Vancouver V SKC 4/17/2026.

I want to know what the hell happened to the squad we saw in late Feb/early March. 2-2 vs CBus, 1-0 loss to San Diego and 2-1 win at LAG.

Since then, a string of blowout losses. 4-1 to Colorado, 3-1 to RSL, 3-1 to SJ and 3-0 to Colorado Springs. That's 13 - 3, or minus 10 goal differential in 4 games.

The narrative early was "new season, new coach, we don't have all our players, etc.".

WTF happened? You have 3 new guys. They look pretty bad so far.

Coach keeps playing Shapi. And playing him out of position.

Keeper makes mistakes every game.

Back line is the worst I have seen at SKC, and there have been many terrible back lines here recently.

Players that were good last year, like Miller, look lost. He specifically took 5 steps backwards. I'd argue Pulskamp took steps backwards (shot stopping still good, everything else went backwards).

WTF happened over the past 6 weeks to make a bad team that was playing hard and at least not embarrassing itself turn into the laughing stock of MLS (minus Montreal, of course. Thank God for MTL!).

 

We're a younger, less talented team that last year's disaster and no one is really stepping up to lead the team. Shapi continuing to play I think says as much about Afrifa as it does Shapi at this point.

As for Miller, the book is out on him that he over pursues constantly, he doesn't delay as a defender, he goes right at the guy (see goal 1 Tuesday), and he's not getting eaten alive for it. Our wingbacks can't put in a cross to save their lives.

Pulskamp has definitely taken a step back, not helped by the atrocious defending in front of him.

If there's good news, apparently Mallouk has made it clear (not just on social media) that he wants improvement after the WC break.

 

* In league play.

Cincinnati scored 9 on a Dominican Republic team earlier this year.

 

Agreed comparing this year to last, but my question/concern is more today vs 6 weeks ago. Today's SKC would lose to 6 week ago SKC. Maybe not 3-0, but the team has taken several collective steps backward. Wiki had them playing better than the sum of their parts at the beginning of this season. Can't say the same after the last 4 blowouts where it looks like they are playing 11 v 9. What happened over these past 6 weeks?

That's good news regarding Mallouk and I think him getting involved is the single best thing to have happened to SKC in the past couple of years. That said, when you are literally in last place and lost your last 4 games by a combined 13-3, is there anywhere to go but up?

 

Oh I agree about the decline this season on its own. I said something the other day to someone that we're a 5th of the way through the season now and this team hasn't seemed markedly better than it was in the opener against San Jose.

 

Exactly. Any thoughts on what that is attributable to? An easy one is coaching, but watching them vs Colorado Springs, basic things like first touch and pace of passes were so bad. If pros can't trap and pass, there is nothing a coach can do. I'm seriously perplexed.

 

Mallouk came on board too late to correct the bad choices that were made by selecting David Lee. I hope Mallouk can clean up the disaster that is SKC. Nothing has gotten better with the selections Lee he has made. Bad choice for manager and questionable choices for the players. If Wicki has a system he wants the team to play, my observation is that none of players understand what it is. Everyone knows he should have built out the defense first since it has been the single most problematic area for SKC in the last number of years. It is still one of the worst in the league. They will go to Vancouver and get their asses handed to them. The Whitecaps could probably look at this game as a way to rest their starters and still win easily. Other than all of that…..yea, the WC is coming to KC.

 

Part goes back to just that this team isn't good. The other part is that those that do have talent (James for example) are young an inexperienced. I think you also have guys playing a system they're not comfortable with and Wicky seems unwilling to pull back and be more defensive to try to give this not very good defense some confidence. I keep thinking back to the end of the roadtrip in 2011, Vermes finally adjusted his tactics and adjusted the confrontation line to be further back than it had been up to that point and KC started to get a result or 2 on the road before returning home.

I doubt Lee is going anywhere, considering the size of the deal and that he was part of the ownership at the time, I'm guessing Mallouk played a role in his selection. And even if he wasn't I doubt he's dumping him immediately and starting all over again.

 

That's about the best explanation I have heard and it makes sense.

