Smaller venues, same-sized passion...

It's been incredible to watch so much soccer this past month. Admittedly, international soccer is my favorite to follow and impossible to beat. But if you are new to soccer in general, or perhaps, only follow the big games/leagues but have decided to support your local club, this is my welcoming message to you (and To the fans of the game and the club, we have work to do).

Our season kicks off again (starting tomorrow) against the league's worst team in terms of likability (pardon my bias). STL packs so much arrogance for so little MLS history/success to show for it.

Sporting has published a new article that I believe is beneficial for new fans to read: https://www.sportingkc.com/news/five-things-presented-by-compass-minerals-sporting-returns-to-mls-action-with-trip-to-st-louis-july-16-2026

But I also have my own POV that may or may not be beneficial.

The TL:DR version:

SKC is the bottom of the West. Our rebuild has been slow, but is finally taking shape. We have twenty games and a transfer window left to improve. The last three games before the break were the first evidence in two years that we should have hope, as we finally saw progress. St. Louis is playing well; our first game back is away at STL, and they're our biggest rivalry. The club is investing; we should say we see you by showing up (watching the game or going to the match if you can).

The long version: First off, we're not good (true for the past several years). But we have experienced MASSIVE changes that should make you believe we will soon make our past a blip in an otherwise historically impressive presence in the league. But, back to us today not being good....we're not, and I'm not going to open by pretending. We're 3-9-2 with 11 points, last in the West, 36 goals conceded in 14 games. But...we also closed the first half of the season playing better than we have in two years, and we've added three starting caliber defenders since the break began. St. Louis is 4-6-4, unbeaten in five, and into their first ever Open Cup semifinal. This is an important game against a team in form. And we just spent five weeks showing the entire planet why we have the self-claimed title of Soccer Capital of America.

Our season has twenty games left before the playoffs. Making it into the playoffs would be an insane turnaround. It wouldn't hurt to hold on to some hope and optimism that we could do it, but only do that if you are not easily hurt :)

Let's dive deeper into how we got where we are this year. Go back to February 21. That was the earliest opener in club history, and the club reset project was just barely started, and to what many descibed as too slow and clearly not good enough. Ten players came in over the offseason. But for the most part, all felt like reserve level players or added because we needed to fill a roster. Our new manager's (Wicky) first XI at San Jose had all eleven starters aged 28 or under, the first time in 31 seasons for this club, with 17 year old Ian James at center back. Six players made their SKC debut in one match. We lost 3-0 to a very good new squad at SJ.

That's the honest version of the start. Not a slow start. A demolition and a rebuild happening at the same time, in public, in February. Is it reasonable to have expected better? Yes, but we didn't get it, and the rebuild will continue. And it has.

I'm going to fast forward a smidgen, because I think this part defines where we are today.

Colorado Springs beat us 3-0 in the Open Cup Round of 32. Most leagues have these secondary tournaments. England, Spain, Germany...etc. Look it up, but in short, for us, we played a USL Championship side (It's a lower division league), and we helped them achieve their first ever win over an MLS team, and we were four-time champions of that tournament. It was devastating.

Then, shortly afterward, on April 11 we lost at home to San Jose and made it seven straight regular season home games without a win, a club record. May 9 we lost 6-0 at Portland. We lost the expected goal battle (xG, a stat used to describe how many expected goals a team SHOULD of had)... we lost the xG battle in all eleven games before the middle of May and averaged three shots on target a game across the opening eleven.

So, in recap: thirty six goals conceded in fourteen matches. We achieved the highest goals scored against in the league table. That's bad. But even worse, we only scored fourteen and yes, that was the lowest in the division. That's not bad luck, that's a rebuild that has only begun on paper but not on the pitch yet.

Hopefully you are still with me here... because then something turned.

May 13, we beat the Galaxy 3-1 at Sporting Park. First home win of the year, snapped an eight game winless run in all competitions and an eight game winless run at home. Four days after getting beaten 6-0 in Portland. Was 6-0 our rock bottom? Could we finally say we are no longer decending? Our time for ascension is now?

Well, May 16, we won 2-1 at Austin. If you are keeping count, that is Back to back regular season wins for the first time since July 2024.

May 23 we lost 2-1 at home to RBNY (From my POV, I thought it would have been a bigger loss instead we won the xG battle in that one. Shots went from 7.5 a game to 17.3. Shots on target from 3 to 8.7. Manu García had a goal contribution in three straight, all off the bench, and he's now at 13 assists in 41 games for this club, a rate second in club history behind Preki. Look that legend up! And Calvin Harris had two goals and two assists in his last three, including his first two in Sporting blue. So, not a win, but filled with positives we can stand on.

So, now, what's different today? Well, the club didnt relax during the international break, they spent some time addressing the thing that was actually killing us. We acquired three new starting-level players.

