



This piece is part of our “State of the Team” series, previewing each MLS squad ahead of the 2020 season. Read the other teams’ stories here.



Late in 2018, as the club was fighting its way toward a first-place finish in the Western Conference regular season standings, Sporting Kansas City locked up four of its most important players.



The club re-signed center back and captain Matt Besler, right back Graham Zusi and midfielders Roger Espinoza and Ilie Sanchez to expensive, multi-year contract extensions that September. The new deals were a statement: Though Besler, Zusi and Espinoza were all over 30 years old, SKC trusted that the foursome could guide the club to more trophies. At a time when head coach and sporting director Peter Vermes could’ve started to move on from his aging core, he instead doubled down on the players who had led SKC to so much success over much of the previous decade.



In 2019, that bet...