For three years, FC Kansas City was one of the NWSL’s most dominant teams. While Portland had all the big names and Seattle was going on record-setting unbeaten runs, the Blues were quietly putting together season after season of solid soccer. Unlike other perennial favorites, Kansas City was never flashy, instead relying mostly on players with lifetime memberships to the All-Underrated Club.
NWSL week 3 in review: FC Kansas City looking for answers up front after 222 goalless minutes
FCKC has a solid defense plus Sydney Leroux, but she’s not getting much support.
Michael Chow-USA TODAY Sports
The Blues were good almost immediately, finishing second in the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013, before being bounced out of the playoffs by Portland. A year later, with another second-place finish, FCKC returned to the postseason, and this time the Blues made no mistake, knocking off the Thorns in the semifinal before beating Seattle to claim the NWSL championship. In 2015, FCKC became the league’s only team to make the postseason in every season, and the Blues would add another trophy, again beating Seattle in the title game.
That championship, though, would mark the end of Kansas City’s dominance. Before the 2016 season, FCKC lost seven players — Lauren Holiday, Liz Bogus, Leigh Ann Brown, Amy LePeilbet, Amy Rodriguez, Sarah Hagen, and Rebecca Moros — either to retirement, pregnancy, or trade. An eighth, Jen Buczkowski, retired a month into the season. The losses were evident almost immediately and though the Blues put together a four-game unbeaten streak in June, it wasn’t until September that things started to really come together, and by then it was way too late. That year, for the first time ever, the NWSL postseason didn’t include the Blues.
This season was supposed to be the year that FCKC got back on track. Rodriguez was returning after giving birth to her second child, and Sydney Leroux, who’d also missed the 2016 season due to pregnancy, was ready to finally make her debut for the Blues a year after being traded to the team from Western NY. Kansas City would also have Becky Sauerbrunn, who’d spent the past two years in and out of the picture due to the World Cup and Olympics, for a full season again. Moros had been traded back to Kansas City from Houston, and Shea Groom, Brittany Taylor, Yael Averbuch, Nicole Barnhart, Erika Tymrak, and Desiree Scott were all back in KC for another season, too.
And Kansas City did indeed make a statement — a “we’re back” one — almost as soon as this season kicked off three weeks ago. Leroux scored just seven minutes in to give FCKC a 1-0 lead over Boston and Rodriguez added one of her own in the 48th. That though, was about where things started to go wrong for the Blues. Seven minutes later Rodriguez would go down injured, and though Kansas City would ultimately hold on to win, it wasn’t without a cost. Two days later, the team announced Rodriguez would miss the remainder of the season due to a torn ACL.
Things have only gotten worse for Kansas City since then. Groom missed Sunday’s game against Sky Blue due to a broken rib, and the Blues have now lost two straight, first dropping last week’s game in Chicago before losing again to Sky Blue this week. But not only is Kansas City now winless in two, they’re also goalless in those games. The Blues haven’t scored since Rodriguez’s 48th-minute goal in Week 1, and while 222 minutes without a goal is hardly the worst scoring drought we’ve ever seen in the NWSL, it’s definitely concerning.
Kansas City rarely looked threatening offensively on Sunday, and other than a goal that was called back on a questionable offside call, Leroux, now left as FCKC’s only real scoring hope, couldn’t do much.
That Leroux is now left as the sole offensive hope is also concerning for FCKC. Though she’s had success with the USWNT, Leroux has never performed particularly well on the club level. FCKC is her fourth NWSL team, with stops in Boston, Seattle, and Western NY before coming to Kansas City. Leroux missed most of the 2015 season, when she was with the Flash, due to surgery, but prior to that she was mostly ineffective as a member of the Reign. Without much support, Leroux could easily fall into the same kind of funk again.
Overall, Kansas City looked flat for long stretches, and the absence of Rodriguez, who’s got a knack for scoring scrappy goals off ugly rebounds and deflections, was particularly obvious against a young Sky Blue defense that hasn’t looked on the same page yet this season.
Kansas City is still solid defensively, the connection issues in the midfield could get better with time, and with Scott making her season debut this week after missing the first two games due to injury, there are some bright spots. The Blues’ main concern right now is scoring, and the difference between what they looked like in week one with A-Rod and Leroux as running mates, and what they looked like now, is huge.
How Kansas City moves forward from here is the big question now. The season is still very young, and though Rodriguez won’t be returning, Groom could be back as early as next week, when FCKC takes on Orlando. That bit of scheduling, that they’re playing Orlando right now, with the Pride in full disaster mode, might be the best hope, at least in the short term, FCKC has at turning things around.
Scores
Saturday
Sunday
Sky Blue FC 1 - 0 FC Kansas City
See More:
