2020 Season Preview: Sporting Kansas City

2020 Season Preview: Sporting Kansas City

A common refrain of Sporting Kansas City season previews from offseasons past is “get a center forward.” Here are some quotes from past ASA and MLSsoccer.com previews to that effect:

  • “Up top, SKC again has depth, but are still lacking a proven MLS goal-scorer.”

  • “There are a few questions, though, with Kristzian Nemeth stepping into the club's starting center forward role.”

  • “However, the talk will almost always turn back to that No. 9 position. It's not that Sporting have been completely deficient there over the years, it's just that they've never really found a solution that stuck.”

  • “What Vermes hasn’t done (yet) is land the forward #SKCnation yearns for.”

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Lowered Expectations: Week 20

Lowered Expectations: Week 20

Welcome to Lowered Expectations, week 20 edition! Each week, we go about posting chalkboards and GIFs of the weekend’s best open-play shot attempts which did not quite live up to expectations (and rarely do we update this paragraph). We look at each one and not only evaluate the results, but also the process leading to them.

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Sporting Kansas City 2017 Season Preview

Sporting Kansas City 2017 Season Preview

The 2016 campaign for Sporting Kansas City ended on a .500 note (13-13-8), but it was not a team that went through the season that picked up wins, losses or draws on a consistent basis. It was a campaign that saw the team enjoy the highest of highs and the lowest of lows, and everything in between. 

Sporting roared at the start of the season, picking up four wins out of five, seemingly ready to put behind the demons of that gut wrenching penalty playoff loss to Portland in 2014. But after flying out of the gates, SKC immediately washed away those gains by picking up just one win in the next 11 matches. SKC would limp into the playoffs as the fifth seed, only to be knocked out by the eventual MLS Cup winners (again) on a late header from Seattle Sounders' forward Nelson Valdez.

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Gold Cup Team Preview: Honduras

Honduras is the team nobody wants to play. With the USA and Panama the clear favorites to finish 1st and 2nd in Group A, Honduras has little pressure on their backs. This was a difficult group draw for them, but their path to the knockout stages isn't unimaginable. Featuring a cohesive and experienced pool of talent, this is a team that is capable of surprising some experts. Still, the big names left off the final roster have raised some questions about if they’re taking this tournament seriously.

How did they get here?
Honduras was the last team to qualify for the Gold Cup after beating French Guiana over two legs. In a battle between the 5th place teams in the Caribbean Football Union and Central American Football Union respectively, Anderlect player and DC United veteran Andy Najar was the hero when his brace helped “La H” come back from a 3-1 defeat in the 1st leg to win 4-3 on aggregate.

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