With an ever-growing list of players sidelined through injury and the team finding wins hard to come by, Sporting Kansas City Manager Peter Vermes recognized his team needed a spark.
Enter Benny Feilhaber, the 34-year-old veteran midfielder who starred for Sporting from 2013-2017 before moving to LAFC in 2018 and the Colorado Rapids this winter.
Feilhaber officially began his second stint with Sporting on Wednesday, completing his trade from Colorado and immediately bolstering a squad hamstring by injuries.
While it remains to be seen what impact Feilhaber has on the field—he tallied two goals and two assists in seven starts for the Rapids—Vermes knows he can bank on the former U.S. international bringing some much-needed moxie to a team that labored through a busy and unforgiving month of April.
“He has a strong personality, and I need that,” Vermes said of Feilhaber during a Friday conversation with The Program host Soren Petro on Sports Radio 810 WHB. “I need that within the group. I need someone who can kind of pinch guys in the side and sometimes even give guys a stab in the side, if you know what I mean. We need some personality out there, especially with so many guys (out) because of injuries.
“I don’t have to spend a lot of time explaining everything to him,” Vermes continued. “He has all of that under his belt. I’ve known him for a long time and he knows what the club expects. He can be a leader right away, and we need someone who can give us that right away.”
Feilhaber amassed 33 goals and 56 assists across 180 competitive matches for Sporting in his first five years with the club. He was an integral piece of the teams that won the 2013 MLS Cup and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup titles in 2015 and 2017. Feilhaber also represented the U.S. at the 2008 Olympics, the 2010 FIFA World Cup and multiple editions of the Gold Cup.
Vermes thinks the midfielder’s wealth of big-game experience will only help Sporting as several players slowly work their way back to full fitness. The Sporting manager fondly remembers coaching Feilhaber under the brightest of lights and hopes similar opportunities arise in the near future.
“He’s got big (guts) in those situations,” Vermes said. “He’s a guy who isn’t afraid of the big moment. And that helps your team.”
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Feilhaber and Sporting visit the nation's capital this weekend to face D.C. United at 6 p.m. CT on Sunday. The game will air live on FS1 and Sports Radio 810 WHB.
