Sometimes a little change is a good thing.
Take, for instance, Saturday’s scoreless but entertaining draw between Sporting Kansas City and D.C. United to open the 2017 MLS regular season.
Sporting Kansas City’s lineup at RFK Stadium looked a bit different than it did for most of 2016. And although Peter Vermes’ men were only able to claim a point, every notable change in the manager’s starting XI gave supporters legitimate reason for optimism.
Early encouragement came courtesy of two mononymous MLS debutants, Gerso and Ilie. As Saturday’s match unfolded, Graham Zusi and Jimmy Medranda — both of whom were operating in different positions than they had for most of last year — displayed no shortage of competence in their right back and right wing roles, respectively.