KANSAS CITY, Kan. – With all due respect to Spinal Tap's amps, this is what really happens when a No. 10 turns it up to 11.
Sporting Kansas City playmaker Benny Feilhaber, who already has racked up career-best season totals in both goals and assists this year, is on an unprecedented run of form that has seen him score, record at least one assist – or do both – in six straight matches across all competitions.
“He's locked in,” center back and captain Matt Besler told reporters on Wednesday night, after Feilhaber had a first-half assist and scored the game-winner in the 80th minute of Sporting's 3-1 victory over Real Salt Lake in a US Open Cup semifinal. “Everyone loves scoring goals. Everyone loves getting assists. Everyone loves winning. Benny's focus to do it day in, day out is something I've never seen from him before.”
The 30-year-old Feilhaber hasn't seen it from himself before, either.
“No,” he said in Sporting's post-match news conference, after being asked if he had ever been on another streak as hot as this one. “You guys always want a lot of words from me, but it’s that simple. I feel good and confident. The team is performing at a high level right now, and that makes it easier, but to answer your question I haven’t felt this good, this confident, this fit in my whole career.”
In his third season with Sporting, Feilhaber has 10 goals and 17 assists across all competitions. His five assists in Open Cup play are already a club record, and his next assist will tie Preki's single-season mark for all competitions, which has stood since 2003.
“He's crazy,” winger Krisztian Nemeth told reporters after Wednesday's semi. “I don't know what he's doing, what he's eating, but he's good. He's the best now.”
Feilhaber will be glad to see the assists record fall, and not just for his own sake.
“It's fun to beat Preki in something,” Feilhaber told MLSsoccer.com after Wednesday's news conference. “I don't know if he's going to be too happy about that, but as long as the assists mean that other guys are getting goals and we're getting wins, then that's what it's all about. That's what my responsibility is on this team, and I'll keep trying to do it.”
But as his teammates and manager Peter Vermes have said all season, Feilhaber's offensive work is only part of what has made him so valuable to the club.
“One of the things I just told him walking in here was that his work ethic has been fantastic on both sides of the ball,” Vermes said during the news conference. “That’s why he’s found opportunities and we have been successful. He seems to be much more in tune, and because he defends he has more opportunities to get the ball. That is a credit to him. You need balls to be able to do that, and that’s not soccer balls I’m talking about.”
- Get more SKC news at SportingKC.com
Feilhaber has rarely lacked for self-confidence – but club success had largely eluded him until he came to Sporting in a trade with New England before the 2013 season. At the time, Sporting were coming off a 2012 US Open Cup title – their first silverware since 2004 – while Feilhaber had struggled through a one-goal, two-assist season with the Revs.
“I don't know if you envision having this kind of season or having this much success,” Feilhaber said. “I think what I envisioned coming here was that this is a winning team. It's a team that's going to vie for championships every single year. The decision that I made and Sporting KC made to bring me here was one that was solely based on the team. I knew I wanted to be part of a winning organization. I hadn't been part of too many winning organizations in my professional career up to that point.
“So it was something that I wanted, and obviously it's been what's happened here.”
Feilhaber first had to adjust to Vermes' system and Sporting's stringent fitness requirements, a transition that took up the first half of his first season in Kansas City. But once he got up to speed, Feilhaber made himself a key component of Sporting's success – not to mention a fan favorite and, this season, an MLS All-Star and legitimate MVP candidate for the first time in his career.
“He's taken the responsibility on his shoulders, and so much of this game is confidence,” Besler said. “Right now, there's no more confident player on this team than Benny.”
Feilhaber embraces that confidence, but is keeping his main focus on his club's chances to win trophies rather than on individual records or accolades.
“We won MLS Cup in 2013. We're in the finals of Open Cup this year,” he said. “Both years that I've been here, we've made it into the playoffs. This year, we should definitely make it into the playoffs again and vie for another championship. So that's why I came here, and the personal success comes with the team success. That's what it's all about.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
