No use tip-toeing around it anymore.
Soccer junkies around Kansas City – and even some folks just now catching the fever – are beginning to ask the big question.
Yes, THAT one!
Could this red-hot Sporting Kansas City club become MLS champion for the first time?
Certainly those singing, stomping, screaming partisans in The Cauldron – that eardrum-popping north stand at Livestrong Sporting Park – already have become true believers.
But what about a more cold-blooded, steely-eyed analysis?
Is Sporting KC really that good?
Well, start with the math. There are some numbers that suggest coach Peter Vermes team is playing as well as anyone in the league.
Sporting KC is 9-7-9, which is good enough for second place in the Eastern Division – but remember that these guys opened the season with a brutal 10-game road trip made necessary by construction on their plush new $200 million home.
They staggered through that stretch with a 3-6-1 record, so simple subtraction tells you that Sporting KC has lost just once more in its next 15 league games.
No one else is playing at a level close to that.
Whats more, even neutral observers concede that Vermes complaint that officiating blunders have cost his team between five and eight more points has plenty of merit.
We should be leading our conference, maybe by a bunch, said Graham Zusi, a box-to-box midfielder who is one the leagues emerging stars.
Zusi leaves it to your imagination whether he feels the team should have capitalized on more late-game opportunities, or basically got jobbed by some scandalous calls – or both.
But he isnt wishy-washy about the immediate future.
Weve got the talent and the attitude to go the limit, Zusi said. Weve had just about everything tough happen to us – the long road trip to start, some big injuries, a few really questionable calls – and all thats happened is that weve gotten better.
We feel like we can win anything thats there to win.
Right, then, lets examine the reasons for Zusis confidence – and also see where there might be weaknesses that could be Sporting KCs undoing in the playoffs.
On the plus side, these guys can score. In the Eastern Conference, only New York has more goals that Sporting KCs 36 (in 25 games).
Even better, the attack is balanced and relentless. Forwards Kei Kamara, Omar Bravo and Teal Bunbury all have five or more goals – and so does Zusi.
Powerful rookie striker CJ Sapong has only three goals, but he wears out defenders playing with his back to the net and keeping balls in play.
Defender Aurelien Collin has three goals on set pieces, yet another of Sporting KCs strengths because of Kamaras leaping ability and the sheer strength of Sapong and Bunbury, along with Zusis dead-ball deliveries.
Vermes preaches an all-out attacking style, which features the forwards pressing high up the pitch and harassing opponents into making mistakes.
Were a tough team to shut down, offered Kamara, a remarkably athletic 6-foot-2 striker from Sierra Leone – where hes played eight times for the national team. We have so many ways to score, a goalie almost has to be magic to keep a clean sheet.
Kamara potted 10 goals a year ago and already has 7 this time around – not to mention keeping balls alive with his ability to soar above crowds in the box.
Sporting KC also will have a distinct advantage if it can finish the regular season with a high enough seed to play some games at home.
Livestrong Park already has become a rockin house of misery for visitors. A giant sign above The Cauldron says: Welcome to the Blue Hell – and the noise is loud enough that players joke they can feel the pitch vibrating.
It would be a rough place to win a road playoff assignment.
So where are the trouble spots? What could be Sporting KCs undoing at the sharp end of the season?
The most obvious area of concern is that Vermes side has given up 31 goals in those 25 league games – and any team yielding more than a goal per game may not be capable of playing the grind-it-out soccer that is occasionally necessary to win championships.
You cant expect trophies by just trying to outscore teams, admitted veteran goalie Jimmy Nielsen, a Danish international who not only isnt the problem, hes likely the reason those defensive numbers havent been worse.
The good news is that Sporting KC is showing signs of tightening up all around, and last weekends 1-0 victory over conference foe DC United was a classic, physical, playoff-pressure sort of test.
Kamara lashed home a drive from just outside the 18-yard box less than 20 minutes into the game, and instead of getting caught flat-footed or having someone sent off – mistakes that have been costly earlier in the season – Sporting KC defended the rest of the way with an excellent balance of discipline and aggressiveness.
United had a chance to square things in the first half when Zusi lost his footing while controlling the ball in his own box – leaving striker Blake Brettschneider free to smash a sudden left-footed bullet toward the far corner of the net.
The way the play unfolded, with Zusi seemingly in no trouble, Nielsen couldnt have been expecting that kind of shot out of nowhere – yet he flew to his left and got just enough touch on the ball to turn it around the post.
After that scare, though, Sporting KC shut up shop and kept the visitors from creating any legitimate chances. It was one of those defensive efforts where the opponent finds every door locked.
United was simply out of ideas the entire second half.
That particular victory was worth a lot more than just three points in the standings.
At the end of the day, the guys did a great job and got a clean sheet, Vermes said. And what Im happy about is that teams that win championships in this sport have to be able to get a clean sheet. You have to be able to win games 1-0.
The guys locked the game up really well. The team has done a really good job of learning from their mistakes, and today they closed the game out really well.
If you can win games 1-0, over time that builds a tremendous amount of confidence – and you learn how to do that. Thats how you win championships.
Nielsen was impressed, as well.
I think weve learned so much, the ‘keeper said. You could see that we were playing smart.
We were running to the corners, we kept possession…we didnt just clear (balls into the box). We just kept coming again and again.
Make no mistake, however. Sporting Kansas City will have plenty more tests, even before the playoffs.
Western Conference power FC Dallas (12-7-7) comes to Livestrong Park on Saturday night, and then the talent-rich Los Angeles Galaxy (14-3-9) visit over Labor Day weekend.
We have to keep improving, just the way we have been, Zusi said. Attack right from the beginning of games, build leads and play smart, solid soccer to close things out.
Is Sporting KC a possible title contender, then?
DC United coach Ben Olsen seemed convinced.
Theyre both athletic and physical, Olsen said after swallowing that 1-0 loss. They do a good job of pressuring you. They come right at you, they punch you right in the face in the beginning, and if youre not prepared for it, they usually get a goal.
Thats a very good soccer team – as good as anyone in our league.
Theres the scouting report. Now the hardest part: Sporting KC has to do the business at crunch time.
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