Playoffs: Welcome Back KC

-Davy Arnaud celebrating with the Cauldron after the game, courtesy of SportingKc.com

Saturday the 15th of October 2011 will go down into the history books as Sporting Kc confirmed their spot in the playoffs with a 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls. Whether this club can go farther is yet to be seen but as of now fans across the area are celebrating. And rightly so, Sporting Kc hasn't made it into the playoffs for 2 years. And even in 2009 they lost in the first round to Columbus. But this year, there is new belief. To lose out in the opening round would do terrible injustice to our club that has quite literally experienced the highs and lows of soccer in slightly under 7 months.

But, even if we fail to progress in the playoffs there would still be progress within the club that may not necessarily be seen by the naked eye - this team is young. The average age of the players who started against NY was 26 while the backline's average starting age was 24, one of the lowest in MLS. And with the likes of Soony Saad(19), Jon Kempin(18), Daniel Cyrus(20), and Kevin Ellis(20) waiting for stardom, this team can go far. But this season it has been a mix of young and old who have lead Sporting to the playoffs. Jimmy Nielsen(34), Omar Bravo(31), and Julio Cesar(32) have all been key figures this season and have really stepped up as leaders after the loss of talisman Jimmy Conrad and Jack Jewsbury leaving earlier this year. 

No matter how old they are winning on Saturday afternoon in the fall sunshine was a big step for these players. Winning the cup would be an even bigger step. And quite frankly I can't really think of any other club more deserving of it than us, except for maybe Seattle. Certainly club captain Davy Arnaud couldn't. Arnaud recently broke the all-time league appearances for Sporting Kc, surpassing assistant coach Kerry Zavagnin's mark. Arnaud was probably the happiest man at LSP on Saturday (pictured above). He's been with this team for almost 10 years now and has watched it grow into something bigger than he could ever anticipate. 

Now, as October comes to an end the playoffs are just around the corner and I think I can speak for all fans when I say, WE WANT THE CUP.