Win Championships - the only acceptable outcome in 2012 / Photo courtesy - Sporting KC (Andy Mead and Yellow Card Journalism, LLC)
Don’t look now, but we may have a small problem on our hands, Sporting Kansas City fans. And, unfortunately, it’s one we’ve created all our own.
Sporting KC, the football team, are on an absolutely splendid run of form right now. In fact, that doesn’t near do it justice. Thus far, they’re perfect in 2012. They’re top of the league as a whole, and as far as anyone affiliated with Talkin’ Touches is concerned, they’re the best that MLS has to offer.
To quickly recap, Sporting are a 100 percent 18 points from a possible 18-team, outscoring their opponents 9-1 on the season, and having only trailed the opposition for a grand total of 20 minutes on the season.
It’s an awesome time to be a Sporting KC fan, without a doubt. But, come November and December, potential mass hysteria and catastrophic outrage awaits. There’s expectations of the highest order on this team’s shoulders that only grow larger with each consecutive victory.
Expectations are a seriously ugly thing. The United States National Team U-23 team was expected to qualify for the 2012 Olympic Games this summer, but crashed out in the group stage of qualifying last month in Nashville, Tenn. Similarly, teenage phenom Freddy Adu was expected to become a global star of the highest quality, but has only recently – eight years later – begun to show signs that he’ll one day get there. And completely unrelated, the Kansas men’s basketball team is expected to make the Final Four each and every year, simply because they are Kansas, but have done so only three times the last decade.
Now, Sporting Kansas City are baring the brunt of similar expectations. Peter Vermes’ squad are expected to win the 2012 MLS Cup; not just get to the game or host it at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, but to win the thing. And, perhaps most unfortunately, it’s not just Kansas City that’s heaping these lofty goals onto the likes of Kei Kamara, Graham Zusi, CJ Sapong and Matt Besler – a handful of players on a roster that collectively have won one MLS Cup trophy (Paulo Nagamura in 2005 with Los Angeles Galaxy). That’s no slagging off of those players, because they’re simply young, and never been on a team anywhere near as good as their current setup.
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Before the season began, the Talkin’ Touches podcast hosted what became known as “The Great Expectations Debate“, an hour worth of debate about just what should be expected of this year’s Sporting team. Charles Gooch, James Starritt, and myself argued the merits of what expectations and hopes really mean for a season. As a whole, it was pretty well surmised that Sporting KC would be a playoff team, likely in the Eastern Conference finals, with the absolute ceiling being an appearance in the MLS Cup final where, at that point, anything could happen.
Then, Sporting KC kicked the season off away to DC United, and they won. Then they won again, and again, and haven’t done anything since.
The current lot of players are much more than just the media darlings they’ve become; they can really play. They’ve run through two of the top teams in the league in consecutive weeks, and show no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The way the Eastern Conference is shaping up early on, they’ll run away with the division and probably mathematically lock it up sometime in early-September, and the hype will continue to grow.
I love Kansas City wholeheartedly; I’ve lived in this beautiful city the entirety of my 23-year existence and have grown to love pretty much everything about the place, but they sure do love them a winner, don’t they?
Oh, and the other thing about Kansas City sports fans: none of us have any clue what to do or think of this Sporting KC team right now, do we? We’ve been trained practically since birth – or at least I have – to harbour the “just wait until the wheels fall off” mentality in regards to the teams we support. Simply put, it’s not going to end well, because it never does.
It’s a fact that many still have one eye closed as Sporting tear MLS apart at the seams week-by-week, thinking only “surely this can’t go on forever, can it?” The first real test of the fanbase and city that’s slowly but surely come around on this “soccer thing” comes this week (away to Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers in a four-day span), when you can almost count on Sporting – gasp – losing their first game of the season, if not two of them.
Still, Kansas City is longing for a professional sports title (the 2000 MLS Cup stands as the lone major league trophy of my lifetime, by the way), and as Sporting KC continue to look the beautiful bride-to-be as that wedding day in the Caribbean approaches, the city and the nation’s eyes have shifted to them, sitting solo atop the league, ready to walk the aisle and take their place as the sole proprietors of Major League Soccer, otherwise known as a man and a woman’s wedlock.
But if they trip on those 6-inch stiletto heels* or step on the dress train and lose the fabric all the way to the waist exposing a not-so-lovely and hairy backside, it’ll be nothing short of this year’s “worst choke job of all-time,” and it’ll be all our fault it’s seen that way, because we got those little ole Kansas City hopes up and created the monster we’re all sure to witness.
*Full disclaimer: I don’t know if women actually wear stiletto heels on their wedding day. Actually, I don’t even know what stiletto heels are, so don’t judge me.
Why are all the commentators on Sporting KC waiting for our team to do badly? This isn’t about expectations, this is about excitement. Every rational sports fan knows that seasons are long, and that current victory is often followed by defeat. But rather than dreading that day, be happy that we have victories to celebrate.
I will be the first to admit that when times are tough, I will be pessimistic (oddly that is when the commentators and fans seem most optimistic). But its really a crazy thing to read article after article reminding me that the season is early and that there is a long way to go. We all know.
