Sporting Kansas City<\/a> are starting to make a very good argument that they\u2019re putting together the worst campaign in league history \u2013 especially after this weekend\u2019s 5-0 drubbing by the Chicago Fire.<\/p>\nOn paper alone, SKC have been staggeringly bad. After nine matches, they have but a single victory, an unconvincing, 2-1 win over an LA Galaxy side who have been navigating their own atrocious campaign. SKC are well on their way to shattering the record for worst-ever goal differential in a single season (they are currently at -18), having scored only seven goals through about a third of their campaign, a mark that also threatens the league\u2019s all-time low.<\/p>\n
For years, Sporting has been held aloft as a model MLS franchise, the first example of an MLS original that reinvented and rejuvenated itself. They were among the league\u2019s most consistently competitive teams for over a decade (even if they rarely made a deep run in the playoffs), but there were signs that this downfall was coming.<\/p>\n
They have gotten progressively worse over the past three years. No team in MLS have fewer points over that timeframe. The departure of Peter Vermes last year after over a decade with the club \u2013 Vermes was both head coach and the chief soccer officer for his entire tenure \u2013 was needed, but a leadership void naturally followed. Sporting appointed the widely respected David Lee as sporting director, but expiring contracts and declined options left the club with just 12 players entering the 2026 offseason. And the most experienced of those, forward Daniel Salloi, was soon traded to Toronto FC.<\/p>\n
Still, there was hope that with more roster flexibility than any MLS team is likely to have without being an expansion club, Sporting would finally turn a corner and start building for the future.<\/p>\n
Not so. SKC have rolled out something akin to a USL roster this year, though even that assessment may prove generous given they were obliterated in the US Open Cup by the Colorado Springs Switchbacks, a midtable USL Championship side. Lee, alongside first-year head coach Rafa Wicky, says the team have a longer-term plan, a roster build that will start in earnest this summer with the addition of recruitment staff that never existed under Vermes. In the meantime, what could\u2019ve been a transitional year has turned into \u2013 as of now \u2013 the worst season in MLS history.<\/p>\n
There are, of course, other candidates. DC United had more own goals (four) than their leading scorer, Luis Silva (three), during a staggeringly bad 2013 campaign, though that team somehow managed to win the Open Cup. FC Cincinnati put up a trifecta of awful campaigns early in their history which included a 20(!)-game winless streak in 2021. Reaching back further to teams like the NY\/NJ MetroStars and Tampa Bay Mutiny feels more statistically challenging because the league lacked draws for several years and played significantly fewer matches.<\/p>\n
Online discourse among SKC\u2019s faithful seems to center around whether this is a coaching or talent problem. At the moment, it certainly feels like both, and however you cut it, this is by far the worst team in Kansas City\u2019s 30-year history, by a wide margin. \u2013 PM<\/p>\n
USMNT goalkeeper controversy brewing?Matt Turner has been in great form for New England so far. Photograph: Crist\u00f3bal Herrera\/EPA<\/p>\n
In news that will spark either joy or heated debate (or both!) among USMNT fans, Turner is the best goalkeeper in the league right now, even as he\u2019s expected to be a backup at this summer\u2019s World Cup behind NYC FC\u2019s Matt Freese.<\/p>\n
The good news is a welcome change of pace for Turner, who was between the sticks for the United States\u2019 5-2 loss to Belgium last month. Though Turner didn\u2019t cover himself in glory, his performance was far from the USMNT\u2019s biggest problem that afternoon, with head coach Mauricio Pochettino somewhat absolving him of responsibility in his post-game remarks.<\/p>\n
His play with New England this year unquestionably puts him among the league\u2019s elite: using Fotmob\u2019s algorithm, Turner has prevented just over six goals in 2026, a league best. He\u2019s done so while facing around 2.5 shots more per game than Freese, and about a half a goal more in xG as well.<\/p>\n
Turner also passes the eye test. His efforts against Miami last weekend \u2013 and Atlanta a week prior \u2013 were fearless, and Turner bore no responsibility for either goal he allowed in those two matches.<\/p>\n
Which leaves Mauricio Pochettino with a call to make. Poch has clearly favored Freese over the balance of his time with the USMNT, but he\u2019s also shown a willingness to roll out players based on current form. If that\u2019s the math he\u2019ll use in a little over a month when the US face Paraguay in their group stage opener, Turner feels like a better fit. \u2013 PM<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his near-30-year run as a head coach in the elite tier of American soccer, Bruce Arena has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":413913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-413912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=413912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/413912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/413913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=413912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=413912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=413912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}