Or Blorian (great name), he's an Israeli international, captained Hapoel Be'er Sheva to their first title in eight years, center back
Emir Karic, left back, transfer from Sturm Graz (a pretty good team from the Austrian league, which is a pretty good mid-tier European league), 343 career appearances in Austria and Germany
Moises Mosquera, center back, transfer from FC Juárez, 99th percentile for interceptions in LIGA MX last season

So, remember that 36 goals conceded stat? This is three starting-caliber defenders to help keep us in games. The secondary transfer window is open until September 2, and we still have a third DP slot open and U22 slots to use (basically meaning a "star" signing and a rising star signing), and clubs can change roster construction models between July 1 and the window closing. In short, our rebuild is not finished, it's just beginning, and we now have twenty games left to climb.

Now, the game at hand.

STLs start: They have a new coach too, appointed in December, new front office, new system, new roster, and per their own local coverage one of the tougher schedules in the league to open with. Maybe, but what we can say is they kind of sat in the same place of a rebuild and also struggled at the start.

Their finish: I hate to admit it, but they finished better than us. They won three of their last four league matches before the break, closed with a 3-0 home win over Austin that was only their second clean sheet of the year, and they're unbeaten in five across all competitions. Twelve players have scored for them this season and only two have scored more than once, which tells you it's coming from everywhere and also that nobody's carrying them.

Where they are now: 4-6-4, 16 points, 12th in the West, four points off a playoff spot. They're also into the first Open Cup semifinal in club history after beating Houston on penalties in May, their first ever shootout win. We need to watch out for Hartel, who has three of their sixteen goals and has now got three career braces for them.

But they cannot brag either... they have 16 goals in 14 games, and that is the second lowest in the West.

Historically speaking (with as much changes we have both had, it doesn't really matter other than to the fans) but, they have still never won at our place. Five tries, we're 3-0-2 there across all competitions. And we swept them out of the 2023 playoffs, including a 4-1 at Energizer Park. That's ours forever. But Thursday is at their place, they're the form side, and Jayden Reid is going to be lining up in our back four against the club he played for the last two seasons. Maybe he has a nice grudge he can carry and use that to inspire the team to fight.

If you read this full thing, you too must be excited for the start again. Because for the past five weeks this city did something I never expected to see in my lifetime.

We hosted six matches and I think the count was more than 413,000 people walked through the gates. There was more than 300,000 at the Fan Fest at the WWI Museum, and they had to stop letting people in on the last day because it hit capacity. Four teams picked us for base camp, including Argentina and England, and England asked for a training site that wasn't even in FIFA's catalog, probably because we are just so dang hospitable. Never forget that messi's first World Cup hat trick happened here and of course those Thirty six some thousand Dutch supporters hopping left and right downtown in that orange color.

But, one stat I might be most proud of is that Kansas City was the number one television market in the country for every single USMNT match, and number one for the tournament overall. Not Seattle. Not Boston. Not LA. Us. The smallest host city on the board, but the greatest soccer capital in America.

The club's running "Thanks World, We'll Take It From Here" as part of the biggest coordinated marketing push in MLS history. Some argue the inititave is started too late. Others believe it was the right time for the right budget. That's their job to do; hopefully they got it right.

Here's what I think we as fans can actually do, and I'm asking as much as I'm telling:

First Game On Us is real and it's still going. Anyone who has never been to a Sporting match can claim up to two free tickets to a remaining home game. Spread that to anyone who has ever said to you during the past month, I never really paid attention to soccer (or the mls). What a perfectly timed gift from SKC: https://www.sportingkc.com/skc-first-game/
July 22 is the one that counts. I talked about some of the new signings. Well, there is a process to get them here and unfortuantly they cannot all start right away. But we will have Minnesota at home, on Wednesday the 22nd. That's the first look most of these new people will get in person. A half-empty Sporting Park a week after 413,000 people came through Arrowhead is the wrong story to hand them. The club is reinvesting. Did it happen like we all wanted? No. But they ARE investing. Show you appreciate that by packing the house.
Thursday itself. Blue Hell watch party in the Budweiser Brew House at Sporting Park, gates at 6, I think I read somewhere that the first two drinks and the food are on the club. Keep the high going of soccer watch parties. Go somewhere it's loud instead of watching alone if you can.
This weekend closes the loop. Soccer Capital Summer wraps at Sporting Park with the third place match Saturday at 4, with that band from the 90's Third Eye Blind at 6:30, and the final Sunday at 2 with Coco & Breezy at noon. Based on what I could find it's free to get in, but registration is required, and costs ten dollars for parking? Seems backwards, but OK.
Have we sucked? Yes. Are we improving? It feels like it. Nobody who fell in love with Argentina at Arrowhead is going to fall in love with a 3-9-2 record. Sell them the ninety minutes, the stadium, the noise, the fact that they can see the players' faces. Sell them that they get to take part in a resurgence.

So the question for you all: who's the one person you're bringing to Sporting Park this summer who's never been, and what did they love the most about the past five weeks? Use that to help create new fans.

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