KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sporting Kansas City have seen their share of successes over their 19-plus seasons in MLS: two MLS Cups, one Supporters' Shield and two U.S. Open Cups (with a third just one more victory away).
They've never seen scoring balance like this before, though.
Going into Saturday's league home match against the Western Conference-leading Vancouver Whitecaps (8 pm CT; 38 the Spot), Sporting already have three double-digit goalscorers across all competitions for the first time in club history.
Winger Krisztian Nemeth and center forward Dom Dwyer have 12 each (eight in MLS and four in the U.S. Open Cup for Nemeth, seven and five, respectively, for Dwyer), and midfielder Benny Feilhaber's 80th-minute winner in Wednesday's 3-1 semifinal victory over Real Salt Lake was his second in Open Cup play and 10th overall.
The balance goes on from there, though. Eleven players have scored at least once in competitive play for Sporting this year – as many as scored in all of 2014, when Dwyer finished second in the Golden Boot standings and set club records with 22 goals in league play and 24 in all competitions.
“That’s what you’re working for,” manager Peter Vermes told reporters after Wednesday's match. “What you try not to do is rely on a couple people. You need to spread it around and have goal scoring by committee at times. The great thing is that it is happening for us.”
It's happening in big matches, too – as was the case in Sporting's first meeting with the Whitecaps this season, when center back Kevin Ellis' header delivered a 1-0 away victory. And the more players contribute in any area, Ellis said, the more tightly-knit Sporting's locker room becomes.
“We all have confidence in whoever plays,” Ellis, who has scored both of his goals this season on set pieces, told MLSsoccer.com on Friday. “It really doesn't matter who it is. We all have the same attitude and mentality that if you're on the field, you're going to give everything for the guy next to you. That's why I think you see the product on the field. Everybody's willing to give their last ounce of energy to this club.”
The most recent addition to the goal-scorers club is defensive midfielder Soni Mustivar, whose first-half headed equalizer off of Feilhaber's free kick on Wednesday erased RSL's early lead and set the stage for Sporting's second-half dominance.
“For Mustivar to get in there like he did was big for us,” Vermes said.” Now his confidence raises, and the next game we play a team may pay more attention to him and somebody else might be able to put one in there. That’s what you’re hoping for.”
And Feilhaber, who already has 17 assists across all competitions – one shy of Preki's club record from 2003 – said Sporting's balance makes his job of distributing the ball easier.
“Dom is going to get his goals. Krisztian is going to get his goals, as well as [Graham] Zusi when he is here,” Feilhaber told reporters on Wednesday. “We have a lot of goals coming from center backs and defensive midfielders. When you don’t have the pressure to score every goal like Dom did last year, it is more difficult for other teams to defend that. There are plenty of guys on our team who can score. There are plenty of guys that can pass the ball, so that relieves pressure from our team and puts pressure on the opponent’s defense.”
Conversely, Mustivar told MLSsoccer.com on Friday, having a playmaker of Feilhaber's quality ups the odds for any Sporting player hoping to open or add to his scoring account.
“We score because Benny's really good on his set-piece kicks,” Mustivar said. “Then you have guys like Kevin who are good headers. But we all are prepared. We are not waiting on one player. We are all together to win the game. So when Krisztian can't score, I'm sure Dom can score. When Dom can't score, Kevin will score. We all take care of each other.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
