Speaker 1: Daniel Sperry. What up?
Speaker 2: How are we doing? Man?
Speaker 1: You tell me you're the busy one.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're a busy one. It's been a crazy week.
Speaker 2: It's been a crazy week, I tell you that.
Speaker 1: How crazy is it?
Speaker 2: How crazy is it? Yeah? We uh, it's one of
Speaker 2: those we It's kind of funny. I had made some
Speaker 2: jokes at some point when the things were going bad,
Speaker 2: like what comes first, are newborn or a Sporting win?
Speaker 2: And the newborn has won, so that she came early,
Speaker 2: so that's she kind of cheated a little bit. But yeah, man,
Speaker 2: it's been it's been a crazy week here in Kansas City.
Speaker 2: Won for me personally too. She decided to come on
Speaker 2: the day that Sporting parted ways with their longest tenured
Speaker 2: manager ever. So it's been, like I said, it's been
Speaker 2: a wild week here. But yeah, man, things on the
Speaker 2: soccer side in Kansas City have been interesting to start
Speaker 2: this year, and I think there was a lot of
Speaker 2: hope and optimism, especially with some of the new signings
Speaker 2: at the beginning of the year. But as the results came,
Speaker 2: the pressure. As the results didn't come, pressure ramped up, right,
Speaker 2: and I think the dam finally broke in that regard,
Speaker 2: because you know, twenty three was mainly saved by a
Speaker 2: pretty dramatic and unrealistic and unsustainable turnaround that was really
Speaker 2: fun to watch but probably wasn't gonna happen again. And
Speaker 2: you know that's sandwiched by twenty two and twenty four,
Speaker 2: which were pretty disappointing. And to start out like this,
Speaker 2: it's a recipe for what you get.
Speaker 1: I know that over the last couple of years we've
Speaker 1: been kind of looking at it Sporting and it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: bad start. They make some summer transfer window, you know, pickups,
Speaker 1: and then here they come. Here comes Zombie Sporting at
Speaker 1: a lane eight and they make it into the playoffs
Speaker 1: and they make a run. You know, it's it's like
Speaker 1: something happens and you're behind the eight ball proverbialate ball,
Speaker 1: and then something happens and you make the race in
Speaker 1: and then everything goes crazy. And it just seemed like
Speaker 1: up down, up down, up down, up down. And what
Speaker 1: was the patience level of the fans the last couple
Speaker 1: of years where you had all of these waves and
Speaker 1: ebbs and flows, and yes things would finish, but you'd
Speaker 1: always you'd have to put up with that the rough
Speaker 1: start and then you make that race to get in
Speaker 1: What was the what was the vibe from the fans
Speaker 1: the last couple of years? Taking this season up for
Speaker 1: a second question, but what was the vibe with all
Speaker 1: of the ups and downs coming into this year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, after after twenty one, I think, you know, there
Speaker 2: were probably a correct handball decision away from finishing top
Speaker 2: spot in the West, you know, and maybe not having
Speaker 2: to play an RSL who knocked them out of the
Speaker 2: playoffs wouldn't have been in the playoffs if all that
Speaker 2: stuff had gone correct. So that was a funky one.
Speaker 2: And then you have the Alan Palito and Gotti kinda
Speaker 2: is injured and they think he might be out, you know,
Speaker 2: for just a little bit, and then it turns out
Speaker 2: to me the whole season and they never bring anybody in,
Speaker 2: you know. Twenty three, they finally get those guys back
Speaker 2: healthy and things are rolling. But there's that stretch after
Speaker 2: twenty two. People kind of understood and excused the injuries
Speaker 2: and they were like it was the feeling of like
Speaker 2: I don't think we're ready to move on from Peter yet,
Speaker 2: but there was still some like, look, if things don't
Speaker 2: go well, we got to start asking questions kind of
Speaker 2: a vibe from I think the fan base. And then
Speaker 2: those first ten games happened in twenty twenty three where
Speaker 2: they didn't pick up a win. There was, you know,
Speaker 2: three three draws over ten games was all they had accrued.
