S3E06 - For the Glory KC is back with the 71st episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City didn't have any huge news in the week, but there were a lot of little stories building towards the start of 2024. First, the roster seems set with the news that Kellyn Acosta would not be signing with Sporting KC and Peter Vermes confirming it's "highly unlikely" a Designated Player is signed before Week 1. Sheena and I share how we're feeling about the roster.

Then we weigh in on Khiry Shelton's now serious injury and surgery, Daniel Salloi's injury situation and how preseason is going for Sporting KC and if it leaves us feeling optimistic or pessimistic.

Plus, we have to talk about the possible advent of Blue Cards in soccer around the world. Blue cards -- they aren't just for indoor soccer anymore! IFAB is considering 10-minute "sin bin" penalties for dissent and cynical fouls that would leave a team down a man. Also, two blue cards equal a red, or a blue and a yellow equal a red (which is confusing because those are all primary colors).

The KC Current don't get much love this week because I couldn't get to media day on super short notice. That said, Kristen Hamilton dropped some promising quotes in the KC Star, and we talk about the outlook for 2024.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S03E05 - For the Glory KC is back with the 70th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City had a relative active week, considering how slow the offseason has been. They played the final preseason game of leg one before coming to and from KC in the proceeding days. They'll be back in Miami by the time you read this.

Outside of the preseason game itself, a 2-1 Nashville SC win, Peter Vermes gave updates on player performances, Khiry Shelton's injury and more. Then there were the transactions. Sporting KC made a trade that could open the door for a future move and added Memo Rodriguez as depth. I lay out my theory how the next few weeks and then summer transfer window may play out. My masterplan if you will (that's during segment two, timestamp below).

Then we switched gears to talk about Sporting KC's youth development problem and its latest saga with Ramiz Hamouda leaving the SKC Academy without a contract and the team getting nothing for him.

We also briefly talked Leagues Cup news too.

The KC Current made a series of signings this week too (Mallory Weber, Regan Steigleder and Sophie Braun) as well as an extension for Lo LaBonta. Vlatko Andonovski also gave some training updates and let us know who is a full participant and who we'll still have to wait on.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S03E04 - For the Glory KC is back with the 69th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City have a lot going on this week, considering real soccer is still nearly a month away. A topic to break Sheena's heart is if Kellyn Acosta, rumored to be joining KC, is being looked at to replace Remi Walter long-term. He primarily plays that same position and Remi is out of contract after the 2024 season. We take a look at the cost and fit of Acosta within Sporting KC.

We also briefly discuss Memo Rodriguez being on trial, the 3-3 Sporting KC/Charlotte FC draw and all the Peter Vermes quotes that came out of the post-game presser. Plus, our takes on the leaked Sporting KC secondary kit, the other leaked MLS kits and Sheena does her first "bio" of 2024, covering Marinos Tzionis. Who else would you like to see a mini-bio on?

The KC Current have a ton going on as well. We go over the schedule release, all the signings (Bia Zanaratto, Desiree Scott and Bayley Feist), the trialists and the departures (Cassie Miller, Mimmi Larsson). And I have a radical idea that the NWSL should adopt -- getting rid of trades.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S03E03 - For the Glory KC is back with the 68th episode of the show!

Sporting Kansas City, against everything I personally expected, did the right thing and moved on from Gavin Wilkinson. But somehow, they still got that wrong. From the non-apology given by Mike Illig to Peter Vermes' refusal to even entertain answering questions about the whole situation in Saturday's press conference. We have thoughts!

We do get to actually talking soccer this time out though, getting into all the Sporting KC preseason news. From the roster to the schedule and the results of the first game. Plus, we catch up on that Kortne Ford signing that got lost last week. And did Roger Espinoza officially retire? 

The KC Current are back in the news for many reasons. We catch up on their two trades and weigh in on yet another player being caught out by their trade. We also catch up on their rumored signings (Desiree Scott and Bia) as well as the 2024 NWSL College Draft.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S3E02 -

For the Glory KC is back with the 67th episode of the podcast but it's going to be a little different than usual.

Sporting Kansas City made headlines this week with the hiring of Gavin Wilkinson as the team's new Sporting Director. It's a search we didn't hear about until the hire was made. Peter Vermes gave up his title but got a new one -- Chief Soccer Officer. Wilkinson will report to Vermes, even though it's often the other way around with a coach/manager and the Sporting Director.

For the podcast this week, instead of doing our cheery, usual thing, we've decided to dive deeper into the Wilkinson hire. No digital crawl. No KC Current news (why drag them into this). No news on other signings or happenings around the team or the league. That will come at another time (maybe). This is dedicated to Wilkinson's history that led us to this place today.

Because not everyone wants to listen to us talk for an hour, I'll put a portion of the podcast details in writing, so they can live there forever.

What I will tell you about myself is I'm an 'evidence guy.' While I wrote the initial 'news' piece of the report of Wilkinson's hire, I tried to minimize how much my opinion was in that story. After spending many hours reading the Yates Report and other sources, I feel confident in my final position. But you can decide for yourself.

I will tell you this is by far the most research I've put into a podcast that is usually just a husband and wife talking about the teams they love. I'm tired, but I hope it was worth it! It's been a mentally draining four days since the announcement.

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S3E01 - For the Glory KC is back with the 66th episode of the show and the first episode of season three. And waiting an extra day brought a lot of news!

