Meet Sporting KC’s latest playoff hero. He hadn’t scored an MLS goal before last week

Sporting KC left back Logan Ndenbe made 48 straight appearances to start his MLS career without a goal.

He has now scored in his last two matches and holds two of Sporting’s most important goals in 2023, let alone against the top-seeded Western Conference playoff team and one of his club’s top rivals in St. Louis City SC.

He very well could be Sporting KC’s latest playoff folk hero, and he was instrumental in SKC sweeping St. Louis in a first-round playoff upset.

Oh, and it’s not like the Belgian defender was brought to Sporting to score goals.

“I think I got it wrong with him,” Sporting manager Peter Vermes joked in his postgame press conference. “I didn’t realize he was a number nine.”

Wisecracks aside, the shots that Ndenbe scored against St. Louis are what you would expect of a world-class goalscorer, a true number nine. He scored the opening goals in both matches Sporting won against St. Louis, starting a week ago Sunday.

His first goal in Sporting’s 4-1 victory in St. Louis was a screamer from outside the box that he ripped into the top corner.

The second, in Sporting’s 2-1 victory on Sunday, was with a right-footed curler into the bottom corner. Both shots got past Roman Bürki, a finalist for MLS Goalkeeper of the Year.

“I’ve been waiting to come to the U.S. and play in the playoffs,” Ndenbe said after Sunday’s win.

Ndenbe’s moments are similar to those of another Sporting cult hero, Seth Sinovic.

Sinovic famously scored the first goal of his career after 54 games with the club; it was a massive playoff goal against Houston in 2012, although Sporting lost the series on aggregate. He scored his second goal in the following postseason, an equalizer in the Eastern Conference Finals, en route to Sporting KC’s MLS Cup win in 2013.

Sporting KC moved from the Eastern Conference to the West starting in the 2015 season.

Ndenbe’s first two goals couldn’t have come at a more perfect time. Both strikes provided a massive spark to victory against St. Louis.

But somewhere out there, an alternate timeline exists where the opportunities Ndnebe capitalized on fell to a different player.

Ndenbe lost his starting job to Ben Sweat toward the end of the 2022 season. He wasn’t fit enough as the 2023 season began and shortly after injured his hamstring. That caused him to miss eight games.

Vermes said he had a long talk, “a heart-to-heart,” with Ndenbe around that time.

“I’ve had a lot of those over the years, and not everybody really listens,” Vermes said. “If I have them, they’re for the best for the person. But sometimes you get through, and sometimes you don’t.”

Ndenbe said it wasn’t an easy moment.

“We had a conversation about how I have to work more, how I have to improve myself,” Ndenbe said. “I just tried to do it during training.”

When Ndenbe came back, Sweat had been waived and Sporting was in desperate need of healthy defenders. Three weeks later, Ndenbe and Jake Davis started on either side of Sporting’s center-back pairing of Dany Rosero and Andreu Fontas, and neither looked back.

The stories about Davis have been told, and he’s continued to grow into his role. Quietly, Ndenbe has done the same. Now there’s no hiding the fanfare around his performances this season.

In the locker room, Daniel Salloi and Johnny Russell likened Ndenbe’s scoring exploits to that of Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos. Russell called him “Bobby Carlos,” in fact.

After Vermes told the story of his “heart to heart” with Ndenbe, he lauded the work Ndenbe did to get back into form ... let alone have two moments as special as he did over the last two Sundays.

“He was disciplined, and he brought himself back to this place,” Vermes said. “Not me. Him.”