For the Glory KC

S3E34 - For the Glory KC is back with the 99th episode of the show! (Our 100th episode is next week, should we do something special?) 

Sporting Kansas City and the KC Cauldron put on a cool event this past week. Manager Peter Vermes (he joked several times, he's not the Sporting Director anymore) and CEO and President Jake Reid did a town hall with KC Cauldron members. I share just a couple of the many, many stories that he shared and questions that he answered. I would call it a 'must attend' event and if you are a member of the Cauldron, you should definitely go next year. And if you aren't a member, you should probably consider joining. I really enjoyed meeting people and all the information we got from the event was great and you aren't going to hear most of it elsewhere.

We also got into a conversation about how Major League Soccer may change their transfer window dates. It seems like a real thing that may happen by 2025. Check out the reporting on it by Tom Bogert. 

Sheena and I also had to discuss the 1-1 draw between Sporting KC and the New York Red Bulls. It really felt like SKC were going to steal all three points after a very up and down first half. We get into the goals (including this fantastic Davis to Pulido number), the thin lineup and the bad refereeing.

Speaking of bad officiating, we have to discuss that ridiculous second yellow/red card to Jake Davis.

We also had to talk about the blown PK call where Shelton was cleaned out in the box, but the ref swallowed his whistle. It feels like the game could have been very different if not for some very inconsistent officiating.

The KC Current played at the same time as Sporting KC and got back to their winning ways. They won a tight 1-0 game where the Utah Royals had a handful of really good chances, though the Current were clearly the better side. The game marked the return of Bia, another start for Almuth Schult and a different tactical look from Vlatko and company.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E33 - For the Glory KC is back with the 98th episode of the show! (Our 100th episode is coming up, should we do something special?) 

Sporting Kansas City keep the momentum going with a huge semifinal win over Indy Eleven to book a place in the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup finals against LAFC. They got there on goals by Johnny Russell and Dany Rosero.

It wasn't always smooth sailing for Sporting KC though, as Indy Eleven gave them all they could handle in the second half, but Tim Melia repeatedly came up big to keep a clean sheet. The game also marked the return of Logan Ndenbe to the starting lineup and overall had a unique lineup that looked a lot more like 2023 than 2024 (with the exceptions of right back Khiry Shelton and midfielder Jake Davis).

The game came to an end with an ultimately meaningless penalty kick that was missed by Alan Pulido. It made us wonder who should have taken the PK instead of Pulido based on who was on the field, as well as who would have gone if a game came to penalties.

The KC Current continued to faulter as they lost their third straight NWSL game. This time it was the North Carolina Courage who got the better of them. It made us wonder if it's simply a slump, them running into tougher teams, or if they aren't as good as we thought they were.

The team also made a series of transactions this week trading away Hanna Glas and Jordan Silkowitz while bringing in Kayla Sharples (formerly of Bay FC) and signing a few extensions. The NWSLPA also announced their list of free agents, which were loaded with KC players, including: Elizabeth Ball, Kristen Hamilton, Vanessa DiBernardo, AD Franch, Nichelle Prince, Almuth Schult, Desiree Scott and Mallory Weber. Who should Vlatko prioritize to keep? 

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

And there is no good way to talk about this, but a Sporting KC fan tragically lost her life as a result of injuries suffered in an auto accident outside the US Open Cup game on Tuesday night. If you'd like to donate to the family of Summer Lynn, they have a Go Fund Me setup.

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E32 - For the Glory KC is back with the 97th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City pulled off a great win when they returned to MLS play on Saturday. They won 3-0 over Orlando City which will serve as a nice tune-up for the do-or-die game against Indy Eleven on Tuesday in the US Open Cup semifinals.

We break down the unique lineup, that included Zoran Bassong in the midfield. Also, the top moments from the game including the goals and the other performances that stood out to us.

Then we get to the rumor of the week that Kayden Pierre was being sold to Belgian club, Genk. A rumor, later confirmed by Peter Vermes. Is Mike Burns responsible for the first sale since Gianluca Busio? We talk through what this means for youth development, how the transfer fees come back into the system to help Sporting KC and more.

