A collective euphoric release of literal months of pent up energy was finally able to be expelled at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday night as Dejan Joveljic slotted home two goals in the 2nd half of what had otherwise been a pretty cagey derby match with Pink Dog Food SC, meaning the good guys came away with a much needed 2-0 victory, and Kerry Zavagnin got an undefeated start to his time on the SKC sideline as interim head coach.  

It was a match that did feel different in the stadium, both in atmosphere as well as the tactics on the field.  While the changes were far from wholesale, Kerry did put his imprint on the match and the team in this game, and by and large the decisions he made seemed to work effectively, and addressed areas of need that we’ve highlighted a bit recently.

There were a number of standout performances, especially the two Designated Players that were brought here to help create goals, and we got to see them make good on that promise, additionally getting into combination areas centrally with each other, and giving all of us some sense of optimism about the potential of their partnership that was candidly hard to see before this match.

We will get into all of that and more this week, as well as discuss Tim Melia’s retirement, some more big moves in MLS, and what we thought of the USWNT’s performance in two friendlies against Brazil this week before doing a preview of this Sunday’s brunch match against the Portland Timbers.