SKC has to have become the most anonymous club in MLS. If you went up to even MLS fans and asked them to start naming SKC players, most would run out very quickly. At the moment, they're bottom of the West. Slightly worse than their Missouri brother, St. Louis. The stench from the middle of the country is really putrid. The two other bad teams are Austin and Houston. Those are the four teams with 6 points or less. [Why isn't Ben Olsen's seat blistering hot in Houston????] SKC needs to pick a lane. They want to go in the youth and player development way, but also..........................it seems they're not able to recruit like they used to. They have to share their homegrown territory with St. Louis and its not like Kansas City is a sexy destination for others to move to. If you're the next Tanner Tessmann or Chris Richards in Birmingham, Alabama............would you move to SKC if Miami wants you?
KC fell apart when ownership changed (at least I think so). The last ownership took them out of the Hunt sphere, out of Arrowhead and into a temporary stadium an then a real nice one on the Kansas side of the line. Pretty good for a while but then Vermes got long in the tooth and Clint says they became unremarkable in all ways and have been losing in bunches. A way to get youth is to actually play them. Trade or get loans for young players like San Diego did / does and play them. Dallas lost their mojo with coaching changes and when one coach didn't play youth. Kids started going elsewhere. Philly might be entering that territory (we'll see). Kids go where the money is and I mean where they can play so they get a good next job. Not places where they never get a chance and stagnate.
SKC is in the beginnings of a multi year rebuild. Vermes wore all the hats and after firing him mid year last year they really dragged their feet replacing him. The roster was already not good and the academy was already raided so they're going to be very bad for awhile more than likely. By most numbers they are by far the worst team in the league.
Big, big win by BJ and Nashville at Azteca. MOTM performance by 24 y/o keeper Schwake. He kept a clean sheet with 8 saves against an xG of 1.18 Is BJ the first American coach to win at Azteca?
Schwake had one play (from the highlights, anyway) that he needs to do better on in the future. It was a cross over the edge of the 6 that he came out for but neither caught nor punched a ball that he should have either gotten to or otherwise stayed his ground. But he had a lot of good saves and actions regardless. One to keep an eye on based on the limited stuff I've seen.
It's the first American club team to win there so I assume so. And since I think Jurgen was the coach when we won the Orozco friendly there ... yes?
It'll be interesting to see what SKC's strategy actually is. For years, it was basically having Vermes vertically integrate everything for efficiency. For years, they also recruited outside of the KC area before teams started to fill in the map. For example, Busio was a North Carolina kid. But now, they are a small market team in a league allowing significantly more salary variation than ever before. Briefly, at the end, they sprung for a couple of guys like Alan Pulido for a last hurrah, but as Vermes' style became outdated, they fell apart. So now ... you're not going to compete on payroll going forward, I don't think. How do you win? They took City Group's GM and gave him the reins, but I'll be interested to hear the strategy. I actually do think development can work anywhere, but I suspect that KC may look at their homegrown territory and go more the Portland route instead of the Philly route. But the reality is that if you don't pay, you have to develop. Maybe it's more the Bruce Arena college guy route, but I'm not sure foreign acquisition scouting can be a competitive advantage for SKC when you have teams with worldwide networks in the league.
Certainly amongst USMNT and MLS coaches............................ The USMNT won at the Azteca, but that was under Klinsmann. Right? Goal by Michael Orozco. Also, of course....................LAFC got a draw on the road at Cruz Azul yesterday. Cruz Azul outshot them 26-4 and carried 72% of possession. But the scoreboard says 1-1. So now we have an MLS team in each semifinal. Good stuff. I don't have a ton of faith in the Galaxy turning their series around. Maybe Seattle does against Tigres? Maybe??
I didn't see that Nashville game last night. How did Reed Baker-Whiting perform at left back? He's one I'm really interested in. They didn't start the veteran Lovitz, but Reed instead. They also brought 20 year old Matthew Corcoran off the bench. Good stuff. Trusted in him at the Azteca! I know nothing about Schwake. Has he won the job over Joe Willis?
