Sometime during the middle of June, a single sheet of paper came across the desk of Sporting Kansas City coach Peter Vermes. An inventory of nine names was typed across it, comprising an injury list that would leave the club shorthanded for an upcoming match. Vermes would need to place three teenagers into his starting group, perhaps the least experienced lineup in his tenure, and he knew who was to blame.
Himself.
Two weeks earlier, he had tweaked the practice routine. The details of those tweaks are “trade secrets” that he has no interest in publicizing, but the general purpose was to incorporate drills that emphasized competing and enhanced the intensity of each training session.