Winston Reid, Sporting Kansas City's defensive secret

Kansas City's strength in defense is owned to their pair of center-backs, Roberto Puncec and Winston Reid. Although the first one add the physical power, it is the second one which is able to make the whole team better. Since the New Zeland national team player has been on the field, things have changed for Peter Vermes's side.

It's not just the goal the center-back scored against rivals Chicago Fire; it's the whole package of his game. For instance, Reid made Illie Sanchez better by facilitating to move the ball to the midfield cleaner. It happen's that Reid's feet are always active. That's a clear reflection of his mind. 

Defensively, he's not the typical MLS's center-back that loves to play with the offside trap. That's just one more resource for him. That's an upgrade for a defender in a league where it's pretty common to see bloopers of defensive players trying to make the offensive rivals fall into the offside, and instead leaving the isolated against the goalkeeper.

Finally, Reid is impressible at guessing where rivals will try to filter passes. In this sense, he's more a midfielder that a defensive back, as he recovers more goals by steals than by tackling. That could be a problem if the wasn't accompanied by Croatian Puncec, who gets the dirty work done.