Unfortunately, when one KC teams wins, apparently the other one isn't allowed to. The KC Current fell to the Washington Spirit earlier today in a crushing 4-1 result on the road. Kansas City remain on the road to face the North Carolina Courage next weekend, who are suddenly nipping on their heels as KC slipped from 1st to 3rd in the standings in back-to-back NWSL games. What went wrong? We give our theories.

In more mixed Current news, the teams moved on from Alexa Spaanstra and Lauren this week but signed Hildah Magaia to offset some of that movement. Jereko also made her debut against Washington, but it wasn't with enough time left to change the game.

And in possibly the biggest soccer news of the week, the NWSL and NWSLPA reached a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) through 2030 that includes elimination of all drafts (college and expansion), free agency for all, players ability to veto trades and a whole lot more.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E31 - For the Glory KC is back with the 96th episode of the show! 

Sporting Kansas City didn't lose this week. Of course, they didn't play either. However, they did make some news. They finally made a signing, basically their first "big" signing of the year. We technically don't know how much new center back Joaquin Fernandez is making, but I'd guess he's on a Targeted Allocation Money (TAM) deal which is more than the four minimum contract guys that were signed in the offseason. It may be less, but it won't be the minimum.

After making guesses how Joaquin will fit in, Sheena and I took a listener question and basically did an entire podcast about it. If we didn't have to follow any roster rules and could ignore contract lengths, who would we actually keep on this team?

We didn't go through every single player on the roster, but we hit the vast majority of it. There were definitely a few surprised decisions and a few super on brand for us.

It's an interesting exercise because it reminds you it's hard to let go. There are only four players fully out of contract after the season and there was an argument to keep all but one of them in some capacity (though I personally took a harder stance).

Then most of the players that Sheena and I agreed we should move on from if the roster rules and contracts didn't apply, aren't out of contract and can't really be moved on from at all without a trade, transfer or the use of the single buyout. In other words, the 2025 edition of Sporting KC will probably look a lot like the 2024 version. It's important the changes that are made, are done to perfection.

The rebuild for Sporting KC may be long and hard.

Thankfully, we have the KC Current to lift us up in these dire times. They played in The Women's Cup this week and won the whole dang thing, lifting the first trophy in club history. Shame so little of you saw it, unless you happened to own a Vizio TV. Seriously, the channel was only available on a specific brand of TV in the United States. Wild choice by the organizers of this competition.

In addition to the two wins, we give the tiniest insights on new KC Current signing Jereko and where she may fit in.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E30 - For the Glory KC is back with the 95th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City came back down to earth this week with two losses just days apart to get bounced from the Leagues Cup. First, there was a competitive game against Toluca FC that featured a beautiful Stephen Afrifa goal, only to come up short. But SKC won the expected goals (xG) battle and showed some promise.

Then Vermes benched Willy Agada and went back to Alan Pulido and the team had an abysmal 4-0 loss against the Columbus Crew that only had an xG of 0.1 over the 90 minutes. The Crew are really good, but they made Sporting KC look even worse. And perhaps, SKC aided them in that. They kept it close for 44 minutes and then it went completely off the rails.

Over the course of these two games, Sheena and I discuss some good news (returning injured players like Logan Ndenbe, Jake Davis and Dany Rosero) and a lot of bad news (Pulido playing the 10, Agada missing so many shots PV thought Pulido was the solution, etc.). In particular, we got to wondering if there is a starting center back among the five on the roster currently.

Right now, the team has Andre Fontas, Robi Voloder, Robert Castellanos, Chris Rindov and Rosero. Of those, the team can literally move on from anyone but Rosero by simply letting their contract expire (Fontas) or not picking up their options (all the rest of them). So, what should they do? That part of the conversation picks up at 39:34 in the podcast.

[Teaser for next week's pod: With no Sporting KC game, we're going to look at the whole roster and finally answer a prompt a fan asked us weeks ago about who we'd keep in a world without roster rules.]

The KC Current did what they do and won both of their games this past week. They won their group in the Summer Cup and then won their semifinal matchup against the North Carolina Courage to make it to the finals (which are in October for some reason).

Then we got into the roster movement the Current went through in the last week. Claire Lavogez is gone (though nothing has been officially announced), as is backup goalkeeper Hope Hisey. Then the team brought in a 33-year-old GK in Almuth Schult. What does it mean for AD Franch and Jordan Silkowitz? We give our thoughts.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E29 -

For the Glory KC is back with the 94th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City are back to their winning ways, even if it is against the lowly Chicago Fire. They thoroughly controlled the game, and despite going down 1-0 early, fought back for a 2-1 victory. Superman made its way into the show twice this week, including Willy's form on the diving header and a weird discussion about what Peter Vermes has tattooed under his shirt. It was a little For the Glory KC #AfterDark, but the lite version.

