Sporting KC’s retooled Fontas/Voloder backline could be a good one, given some time

For the second straight year, Sporting KC will take the field for the first time with a key player already lost for the entire season.

Yes, Kortne Ford’s Achilles tear threw a wrench in Sporting’s backline plans, but now it’s next man up.

The most likely candidate to start to Andreu Fontas’ right when the season begins Saturday night in Portland is 21-year-old Robert Voloder. Chris Rindov and Robert Castellanos are on the depth chart, too, but Rindov is a rookie and Castellanos couldn’t solidify a spot with Nashville the past two years.

One or both could be capable fill-ins, but for now, at least, it seems that Voloder’s time time has come — even if this means that Sporting KC will be starting two left-footed center backs.

Sporting manager Peter Vermes isn’t overly concerned.

“You could say the same about two right-footed guys playing back there,” Vermes told The Star. “The only difference is that there are more right-footed guys than there is more left-footed guys.”

Voloder made some of his first appearances for Sporting KC in 2022 without Nicolas Isimat-Mirin. Voloder did play on the left side of a pairing with Ford — and that was fine until, somewhat ironically, Sporting’s 7-2 drubbing at the hands of Saturday’s opponents, the Timbers.

That day, Voloder struggled to cope with movement and didn’t read the game well, eventually drawing a red card. He made two more starts between that match and July 17, including one when Fontas earned a red card of his own during a melee with Colorado.

By the end of the season, Voloder was looking like a more capable MLS player.

“He really started to improve his presence and overall performances in the games that he came into,” Vermes said. “I think that’s the area in which he’s had to grow a little bit.”

The move to America

Voloder, or “Robi” as he’s known to his teammates, admits things weren’t spectacular at the start last year. With Sporting KC struggling in general at the time, his margin for error was extra thin.

And younger players are bound to make mistakes.

To be fair, the German endured a lot of change in 2022. On loan at Maribor in Slovenia, he’d already experienced life outside of his home country. But the move to America brought its own set of challenges.

“In Europe, every country is a little bit different,” Voloder said. “Moving to another continent as far away from home, it’s a little bit harder.

“Seeing how life works here, how it is on the field … if the training is different, I have to adapt to the training, get to know every staff member and teammate. There was a lot of stuff. And not that it was hard, but just a lot of new things adding together, it took me a couple of months (to get settled).”

Ford’s injury, as devastating as it was to him personally as well as to the team’s designs, has opened an opportunity for someone else. And Voloder knows the importance of the chance he has right now.

What’s in a partnership?

But back to that center-back partnership. Can Voloder and Fontas work together?

Vermes said the two must complement one another. And Voloder sees some similarities in how he and Fontas play, specifically in terms of passing and reading the game.

But defensive capabilities will be critical, too.

“You have to be strong in 1v1 actions where you’re back to belly with a guy, or your ability to delay and force the guy to his bad foot,” Vermes said. “Just little things like that where you need repetition of that in a game setting.

“Those are all areas that (Voloder) has improved in. It’s helped him be closer and more prepared to play the position for us.”

Saturday night’s season opener in Oregon should provide a good measuring stick for Sporting KC’s new, if unanticipated, backline partnership of Fontas and Voloder.

But it figures to be a work in progress.

“You have to play some games with them and start to see if they can get the job done together,” Vermes said. “Sometimes you can partner up two guys that you think, ‘Oh, this would be a great match,’ and they wind up unable to get results together. That’s not a one-game evaluation, either.”