Sporting KC seeks to regain ‘mojo,’ as Peter Vermes warns against falling confidence
The 2023 season has gotten off to a grim start for Sporting Kansas City. While injuries provided context for some of the club’s early struggles, the time for that to suffice as the leading reason is starting to run out.
Simply put, it’s now a concerning trend. The club is winless in its first seven matches, and it has only scored two goals in that time.
When asked how he’s feeling about the start of the season, Sporting manager Peter Vermes said he “doesn’t have anything else to say on that.”
“I’m not going backward here,” Vermes added.
Clearly, Vermes’ focus — and that of the team — is on moving on and turning things around against the San Jose Earthquakes. And frankly, it has to be that way.
The 1999 Wizards had the worst start in club history, and 2023’s start nearly matches it. In fact, that 1999 team is the only other squad in MLS history to score two goals or fewer through seven matches. Unsurprisingly, that team also went winless.
Only a few teams have gotten out of the hole Sporting has dug thus far. A total of 11 teams have started an MLS season without a win in their first seven matches, and only three have made the playoffs as a result.
No team with a seven-game winless streak to start has made the postseason since the 2009 Columbus Crew, who happened to win the Supporters’ Shield that season.
The other two teams to do so came in 2003, when both the Los Angeles Galaxy and DC United made the postseason. But in that era of MLS, you made the playoffs as long as you didn’t finish last in your conference.
In 2023, nine of the 14 teams in the Western Conference will make the playoffs, which is good news for Sporting, but the way back has to start now. And as Vermes pointed out after last weekend’s 1-0 loss to the Rapids, Sporting needs to score some goals.
The team hasn’t exactly defended poorly, conceding only eight goals in seven games — and half of those goals came in their one defensive blip against the Seattle Sounders. If you extrapolate that average over the entire 34-game schedule, it would make Sporting a top five defense in six of the last seven full MLS seasons.
“If you’re stingy at the back and not giving up goals, it’s going to be a positive and put you in a good position to win games,” said Sporting KC defender Graham Zusi. “So we can’t get away from that side of things.”
The defense has only conceded multiple goals in two games the entire season, giving Sporting plenty of chances to win.
“We just haven’t got that final product down yet, and I think it’s a matter of time before things start clicking in that category,” Zusi said. “I think we just need to find a little bit of our mojo, and once that happens, I think you’ll see the floodgates open.”
Erik Thommy alluded to waning confidence in the attack after the loss to Colorado. He himself has taken nearly 30 shots in the team’s first seven games and has yet to see one find the back of the net.
While a drop in confidence is understandable, it’s the fear of putting yourself in a goalscoring opportunity that Vermes cautions against.
“If you get into that world and you stop and you’re really conservative about how you go about things, you won’t solve the problem,” Vermes said. “You’ve got to have courage, you’ve got to have bravery, you’ve got to go for it, you’ve got to take risks. You’ve got to do all those things, and you’ve got to be willing to get in front of the goal and potentially miss again.”
Vermes believes too many players are trying to take the team out of its woes on their own, taking a shot when they shouldn’t or an extra touch — or not playing the pass when they could.
While he doesn’t believe he’s seen the fear from players yet, Vermes acknowledges they could begin to doubt themselves.
“You’ve got to guard against that and just go about doing your business,” Vermes said. “Because the only ones that have the solutions are the guys here — nobody else outside of here.”