Sporting Kansas City made waves on Monday when they did something that I personally thought was just a fun op-ed I wrote. They moved the Sporting KC versus Inter Miami/Messi game to the Kansas City Chiefs Arrowhead Stadium. Sheena and I discuss the pros, the cons and the massive risks the team is taking. The potential for embarrassment, either by Messi not playing or Sporting KC simply losing, could be disastrous (except for the impact to their wallets).

I'll also go ahead and place this poll here, so we see how it ends. The fanbase looks pretty divided on this one as of publication.

Then we switch gears to a tease by Sporting KC of the return to Argyle Kits. It's not clear if it's for the secondary kit, which gets replaced this year, or the rumored third kits that may be returning. But this has to mean we're getting Argyle Kits, right?

The KC Current don't want to be left out as they made an intriguing signing adding Malawi forward Temwa Chawinga. Plus, the NWSL made some mostly promising rule changes that kick in for 2024 that we go over.

In the Digital Crawl, we touch on the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S2E58 - For the Glory KC is back with the 65th episode of the show and the final podcast of season two and 2023!

We look back on 2023 and our favorite memories from Sporting Kansas City and the KC Current. Sadly, we have to talk about Gadi Kinda no longer being on Sporting KC, even if we've seen it coming for weeks.

Then we break down the 2024 Sporting KC MLS schedule. The biggest dates, the possible road trips and of course, Messi. Which naturally led us to the debate about if the Inter Miami game should be moved from Children's Mercy Park to Arrowhead Stadium.

The SKC preseason was also announced, meaning no more preseason trips to Arizona, but Florida is on the table. We give some new details on the three Sporting KC draft picks, some changes to the US Open Cup (again) and of course, the Digital Crawl, y'all.

In the Digital Crawl, we breeze through the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S2E57 - For the Glory KC is back with the 64th episode of the show!

On this week's episode we decide to do a "double episode" with Christmas coming next week and likely a slow news week with it. If you are only interested in certain teams/topics, be sure to check out the run down below.

We start the show with Sporting Kansas City as they made some moves this week and a few more rumors rolled in. We get into the signings of left back Zorhan Bassong and forward Alenis Vargas. Sheena and I share our thoughts on the players and how the roster spending flexibility hasn't been impacted much by these moves.

Sadly, that brought us to Gadi Kinda, who is "extremely unlikely" to return according to reporting from Paul Tenorio and Tom Bogert.

Then we turned our attention to Major League Soccer at large. MLS took the extraordinarily (stupid) move of removing all MLS teams from the 2024 US Open Cup. We have thoughts! And then we get into a mostly positive set of rule changes, that certainly don't go far enough to capture the attention of the audience with Messi only in Miami for two more season. The spending isn't changing much but some of the time wasting may be a thing of the past.

The KC Current also made some big moves this week, swinging an unpopular trade for expansion draft protection and signing two other players in other transactions. Izzy Rodriguez re-joins the team, and 17-year-old Claire Hutton will come over from New York.

Finally, we get to the Digital Crawl. We breeze through the following topics:

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

**Apologies in advance, there is a little crosstalk between us. We record on a website (Riverside) that captures our audio to our computers, so we were apparently cutting out live, but just talking over one another on the hard recording. It's not a ton, but it happens!

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S2E56 - For the Glory KC is back with the 63rd episode of the show!

On this week's episode, Sporting Kansas City didn't do a darn thing this week, but we still found stuff to talk about. There was a minor rumor, already covered here on KCSJ, about Gadi Kinda. MLS Commissioner Don Garber gave his State of the League address, and he dropped a few nuggets:

Then we moved over and talked about the Twitter Mailbag. Next time we'll have to expand to Instagram and the comments on the KC Soccer Journal. We took a lot of questions on youth development, Peter Vermes, offseason moves that are done and are still to come, stadium experiences and more.

Finally, we get to the Digital Crawl. We breeze through the following topics:

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

The offseason picks up Monday, check the schedule!

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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

S2E55 - For the Glory KC is back with the 62nd episode of the show!

On this week's episode, Sporting Kansas City made a series of massive roster decisions likely ending the KC soccer careers of Roger Espinoza and Graham Zusi. Sheena and I commiserate, remember fond times and get some of the feels out about their departure. On top of that, we talk about if the moves make sense and how we wanted to see their careers end. Plus, could they end up on other clubs? There is a lot of Roger and Zusi talk to kick off the pod.

Then we move to the other moves on the roster. From Kortne Ford and the center back situation to our child's proclamation that she has disowned the team over Cam Duke's departure. We can't skip Sheena's favorite player Remi Walter, or the news Johnny Russell is coming back and what that means for roster spend and flexibility. There is still a fair amount to discuss around the rest of the roster including Gadi Kinda, Kendall McIntosh, Stephen Afrifa, Willy Agada and more.

Beyond that, Peter Vermes has already come out and said the team needs a backup goalkeeper, left back for the injured Ndenbe, another CB (they already have five), midfielders plural and help in the attack. With 24 roster spots filled and only six available, that's six players right there. We give an early preview of what else we think this team needs to do this offseason.

Additionally, PV addresses the talk of a fourth Designated Player and changes to the current DP rules and we weigh in on that.

Then we speed through the handball that PRO got wrong, and the Sporting KC II roster moves.

Finally, we get to the Digital Crawl. We breeze through the following topics:

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

Spotify took away our ads, so we turned on "Listener Support." Don't feel obligated, but if you have a few spare bucks and a fan of the pod, we'd appreciate your donation.

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