The race for the Western Conference's top spot is heating up with less than two weeks left in the MLS regular season, with Sporting Kansas City the latest to stake their claim at number one. The team have a one-point lead over the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers as things stand in what feels fully like a new chapter for them.
"We've been saying for a decade, okay, what happens if you give Peter Vermes some money?," Matt Doyle said on the latest episode of Extratime. "He did that with Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda this year and he's gotten superb production from guys kind of down the depth chart. ... When Pulido is playing like he has been, they have one of the best attacks in the league."
Doyle also said that Sporting have benefitted from making their squad younger, with the end result feeling like "a changing of the guard."
"The big thing to me is what we've seen over the past month and a half, you just have to integrate some of the young players, some different players in different spots -- Jaylin Lindsey, Roberto Puncec in central defense and this has come while Graham Zusi, hurt and out for the year, and Matt Besler, first hurt and now he's making the 18 but he's not playing anymore. ... They're more mobile than they were last year, than they were earlier this year."
All of those pieces coming together has allowed Kansas City to make a strong run to end the season, and join the conversation as one of the West's best teams.
"Sporting Kansas City are super dangerous in the Western Conference," Doyle said, "and maybe at the same level as Seattle and Portland."
