Rewind no more than two or three weeks and you would have found quite a few analysts, fans and even personnel in the league that would tell you that Sporting Kansas City were the best team in MLS.
After a somewhat turbulent start to the season in which a formerly stifling defence had grown leaky, Sporting KC had steadied the ship magnificently, rediscovered their defensively dominant identity and added an element of midfield control and goals in attack, the latter of which they had been desperately lacking in previous seasons.
In steadying the ship, KC were flying, or floating along rather quickly, as the analogy goes.