One day before the Kansas City Chiefs begin their NFL title defense as reigning Super Bowl champions, another former champion joined Sports Radio 810 WHB to discuss the challenges that go with protecting the throne.
Sporting Kansas City captain Matt Besler has won four major championships during his heralded 12-year stint with the club, including MLS Cup 2013 and three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles. With superstar quarterback Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs kicking off their 2020 season on Thursday—some seven months after winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl in 50 years—Besler will be among the countless Kansas City fans keeping a close eye on the action.
Reflecting on his own experience as a professional, Besler said the Chiefs would be challenged in a different way this year than in seasons past. To go from the hunter to the hunted takes a different level of motivation and concentration, he said.
Unlike most teams in the NFL, however, the Chiefs will have the added benefit of playing before a limited number of fans at home games. That, Besler emphasized, could make a massive difference.
“Playing in front of fans is a lot better for a lot of different reasons,” Besler said. “The quality of the game is sometimes better when there are fans, and I don’t know the exact reason for that, but fans give you life. They give you energy, and a lot of players feed off that adrenaline.”
Sporting played its fifth match in a grueling 16-day span on Saturday, falling 2-1 to the Houston Dynamo. The club will now make the most of a full week of preparation ahead of Sunday’s return to Children’s Mercy Park against regional rivals Minnesota United FC.
“We have a full week of practice, which is something we haven’t had in a very long time,” Besler said. “Everyone has taken advantage of their days off, gotten away from the game a little bit and had a few days to reflect. We’ve got to come back with a sense of urgency within the group.
“We’re still set up to succeed this year. We’ve put ourselves in a good spot, certainly when you look at the standings. We’re still first place in the West, but we can’t have a false sense of security. We haven’t been able to get the results we’ve wanted to in the past couple of games, and that’s going to motivate us. It’s going to be a good week of training as we build ourselves to come out and get a result on Sunday back home against Minnesota. It’s go-time for us and we’ve got to step up our game.”
Sporting and Minnesota will lock horns at 7:30 p.m. CT on Sunday with live coverage on FOX Sports Kansas City, FOX Sports Midwest, FOX Sports GO and ESPN 94.5 FM.