The Chicago/Sporting KC game led to discussions about Stephen Afrifa starting to break out, how to pronounce Robert Castellanos (among other things about his goal), Remi Walter (and an over/under on how much he's discussed), and the four Sporting KC II loanees who are rostered for Leagues Cup. Sheena and I also had a debate about left back with Logan Ndenbe's return to the bench and who should still be around between him, Tim Leibold and Zorhan Bassong.

Rubiel Vazquez from PRO made back-to-back appearances as the center ref and made a few, slightly less impactful, bad calls this week. The Alenis Vargas no-call felt the most shocking due to the sound it made when he hit the end boards.

Marinos Tzionis was also sold this past week and we give our thoughts on his relatively brief stint at Sporting KC.

The KC Current finally return to the podcast with their games and our recording schedule lining up. Breaking news: They are still really good at soccer, even shorthanded. They dominated Pachuca 3-0 and frankly could have scored more if they put their foot on the gas. That's despite missing Temwa Chawinga and nearly a dozen players total.

And the KC Current surprised us again with another blockbuster trade, this time coming into KC, with Alana Cook coming to town from Seattle.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E28 - For the Glory KC is back with the 93rd episode of the show! 

Sporting Kansas City played a lot of games since we last recorded a podcast. Five to be exact. And we just took off one week for our Canadian vacation! Sheena and I discuss our trip to the great white north, Banff, Vancouver, Albert, British Columbia and more.

Then we get down to the soccer, starting with that 1-1 draw against rivals St. Louis City SC. To lead off the game, we had to discuss Thor getting away with a challenge that should have seen him sent off for a second yellow at the very least.

Beyond the STL/SKC game, Sheena and I debated the future of Remi Walter with Sporting KC. His contract is up after the season, and he'll turn 30 early next year. With the emergence of Jake Davis in his natural midfield role, Memo Rodriguez being a stable backup, the impending signing of a TAM level midfielder and his $900,000 salary, does Remi still have a place on Sporting KC?

In addition to the St. Louis game, we talk about our experience seeing the Vancouver Whitecaps game in person. Plus, we breeze through the two FC Dallas games and the San Jose Earthquakes game, which were all victories, from while the podcast was on its break. Are we the reason for the losing?

Then we had to talk about those sweet, sweet retro kits and accessories!

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E27 - For the Glory KC is back with the 92nd episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City had a busy week both on and off the field. Primarily, this week's episode is focused on the off the field matters due to recording schedules. We're heading out of the country early in the week and may be taking a brief hiatus from podcasting, so be sure to subscribe to the podcast to catch when the next episode comes out.

This week, Sporting KC introduced Mike Burns as their new Sporting Director and he and Peter Vermes covered a lot of interesting topics at the introductory press conference. There were budgets (the largest ever), staffing updates, player signing plans and more.

Then things got really interesting when Sam McDowell of the KC Star sat down with managing owner Mike Illig and Peter Vermes to get deeper into the weeds. He has a must-read article outlining the utter lack of a budget since 2020. It sheds a new light into who is to blame for how things have worked around Sporting KC the last couple years. Vermes isn't guilt free, but Sheena and I go over the ways things have been handled that were beyond Peter's control.

I'm personally thankful for this ownership group rescuing the Kansas City Wizards and doing an amazing rebrand, building a soccer specific stadium and all the success they've brought over the years. But that story Vermes told about ownership passing on a DP striker in 2018 because they were already in first place, makes me think there would be a third star about the crest if things were handled differently.

The hope is, going forward, ownership gives the budget and gets out of the way and lets the soccer minds handle things. And if they are given a fair shot to fix some things they weren't given a fair shot at before, and they don't fix it, then ownership can step in and make a change.

Listen in for all the details and quotes.

We also briefly discuss Sporting KC's loss to the Colorado Rapids but move quickly to the Missouri side of the border to talk the Kansas City Current. Unfortunately, the losing on the Kansas side trickled over and the KC Current's unbeaten run came to a rather uninspiring end against the Orlando Pride. The fans in the stadium were lighting up the ref, but was it really the refs fault?

