Road woes: Sporting KC following an MLS trend in 2016

Sporting Kansas City’s road struggles are no secret.

The club has gone 12 straight MLS matches without a victory, one shy of tying a club record during the non-shootout era (2000-present). Throw in all competitions, and Sporting KC has failed to win 16 straight road games in regulation, needing extra time to defeat Minnesota United FC in the U.S. Open Cup on June 15.

In this context alone, 2016 has been a stark disappointment. 

After all, Sporting Kansas City won 28 regular season road games from 2012-2015 — seven more than any other side — and was the only MLS club with a winning away record over this span (28-26-14). Peter Vermes’ men had built an M.O. around road results for the previous half-decade. That hasn’t been the case for the better part of 2016.

But has it been a regression to rock-bottom, or merely a regression to the norm? Statistics would suggest the latter, especially during a 2016 campaign in which teams have protected home field better than ever before.

Take a look at the expanded Western Conference standings, for example, and you’ll see that the top four teams are unbeaten at home. That’s right: FC Dallas, Colorado, Real Salt Lake and LA Galaxy have ZERO losses in 52 home games combined.

Shift your attention from home records to road records, and you’ll see that Sporting KC is one of 11 teams with two or fewer away wins this year. Based on road winning percentage, Sporting KC (.286) has the 12th best mark away from home. Not good by any means, but certainly not the worst.

The point here isn’t to justify Sporting Kansas City’s road results. Vermes knows his team will have to improve on its travels to have any shot at making a run in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

The point here is to show that Sporting Kansas City’s uncharacteristically bad road form comes during a year in which MLS teams have — on the whole — been uncharacteristically bad on the road. 

In other words, perhaps, it’s never been more difficult to win away from home in MLS.

This table charts total regular season road wins for each season since 2000, then divides that number by the total number of games played that year. The percentage on the right measures how often the visiting team emerges victorious. During the non-shootout era, the 2016 campaign is on pace to have the lowest road winning percentage based on road wins divided by total games played. And it’s not even close.

MLS road winning percentage
Regular season: 2000-present