Sporting Kansas City: Five players to watch in 2018

MATT BESLER – DEFENDER

In what could be Matt Besler’s final year wearing a Sporting Kansas City jersey (he hits free agency after the season), he’s definitely someone to keep an eye on. Besler has proven to be one of the best defenders in soccer, spending time with the national team and being a consistent contributor for his hometown team.

Besler has the chance to break a key record this year for Sporting. He’s just 15 matches shy of the all-time record for most games started and played in for Sporting Kansas City and unless he gets injured (or heaven forbid – traded), then he’s probably going to surpass that mark.

Besler was a bit banged up in 2016, but he was relatively healthy in 2017, which was a great sign for fans. Part of what makes Tim Melia’s job “easy” in goal is that he has Besler to defend for him.

Hopefully this isn’t Besler’s final season in Kansas City, but he’s 31 years old and the organization has shown they’re willing to trade the fan favorites (Dom Dwyer and Benny Feilheiber last year, just to name a few) and try and get younger. Besler could be signing elsewhere after 2018, so let’s hope the team can go places this year while he’s still here.