Seattle should have a decent shot. We've beaten Tigres at home by multiple goals before and Schmetzer won't be sitting Jesus this time. I'm still very concerned about the defense since we're depending on either Alex Roldan playing CB next to Ragen or Tino Lopez who was going to be more of a Defiance player this year because of a huge run of injuries. The homefield advantage at Lumen is usually pretty good too, we've run several Mexican teams out of the park there (2022 CCL final, and the infamous 7-0 against Cruz Azul just last year as examples). Personally I think that IF Seattle goes through it'll be 4-1 because we will likely give up a goal. Us having to throw numbers forward from the beginning could make the game pretty wide open. Galaxy tie is over, it would be arguably one of the most shocking results in a long time if they go down to Toluca and make up a multiple goal deficit having given up 4 away goals.
No, no, no. It's in LA. Galaxy has 2 away goals and they get Paintsill back. I don't think this is over at all. Toluca is the best of the Mexican teams and Galaxy probably the worst of the MLS teams, but a 2-0 or 3-1 win is not impossible. I really want Seattle to come through but I'm not sure they can score three on a bunkering LigaMX teams. It's kind of the reverse LAFC set up here.
We've never had a CCL/CCC edition with 3 MLS teams in the semi-finals before. So that would be a nice milestone if the league could achieve that tonight. (It's been exactly a decade since we've had an all-Liga MX final 4, so I'd like to think those days are behind us. More often these days you see an equal mix of MLS/Liga MX teams at that stage, but you do still occasionally see 3 Mexican teams in the semi-finals, such as in '24.)
Galaxy did extremely well to only lose by two goals while playing 8,800 feet above sea level. The leg in SoCal will be interesting.
Its amazing to me how in a salary capped league, Seattle and LAFC are seemingly the US representatives every year. Columbus and Philly have also done a heck of a lot for MLS in recent years. Galaxy are often involved, too. There’s a bunch of new clubs who seem poised to join that A Tier - Nashville, Miami, San Diego, Cincy, and I still believe Atlanta will figure it out. I hope NYCFC do too once the new stadium is done. Those clubs have really done a lot for MLS, and in a very short time.
Well, consider how well the Patriots have doing in the salary-capped NFL these past 30 years. A capped league favors the smart owners.
RBW basically kept Zendejas in check other than maybe one hiccup that Z did nothing with. He's basically Nashville's starter now replacing Bigsoccer favorite Lovitz. And yes, Schwake is now the starter after winning the job.
Most of Philly's top academy players aren't from the Philly area. They recruit nationally. No reason at all that SKC cannot do the same. They just have to really commit to it, and commit to creating a pathway to the first team. They just need to demonstrate on a yearly basis that players are breaking through and getting minutes. They'll be able to recruit. They're centrally located, and easy to get to from both coasts. Granted, some of this is dependent on the league (read the owners) making it more appealing for teams to choose different roster building strategies. Loosening the Home Grown player rules (get rid of the territories) would go a long way. Though I can understand why some owners may not want that. The two NY teams will go wild recruiting talent nationwide, along with Philly being annoying Philly as well. Also, San Diego will likely be a big recruiter of talent as well. Vermes did a great job at drafting in his early years at SKC, and then rode those few early draft classes for 10 years. They just never really evolved along with the rapidly changing landscape in MLS. There wasn't really any succession planning for players being done, and at the end Vermes was too reliant on his old stalwarts.
Seriously, who is the SKC player closest to the National Team? Houston have McGlynn. Austin has Owen Wolff.
NIMFASHA BERCHIMAS SCORES HIS FIRST SENIOR GOAL FOR @CHARLOTTEFC 🇺🇸💪An Aloko-Berchimas connection made in @MLSNEXTPRO 👀 pic.twitter.com/91mT7rkQ26— Golazo America (@GolazoAmerica) April 16, 2026
No doubt. They just have to make some pretty substantial investments and I don't know if they will. It really hasn't become clear what David Lee is going to do there.
I remember when the key to advancing American soccer was Southern California player development. Has the Galaxy developed anybody?
We didn't have a ton of faith in the Galaxy last night. Bummer that Seattle didn't go thru after a 3-1 win over Tigres. Quite an American-heavy starting XI. And the subs were Arriola, Dotson, and Musovski. C'est la Vie. Two Liga MX versus MLS semifinals in the CCC. Nashville versus Tigres LAFC versus Toluca Tigres has now eliminated both Cincinnati and Seattle. Toluca has eliminated San Diego and LAG