The 2022 Major League Soccer season didn’t go as anyone hoped for Sporting Kansas City. An atrociously slow start couldn’t be overcome, even by a Supporter’s Shield pace down the stretch for the last couple months of the season.
A huge part of that was the fact that Designated Players Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda both had season ending surgery and never played a single minute in the league. A first for a team in MLS to lose two DPs for the entire year without playing any minutes. Teams only get three DPs after all, so the losses at key positions were critical.