Friendly Time

Kansas City gets into the in-season friendly business again this year as they take on Newcastle United tomorrow at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. Newcastle isn't the glamor opponent that Manchester United was last year, but Newcastle is still a big club (and not just in their fans minds). St. James' Park is the third largest stadium in the EPL, and even though Newcastle is entering their second season back in the Premier League, they still continue to draw well. One of the Magpies' biggest names, Joey Barton though, along with 2 other players were not given visas and did not travel to the US. They'll still have Special 1TV's favorite Newcastle player, Shola Ameobi.

With the lineup that KC put out for the reserve game, it appears that Peter Vermes is hoping to dress as many players as possible, and get as many on the field as possible. Hopefully this means that the first 11 won't get more than 45 minutes tomorrow so that they're fresher for the game on Saturday against Toronto. It'll also be nice to get a look at newer players like Soony Saad and Daneil Cyrus (who both played today), as well as maybe Jeferson. I'm just hoping for no one to get hurt tomorrow.

PREDICTION - I'm not gonna predict a lineup for tomorrow because hopefully we'll see 22 players on the field for KC throughout the game to give some guys some rest heading into the long home stand. With the game tomorrow though I think that KC may actually have the advantage. Once again tomorrow the heat wave is set to continue, with temperatures again over 100. And while both teams have to deal with the weather, KC has dealt with it a lot more than Newcastle has.