Having four countries base camp in (or near) KC along with us hosting however many games are being played at Camarohead should go a long way to dispelling the myth that KC is a cow town, and should promote the understanding that KC is more the Paris of the Plains than a a cow town or fly over country. That said, I recently hosted family from Italy and there is still disbelief when they tell their friends they are going to the good ol US or A and visiting KC. On the facility side, the fact that the defending WC champ selected the facility that SKC train in as their base camp can only be a benefit in drawing players to SKC. Argentina having a game in KC, and KC being centrally located, are major reasons they are here, besides the nice facilities. Beyond that, I don't think the other facilities/basecamps matter and I would contend that some of the facilities selected (like Swope) are just a series of turf fields and aren't going to impress pro players. Will the activities in KC help? Probably. But ultimately, players will come to SKC for the $$$ and relative anonymity you get being a pro soccer player in the US. They won't care too much about the cool facilities at Pinnacle.
Yeah, it is about money, but having folks in KC, and lettering them see that it is actually a place where people can live, does matter. Oddly, Parisians might know of KC because of Charlie Parker. Berliners, not so much. That said, lots and lots of professionals make their livings in cities are not top of the heap places. No reason SKC can't compete with those places.
National team level facilities help, but (rightly or wrongly, mostly wrongly) KC is still perceived as the Manaus of this WC. Ultimately SKC will attract whatever level of player they are willing to spend for regardless of how many times we say "soccer capital of America", bbq, jazz, Mahomes, etc.
We're on a list of places to visit this summer with Houston? FFS. OTOH, tracks, as no one hear has ever mentioned or probably thought about either place. But, on Soccerwise, they were discussing the expectation that Miami will need to move players, and Yannick Bright is prime among those being considered. They also mentioned that Kevin Paredes has been released by Wolfsburg and is open to returning to MLS. We should jump on both of those.
Does Bright give us anything Bassong doesn’t already other than a higher TM evaluation b/c he plays on Miami?
Isn't Bassong our first choice left back? I would suggest Bright allows us to play Bassong there (without him, we are crap) and still have bite in defensive mid. Also, as we learned, Bassong makes us a much better side in dmid and that Bassong can get injured and miss a lot of time. Bright gives us talent and depth. I think we've also learned that while LBJ is interesting as an 8/Amid, he's crap as a 6. Bassong and Bright together could be a nice pairing, IMO. I'm not sure it's better than Bassong and Davis, but we seem to have zero intention to play Davis anywhere but up the right side. Overall, I would suggest more talent is always better than less talent on a roster. Bright, and Paredes, represent talent. However, I thought he had a green card. I'm not sure we should use a precious INT slot on a quite good but not really great dmid
Based on his play the last 2 games would you move him to LB? I know that’s where he seemed destined to play, but his play in the last 2 games you don’t want to move him to LB, he’s too valuable in that midfield pseudo empty bucket with LBJ. The long term goal should also be to find a way to get Garcia in the midfield, not bury him behind a midfield of three basically 6’s. LBJ hasn’t been playing as a 8/10, he’s been a second 6 just with a different role than Bassong’s ‘destroyer’ 6. At this point I’d be finding a starting quality LB and leave Bassong in the MF.
I'd find a second and third high quallity CB (in addition to Blorian, with whom, who knows) and move into a 3-2-3-2 with Bassong and Davis as the wingbacks,/dmids, LBJ as the Amid and Manu with Jovelic.Capita and either Harris of a new higher end player wide ( say Paredes).
So this would be ambitious. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/73...hared_gift_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta
Correct. Though on the soccerwise discord, Tom did say that it was a longshot. And from our majority owner. Doing everything we possibly can during the break.— Peter Mallouk (@PeterMallouk) June 10, 2026
So, reports say Or Blorian's contract began on June 2, though in the past week he has been with the Israeli national team for a friendly against Albania. I'd guess he will be arriving any day now?
I'm not sure this is a possible signing for us. but, to me, the much bigger news is that we are thinking about the 3+3 approach. Given that we have been poor at finding and signing high level U22s, I like the idea of adding more talent to the roster. That said, we need a lot more than one more piece. Still, it leaves us with 2 open U22 spots
A position of need. https://www.90minuten.at/de/red/mag...n--fabio-ingolitsch-war-der-richtige-impuls-/
New outside back. https://www.sportingkc.com/news/sporting-kc-acquires-defender-emir-karic-in-transfer-from-sturm-graz
Honestly a little surprised that one happened after reading some of the comments about the European interest in him. That's easily the biggest defensive upgrade we've had under Lee, and good to finally, finally see.
Sure you're not confusing Karic with Blorian as the biggest defensive upgrade? Or did he slip your mind?
Both incredibly important. Two national team level players in the back four means our defense has a lot of potential.
I think Karic adding to Blorian has the potential to be a nice upgrade. But it's an upgrade on a truly terrible defense. I like James, but he's really young. We need at least one more major upgrade. I guess I'd want a right back, but another CB would be nice, as well. Two of Bassong, LBJ and Davis are okay for a double pivot, with Bartlett as injury depth. But i would not mind a very strong dmid upgrade for a single pivot. If we're going for a third DP, i'm convinced this is where we get the most bang.
The less time we spend thinking about SKC during the World Cup the better. It's been ages since I have had this much fun watching soccer. There's great energy in the City and we've been portrayed in an extremely positive light. And the matches have been very fun. I kind of dread having to return to thinking about the club that's slowly been trying to kill my love for this sport.
World Cups are a lot of fun. So are Euros. But all of this for me is with an eye on if maybe there's a new signing in this thing for SKC. Country is dessert, but club is the meal, for me.