Speaker 2: Three draws, three goals through ten games, and the fans
Speaker 2: were starting to get restless, and you were hearing you know,
Speaker 2: Vermes out chance. People were starting to bring signs and
Speaker 2: stuff like that, and you know, it made they made
Speaker 2: the miraculous recover to probably one of the coolest and
Speaker 2: most electric moments. I felt a children's mercy park. I
Speaker 2: wasn't here for any of the of the you know
Speaker 2: MLS Cup stuff, but and I was here for the
Speaker 2: Open Cup final in twenty seventeen and that was really cool.
Speaker 2: But I think that win over Saint Louis in the playoffs,
Speaker 2: especially the home win. The loud noise that came from
Speaker 2: that goal is one of the it's still goosebumps. It
Speaker 2: was one of the loudest moments I've heard at that stadium,
Speaker 2: if not the loudest, and the reaction to that the
Speaker 2: goal that kind of opened the damn. So you have
Speaker 2: this like really high moment here in twenty twenty three
Speaker 2: and they lose got a kinda going into twenty twenty
Speaker 2: four and they never replace him, and so there, you know,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of injuries, the teams getting a little
Speaker 2: bit older, and some things just weren't quite clicking at
Speaker 2: all last year, and they kind of piecemealed it and
Speaker 2: had a decent summer run through the Open Cup, but
Speaker 2: once they lost the Open Cup final, they really didn't
Speaker 2: win another game from there on, and it was very downtrodden,
Speaker 2: and I think fans really were kind of like, Okay,
Speaker 2: like we understand you're telling us it's a rebuild. They've
Speaker 2: told them, you know, it's going to take three windows
Speaker 2: to rebuild this team. Well that's a really long time
Speaker 2: in soccer. And so I think my question personally was
Speaker 2: whether or not they were the result because to me,
Speaker 2: the result lineup was there for when you dismiss a
Speaker 2: manager and a lot of other scenarios and a lot
Speaker 2: of other places. I think he doesn't even start this year,
Speaker 2: and so it was one of those like, Okay, how
Speaker 2: long is the leash and what does it Even though
Speaker 2: they've committed they've said we're going to allow Peter to rebuild.
Speaker 2: We've committed to this, so is six games when they
Speaker 2: finally cut bait with the project that if the project
Speaker 2: is how long they say it is, it's kind of
Speaker 2: in its infancy. And so that was that was my
Speaker 2: whole question in this. But I also think there's a
Speaker 2: point to where if you're if you're the whole job
Speaker 2: here is to win and welcome to professional sports. And
Speaker 2: if you're not getting wins, and the windless run extends
Speaker 2: so far back into twenty twenty four that it does,
Speaker 2: then I think that's kind of how that's kind of
Speaker 2: how we got here.
Speaker 1: How bad was it this season with Sporting with no
Speaker 1: no goals, no wins. How bad did it look?
Speaker 2: It at times looked like there was something there, but
Speaker 2: nothing was like clicking into the final thing. And I
Speaker 2: think that if you go back and watch the game
Speaker 2: against Dallas, they didn't look that bad, really they didn't.
Speaker 2: And they they had some they they weren't creating amazing chances,
Speaker 2: but they were they were eating around, they were active,
Speaker 2: they were doing stuff, and you know, they have a
Speaker 2: couple of defensive frailties that concedes the goals and they
Speaker 2: lose over a two minute period loses them the game
Speaker 2: when they were thoroughly dominant and really kind of heavily
Speaker 2: you know, attacking in that game. And I but there
Speaker 2: were times there too where the first half of the
Speaker 2: of that three three draw against Minnesota, I thought they
Speaker 2: looked dead in the water. I thought they looked dead
Speaker 2: in the water with their game against LAFC. There were
Speaker 2: some other games where I thought they were kind of
Speaker 2: in it, but I didn't ever really think they were
Speaker 2: doing enough that was going to win them a game.
Speaker 2: And so it was kind of this like patience point
Speaker 2: of like, Okay, we're we're a month into this season.
