Things are Worse than they Seem for Sporting KC

First, I want to introduce myself. My name is Chad and this is my first article on The Blue Testament. I formerly ran my own Sporting Kansas City site and then later was the editor on a competitor site. I've decided to join forces with the crew at TBT to make this a one stop shop for all your Sporting KC needs. Let's get to the content.

Back to my doom and gloom. Sporting Kansas City are having a bit of a rough stretch. That may be putting it too lightly. They have won just one game in the last 11 played. The one win had a Sporting KC record 34 shots against Orlando City SC. There were also three draws and an astounding seven losses.

You are likely asking yourself, "how could it be worse?" Well let me give you a little more detail. Sporting are currently sitting in 8th place in the Western Conference with 18 points through 16 games. That breaks down to a meager 1.13 points per game. We are currently one game short of the middle of the season (that sure went by fast). With a mere 18 games to go for the rest of the season, it's really time to turn things around.

Let's dive a little deeper into how desperate these times are. For the last six years it's not been very easy to make the playoffs as a member of the Western Conference (in 2010 nearly all the teams went because only the best two teams in each conference were let into the playoffs then it fell to the next six best teams, which were all in the West). As you know, Sporting KC rejoined the West in 2015, but were in the easier Eastern Conference before that.

To get into the playoffs from the West over the last six years it's taken an average of 48.3 points. That includes 2012 which allowed in a Western Conference team with just 43 points. For me, that' an aberration and not a trend. The next lowest year was 2010 with 46 points and the next is 49 in 2011. In the last three years it's 51, 50 and 51 respectively. If we drop out that weird 2012 then teams need an average of 49.4 points to make the playoffs.

With Sporting KC only sitting on 18 points with 18 games to go they would need to get 1.78 points per game to get to 50 points (1.72 to get to 49 points). At this point in the MLS season only three teams are on that torrid pace; the Colorado Rapids (2.0 PPG), Real Salt Lake (1.77 PPG) and FC Dallas (1.75). That is based on the 49 point target, as you can see only Colorado's pace would get a team to the 50 point target.

Have I sufficiently bummed you out? I've made myself very sad. I promise everything I write isn't this much of a downer.