I remember that 2011 road trip. We were with the Cauldron trip to the Colorado match where Ryan Smith hit his banger. That started the turnaround when we opened the stadium. Looking back, my kid (graduated college soccer) was like 5. Dang I'm old.

 

I have no doubt he played a role and probably consented to Lee, and possibly selected him. Given that Lee was announced on September 30, 2025 and Mallouk's purchase was announced on January 19, 2026, normal timelines for a transaction of this magnitude involve signing a Letter of Intent 6-9 months before closing and a signed binding Purchase Agreement (with conditions to close) executed 30-60 days after the Letter of Intent. Then the Purchase Agreement is sent to MLS headquarters for approval. Both the Letter of Intent and the Purchase Agreement would have a standard provision requiring no significant changes in operations and management without approval from the buyer.

 

While it is too early to punt on David Lee, I'd echo concerns expressed. When announced, the concern was "where does he get his players when City Football Group isn't brining them to him". So far, the early returns are not promising.

Had an entire winter transfer to bring in players. Has brought in 11 players that ar not homegrowns or college draft. Seven US based - Cleveland, Reynolds, Harris, Meyer, Reid, Calheira, Bartlow. Four foreign - LBJ, Or Blorian, Capita, Borges.

Do ANY of those look decent? Not to me.

The US based players are an unmitigated disaster to date. Every once and a while Reynolds or Reid will do something not terrible, but they are trash defenders. Harris is fast and tricky but generally useless. I can give some grace to Lee here because this is the "oh shit, this roster is trash and I need lots of players" pile.

The Foreign players is where i get concerned. LBJ looked super impressive in his first game. I don't know that I have seen him make a tackle since. He's a No. 6 that needs to play next to a No. 6. Not super helpful and only useful if you can play a 4-2-3-1. Borges - he's tall. Capita - he's fast. Haven't seen much besides one being tall and the other fast.

The foreign players are supposed to be what we are spending money on and building around. Its also what David Lee had handed to him at City.

11 players. Not one making a positive impact.

Getting worse. He took over 3 months to pick a coach. That coach had issues at Chicago. Again, its early, but there's zero debate this team is going backwards and his coaching isn't helping. Again, making it worse, players that were here last year and good have taken a step backwards (Miller and Pulskamp most prominently).

So....hired in late Sep 2025. Its now April 2026. Team is in last place and got blitzed by mid table USL C club. He's fired almost everyone from previous regime. His coach is making good players bad and either unwilling or not capable of implementing tactics to stop giving up easy goals (13 in last 4). He doesn't seem very good at his main job, finding and signing players, but he did fire Mr. Burns who surprisingly was.


So, to Mr. Lee, I think it's OK to ask "Mr. Lee, you've been here almost 8 months. What have you done to make the club better?".

 

I also think it's hard to judge them at times (LBJ and Borges esp) because of the lack of talent around them.

On the topic of the game, these odds tonight I'm seeing are horrendous, Vancouver up to a -1500 in some places, goals of 3.5 is a -125, 2.5 is -330. Absolutely insane...

 

I'm not saying the internationals are busts, but a good player stands out, even when surrounded by crap. And you can usually tell after a few training sessions if a player has it or not.

 

I'm gonna be a little more patient with the internationals than some here.

I'm also gonna expect to see a lot of infrastructure improvement from Mallouk around Lee. And in general. We suck because our scouting isn't competitive, our academy structure and management is falling behind, and we hardly had a core of MLS level players to lean on when the season started. There's just nowhere for enough good enough players to come from...

 

Since we're on the topic, Drew did a good job of how we got here, short of specifically calling people out.
https://www.backheeled.com/from-model-to-mess-the-decline-of-sporting-kansas-city/

 

Yes it's 3 games in 7 days, but it also feels like a message might be getting sent to a couple midfielders...

Tonight's XI. pic.twitter.com/277HRwVUcD

— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) April 18, 2026

 

3 - 0 after 30 minutes. A complete lack of tallent is one thing. But lazy defending, stupid tactics, stubborn insistance on playing out of the back are unforgivable.

 

The insistence to continue to play this way when the roster CLEARLY can't may be the most frustrating part.

 

We definitely have some talent and some passion. We seem really dry on soccer brains and decision making.

 

A lot of players should have to play like this.