MLS Season Preview: Sporting Kansas City
With the MLS season set to begin on Friday, theScore runs down everything you need to know about each team heading into the league's 20th campaign. Here, we take a look at Sporting Kansas City, who have made the move over to the Western Conference.
Sporting Kansas City was waltzing along, enjoying another fine campaign and challenging for the Supporters' Shield in 2014 before a series of unfortunate events saw things almost go off the cliff entirely.
Felled by injuries to key players, fatigue to those who featured in the World Cup and the loss of defensive midfielder Oriol Rosell - who was sold to Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon - head coach Peter Vermes and company saw what looked to be another strong campaign fall apart.
They squeezed into the playoffs, but were quickly eliminated at the first hurdle by the New York Red Bulls.
That disappointment paved the way for a host of offseason changes, though two stand above the rest as marquee moves. Fan favorite Roger Espinoza returns after a two-year spell at Wigan, while perennial All-Star defender Aurelien Collin was sent to nascent MLS club Orlando City in cap-enforced deal that leaves some questions about Sporting KC's solidity in defense.
Despite that one obvious question mark, and the move to the Western Conference, the club is no doubt expecting to recapture its status as one of the league's elite this season.
2014 season: 5th in Eastern Conference
| Record | GF | GA |
|---|---|---|
| 14-13-7 (49 points) | 48 | 41 |
Playoffs: Lost in Eastern Conference knockout round (New York Red Bulls)
Head coach: Peter Vermes
Stadium: Sporting Park
Season Opener: Sunday, March 8: Sporting Kansas City vs. New York Red Bulls (Sporting Park) - 7 PM EST
Key Arrivals
Roger Espinoza (free transfer), Bernardo Anor (Columbus Crew SC), Krisztian Nemeth (free transfer), Luis Marin (free transfer) Jalil Anibaba (Orlando City SC), Saad Abdul-Salaam (SuperDraft), Connor Hallisey (drafted)
Key Departures
Aurelien Collin (Orlando City SC), C.J. Sapong (Philadelphia Union), Igor Juliao (end of loan), Sal Zizzo (New York City FC), Soony Saad (out of contract), Eric Kronberg (option declined), Andy Gruenebaum (option declined), Claudio Bieler (out of contract)
Player to Watch: Dom Dwyer
The last twelve months have been quite the ride for Dom Dwyer.
The 24-year-old Englishman enjoyed a breakout campaign last season, finding the net 22 times en route to being named an MLS All-Star. He followed that up with a significantly larger life milestone, wedding U.S. women's national team star Sydney Leroux las month.
Dwyer will be expected to lead the line once again for Sporting KC, and while head coach Peter Vermes admits that an over reliance on one player to find the net is never a positive, he's confident Dwyer can not only replicate last season's performance, but improve on it.
"I think any team always wants to have the ability to spread it around, but Dom has the ability to score 22 and more, he really does," Vermes told Goal.com. "He’s got an incredible hunger for the goal. He has an incredible and relentless work ethic to score."
Assuming he stays fit, Vermes' club shouldn't have any problems finding the net in 2015.
Keep an eye on: Graham Zusi
Projected Starting XI
(4-3-3) Luis Marin; Seth Sinovic, Matt Besler, Ike Opara, Chance Myers; Roger Espinoza, Benny Feilhaber, Paulo Nagamura; Bernardo Anor, Graham Zusi, Dom Dwyer
Season in a Sentence
A squad rife with talent and certainly capable of returning to the heights of 2013, Sporting Kansas City will be hoping that the injury bug doesn't sink it's teeth in nearly as deep as it did last season.