Well, what can you say? Another road game for Sporting Kansas City, another disappointing result.
Despite getting on the board first Saturday night at the Home Depot Center in LA, by the time it was all said and done, SKC was on the wrong side of a 4-1 stomping at the hands of Landon Donovan’s LA Galaxy.
Simply put, LA is just a much better team than KC is right now.
Which was obvious to anyone who watched the game. LA has a handful of game changers – Donovan, David Beckham, Juan Pablo Angel – while KC’s best two players, Ryan Smith and Omar Bravo, have been out due to injury.
Smith actually got in the game for the last 20 or so minutes and created a nice scoring opportunity, but by that time it was too little too late. Bravo has not played at all in about a month because of a sports hernia, but he should be available within the next week or two. Even so, there’s no excuse for the play Sporting’s been exhibiting of late.
Again, mental lapses and silly defensive mistakes appeared, only to see LA capitalize. Shortly after KC went ahead 1-0 off an own goal, Roger Espinoza took Beckham down in the box and the referee made the easy call awarding a penalty.
The next LA goal came off a simple throw in to Donovan, who then proceeded to dribble at the KC defense, combining with a teammate for a nice give and go and clinically slotting home the finish.
Once they took the lead, LA never looked back. 
Time and again, long through balls turned around the Sporting defense. LA’s third goal came on a play that seemed to catch KC center defenders Aurelian Collin and Julio Cesar asleep, as Juan Pablo Angel snuck in behind both players and waltzed his way to a one on one that he cooly buried in the back of the net.
Collin raised his hand begging for an offside call from the linesman, but none came, and he was horribly out of position to do anything about the streaking Angel.
Just to put a cherry on top, Beckham curled in a sweet free kick to notch LA’s fourth and final goal of the night.
At this point it’s tough to come up with much positive to say.
Team captain Davy Arnaud acknowledged that there are no excuses at this point. The team needs results.
"It was not good enough to come out in the second half and let the game go the way it did – it’s just not good enough," said Arnaud. "We have been talking about the same thing about playing on the road, we have known that. It is not easy but at the same time it is not so difficult that we should turn in the second half performance we did tonight. It is just not obviously what we wanted and it is very disappointing."
Sporting KC now finds themselves at the bottom of the Eastern Conference with just 4 points to their name, and a 1-5-1 record. Before the season began I thought that SKC would need about 12 points in hand by the time they played their first home game on June 9th.
It’s still doable, technically, but not likely.
With three more road games before the home opener there are 9 points on the table for the taking. Two wins and a tie would put KC at eleven points, and give hope that Vermes and his boys can still turn this thing around.
Another terrible game
Watching SKC’s offense looks like you’re watching some old man who’s gripping the controller for an XBox for the first time and trying to mount an offense in FIFA ’11 against some 16-year-old kid who’s been paying for years on Legendary mode. They just look like hacks right now. The midfield actually does a decent job at moving the ball up the field, but they just look confused and lost once they get near the box. Nobody makes meaningful runs, and if they did, nobody else can get the ball to them.
The timing couldn’t be worse
Lance Armstrong, Willie Nelson – those are all nice garnishes to SKC’s new stadium. But as the team’s management has stated, there is no substitute for performance on the field.
The other day someone suggested that it didn’t really matter how Sporting plays – that soccer fans are sort of like T-Bones fans – they just go for the experience.
I don’t think so.
Kansas City’s most zealous soccer fans already are forgiving enough of MLS quality play. But if the team can’t even compete at MLS levels, that’s gonna hurt. Driving out to KCK and basking in the glow of a new stadium only goes so far.
Honeymoon Suite
The new digs will give them a rock solid 12 month honeymoon.
For the existing fans it will be like going from Motel 6 to The Four Seasons compared to Camarohead and Community America. For people that have never gone to a Wizards SKC game, you’ll have to go check it out if you’re any kind of a sports fan. Seeing a futbol match in the proper environment is pretty damn cool. First time I went to Home Depot Center to see the Galaxy play I was totally blown away by the facility and how it enhanced the whole experience.
Vermes is a dead man walking. No way this ownership group is going to let the team flounder. I’m surprised they haven’t made a change already.
I agree. Even going to a Royals game if you’ve never been is an experience. But if the team doesn’t win, that only goes so far.
But I guess if 2 million people – or some percentage thereof – go out just to check things out, they could rock it out pretty good in Year One.
And don’t forget, with all the away games early, the home sched is going to be packed. Meaning there will be lots of games jammed into a smaller time frame. How many times a week or month will people race out to KCK? Especially if the team doesn’t start winning and/or if they are so far out of contention it doesn’t matter.
Soccer?
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.
Sporting who?
Was a pathetic display of soccer. I still can’t get over their use of guest announcers, last two have been homers of the team they are playing. Vermes has to go sooner than later, or this franchise will be another Royals or Chiefs.
What makes you think Sporting wouldn’t sell their souls to be another Chiefs?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Vermes…you son of a bitch. What is your magic 8-ball telling you to do now? Are you drunk when you post the lineup? Are you? Kronberg gets the start over Neilson? Really? Vermes, you dumb bastard