Sporting KC 2019 Year in Review: Rodney Wallace

The 2019 MLS season is one Sporting Kansas City fans will be looking to forget. But with a very long offseason ahead that may not have soccer until March (assuming no MLSPA strike), we feel compelled to look back at the good and the bad from 2019. For the full list of players reviewed, head to our dedicated Year in Review page.

The Blue Testament continues our look back at 2019 with the latest in a string of free agent flops.

2019 Stats*

Games Played (Started): 1 (1)

Minutes Played: 27

Games Suspended: 0

Goals: 0

Assists: 0

xG (expected goals): 0.00

Positions Played: Left back

2019 Salary: $360,000.00

Contract Through (Option Years): 2019 (None)

*All stats from 2019 MLS regular season unless otherwise noted.

Best Moment of 2019

N/A — You don’t get a “best” moment when you play 27 MLS minutes. He did play in the CONCACAF Champions League on the road against Independiente, but that was a loss too. Tough look for Mr. Wallace.

Worst Moment of 2019

His season ending injury against FC Cincinnati is the only choice. He was signed to push Seth Sinovic at left back (the story as old as time itself). He, like all those that came before him, couldn’t dethrone Seth. Wallace had a fantastic preseason and it kind of felt like he may break the free agent curse. But alas, it wasn’t meant to be. He joined the scrap heap of free agents that Sporting KC have signed, starting with Justin Mapp, as yet another disappointment.

Interesting Stat

27 minutes. How can it be anything else? He breaks the record held by the aforementioned Mapp who played 43 minutes in 2016, his lone season with SKC. It gets worse for Wallace though. He made $360,000 to Mapp’s $239,070. That means Wallace made $13,333.33 per minute (of MLS play) while Mapp made a paltry $5,559.77.

Just for comparison’s sake, Felipe Gutierrez is the highest paid player on the team coming in at $1,649,999.96. He played a team best 2,722 minutes (of all field players). That breaks down to $606.17 per minute. Can we get on cloning Guti please?

Fan Vote: Keep, Banish or Wait

Keep: 6.3%

Banish: 83.1%

Wait: 10.6%

Wallace didn’t even get the most ‘banish’ votes. That honor goes to Krisztian Nemeth. Wallace finished third behind Nemeth and Andreu Fontas. Despite that, he’ll assuredly be gone while Fontas will stick around (unless he’s bought out) and Nemeth could even catch on (though it feels more likely that’d be with another team).