Plus, a fun little Temwa Chawinga/Vlatko Andonovski story that is inspiring for KC's future.

In the Digital Crawl, go quite a bit deeper than usual on a few topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E26 - For the Glory KC is back with the 91st episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City got themselves back in the win column this week for just the fourth time this season. On Saturday night, they shut out Austin FC 2-0, just their second shutout in 21 tries this season. The victory was picked up by quality finishing and even better defense.

It also feels like someone over at Sporting KC in the technical staff may be listening to the podcast. Last week, we put out a loose plan for going forward in 2024. Stop playing guys that'll be gone after the year, unless you are trying to see if you need to bring them back. It wasn't perfect, as Andreu Fontas found the bench, but Johnny Russell and Tim Melia still started. Russell played lights out and Melia had very little to do since Austin only mustered two shots.

SKC also played the midfield trio of Nemanja Radoja, Erik Thommy and Jake Davis, a group I've personally been clamoring to see together more. Davis did well to make up that ground coverage that Remi Walter supplies and a touch of physicality in the midfield this team doesn't have outside of Memo Rodriguez. The game also saw the return of Alan Pulido and Tim Leibold from injury, with Leibold scoring the game winner.

Walter, Daniel Salloi and Robert Castellanos were all listed as questionable, but they all sat out the game.

Speaking of physicality, it reminds us immediately of the retirement of Roger Espinoza. He was honored before the game and spoke to the media at halftime and a little in the locker room.

The conversation wouldn't be complete without all the front office movement from the week. Brian Bliss is out, and Mike Burns is in, though not in exactly the same job. We'll have a better understanding of Burns' role after the Tuesday press conference as Peter Vermes asked we avoid asking about Burns in the post-game presser. Sheena and I give our initial impressions on the hiring and firing, knowing more information is coming down the line.

The Kansas City Current continue to set records and hold back the opposition. In the past week they went to the Portland Thorns and won 4-1 and then returned home for a 2-0 win over the Houston Dash. We share our thoughts on those games, Temwa Chawinga, the river 'goal' and so much more.

In the Digital Crawl, we hit a few other topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.

S3E25 - For the Glory KC is back with the 90th episode of the show! Things get weird as we recorded waaay after dark.

Sporting Kansas City had another rough week. So much, that my co-host preferred we "just get it over with" on Saturday night versus waiting to do a podcast on Sunday. Despite that, we have a lot of thoughts about the losses to Real Salt Lake and the Columbus Crew. I'd like to think it was more about the catharsis of getting some of these thoughts out, while they are fresh in our minds. For a deeper tactical breakdown, check out the Home and Away podcast.

Amazingly, it's not all bad. For years we've criticized when SKC just did the same thing over and over and expected different results. At least they tried some things.

There were massive lineup changes in both games including rolling out a 3-4-3/5-4-1 against the Crew. Andreu Fontas seemingly got benched (until an injury). Kayden Pierre made consecutive starts at right back (and may have broken a bone). Both goalkeepers got starts, allowed four goals, and stunningly were some of the better players in those games. Young players got extensive minutes at forward too.

This episode has some venting. It has some rants. It even has a bit of a plan for what we'd like to see from Sporting KC for the rest of 2024, since ownership made it clear Peter Vermes is safe.

We also had to learn a little bit about the Keepers of the Spoon. Sporting KC are dangerously close to the bottom of the table and fans will probably need to read up on how that Wooden Spoon 'trophy' works. Is it a trophy? Is there more than one of them? We have the answers, but until then, thankfully, the San Jose Earthquakes still exist.

The Kansas City Current have some nuggets, but we recorded before their game. Double coverage next week!

In the Digital Crawl, we hit a few other topics, including:

Here is a rundown of topics (and approximate start times):

Upcoming Schedule:

We recently turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and are a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

As a special gift to For the Glory KC listeners and KC Soccer Journal readers, Backheeled dot com is giving away 30 days of their amazing, independent American soccer coverage for free. If you decide you want to turn that into a paid membership, they'll give you 10 percent off too. Just follow this link!

Big thanks to Splitter Conspiracy (listen to them here) for our theme music made with the permission of the KC Cauldron.