Beyond the Box Score: Sporing KC trending upward despite five-game winless streak

When the full-time whistle sounded Sunday night at Children’s Mercy Park, Sporting Kansas City founds themselves in a recently familiar position. Manager Peter Vermes’ side held a distinct edge in possession, shots and chances created, but statistical dominance had failed to produce a win. 

Such has been the nature of Sporting Kansas City’s current five-game winless streak. Yet when Vermes spoke to Media following a 1-1 draw against LA Galaxy at Children’s Mercy Park, the boss sounded more optimistic than rueful.

“I look at it this way: We play like that in a lot of games, and we’ll win a lot of games,” he said, before later adding, “When you create that many chances and you dominate the game the way we did, it’s a good sign of things to come for sure.”

There is no shortage of numerical evidence to support Vermes’ claim. While victory has eluded his team in recent weeks, Sporting Kansas City has shown signs of a team capable of beating the league’s best opposition home and away. 

Look no further than Sunday, where LA Galaxy entered the game head and shoulders above the rest of MLS with 2.43 goals per game. Bruce Arena’s side mustered just four shot attempts and created three chances, both of which were season lows. Meanwhile, Sporting KC had 17 shots and created 12 chances, continuing a five-game trend in which the team has largely controlled the run of play.

SPORTING KC DURING FIVE-GAME WINLESS STREAK

During the club’s current five-game winless run, Sporting Kansas City has out-shot its opponent in every match and created more chances in four. The last time Sporting KC out-shot five straight opponents and failed to win each game was 2006, and it’s happened only four total times in club history since the start of the non-shootout era (2000-present).

“What I like about tonight is that when you have a dominant performance, even if you don’t get a win, you can see that there’s something you’re building from, and the guys believe in it,” Vermes said.

If Sporting Kansas City was frustrated to come away with only a draw, LA Galaxy will be perfectly content to take a point back to Southern California. The five-time MLS Cup champions have failed to win in each of their last eight visits to Kansas City. That’s the club’s fifth longest road winless streak against a single opponent all-time and their longest active streak of that kind.

“This is a great organization, great stadium, a great fanbase; they do everything right,” said Arena, who has an 8-11-7 record against Kansas City despite ranking first in MLS history with a .601 winning percentage (min. 20 games coached). “If there’s a reason why we don’t win here, then maybe that’s the case. They do everything well.”

LA GALAXY ROAD WINLESS STREAKS VS. SINGLE OPPONENT (REG. SEASON)

Two other statistical narratives emerged from Sunday’s fixture. For just the seventh time in MLS history, neither side recorded a single save. Goalkeepers Tim Melia and Brian Rowe were beaten by Giovani dos Santos and Brad Davis, respectively, with the latter scoring his 60th career MLS goal (including playoffs) in spectacular fashion. Renowned as one of the league’s greatest assist men, Davis displayed his penchant for stunning strikes on Sunday to become the ninth active MLS player to reach the 60-goal mark.

ACTIVE MLS PLAYERS WITH 60 CAREER GOALS (INCLUDING PLAYOFFS)