Sporting Kansas City: Three hopes, one fear
By Sean Maslin
Hope #1: That Matt Besler can get back to being Matt Besler.
An old friend lined up for Sporting Kansas City on Sunday: Matt Besler. The United States Men’s National Team center-back who used to be a lock for SKC’s back four made just his nineteenth start of the season, the lowest number of his career. While some of this could be attributed to having national team duty he has also missed matches during non-international break windows.
When asked about why Besler has not been starting SKC coach Peter Vermes was a bit coy telling The Kansas City Star, “I just need him to get back to who he is. That’s really it. I don’t want to go into individual pieces, but I just need him to get back to who he is.”
More from Playing for 90
- Alexia Putellas reaches 400 games with Barcelona
- Everything you need to know ahead of the 250th ‘Super Clásico’
- Barcelona put five past Real Betis
- Manchester City suffer but come away with win over West Ham
- Baffling Liga MX ruling strips Puebla of a hard-earned victory
So what has been wrong with Besler? On the surface his timing has been a bit off this season. As opposed to previous seasons he has been in sync with his fellow center-back he hasn’t really had that same rapport this season with Kevin as he has had in the past.
Just looking at his work last week against the Earthquakes there were a couple of instances where the two both went for the same ball. While that isn’t exactly the worst thing in the world it can leave a defense for being exploited. Considering that SKC will be facing a Seattle Sounders side that have shown an attacking spark in recent matches that could pose a problem.
Besler is too good of a player to be in a funk for too long. While he will break out of his slump at some point SKC will hope that it happens on Thursday evening.