Sporting KC: Daniel Salloi illustrates diversifying threat

Daniel Salloi has scored six goals in his last five games. The wide midfielder perfectly illustrates the diversifying attacking threat of Sporting KC.

Sporting Kansas City will face the Portland Timbers in the Western Conference Championships next weekend. For Peter Vermes and his side, this is the closest they have come to an MLS Cup since they won it in 2013, beating Real Salt Lake on penalties.

For a team that has largely succeeded in the regular season since, making the playoffs in every single year, their postseason record has been shambolic, losing four-straight knockout-round matches.

This year, though, Sporting KC secured the number one seed in the West and entered the playoffs in far finer fettle than they ever had before. This looked — and still looks — like a different team from the ones of recent seasons.

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And there is a very clear and obvious reason for that: they now have goals from a variety of sources, exemplified most brilliantly by Daniel Salloi. Salloi has emerged this season as a genuine goal threat. Capable of playing on either wing or centrally, he scored 11 goals in 29 appearances, 26 of which were starts.

The Hungarian has a knack for finding the net, doing so twice in the second leg against Real Salt Lake in the Western Conference semi-finals, goals number five and six in his last five appearances. But it was not all plain sailing for Salloi this season. As Vermes stated this week, the attacker needed to be ‘reset’ somewhat:

"“So I think there is a time in the middle of the season, where you take them, remove them, and let them watch from the outside for a little bit, which helps them kind of hit the reset button. I told him, ‘This is not a decision based on play. It’s based on giving you a little bit of a break. Believe me, you’ll get your chance again. It’s going to come and you’ll be better for it later.’ I like to think on this one, I was kind of right.”"

But now that Salloi is firing once again, this is a KC team that has diversified its goal threat. In Diego Rubio, Johnny Russell and Salloi, KC boast three players that have scored ten or more goals this season. Midfielders Felipe Guttierez, Gerso Fernandes and Ilie Sanchez have also chipped in with five or more themselves.

In past years, KC faltered because of their lack of attacking threat. They had the best defence in MLS, but they couldn’t score enough at the other end. They were too easy to defend against, too predictable in their play in possession, and ultimately sounded out by the better teams who could, over 180 minutes, break down their defensive resistance.

But this year, that is not the case, and Salloi is the perfect illustration of that. Salloi scored three goals last season in approximately half the number of minutes. He has doubled his goalscoring rate this season, which is significant alongside Rubio and Russell, the former of which is averaging a goal every 88 minutes.

Sporting KC are as good as they have been all season. They are better than in previous seasons. They are ready to win the MLS Cup. And it is all because of the emergence of players like Daniel Salloi.