After a red hot start, Sporting Kansas City has cooled off in recent weeks. At 4-4-1, they currently own the six seed in Major League Soccer Western Conference. Of course, there is still a lot of soccer to be played and Sporting will need to pick it back up if they want to keep pace with clubs like FC Dallas and LA Galaxy.
Sporting jumped to the top of the table after winning their first three matches. Beginning the season with a 1-0 victory in Seattle, they won their first home game against Vancouver 2-1. Sporting then proceeded to hold the formidable Toronto offense scoreless, winning 1-0 and recording a clean sheet against the team of MVP Giovinco and the USMNT’s Jozy Altidore.
Following an impressive start to the season, Sporting lost a home match against Real Salt Lake 2-1, beginning the skid they are currently on. Sporting did manage to pull off a road win against the New York Red Bulls, but let’s be real, there aren’t many teams worse than the Red Bulls.
Since then, Sporting has lost three matches and finished one match in a draw, including a tough home loss to the Colorado Rapids. Sporting has also fallen to FC Dallas and San Jose and tied with Vancouver.
They will look to rebound in their upcoming matches against LA Galaxy and Houston.
Sporting is currently on a challenging road trip, traveling for six of eight matches. They could gain some ground during a home stand of three consecutive matches at Sporting Park, and six of eight matches at home between May 15 and July 10.
Unsurprisingly, forward Dom Dwyer is leading the team in goals thus far this season with 4, as well as 10 shots on goal. Also promising is the fact that three different players have multiple assists already this season, including defender Saad Abdul-Salaam, midfielder Graham Zusi and Dom Dwyer himself.
Sporting does not want to be in the same position as they were last year, scrambling to barely make the playoffs, earning the western conference six seed. They are too talented for that. Luckily, MLS is still far off from playoff time, and Sporting has plenty of time to right the ship.
They will need to lean on their core players, like Dwyer, Zusi and midfielder Benny Feilhaber in upcoming weeks in order to rebound from the current skid.