The Sporting KC Show, held throughout the season on Sports Radio 810 WHB, is now available on Spotify and iTunes. With Nate Bukaty and Carter Augustine hosting the weekly program, Sporting fans now have a place to go to catch up on club storylines, player achievements, guest interviews and more.
A wild first month of the season has passed in the blink of an eye, allowing Sporting Kansas City to finally catch its breath.
Manager Peter Vermes' men concluded a stretch of six games in 18 days—taking place in three different countries and four different time zones, no less—with a 1-1 draw at the Colorado Rapids on Sunday. Casting an eye forward, Sporting find themselves as the lone MLS club still alive in the Concacaf Champions League, having reached the tournament semifinals for the first time ever, and with a respectable 1-1-1 league record to boot.
In the newest episode of The Sporting KC Show Podcast, hosts Nate Bukaty and Carter Augustine took stock of a whirlwind four-week period, which included trips to Mexico, Panama, Los Angeles and Denver. They also looked ahead to the forthcoming international break, which will see five Sporting players join their respective countries in addition to the United States Men's National Team taking the field.
To help them unpack this wide array of exciting topics, Bukaty and Augustine welcomed two esteemed guests to the show. The first of which was Taylor Twellman, a longtime MLS great who has spent the last several years as an ESPN color commentator. He was followed by soccer statistician guru Paul Carr, a Kansas native who used to work for ESPN and now specializes in delivering soccer analytics to a host of professional clubs for TruMedia Sports.
Episode Summary
- 1:01 – Augustine looks ahead to the Swope Park Rangers home opener, which will take place at 4 p.m. CT Saturday against Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC and give fans a glimpse of Sporting's brightest Academy talent (tickets available here).
- 4:25 – The hosts set the stage for the Concacaf Champions League Semifinals, which will see Sporting visit CF Monterrey at 9 p.m. CT on April 4 before hosting Los Rayados at 8 p.m. CT on April 11 (tickets available here).
- 6:20 – Johnny Russell made a decisive impact as a second-half substitute in Sunday's 1-1 stalemate at Colorado. And did Diego Rubio's goal celebration come across as too brazen?
- 14:33 – Twellman joins the show to share his thoughts on Sporting's run to the Champions League Semifinals and why MLS teams have struggled in the tournament: Mexican teams often have a head-start on MLS sides in the early months of the year, and the salary budget restrictions in MLS simply don't exist in Liga MX.
- 20:50 – Twellman discusses his expectations for the semifinal series, giving Sporting a good chance of advancing to the finals if they take care of business and post a shutout at home.
- 22:30 – Twellman shares his general thoughts on the state of the U.S. Men's National team in the early stages of the Gregg Berhalter era.
- 28:10 – Twellman reacts to Berhalter using Tyler Adams as a right back and pushing DeAndre Yedlin up the field as a winger, then discusses the enigma that is John Brooks.
- 35:46 – Carr joins the show and discusses the evolution (and increased importance) of advanced soccer analytics and statistics.
- 43:21 – Carr describes the "expected goals" statistics while also pointing to the percentage of shots inside the box as a useful proxy for shot quality. He also points to the fact that MLS teams are taking more shots inside the box and completing a higher percentage of passes as compared to the start of the decade, which is indicative of the league's increased quality.
Listen to the full podcast below.
