A stout midfield defense from Sporting Kansas City isolated the Sounders midfield from it's attacking and defensive counterparts to Sounder overall detriment.
The Sounders' new tactical makeup is still a work in progress and Sunday's loss to Sporting Kansas City highlighted some ongoing flaws in the setup. During the period of useful play -- from an analytical perspective, anyway -- before the Oniel Fisher red card, the most egregious of those flaws was the role Clint Dempsey and Andreas Ivanschitz played as a dual attacking tandem. From this position, Peter Vermes' midfield setup was easily able to fracture the Sounders attacking buildup through the middle
In the Sounders' preseason win over the LA Galaxy and their 2-2 draw with Club America, Dempsey and Ivanschitz operated more as complementary players.