Sporting Kansas City recorded just two ties in the club's final 17 games of the 2014 regular season. Now in 2015, two of the team's first three matches have ended with a share of the spoils after Saturday's scoreless encounter with the Portland Timbers -- a side well-versed in the art of a draw.
Saturday's visitors have split points in each of their first three games this year and in doing so become the fourth team in League history -- and first since 2007 -- to open a campaign with back-to-back-to-back draws along with the 2003 Galaxy, 2006 Red Bulls and 2007 Crew.
An anomaly? Hardly.
No team has drawn more regular season games since 2011, when the Timbers entered Major League Soccer and began racking up their first of 50 draws to date (to go along with 45 wins and 44 losses). The majority of those results came under head coach Caleb Porter, who led the Timbers to a league-leading 15 ties in his first season in 2013 and has the highest percentage of draws in league history among coaches with more than one career MLS win.
<strong>Coach</strong> |
<strong>Team</strong> |
<strong>W-L-T</strong> |
<strong>Draw %</strong> |
Caleb Porter |
POR |
26-14-31 |
43.66 |
Jim Curtin |
PHI |
7-6-8 |
38.10 |
Carl Robinson |
VAN |
14-9-14 |
37.84 |
Carlos de los Cobos |
CHI |
10-16-15 |
36.59 |
Jeff Cassar |
RSL |
15-8-13 |
36.11 |
Of those five coaches, all except for Carlos de los Cobos are currently active as managers in MLS which speaks to a larger trend amplified in the early stages of 2015. Since 2012, the number of draws in Major League Soccer have increased each year and are dramatically up through the first 25 games of the new season.
2012: 77 draws in 323 games (23.8 percent)
2013: 82 draws in 323 games (25.4 percent)
2014: 89 draws in 323 games (27.6 percent)
2015: 10 draws in 25 games (40.0 percent)
Five of the last seven MLS matches, including four of six on Saturday, ended evenly. And looking back over the Opta era (2011-2015), perhaps that should come as no surprise. MLS matchday three has featured more draws (19) than any other matchday during that timespan.
While MLS is seeing an upward tick in draws in recent history -- highlighted by Chicago setting an MLS record with 18 ties in 2014 -- the same can not be said for scoreless matches despite Sporting Kansas City featuring in one of three such games on Saturday. The number of 0-0 draws has declined year-over-year from 44 in 2012 (13.6% of all matches) to 38 in 2013 (11.8%) and 36 in 2014 (11.1%).
However, 20 percent (5 of 25) of MLS matches thus far in 2015 have finished without a goal as defense has ruled the day. Eight MLS teams were shutout on Saturday, tying the MLS record for a single day, and scoring is well off pace from previous years after the first few weeks of a 340-game season.
<strong>Year</strong> |
<strong>GPG</strong> |
<strong>Year</strong> |
<strong>GPG</strong> |
<strong>Year</strong> |
<strong>GPP</strong> |
<strong>Year</strong> |
<strong>GPG</strong> |
1996 |
3.37 |
2001 |
3.28 |
2006 |
2.62 |
2011 |
2.58 |
1997 |
3.26 |
2002 |
3.01 |
2007 |
2.66 |
2012 |
2.68 |
1998 |
3.57 |
2003 |
2.89 |
2008 |
2.81 |
2013 |
2.62 |
1999 |
2.86 |
2004 |
2.61 |
2009 |
2.54 |
2014 |
2.86 |
2000 |
3.19 |
2005 |
2.87 |
2010 |
2.46 |
2015 |
1.92 |
When asked to address the team's offensive output during last night's postgame press conference, Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes gave his vote of confidence in the team's attack and voiced his satisfaction with the overall performance.
"We could have easily scored two or three goals on the set pieces. I thought we were very good. Sometimes they don´t go in but to play like that, I like where we are at. I like the way we are progressing as a team," Vermes said. "I am always more concerned when you don´t make chances. I have lot of confidence in our team in regards to scoring goals. I really do."
Sporting Kansas City will now return to the road to take on Eastern Conference leaders New York City FC (1-0-2) at 6 p.m. CT on Saturday at Yankee Stadium. The expansion side has posted two straight clean sheets and are coming off a scoreless draw of their own against the Colorado Rapids yesterday at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
