When you have as many red cards as goals, that’s bad!
The 2023 season is going all wrong for Sporting Kansas City.
One of MLS’s most consistent teams over its existence is mired in a ten-game winless run dating back to the final game of 2022.
The latest setback is a 2-1 road defeat against the New England Revolution, which by the standards of 2023 counts as a decent night at the office.
The Revolution effectively put the game to bed in the first 35 minutes, because at this point when you score on Kansas City, you’re probably won.
Even Giacomo Vrioni, New England’s wayward DP forward, is finding goals against Sporting in 2023. First, Carles Gil’s turn at midfield saw Vrioni and Emmanuel Boateng suddenly looking at a two-on-one from 40 yards. Boatang supplied the cross, and Vrioni tapped home one of the easier goals he’ll ever score.
Vrioni struck again four minutes later, with Boateng and Gil heavily involved once again. Sadly for Sporting, a New England player was a step ahead of the KC defense at every turn, with Vrioni once again finishing off a sitter.
On the plus side, KC got the rare sight of a goal for themselves. Johnny Russell ended a 405-minute scoreless run, keeping a team that has been shut out six times already in 2023 from suffering a seventh. However, they’ve still scored just three goals in nine games, which is…bad. It’s bad.
What makes matters worse? Andreu Fontàs was sent off, making it three red cards for Sporting players in nine games in 2023. Which is to say, KC has had as many red cards as they’ve had goals in 2023.
The news is bad elsewhere too. Striker Willy Agada, a key factor in a late-season burst of good form for KC last year, suffered a stress fracture to his tibia last week. The cavalry does not appear to be coming around the corner.
KC still not entirely doomed
As grim as things look for Sporting, they aren’t as bad as they could be. For one thing, that 405-minute scoreless run wasn’t even halfway to the MLS record, which was set by a Toronto FC side that went 824 minutes between goals in 2007.
On the other hand, it’s fairly shocking to see a team that had long been a model of MLS consistency being so punchless going forward, and so consigned to defeat after any concession at the other end. Kansas City has players with MLS success like Russell and Dániel Sallói, and Peter Vermes has won four trophies as a coach. This team should not be in this kind of terrible situation.
Fascinatingly, Kansas City’s underlying numbers are not as dire as all that sounds. They entered Saturday’s round of games with 6.98 expected goals on the season, which is poor, but not disastrous (it’s 27th out of 29 MLS teams). But there are other data points illustrating some of their problems: Sporting started the weekend tied for fourth in MLS with shots attempted (116), and the other teams at or near the top of the shots attempted table have nearly double KC’s xG.
Additionally, the bottom of the Western Conference is enough of a mess that it might be a quick path out of the bottom if Sporting ever gets it together. The LA Galaxy, with fans protesting the presence of team president Chris Klein, kicked off the night ahead of KC on goal difference. MLS’s wildly forgiving playoff format means that even after starting the season 0W-3D-6L, they’re only six points out of a playoff spot.
There’s still 25 games left to get out of this mess, but right now, it may be a historically bad season at Children’s Mercy Park.
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