Changes were at hand for the Kansas City Wizards in 2011. Changes which started with their name - from Wizards to Sporting Kansas City - and included a new stadium, new colors, and - most importantly - new players.
"We needed to change the culture and unfortunately, when you're changing culture you have to change people," manger Peter Vermes said. "The mechanisms to achieve that aren't the easiest." Newly removed from an interim tag, Vermes was placed in charge of all soccer operations for Sporting. He faced the daunting task of taking years of mediocrity and replacing it with the same type of quality that won an MLS Cup in 2000, when a younger Vermes anchored the Kansas City defense.
"I knew going into this, it was going to take some time and what we have now is a very strong core group of players," Vermes said. "We've laid out our expectations and this group meets that standard daily. That's the crux of our success."
