Sporting KC may be “team first,” but believe several players deserve awards

KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Sporting KC are in the midst of yet another competitive season, currently sitting in second place in the Western Conference. While last year they were in close to the same boat, their performance in points accrued, and goals scored has already surpassed last season’s finishing marks. And while their backline seemed to struggle at times, their goals against record is tied for second-best in the league.

Usually, when teams boast that sort of success, their players are in contention for awards at the end of the season. They were rewarded at the end of last season as Tim Melia won MLS Goalkeeper of the Year and Ike Opara won MLS Defender of the Year. Should they have guys in that conversation again?

“I think you could make the case for a lot of guys,” said Sporting KC defender Seth Sinovic. “Tim is having another great season again. I feel like that gets lost in the shuffle a little bit, the massive saves he makes on a game-by-game basis.”

Sinovic lumped pretty much every teammate he could think of that deserved to be in that conversation. Graham Zusi, Matt Besler, and Ilie Sanchez were also mentioned along with Melia, and a couple of the newcomers as well.

Midfielder Felipe Gutierrez has 7 goals and 2 assists in just 16 games during this injury-shortened initial campaign, and Johnny Russell has 8 goals and 8 assists in just under 2,000 minutes this year.

It shouldn’t be surprising though that Sinovic put the praise back onto almost any teammate he could. It’s part of Sporting KC’s philosophy to always think of the “team first” in almost everything they do.

“I think with team success, comes individual success,” said Opara. “That’s what we’ve built our culture around the past few years. We worry about the team first. Usually that puts guys into contention for individual awards, whether that be end of the year or an All-Star selection.”

Opara stated that they have a lot more to worry about than “individual awards,” especially at this time of the year.

“At the end of the day, the last few games aren’t going to make or break an individual award,” he said. “So it’s more so, how can you help your team get the results and put yourself in a position to win MLS Cup?”