When Brian Fernandez headed the ball into the back of the net with 93:43 on the clock, Sporting Kansas City’s playoff prospects were reduced from that of a semi-realistic longshot to little more than wishful thinking. The team is now starting directly at the premature end of a season that could have, and maybe should have, been so much more.



There are plenty of explanations for where it all went wrong for SKC in 2019, and the final few minutes of Saturday’s 2-1 defeat away to the Portland Timbers struck an all-too-familiar chord. It was the fourth time that Peter Vermes’ side dropped points (six in total) by conceding a goal during stoppage time, and the seventh time (totaling 10 points squandered) inside the final 20 minutes of a game.



In that sense, Saturday’s meltdown at Providence Park provided the perfect bookend to the optimism that greeted the team’s 2019 MLS slate, which was immediately dented by Los Angeles FC’s...