KANSAS CITY, Kan. – It's been a few years, but Peter Vermes has been through this sort of thing before and come out on top.
Sporting Kansas City's manager will take his club to Red Bull Arena on Thursday for the Eastern Conference Knockout Game, a quick rematch of Sunday's 2-0 home defeat to New York in the regular-season finale. Kansas City went winless against the Red Bulls in three regular-season matches, but Vermes said after Sunday's game that the playoffs represent a clean slate for his injury-plagued side.
“I was playing for Colorado in 1997, and we made the final playoff spot, and we played Kansas City four times that year,” Vermes recounted in his postmatch news conference. “They won all four and outscored us 15-2. Our first game in the two playoff games was here [in Kansas City]. They were the No. 1 seed, and we beat them 3-0.”
That Rapids team went on to reach the MLS Cup final before falling 2-1 to D.C. United, but three years later Vermes helped Kansas City – then the Wizards – bring home their first title.
“I can tell you that I think anything is possible when you step into the playoffs,” he said, “but at the same time, we’re a team that has some things to overcome.”
Those things have been well chronicled: A run of injuries, several of them season-ending, that began in late March and never let up. Sporting limp into the playoffs tired, banged up and with midfielder Benny Feilhaber (ankle) and right back Igor Juliao (hamstring) questionable for Thursday.
“It's what we have right now,” midfielder Paulo Nagamura told reporters after Sunday's match. “We cannot make any excuse. We have to deal with who we have in our group now. It's a short turnaround, only four days, but we're playing the team we just played, and the guys are going to come back with a different energy and mentality, I believe.”
And despite their struggles down the stretch, left back Seth Sinovic said on Sunday, “We're a team to be feared. We're the defending champs. We've got playoff experience, and we're ready to go.”
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Even if Feilhaber can't go on Thursday, Sporting still have plenty of players available – Sinovic and Nagamura among them – who either started or saw significant time in last year's MLS Cup shootout victory over Real Salt Lake. And for several of them – including Sinovic and a trio of perennial MLS All-Stars in winger Graham Zusi and center backs Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin – this will be their fourth straight postseason with Kansas City.
“We still feel we're one of the best teams in the league,” Besler said on Sunday night. “We've been through a lot of experiences. We've gotten knocked out of the playoffs. We've been knocked out at home. We've won cups. We've played in [CONCACAF] Champions League. We feel like we have a lot of experience.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
