Episode 103 - SKC Hires a Sporting Director

Is that a light at the end of the tunnel we see?  Sporting Kansas City finally announced the hiring of their long awaited Sporting Director on Friday, former long time New England Revolution GM Mike Burns.  Then they followed it up with a comprehensive beat down of Austin FC at Children’s Mercy Park on Saturday.  Both of these stories have caveats, as they often do, but it was nice to have some semblance of positivity around a club that has had very little for some time. On Tuesday we got to hear from both Peter Vermes and Burns in person as well as commitments from ownership about upcoming investment in the roster.  There is a lot to unpack about this situation, from the choice of Burns, the reporting structure, the decision making matrix, how much actual money they have and what their freedom is to spend it, and what other areas the club is looking to invest in to enhance its ability to be a more effective technical department in the future.  As you can all imagine, we have a lot of thoughts on this and will do our best to share them in a meaningful and informative manner. SKC has a ton of games coming up(there will probably be 3 between now and the next time we record this podcast), including a pivotal matchup in the US Open Cup should Sporting want to try to extract any kind of positive vibes from this season. Outside the SKC news, the USMNT got bounced from Copa America so of course everyone is having an exceptionally rational response to that and apparently calling for Jurgen Klopp to coach the team, the KC Current smothered Houston on Friday night, and CPKC stadium is going to be the home of the NWSL Cup Final.