KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kevin Ellis might be silencing the critics and those who simply wondered how a 5-foot-9 center back could cut it in a position where height is at a premium.
He still figures he has plenty to prove, though – both individually and with his Sporting Kansas City teammates.
“You always have stuff to prove to people, and to prove to yourself that you can get better every day,” Ellis told reporters on Thursday, during the club's weekly news conference. “I think that's the biggest thing for me, that I want to continue to grow and grow with this team.
“I feel like we're hitting the stride where we're starting to put everything together, and we're playing really well defensively as a team, from the top guy all the way back to the goalkeeper. That shows in the results that we've gotten.”
Ellis has been a significant contributor to Sporting's recent run of form, as they take a six-match unbeaten streak into Saturday night's home game against Supporters' Shield-leading Seattle. He has been on the pitch for all three of their clean sheets over that span, including their two most recent matches, and had an assist and his first career MLS goal in last weekend's 4-0 drubbing of shorthanded FC Dallas.
“He had one of his better games, and that's what I told him on the final whistle,” center back and captain Matt Besler told reporters after that match. “I thought he was very good.”
Ellis, a forward-turned-fullback until last season, is no stranger to central defense. He found himself inserted there several times last season, as injuries and international absences riddled Sporting's center back corps.
With Ike Opara out with a season-ending Achilles tendon rupture, Jalil Anibaba playing right back while Sporting wait for Chance Myers' imminent return from his own Achilles injury, and Ellis' fellow Homegrown Erik Palmer-Brown at the U-20 World Cup with the United States, Ellis has found himself called upon once more.
“We found out last year that he had the propensity to be a good, serviceable central defender if somebody did go down,” manager Peter Vermes said earlier in Thursday's news conference. “So he's kind of stepping off of that platform from last year to now, and it's just about him continuing to get better every day, and he's doing that. So it's good. It helps the team, obviously, especially with the way that we couldn't get anything done in the [transfer] window to help us, and then we lost [Palmer-Brown] to the World Championship.
“We're pretty depleted in that area of the field as well. It's great that he's doing well, and he's got to continue it.”
That's the plan, Ellis said – and it's much a mental task as a physical one.
“I remember talking to Benny [Feilhaber] in preseason, and we were talking about the position and how you should feel after the game,” Ellis said. “He said one thing that really stuck with me: 'After the game you should be mentally tired. You should be more mentally tired than you are physically tired.' And that's something I've tried to put into my game: being in the right spots all the time, organizing from the back, and I think that's been the biggest focus for me.”
Ellis has been in the right spots at both ends of the pitch in recent matches, and continues to reward Vermes' decision to move him inside.
“I just think that he's reading the game better,” Vermes said. “I've said this before: Most players are learned soccer players. What that means is that you learn the position. It's not like God touched you, and you have incredible talent and you're [Lionel] Messi. So to become a learned soccer player, you have to have repetition of situation. The more he plays, the more he's doing it, and he's getting better at it – if he's paying attention, watching film, paying attention to his game and all the things that we're working on during training.”
On defense, Ellis has helped hold Kansas City's last two opponents – including the Sounders in Seattle, two weeks ago – to just one shot on goal apiece. And he proved himself a set-piece threat against Dallas, heading a free kick from Graham Zusi into Krisztian Nemeth's path for Sporting's first goal and later thumping home another header, this one on a corner from Zusi, to put Kansas City up 3-0.
“We talk about it all the time,” Ellis said. “Set pieces is an attitude. It's a mentality. I pride myself in not switching off in those times. Some guys could think of that as a rest time, because the game's not flowing and there's a stoppage. For me, I want to put everything I have into those moments, because those moments can change games.
“When you have guys serving the ball like Graham and Benny do, if you put yourself in the right position, they'll find you.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
