Open Cup Final Start Time, Rosell, and All Stars

Just a little bit ago, Sporting KC and the Seattle Sounders announced the start time of the US Open Cup final on August 8th.  The game will kick off at 8pm Central Time on that Wednesday, 6pm on the West coast.  There's still no announcement of any TV for the final, but the assumption on the start time is that it hopefully was done 30 minutes later than usual Sporting home games to help facilitate a potential TV deal.

Rosell One Step Closer to KC

Last week, I mentioned how Oriol Rosell, a trialist earlier this season had been granted his release from his contract with the Barcelona B side.  At the time it was mentioned that Rosell had a deal with an MLS side on the table.  At the time I assumed that it was KC that had offered the deal, as KC had been the only club mentioned that Rosell had trialed with.  The Spanish media has now picked up on this and is saying that Rosell has a 2 year contract offer on the table from Sporting.

Based on the article, it appears that Rosell looks set to turn down offers to play with the B sides of Valencia and Villarreal to sign with Kansas City.  It appears that part of the reason for this decision is Rosell's interest in completing his degree at the same time.

All Star Game Day Roster

Aurelien Collin, Jimmy Nielsen, and Graham Zusi were all named to the MLS First XI for the all star game against Chelsea last week, but that was no guarantee that the 3 would be named to the game day roster for the game next week.  Yesterday on the ESPN broadcast, the roster for the game was announced.  Collin, Nielsen, and Zusi were all named to the roster that will be taking on Chelsea.  No other KC players were added to the roster that will take on the European champions at PPL Park. Chelsea have also named their roster ahead of their tour that includes stops in Seattle and New York before the all star game in Philadelphia, and the trip ends with a game in Florida.