Speaker 2: Now you finally have had a few training sessions with
Speaker 2: your guys, and it doesn't look better. And that's and
Speaker 2: I think that that was probably the taking point for
Speaker 2: the ownership too, where they started coming around training sessions,
Speaker 2: you know, over the last couple of weeks, to take
Speaker 2: a look at what was going on and see if
Speaker 2: that if a change needed to be made, and ultimately
Speaker 2: that's the decision they did.
Speaker 1: I will admit that we were looking at a match
Speaker 1: when Kansas City was sporting Kansas City was down three nil.
Speaker 1: We thought they were dead in the water, and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden three goals in twelve minutes and
Speaker 1: you're like, whoa, Okay, then there's some there's something there there,
Speaker 1: But then you don't continue that kind of momentum.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that that loss to l a f C.
Speaker 2: I think was the one that for me, like, you
Speaker 2: have that game against Minnesota and you're like, okay, cool,
Speaker 2: like there's some assign of life. And they followed it
Speaker 2: up with a big dud against a team in l
Speaker 2: a FC that at the time looked vulnerable, they looked
Speaker 2: gettable with the way things had gone for their season,
Speaker 2: and so you know, they never really threatened them at
Speaker 2: all on the attack. They were probably lucky to not
Speaker 2: concede more. They were getting run through the middle of
Speaker 2: the field, and you know, that's been an area that
Speaker 2: sporting has had a lot of issues. And I feel like,
Speaker 2: you know, you and I both know the sport well.
Speaker 2: If you're getting run over in the middle of the field,
Speaker 2: you're not gonna want to win a lot of games.
Speaker 2: If your spine is the problem, you're not gonna win
Speaker 2: a lot of games. And that's kind of that's just
Speaker 2: kind of how it was. And you really thought, you know,
Speaker 2: the player, I'll say this The player vibe has never
Speaker 2: been bad per se, but I it's just one of
Speaker 2: those of like you can see the frustration, you can
Speaker 2: see confidence at times waiting or you know, coming back
Speaker 2: in it, and it just it was one of those
Speaker 2: situations that like you really you really needed them if
Speaker 2: you were if you were going to feel confident about
Speaker 2: where they're going after that to get some sort of
Speaker 2: result or look a lot better against LAFC. But to
Speaker 2: follow up that three three draw with a dud like
Speaker 2: that was just kind of one of those big signs.
Speaker 1: I think Carrie's the Wagnin's now the the interim and
Speaker 1: he's going to be the man on the touch line
Speaker 1: for the foreseeable future. Your vibe on are they going
Speaker 1: to be looking for someone here in this year? Are
Speaker 1: they gonna sit there and wait and see who's available?
Speaker 1: I can't believe I'm saying this after six month actually
Speaker 1: is in a thirty four match schedule. Are they gonna
Speaker 1: wait until you know, November and see who's available? Or
Speaker 1: are there gonna Is it gonna be a big gun?
Speaker 1: Is it going to be a young guy who's gonna
Speaker 1: sit there and come in and go I see pieces here?
Speaker 1: I can work with this. Do you have any idea
Speaker 1: as to what the next step can be?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't. I don't know. I think the other
Speaker 2: thing here is like that Peter technically held the chief
Speaker 2: soccer officer role too. Yeah, and for me and I
Speaker 2: think like for me, I think you get that guy
Speaker 2: in place before you get a manager. And because if
Speaker 2: it if you have someone up top, now that's gonna
Speaker 2: be vision casting for that in that role in that organization,
Speaker 2: you got to have someone like they've got to be
Speaker 2: in line with the manager. And so what what happens
Speaker 2: to Like you you bring in a manager and then
Speaker 2: you bring in a CSO and then that CSA CSO
Speaker 2: doesn't like how his man, the manager, that he didn't
Speaker 2: take his doing, so he gets rid of him. I
Speaker 2: think Carrie, Carrie has been around the organization so long.
