various points last season while Claudio Bieler played in that spot for the majority of the preseason. Bieler scored five goals and six assists in just seven preseason games. The added role for Bieler will cause Sporting to have their most dynamic player on more often. Expect to see Lawrence Olum be a backup for Rosell and Nagamura as a defensive midfielder and look for Jimmy Medranda to be getting more playing time.
Forwards
The striker role will come down to a couple of players, Claudio Bieler and Dom Dwyer. Bieler is the DP and the clinical finisher but Dwyer is the young star who impressed on loan in Orlando City, demolishing the USL Pro record book, and took over the team when Bieler went down with injury. The two of them left Teal Bunbury as the odd man out and Sporting traded him to the New England Revolution for a first round SuperDraft pick and allocation money. The rest of the wingers include Graham Zusi, CJ Sapong, Soony Saad, Jacob Peterson and new signing Sal Zizzo. Zizzo has impressed in preseason and is looking very much like a typical Peter Vermes player. He will definitely play a crucial role in the future of Sporting KC. The only player in that group who will get consistent minutes will be Zusi but the rest of them will be splitting time based on how they are performing in Vermes’ eyes.
Predictions
I thought last season was a difficult season for Sporting KC. This season will be even tougher. Sporting “painted the wall” and became MLS Cup Champions but their season was extended to December due to the long postseason. Other teams stopped playing at the end of October and had the luxury of having a three month break until the start of the preseason. I’m sure Sporting is more than willing to sacrifice a month rest for a championship but their offseason only lasted less than two months and many players had international duty with their own nations so they never really had that long of a break. I’m sure this is how Vermes prefers things because he wants them fit and ready to play with no preseason rust but they will be starting with a murderers row of games including playing the current Liga MX leaders Cruz Azul in the CONCACAF Champions League. Sporting must play five games in two weeks to start the season including two games against Cruz Azul and a trip up to Seattle. It’ll be an early test for Sporting but a test that can result in big dividends if Sporting can pass that test. If they beat Cruz Azul, the light at the end of that CONCACAF tunnel will be brighter than ever and they will have a clear road to becoming the first MLS team to win the modern CONCACAF Champions League after beating, arguably, the best team in the tournament.
In terms of how Sporting will finish the season, they’re still going to be a strong team. Whether or not they’re going to be winning any trophies remains to be seen. They will be going after any and all trophies but their depth is surely going to be tested. Like I said last year, if they can win a trophy and make it to Champions League, the season will be deemed a success. At the moment, I don’t have them winning a trophy but I wouldn’t necessarily be shocked if they prove me wrong. They have done it before and can do it again. I wouldn’t necessarily mind being wrong again if it means another instance of “painting the wall.”
(image courtesy of sportingkc.com)
