Even by early-season standards, Sporting Kansas City's March schedule is big on home openers.
Of the three away days in Sporting's first four matches, all three – including Saturday's game at new England – were or are home openers for the opposing side.
Counting last weekend's scoreless draw against Chicago at Sporting Park, that's four straight weeks of playing in front of fired-up crowds anxious to see their teams at home for the first time.
“We've all played games now,” manager Peter Vermes said on Wednesday, during the team's weekly news conference. “We're going to just have to get on with the season, right? So it's interesting how it started this year, but we're ready to go.
Vermes doesn't mind going into a high-energy situation in an opposing stadium – especially not if the Revs open things up at home, giving his club a chance to play the wide-open style he favors.
“I've seen them play at two places, and they weren't afraid to open it up a little bit,” he said. “So that's a good thing. “I would assume at home they would do the same thing. I think that's going to make for a good game for both teams. That part should be something that should be beneficial to both the game itself and both teams and the way they want to play.”
While Vermes repeated on Wednesday that he's no fan of the packed-in strategy the Fire used to earn a point last weekend, he said league pressure on clubs to step things up isn't the answer.
“I'm sure behind closed doors they can have their own discussions,” he said. “But I don't think publicly they can say that teams have to play a certain way. You wouldn't tell an NFL team that they have to play a certain way, a certain defense or whatever.”
That would run the risk of dictating what a club's expectations should be from a match, Vermes said, adding that the burden is on offensive-minded sides to break open a bunkered-in defense.
“In (the Fire's) mind, that may have been like winning,” he said. “We don't know what's going on with the other team, in their locker room. We still have to be able to break that stuff down We still have to be able to score in that game. So as much as they sat back and bunkered in, we still had enough chances.”
