Despite their current separation of fortunes, Sporting Kansas City certainly doesn’t fear the LA Galaxy. They aren’t intimidated, either.
But the respect manager Peter Vermes and his players have for their opponent is unmistakable. None more so than the acknowledgment of the threat a well-rested David Beckham will pose with his pinpoint distribution from his midfield position.
“When he came here, he was already the best server of the ball in the League already,” Vermes said. “I don’t think any of that has changed. It’s not just deep lying. He does it from anywhere; the right side, the left side, long distance, short distance. He’s just a very good passer of the ball. He’s also got a calmness in possession that is a big help to them. He gives a pause to their game.”
One of Kansas City’s main focuses Saturday night at the Home Depot Center will be how to stop Beckham from delivering the seeing-eye balls that have allowed him to rack up five assists this season as Los Angeles marched to the top of the Western Conference table.
But as much respect as Vermes has for the threat Beckham poses, that doesn’t mean he was willing to share how Sporting planned to curtail it. Asked how he planned to neutralize the Englishman on Thursday at his weekly press conference, Vermes merely smiled and deftly sidestepped the question.
“Many different ways,” he said. “Many different ways.”
Of course, one way to stop Beckham is to blanket the players on the end of his passes, and Kansas City will have its hands full with Landon Donovan, Juan Pablo Angel and Chad Barrett providing targets up top.
And although Angel hasn’t yet found his form in Galaxy colors, Donovan’s track record and understanding with Beckham means Kansas City has a pretty good idea on who to zero in on when Beckham does find space and gets his head up.
“He finds balls deep to Donovan,” Vermes said. “That sort of partnership, that dynamic duo if you will, is something that we have to be very alert to throughout the game.”
Unfortunately for Sporting, Los Angeles won’t have to similarly burden themselves worrying about Sporting’s Designated Player. Omar Bravo will not be available as he continues to recover from sports hernia surgery. Birahim Diop will also miss out after tweaking his hamstring late this week in training.
Though disappointing, it was not an unexpected development and one that Vermes has been dealing with since the second match of the season, when Bravo was shown a red card against the Fire and was subsequently injured in a U.S. Open Cup match against the Dynamo.
“I had a good feeling that Omar might not be available coming into this week,” he said. “I’ve said this a million times, and I’ll say it again. I’m not going to jeopardize a guy’s health for one game.”
And even though it is just one game, Kansas City is certainly not in an enviable position. Sporting have lost their last three and haven’t won since opening day, leaving them rooted to the bottom of the Eastern Conference table and patience steadily waning.
“It’s very important for the team to win the game,” defender Aurelien Collin said. “But we won’t die after the game if we don’t win. We need to win because these last couple weeks we have been working and things are coming.”
And if they walk away with yet another loss? It’s not the end of the world says Vermes, even if everyone involved would desperately like to take three points back to Kansas City.
“We’re not (panicking),” Vermes said. “I’m not. The players aren’t.”