Sporting KC rides first 7-0 start in MLS since '96

He vowed at the time that Sporting KC would turn things around.

Well, the turnaround certainly happened.

"I don't have any doubt that they're the best team in MLS right now," Vancouver coach Martin Rennie said. "I think that would be very hard to argue."

Vermes knows that attention will keep building until Sporting Kansas City loses, and there will be more questions and more distractions. He realizes that the MLS season is a marathon rather than a sprint, but he also knows a win now counts the same as a win later.

"At the end of the day, I think our players have approached this fantastically," he said. "I think they've stayed extremely humbled, extremely focused, not getting ahead of themselves, and they've gone out and performed an executed. When you do that, you give yourself a chance."