Status report: What defines your team through Matchday 11?

Matchday 11: Handled a struggling Sporting KC side 2-1 at home, with another winner coming from Nigerian-Canadian superhero Tani Oluwaseyi. He’s having the kind of breakout that makes me (and other folks) feel like he could be the next Brian White.

How they got here: First under interim head coach Cameron Knowles and then under new, permanent manager Eric Ramsay, they’ve been flexible in both where they draw their line of confrontation (sometimes they press, sometimes they counter, sometimes they spring midfield traps) and their formation (originally it was a 4-2-3-1, then a 4-3-3, now a sort of 5-4-1 that morphs into a 4-3-3 that morphs into a 3-2-2-3).

Usually they are at their best against the ball, which is fine. Though there are times when they do get on the ball that they are dynamic and dangerous.

I had them a top-four team in the West heading into the season, and that’s where they sit now. But my rationale was wrong: I thought it’d be because they had a full year of Teemu Pukki and a full year of Emanuel Reynoso and a breakout year from Bongi Hlongwane. Add in a new voice at the top, and the potential was there – I thought – for the whole thing to be freshened up.

It hasn’t happened that way. Hlongwane’s been slowly working his way back to full fitness from a knock, and Pukki’s been sporadically effective. Reynoso, meanwhile, has mostly been in Argentina and I sincerely doubt he’s ever going to play another minute for this team.

What’s happened instead is that Robin Lod has become the de facto No. 10 and everyone else around him has found freedom because of that. It’s a vibrant, fun surprise.

What’s next? There will be some sort of parting of the ways with Reynoso, which will allow the front office to go big during the summer window. I’m not sure what position it’ll be at, and at this point I doubt they are, either.

The next few months will be interesting.