Sporting Kansas City vs. LA Galaxy: Keys to Sunday Night Soccer | OneFootball

By Matthew Doyle

Matchday 11 brings us to Children's Mercy Park for Sunday Night Soccer presented by Continental Tire, as Sporting Kansas City, under interim head coach Kerry Zavagnin, and with an attack that’s been among the league’s most fun since he took over at the end of March, host reigning MLS Cup presented by Audi champions LA Galaxy (7 pm ET | MLS Season Pass, Apple TV+).

The Galaxy’s reign, of course, has not been a fun one. Right now they’re stuck in the cellar, at the very bottom of the Supporters’ Shield and Western Conference standings. So a trip to KC to face a cauldron of Blue Hell isn't exactly appetizing.

Both teams are trying to dig out of a bad start. Tough sledding so far.

Players in focus

Sporting Kansas City

LA Galaxy

What’s at stake for Sporting Kansas City?

Zavagnin has faced a massive task in replacing the man he assisted for nearly 600 games, Peter Vermes. He’s done what he could to fix the defensive issues of the past few years, while also giving more chances to the likes of Miller and homegrown d-mid Jacob Bartlett, and putting the high-priced new additions in positions to shine.

It hasn’t all been smooth sailing, but there’s been a… lightness, I guess? A freedom, maybe? Anyway, there’s been some renewed joy in how Sporting have played over the past month. There have also been a couple of wins, and even the losses – including last week’s at FC Cincinnati – were respectable.

In short, the vibes are good for the first time in a long time. The fight, win, lose or draw, is to keep them there.

What’s at stake for LA Galaxy?

LA started the year by hanging a banner celebrating their sixth MLS Cup triumph. That’s been the only highlight so far.

They are the most successful team in MLS history. They were supposed to use last year’s championship to build back to – or at least toward – the glory days of the early 2010s.

It hasn’t worked that way. A “one step back to take two steps forward” dance is something everyone expected from this season. Fans would’ve understood that since the current front office had to unwind some bad deals from the previous regime, especially since they are only just starting to use their academy and MLS NEXT Pro in the way they should (they’ve gotten some promising moments, if not hugely meaningful contributions, from both). It’s difficult to keep a successful team together in MLS, and that becomes exponentially more so if you’re not finding contributors among your down-roster players.

But it hasn’t gone like that for LA. It’s been a mess, from one week to the next. Yes, they've managed injuries. But they’re winless through 10 games, with three points and a -12 goal differential. They're on track to be the worst MLS team in league history.

Everything’s at stake, every single game from here on out. Head coach Greg Vanney surely knows it.

On Wiebe’s radar

Sporting Kansas City: Which players will form the new core?

At their best over the past decade and a half, Sporting have always had a spine that gave them a fighting chance against anyone in MLS and the ability to bridge eras to create a pattern of sustained success. The brain at the top of the spinal cord was, you guessed it, Peter Vermes.

It’s still very much TBD regarding who will take over as the sporting brain (pun intended) in the future. This piece from Sam McDowell in the Kansas City Star does as good a job as I’ve seen outlining principal owner Mike Illig’s point of view early in the process. In the meantime, I’m watching Kansas City these days exclusively to see which players deserve to stay on as vertebrae in their attempt to rebuild.

Sadly, it seems Jake Davis (a throwback to the Sporting core of old) will be unavailable Sunday due to injury. I’ll be keeping my eye on John Pulskamp in goal, Jacob Bartlett in central midfield, and Logan Ndenbe and Jansen Miller on the backline. Those guys have the chance to be a part of any potential turnaround for years to come.

LA Galaxy: What compromises must be made to stop the bleeding?

You can be a mediocre defensive team and succeed… if you’re capable of outscoring your opponents and coming up big in key 1v1 situations. That’s the 2024 Galaxy in a nutshell! They won a championship giving up 50 goals (53 xG) in a season because they had the best attack in the league and Emiro Garcés turned into a human eraser.

In 2025, they’ve got, by the numbers, a poor attack and an even poorer defense. That’s a three-points-from-10-games combo, and it requires some serious consideration from head coach Greg Vanney. What has to change? Every game is a chance to answer that question and pick up a first win.

Tactical breakdown

Sporting Kansas City

Through four games under Zavagnin, they’ve played open, attacking soccer and been committed to that no matter the game state. You can crack them open, but you have to be brave and precise. And if you’re not…

If they’re not directly pressing you into turnovers, they get on the ball, keep it and slowly wear the opponents down. In theory, anyway – they have good moments with that (their passes per sequence under Zavagnin have climbed, as have positive attacking indicators like through balls and final-third passes), but there are also bad moments. Sometimes it’s naivete from the kids, sometimes it’s a lack of clarity from the veterans and sometimes it’s just a plain lack of field coverage.

Given the sheer volume of changes, it’s been hard to get everyone on the same page.

When they don’t have the ball, they hope to compress the field and force a high turnover. If that doesn’t happen then they tend to go full retreat into a low-ish block 4-3-3, though they’ve been better at drawing that line of confrontation in midfield over the past few weeks, even when they’re chasing the game a little bit. To me, that counts as measurable progress.

There’s not much flexibility in formation or tactical identity at this point, neither of which should be surprising.

But they really have been fun to watch over the past month. Joveljić, García, and wingers Dániel Sallói and Shapi Suleymanov have actual chemistry for a group so new to playing together, and that’s a good enough hook for me.

LA Galaxy

LA have shuttled so many guys in and out of the lineup – including a centerpiece like Reus, some goalkeeper musical chairs, and re-integrating DP winger Joseph Paintsil following a quad injury – that this team’s been trying to execute Vanney’s typical tactical scheme with one hand tied behind its back.

Sometimes that’s meant they’ve sat in a low block. The problem is they’re not very good at that:

But then when they come upfield with the ball – which is really what Vanney wants from his side; he’s always been a possession-oriented coach – they are… well, they’re not very good at that these days, either:

So, I don’t know. LA had probably their best attacking performance of the year in last week's 4-2 loss to Portland (the game in the clip directly above), but it was also probably their worst defensive performance. After things were arguably a little better at the start of the month, they’ve now conceded more than five xG combined over the past two weeks, in ways myriad and sundry.

Reus is back, though, and Pec and Paintsil are available. This is, in theory, the version of the Galaxy that was supposed to keep everything afloat amid Puig’s absence. And they’re playing against a team that gives you chances.

Projected lineups

It’ll be the 4-3-3, and you should believe them.

It's a 4-2-3-1 that they might call a 4-3-3, but don’t believe them.