Speaker 2: I think it's a safe I think it he is
Speaker 2: a great interim for the safe, for the way that
Speaker 2: it's it's safe in the in the fact that there
Speaker 2: won't be so much volatility while they try and go
Speaker 2: get a CSO. I don't think he'll be lockstep with
Speaker 2: the type of soccer necessarily Vermes played. I don't think
Speaker 2: I've never felt that Carries and even the other coaches
Speaker 2: on the staff's opinions have been one hundred percent Like
Speaker 2: Peter Vermeiz, I think they all do a good job
Speaker 2: of working together and presenting different ideas all the time.
Speaker 2: But this is going to be carries opportunity to run
Speaker 2: the ship, and he might do some things different. So
Speaker 2: I think there might be a few things that do
Speaker 2: look a little bit different, and and he might do
Speaker 2: a few different things than Vermes did managerially throughout a
Speaker 2: game as well, But ultimately there's not I don't. I
Speaker 2: think that the most important thing is to get that
Speaker 2: CSO position filled first before you get a manager, and
Speaker 2: I would hope personally, I would hope that ownership would
Speaker 2: think along those lines too, just because then you, like
Speaker 2: you just end up with a mess too if things
Speaker 2: go south with another manager, then you're changing managers. Now
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, you're starting to do this thing
Speaker 2: where you're changing managers all the time, and that's not
Speaker 2: the greatest spot to be in for a club. So
Speaker 2: it'll be interesting to see what they choose to do.
Speaker 2: I think, knowing them, I think they'll probably look domestic,
Speaker 2: but I wouldn't be surprised if they if the CSO
Speaker 2: that they bring in is someone that, you know, who
Speaker 2: do they have in their rolodex in a way that
Speaker 2: can that they know they can kind of execute the
Speaker 2: vision that they're looking to do.
Speaker 1: So Daniel Sperry, Kansas City Star, juggling both the new
Speaker 1: parenthood and putting up with us on the morning show
Speaker 1: here talking about everything sporting Kansas City. Could you see
Speaker 1: a window where the individual that they bring in gets
Speaker 1: both titles something bre Halty in something, We're haltery in
Speaker 1: something Bill parcels ish where I want both titles. I
Speaker 1: want that kind of control. And you know, Bob Bradley
Speaker 1: is out there, Gios Avaresa is out there. Would you
Speaker 1: anticipate even them looking at somebody who wants both titles?
Speaker 2: I mean, I think they could, but they've just had
Speaker 2: that for the last, you know, decade plus, and I
Speaker 2: think it I personally, I don't know how many how
Speaker 2: much that role and doing those two roles like that
Speaker 2: works as much anymore. And I think we're at a
Speaker 2: in a place now where I think, like you look
Speaker 2: at most places across the league that especially those at
Speaker 2: the top of the top of the league, those guys
Speaker 2: are kind of it's kind of top down where that
Speaker 2: whole structure is. So I think I would I don't
Speaker 2: know that they will not do that necessarily if those guys,
Speaker 2: If if a guy like Savas is willing to not
Speaker 2: have that title, I think Geo would be a very
Speaker 2: interesting pick. He's a little bit different than for me.
Speaker 2: He's very fiery, uh but kind in the same in
Speaker 2: the same ilk that for me was so I but
Speaker 2: kind of sees the game a little different. And so
Speaker 2: I think there's some interesting you know, Jim Curtin's a
Speaker 2: guy out there too, right, like these are these are
Speaker 2: some big names that are actually available now that they
Speaker 2: could go through and could go after. But you know, uh,
Speaker 2: the how do they choose the Cso do they keep
Speaker 2: the soccer you know ideals in the same structures the
Speaker 2: same you know as Peter was the one who kind
Speaker 2: of set all that up for the club, and so
Speaker 2: do they follow the road map that he's built or
Speaker 2: do they completely you know, change things up. That'll be
Speaker 2: the question there. But I would like to see a
Speaker 2: little bit of ambition in the managers in the managerial search.
Speaker 2: I'm not not that I like Jim Curtin and Gosavasia side.
