The ups and downs of a Major League Soccer season will be on display on Saturday in Kansas.
Without a win over its first 10 regular-season matches, Sporting Kansas City stumbled hard out of the gate suffering seven losses with three draws.
Now trending the right way (just one loss in eight matches, including four straight wins at home), SKC has moved above the Western Conference playoff line into ninth place with 20 points.
Remembering how to play together, including a 1-1 draw at BMO Stadium on May 17, is how the club got over the hump.
“We were honest about it when we weren’t winning and we weren’t getting the results we wanted,” said Hungarian forward Dániel Sallói, the SKC captain. “We tried to do team events. We tried to do everything to regroup and start writing on a blank page again. It was just a spark.”
The incendiary moment also inspired what Sallói described as the “fire pit dance,” which Kansas City showcased four times in a victory over Austin FC last weekend.
“A little bit like the Ted Lasso method,” Sallói added. “If it’s silly but it works then keep doing it.”
Hosting the third-place Los Angeles Football Club (7-3-5, 26 points), which began the year strong before its recent slump, an on-form SKC (5-8-5, 20 points) has the third most points in MLS since May 7, going 5-2-2 in and out of league play beginning with its first victory in Seattle.
That makes LAFC’s 4-6-2 record across all competitions over the same period of time seem like nothing to be concerned about, except the defending MLS champions have scored just one goal in six matches, losing five and drawing the other.
Previously, it took 67 competitive matches for LAFC to get shut out that many times. This also constitutes the second-longest winless streak in LAFC history (after eight in a row in 2021), following three losses over 26 matches dating to last September.
LAFC’s current downturn appears less like a roller coaster ride with an inevitable climb – though that is what the players say they expect – than a snowball gathering weight and speed as gravity does what it wants.
It’s understood that the physics of the club’s slump centers around its heavy schedule, which to this point features 25 matches and 33,004 miles traveled across four countries.
“They’re in a very tough situation so we have to do our best to take advantage of that,” Sallói said. “I am sure they are in some form scared of us. You’re always scared of a team in form and that’s us right now.”
Poor play and fatigue have dampened LAFC’s confidence and brought less cohesion on the field. Players have emphasized the negative side of competing as individuals as opposed to the dominant, dictating group that pressed and attacked as it pleased since 2018.
“When you want to do more it’s important to identify whether it’s doing more for the group or as an individual,” Colombian center back Jesus Murillo said. “You always want to do what’s better for the group, so it’s easy to overdo things.”
If Coach Steve Cherundolo’s players manage to recall what makes them formidable and secure at least one point in any of their next four matches, LAFC will reach 300 points faster than any MLS team.
LAFC AT SPORTING KC
When: Saturday, 5:30 p.m. PT
Where: Children’s Mercy Park, Kansas City, Kansas
TV/Radio: Apple TV – MLS Season Pass/710 AM, 980 AM
