Peter Vermes and Sporting Kansas City orchestrate greatest single-season turnaround in MLS history

Sporting Kansas City's 2-0 road win over Real Salt Lake on Sunday night was significant for a number of reasons.

First and foremost, Manager Peter Vermes' side secured the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference heading into the Audi 2020 MLS Cup Playoffs. A snowy regular season finale saw forward Khiry Shelton and Erik Hurtado score on either side of halftime, while goalkeeper Tim Melia collected his third consecutive shutout. That top seed means the Western Conference runs through Children's Mercy Park.

Secondly, the result extended Sporting's brilliant run of form—their 6-1-1 record since the start of October is the best in MLS—and gave the club its first MLS road win at Rio Tinto Stadium since 2013.

Third, and most impressively, it punctuated arguably the greatest year-over-year turnaround in the 25-year history of Major League Soccer.

In 2019, Sporting's club-record eight-year playoff streak ended as the team finished 11th in the Western Conference and 21st in the Supporters' Shield standings.

Over the course of 2020, however, what happened in 2019 looked more and more like an aberration.

Bolstered by a balanced attack and a steadily improving defense, Sporting Kansas City has vaulted from 11th to first in the West and 21st to third in the Supporters' Shield table. Both of those jumps are the largest year-over-year improvements in MLS history.

LARGEST JUMPS IN SUPPORTERS' SHIELD STANDINGS
(YEAR-OVER-YEAR, MLS ALL-TIME)

Indeed, the 2020 MLS campaign—in its abbreviated and unprecedented form—marked an emphatic bounce-back for Vermes and Sporting. It took just 21 games this year for the club to hit 12 wins, two more than its total from the 34-game campaign in 2019.

Vermes, who took the helm in 2009 and is the longest-tenured manager in Major League Soccer, has become the first MLS head coach to lead a single club to nine postseason appearances.

Furthermore, Vermes now has four first-place conference finishes under his belt. Sporting finished atop the East in 2011 and 2012 before ending 2018 and 2020 at the summit of the West. Incredibly enough, no other MLS head coach has more than two first-place conference finishes over the last 10 seasons.

"Unfortunately, the year didn’t go as planned but we stayed the course and we stayed true to who we are," Vermes said after Sunday's match. "We remained loyal and committed to our culture. And we believed. This has been a tough year, but for us to be able to achieve first place in the West based on the circumstances - it was incredibly difficult. And then when things changed to points per game and then we had games cancelled, it’s easy for the guys to have mentally checked out in certain situations. They found a way each time."

Count that as another feather in the cap for a coach who already has an MLS Cup and three Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles in his trophy cabinet over the last decade.

"I give them a lot of credit in this year for the mentality that they’ve had. We all had to endure these new things and the guys have adapted and adjusted and found success. I’m proud of them. I can’t say enough good things about them and the staff."

With a successful regular season campaign in the books, Sporting has earned homefield advantage in the West going into the highly anticipated playoffs. Vermes' men will host the No. 8 seed San Jose Earthquakes in the single-game conference quarterfinals on Nov. 21, 22 or 24 at Children’s Mercy Park. Sporting KC Season Ticket Members will have exclusive access to a presale for the match starting Tuesday at 10 a.m. CT. Tickets will then go on sale to the general public beginning Thursday at noon CT.