Speaker 2: Some MLS retreads, I think just kind of don't really
Speaker 2: give the fan base that idea that you're trying to
Speaker 2: push the needle. And I think Sporting for so long
Speaker 2: and when they were great or pushing the needle for
Speaker 2: the league on the stadiums, on the training facility. You know,
Speaker 2: they when they built their training facility here, they were
Speaker 2: one of the first in the league to have this massive, beautiful,
Speaker 2: state of the art, you know, dedicated training facility for
Speaker 2: that team. And you know, everyone's followed suit after that.
Speaker 2: Everyone started building these training centers and you know they
Speaker 2: were they came online with that with children Mercy Park
Speaker 2: and it was kind of a tone setting, uh soccer
Speaker 2: specific stadium that now you look back and you can
Speaker 2: see elements of Children Mercy Park that a bunch of
Speaker 2: places are borrowed in use. So do they kind of
Speaker 2: try and push the needle again as a small Midwestern
Speaker 2: market or do they try and at least get current
Speaker 2: and that that'll be the question. I would. I just
Speaker 2: think that being a little bit more ambitious outside of
Speaker 2: an MLS retread would be the way for them. Or
Speaker 2: you know, some young guy you've never heard about. Might
Speaker 2: be great, but also could not go great. This is
Speaker 2: an organization that I think it's fan base is losing patients.
Speaker 2: And you have the current now in town at a
Speaker 2: very large level, competing for dollars with sporting and competing
Speaker 2: for eyeballs, and they are a fun they are a blast,
Speaker 2: they win and it's really cool. Uh don't get that.
Speaker 2: I guess it's a lot of fun there and they
Speaker 2: need to find a way for themselves to get back
Speaker 2: into that same conversation of the fun, awesome environment, a
Speaker 2: great time to be had at the stadium, because ultimately,
Speaker 2: the soccer is what's bringing people in, and the soccer
Speaker 2: has got to start bringing people in.
Speaker 1: Again, no doubt, especially when you've got a shiny new
Speaker 1: River Sits stadium and you're scoring like ninety eight goals
Speaker 1: in a season and you know, putting everything in the
Speaker 1: back of the net and just being absolutely nuts. Another
Speaker 1: couple minutes here with Daniel Sperry as he juggles both
Speaker 1: the Morning Show and New Parenthood here on SDH. You've
Speaker 1: got a lot of player decisions. I've got like three
Speaker 1: thoughts in my head. I want to try to get
Speaker 1: as many of them in it's five minutes. You've got
Speaker 1: a lot of player decisions here at the end of
Speaker 1: this particular year, I think we were looking at the
Speaker 1: numbers and I think it's like seventeen roster decisions possibly,
Speaker 1: So whomever the individual or individuals are that come in,
Speaker 1: they really can put their stamp on most of the roster.
Speaker 1: Even though that you've got the you've got the base
Speaker 1: there with the Bishop dejon Jovolica and what you want
Speaker 1: to try and accomplish with sporting. Let me, I want
Speaker 1: to ask this about Peter Vermes. Is Peter Vermes still
Speaker 1: would you characterize him as even being underappreciated now considering
Speaker 1: the market, considering all of the external actors, is he underappreciated?
Speaker 1: Do you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I think so. I think I think what he
Speaker 2: when he took over in Kansas City, you know, the
Speaker 2: Wizards were an afterthought even with how bad the Royals were.
Speaker 2: I mean, the three professional sports were University of Kansas basketball, yeah,
Speaker 2: the Royals, and the Chiefs, and they were in a
Speaker 2: city outside of KU. They were in a city of
Speaker 2: non winners at the time. And their Open Cup, the
Speaker 2: Open Cup run in twelve started that the MLS Cup
Speaker 2: in thirteen was you know, came before the Royals started
Speaker 2: being good. They were the city's first winner for a
Speaker 2: very long time, and they got people really excited about
Speaker 2: soccer to the point where we already had the foundation here.