I will continue to be EXCITED about what I see: a team that has 11 players who can pressure and play defense on the entire field for 90 minutes. A center forward who has learned to hold up the ball and distribute horizontally. Two wingers who can place crosses with deadly accuracy. A stacked midfield who can run at any midfielder or forward in the league and either tackle or force a bad pass. And a back line that, when tested, has come up strong, with fewer lapses than I can count on one hand. And 355 (really more, that was an offside/penalty flag that was waived off) minutes without a shot on goal.
I know, and all the fans know, that this team is not invincible. But we are good. Damn good. Really, really, really damn good. I don’t expect anything in this season, but I’m really excited to get into the rest of it, road trips, home stands and all.
~Eric
EXACTLY the emotion and sentiment I was hoping to invoke is someone. I should have known that I could count on you to get it – you usually do.
It’s certainly not a “don’t enjoy it, because it’s GOING to end,” because I fancy myself a fair neutral, but I’m personally enjoying the hell out of it myself, too. And, you’re completely right: they’re a well-oiled, fine-tuned juggernaut of a machine right now. I won’t even argue anything you’ve said.
I’ll ask you this, though, and this is the ultimate, end-game point: if not winning the Cup is ultimately a failure after this start, how does Kansas City as a city receive the team and season after two straight “close calls” in two years? Because, IMO, it gets lumped in with every other lovable loser we’ve got.
As the kids are saying these days, I think this is a #FirstWorldProblem
I think you’ve really reached the core issue here… it’s not sports, it’s Kansas City: the home of the “lovable” losers.
I think the answer to your question is both yes and no.
Yes, if we do not win the cup, the greater Kansas City area media will lump us back onto G15 or whatever the back page of the Star’s sports section is. And yes, some “near fans” will let the teams early victories slide out of their mind and relegate Sporting to the hallowed halls of KC sports mediocrity.
But also no. Having watched the Wizards fizzle in Arrowhead (I do actually remember the 2000 season; I was in middle school), then slink away to CAB, and finally achieve the position they are in now, there is very little that could derail my hopes for this team.
Most of the fans now of Sporting KC will be fans whether or not Sporting actually win the cup or simply make the playoffs. Even if Sporting KC go 30-2-2 and win the MLS Cup with ease, many if not most of KC will still not see Sporting KC as anything more than “a minor league team out in Kansas playing that kick ball game.”
In the end it’s not whether we win championships or not, its about playing the beautiful game, getting fans excited, building the brand, and keeping LSP rocking. On the other side, Peter Vermes will keep developing talent and developing as an on-field coach.
You are all right to think that it’s possible that these things may not come together this year (again). But on the other hand this is a team with a former player coach, a local owner, and which is backed by willing corporate dollars, a combination that does not exist in other Kansas City sports franchises.
What LSP, the rebrand, and all the moves made by the organization have proved to me is that they will not let this team stay bad. They are willing to do what it takes to be the best. And so I will support Sporting confident in the knowledge that the people behind the team are in it to win it. As long as that is true, victories, hardware, and a new future for soccer in Kansas City are on their way.
Right, right, right on all points.
That said, they’re not at all worried whether you (and other people that read this blog – the diehards) are gonna be back. They already know you are. They want (read: need) those “near fans” you mentioned. That’s why they spent $200M on LSP, that’s why they gave hundreds of free tickets every week in 2011. That’s why they spend money to have multiple radio shows in KC every week. They (Robb, et al) CRAVE those “near fans”.
The expectations were echoed by Robb early on with his #PaintTheWall hashtag on twitter. Quite frankly as a KC sports fan, I find it good one of our owners goals is to not just qualify for the postseason but to win hardware. Even if we don’t happen to win MLS Cup (as playoffs are an iffy proposition at best), we stand a good chance of of collecting the Supporters’ Shield with our current form. Depending on our depth I hope we make a good run in the US Open Cup as well.
What I find interesting is that Peter seems to have learned from last year in his subs of giving up games late. There have been a few matches last year, that we would have squandered points at the end. This team as a whole has grown together along with it’s coach into a really well oiled machine.
It’s taken a few years, but what the ownership, coach & team have done is really a blueprint for MLS to follow. That we get to reap what has been sown has been a true joy to behold.
Since LSP opened last year the worst results in any 3 game stretch has been 4 points, meaning at least one win in 3 games. So for this current team the wheels falling off would be 2 losses in 3 games. I may be wrong, but without major injuries I just don’t see the wheels falling off this team. They are well coached and managed and while no “superstar” have amazing overall talent on this team.
Now could there be a bad bounce of the ball or the team be unfocused for one minute and we lose in the conference final, sure. Will I be disappointed if that happens, especially if we win the supporters shield and would be hosting the MLS cup, YES. However if we are in that position it will have been a great season and after a few days I will be looking forward to what the 2013 season will bring.
I know ownership, management and the players will be more disappointed than even the fan base will be. Which may be one reason it is so easy to dream what this team can do, because they have the same dreams, if not even higher than the fans.
I am sure Robb has thought about playing in and I would be even winning the World Club Championships.