Earlier this year, all the talk was about Sporting KC missing Teal Bunbury during the summer during the Olympics in London, but then the US crashed out of qualifying in Nashville, which will keep Bunbury with KC during the summer. The loss of Bunbury would have been rough, but not unrecoverable, what will happen though could be a lot rougher for KC to deal with.
With Honduras having qualified for the Olympics, rumors have already started to swirl on who Honduras' 3 overage players will be. And one name that has come up, is Sporting KC midfielder, Roger Espinoza. Losing Espinoza would be a big blow to KC, especially because through 4 games has been one of KC's MVPs. He's done well growing into his role in the midfield and has avoided picking up yellows for bad tackles this year.
The Olympic soccer occurs between July 26th through August 11th. During that time frame, KC have 3 games, July 28th vs the Crew, 8/4 at New England, and 8/11 vs DC. But that would require Honduras to qualify for the medal games. Of course with camps and stuff before hand and recovery afterwards, Espinoza would possibly also miss 7/18 at Houston, 7/21 vs New England, and 8/18 at Toronto. The last one again in the unlikely event Honduras make the medal games. Still that's the potential of 6 games, almost a 6th of the season. For a guy that's played such a big role so far, it'd be a big loss. Paulo Nagamura would be the likely replacement, and while he has the experience factor, he's not at the level of Espinoza.
Id argue Espinoza it the one player that you cant "replace" on the roster.
ReplyDeleteCaleb Porters/US U23 fail job is appears to be a punishment that keeps on punishing
Well, I hope Roger doesn't get the call. I mean, it would be a great honor. And he certainly deserves it. But I would much prefer to see him continue with club instead of country. I don't see a clear substitute for him right now. But then again, at this point I trust PV to find a suitable sub that will carry on Roger's bulldogging.
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