Speaker 2: I think for that soccer fervor, that really helped the
Speaker 2: current when they re established the themselves, because those FCKC days,
Speaker 2: I think there was still a lot of people jumping
Speaker 2: on board with soccer, and I don't know that they
Speaker 2: were quite ready to jump on board with the nwslum
Speaker 2: with women's soccer as they were now. But I mean
Speaker 2: Kansas City for a while was a kind of an
Speaker 2: after thought within the whole soccer sphere. And they're gonna
Speaker 2: be hosting games in the World Cup. And I think
Speaker 2: a significant amount of that has to do with Peter
Speaker 2: Vermiz helping not only put the team on the map,
Speaker 2: but that he uh like, he brought people into the
Speaker 2: game and brought people with the success that they had here,
Speaker 2: introduced people to the game, and soccer in Kansas City
Speaker 2: became a huge soccer city in part because of that.
Speaker 2: The stadium, like I said, you know, he was pushing
Speaker 2: really hard for that stadium. The trading facility for those
Speaker 2: if you've ever been out here, I highly encourage you
Speaker 2: to come out and if you can get out to
Speaker 2: the training facility. And like the tour that we went
Speaker 2: through was guy and when it opened in eighteen was
Speaker 2: guided by Peter Vermeis, and he had every little detail
Speaker 2: in that building down to a tee. And when we're
Speaker 2: sitting there and apart in its construction phase, it's just
Speaker 2: a dirt lot and gigantic steel beams as they're just
Speaker 2: kind of erecting the frame of this building, and he's
Speaker 2: trying a vision cast. Okay, there's three fields here and
Speaker 2: another field, and there's gonna be ways for it all
Speaker 2: to be integrated in and on video, and that way
Speaker 2: we can get everything into the room. And he's vision
Speaker 2: casting everything, and there's just so much going on in
Speaker 2: the details of like what happens when you walk in
Speaker 2: the room with the pool and the hot and the
Speaker 2: cold pools, and what logo is on what side of
Speaker 2: the wall. And I think it's really like he was
Speaker 2: so passionate about making soccer the best it could possibly be,
Speaker 2: not only in Kansas City, but around the rest of
Speaker 2: the world. And I think that is that that is
Speaker 2: what makes him under because I don't know because of
Speaker 2: the market size, I don't know if people, and he's
Speaker 2: been here for so long, I don't know if people
Speaker 2: really got to see and appreciate the true passion not
Speaker 2: just for the team, the game, the coaching, but like
Speaker 2: for soccer period that he had and wanting to push
Speaker 2: it to be the best. And he was very instrumental
Speaker 2: in a lot of big things in MLS and pushing
Speaker 2: the needle and helping rules happen and rule changes and
Speaker 2: getting all that kind of stuff going with the stadiums
Speaker 2: and training facilities. So yes, I think very underappreciated. I
Speaker 2: do think though it has been good to see that
Speaker 2: the reaction, like after the news came out for those
Speaker 2: that have been around where it was very like, Okay,
Speaker 2: it kind of sucks sporting them, we're bad, but we're
Speaker 2: not going to just keep hounding on for Mes here
Speaker 2: like this dude absolutely needs to be praised for the
Speaker 2: legend that he is and it just time just ran out.
Speaker 1: And that's why we wanted to have you on to
Speaker 1: discuss Peter Vermes and everything going on in Kansas City.
Speaker 1: Hit the promo for me so folks can follow you
Speaker 1: and all the intel and the info that you drop
Speaker 1: on a daily basis when you're not trying to in
Speaker 1: a nap to catch up on your.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can follow me of course on x Twitter
Speaker 2: or whatever the heck you call it now at Sperry
Speaker 2: Daniel nine to four and then you can find me
Speaker 2: Daniel Sperry over on Blue Sky as well. Any work
Speaker 2: on soccer, both NWSL and MLS done there so always
Speaker 2: great to and at this point you can see quick
Speaker 2: shots of our newborn and our daughter fawning over her
Speaker 2: and it's adorable.
Speaker 1: So then that's all that matters. Congratulations on a bunch
Speaker 1: of different fronts, my friend. Find the value of naps.
Speaker 1: I'm hoping that that that you will be allowed to
Speaker 1: have that value at points and we'll catch up with
Speaker 1: you soon, my friend. Thanks for dropping by early on
Speaker 1: morning in Kansas City.