When Sporting Kansas City took the field for MLS Cup 2013 at Sporting Park, Manager Peter Vermes trotted out the same 11 players he had used in the Eastern Conference Championship two weeks earlier to secure his team's spot in the final.
Now eight months later and the reigning MLS Cup champions are yet to repeat a starting lineup since. The culprit causes? Injuries, international duty, suspensions and schedule congestion. Pick your poison; Sporting KC has suffered from all of the above at one time or another, and often simultaneously, in 2014.
Take Friday's 1-1 draw with the Philadelphia Union as a prime example. Sporting KC started a backup goalkeeper, backup right back, backup left back, backup centerback, backup holding midfielder, backup attacking midfielder...all of which left Aurelien Collin as the lone member of Sporting's back seven to have played in the aforementioned MLS Cup.
Add it all up and the equation equaled the team's 22nd different lineup in 22 MLS matches this season. Dig deeper, something Sporting KC has been apt to do given the shuffling of the squad, and it becomes more than a mathematical case of permutations within the same core group of starters.
Rather, Vermes -- who as a player set Major League Soccer's iron man record for field players with 67 uninterrupted appearances from 1998-2000 -- has employed 28 different players in the first XI since the regular season started in March. That's most in the league and in stark contrast to the two teams closest to Sporting KC atop the Supporters' Shield standings: Seattle and D.C. United, who have each relied upon 19 different starters in 2014 -- a league low.
| # of Players to Start/Play | ||
| Team | GS | GP |
| CHI | 22 | 25 |
| CHV | 24 | 29 |
| COL | 24 | 25 |
| CLB | 22 | 25 |
| DC | 19 | 22 |
| DAL | 23 | 25 |
| HOU | 20 | 22 |
| LA | 21 | 25 |
| MTL | 25 | 28 |
| NE | 22 | 23 |
| NY | 20 | 22 |
| PHI | 22 | 24 |
| POR | 24 | 25 |
| RSL | 22 | 24 |
| SJ | 21 | 25 |
| SEA | 19 | 24 |
| SKC | 28 | 29 |
| TOR | 22 | 26 |
| VAN | 21 | 22 |
| # of Players Under 23 to Start/Play | ||
| Team | GS | GP |
| CHI | 5 | 6 |
| CHV | 9 | 12 |
| COL | 11 | 11 |
| CLB | 6 | 8 |
| DC | 6 | 8 |
| DAL | 11 | 12 |
| HOU | 6 | 8 |
| LA | 4 | 8 |
| MTL | 7 | 10 |
| NE | 7 | 8 |
| NY | 4 | 4 |
| PHI | 9 | 10 |
| POR | 5 | 5 |
| RSL | 7 | 9 |
| SJ | 3 | 5 |
| SEA | 2 | 5 |
| SKC | 11 | 11 |
| TOR | 5 | 8 |
| VAN | 9 | 10 |
| # of KC Starters | |
| Year | GS |
| 2014 | 28 |
| 2013 | 23 |
| 2012 | 21 |
| 2011 | 25 |
| 2010 | 23 |
| 2009 | 23 |
| 2008 | 25 |
| 2007 | 19 |
| 2006 | 22 |
| 2005 | 20 |
| 2004 | 21 |
| 2003 | 21 |
| 2002 | 20 |
| 2001 | 20 |
| 2000 | 23 |
| 1999 | 25 |
| 1998 | 22 |
| 1997 | 18 |
| 1996 | 20 |
GS = Number of players to start a regular season match in 2014
GP = Number of players to appear in a regular season match in 2014
*Under 23 age is based on start of MLS season on March 8
Jorge Claros became starter No. 28 for Sporting KC on Friday, earning his debut in place of the injured Paulo Nagamura and overseas Lawrence Olum (international duty). The Honduran international put in a promising first MLS performance, leading all players with 74 successful passes out of 80 attempts.
"I thought he moved the ball well," Vermes said in his postgame press conference. "There’s a couple things that he still needs to get adapted and adjusted to with us, but the bottom line is that he is a good player and a good addition to our team."
Claros wasn't the only fresh face on the field as fellow summer signing Martin Steuble entered in the 89th minute for his first MLS action. In doing so, Steuble was the 29th Sporting KC player to appear in an MLS match this year; a distinction of deployed depth only matched by Chivas USA in 2014.
Perhaps most impressive from the findings is the following: 11 of the team's 28 starters in 2014 were 23 or younger at the start of the MLS season. No team in MLS has started more such youth than Sporting.
Moreover, the roster rotation is unprecedented in the team's 19-year history. Never before has the club called upon such a large pool of starters, as shown in the far right table above.
Nevertheless, Sporting Kansas City is in the midst of an eight-match unbeaten streak that has propelled the club into the Supporters' Shield lead with a dozen games remaining. The body of work and the bodies required to make it happen didn't go unnoticed by Philadelphia's interim manager Jim Curtin.
"For me, this is the top team in the MLS right now, and (they are) missing a lot of guys and missing a lot of talent," Curtin assessed. "They don’t lose much of a beat when they plug in pieces to different holes."
