A Must Win for the Supporters' Shield

With 8 games left in the season, Sporting KC is currently 3 points out of the race for the Supporters' Shield.  Behind San Jose, KC doesn't have many games that you can immediately look at and say "oh yeah that should be a win," but tomorrow night at Livestrong Sporting Park, KC has one of those games.  Tomorrow KC take on Toronto FC at LSP in a game that would be labeled a "must win" if KC want to remain in the race for the shield.  Toronto is sitting at the bottom of the East while KC sits at the top.  On paper this is a game that KC has to win.

Toronto had a midweek game this week against Santos Laguna in the CONCACAF Champions' League, which Toronto lost 3-1 on two late stoppage time goals.  Toronto played quite a few starters in that game, including Torsten Frings, Darren O'Dea, and Terry Dunfield.  Lots of players that would be expected to play on Saturday will be playing their 3rd game in a little over a week.  KC has dealt with that themselves and the tired legs from TFC could play a factor in the game.

Sporting will be forced to make 2 changes to their starting 11 from last Sunday against New York.  Teal Bunbury is out for the season after his ACL tear and Aurelien Collin, who picked up a yellow card and is suspended for one game will both miss the game tomorrow.  CJ Sapong and Lawrence Olum seem the most likely players to replace Bunbury and Collin in the starting 11.  With Roger Espinoza not leaving during the transfer window, the midfield should remain unchanged from the midfield that helped shut down the New York midfield last week.

Nielsen

Myers - Olum - Besler- Sinovic

Cesar - Nagamura

Espinoza

Zusi - Sapong - Kamara

Number to Remember - 77 - That's the number of days since CJ Sapong has scored a league goal for Sporting KC, in KC's last home game against Toronto FC.  With Bunbury out for the season, Sapong has to pick up some of the scoring slack.  Also another number, 28, that's how old Kei Kamara turns tomorrow, would be great way to celebrate his birthday with a goal.

Key Match Up - Matt Besler vs Eric Hassli - With Collin out due to yellow card suspension, shutdown the big Frenchman will probably fall on Besler.  Hassli is going to be a handful for Besler to keep in check tomorrow.

PREDICTION - As I said, if KC wants to be considered a candidate for the Supporters' Shield this game shouldn't even be a question.  Even without Bunbury and Collin, KC should be able to take card of business.  At home this is a game KC has no business losing or drawing.  Anything less than a win tomorrow is disappointing.

SKC - 2 (Sapong, Zusi)
TFC - 0

No Transfer for Espinoza

The English transfer window has now closed, and Roger Espinoza is still a Sporting KC player.  With interest from a number of clubs, including Wigan, there'd been speculation since the Olympics that Espinoza would make the move across the Atlantic to a European league some time during the summer transfer window.  Espinoza had stated that he'd be interested in a move to England, but for now he's going to stay in Kansas City.  This week Robb Heineman said that they would do everything they could to keep Espinoza here and happy.  The designated player phrase has been brought out more than once in conversations about a way to keep Espinoza here in the United States with Sporting.  With Espinoza out of contract at the end of the season it's going to be a battle for KC to keep Espinoza, but he will at least be wearing Sporting blue through the end of this season.

Joseph Called Up for Haiti

KC will have a second player represented in the upcoming international window along with Roger Espinoza.  Joining Espinoza on international duty is the Haitian Xavi, Peterson Joseph.  Joseph has been called up for the Haitian national team for the first round of the Caribbean Championships qualifying.  Haiti begin their campaign to qualify for the 2013 Gold Cup next week.  In the first round Haiti host 3 games in a 5 day period in Port-au-Prince.  They start with non-FIFA member Saint-Martin, who is a member of CONCACAF on the 7th, on the 9th they will play Bermuda, and on the 11th they finish group play against Puerto Rico. 

Should Haiti finish first or second in their group they will qualify for the second qualifying round.  In that round they'd play in either Grenada (Oct 18-25) or Guadeloupe (Oct 21-28) (the 3rd group is hosted by Cuba) depending on if they finish first or second.  The top 2 in each of those final 3 groups will qualify for the finals in Antigua and Barbuda in December.  Should Haiti finish as one of the top 4 in the finals, they will qualify for the Gold Cup.

Former SKC Wizards Update

Here's this week's former SKC Wizards Update.

Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Eloy Colombano
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Zoltan Hercegfalvi
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Will John
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
luke Sassano
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played  89 minutes in Montreal's 3-0 win over DC.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 62 minutes in RSL's 0-0 draw with Philadelphia.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 2-0 loss to LA.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Out recovering from surgery.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Portland's 2-1 win over Vancouver.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 73 minutes in Seattle's 6-2 win over Chivas.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Did not dress in Philadelphia's 0-0 draw with RSL.  Did not dress in Philadelphia's 2-1 loss to Columbus.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Chivas - Did not dress in Chivas' 6-2 loss to Seattle.  Started and played 90 minutes in Chivas' 3-3 draw with New England.
Scott Sealy - Dallas - Did not dress in Dallas' 2-0 loss to LA.
Ryan Smith - Chivas - Did not dress in Chivas' 6-2 loss to Seattle.  Did not play in Chivas' 3-3 draw with New England.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Came off the bench and played 12 minutes in San Jose's 4-1 win over Colorado.
Shavar Thomas - Montreal - Dressed but did not play in Montreal's 3-0 win over DC.
Tyson Wahl - Colorado - Did not dress in Colorado's 4-1 loss to San Jose.
Josh Wolff - DC - Dressed but did not play in DC's 3-0 loss to Montreal.  Did not dress in DC's 2-2 draw with New York.

NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Started and played 66 minutes in Atlanta's 1-0 loss to Carolina.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not play in Minnesota's 1-1 draw with Edmonton.
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Did not play in Fort Lauderdale's 2-1 win over San Antonio.
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 90 minutes in Carolina's 1-0 win over Atlanta.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 81 minutes, scoring 2 goals in Fort Lauderdale's 2-1 over San Antonio.

USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Came off the bench and played 35 minutes, scoring a goal in Richmond's 3-2 loss to Wilmington.
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Season is over.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes, in Richmond's 3-2 loss to Wilmington.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes, in Charleston's 2-1 win over Harrisburg.

PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Season is over.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Season is over.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Season is over.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Season is over.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Season is over.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Season is over.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Season is over.

International
Vicente Arze - R. Charleroi S.C. - Belgium - Came off the bench and played 19 minutes in Charleroi's 2-0 loss to Beerschot.
Omar Bravo - Cruz Azul - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes in Cruz Azul's 0-0 draw with Altamira in the Copa Mexico.  Came off the bench and played 34 minutes in Cruz Azul's 1-0 win over Pumas.
Sunil Chhetri - Sporting Clube de Portugal B - Portugal - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring 2 goals in India's 3-0 win over Maldives in the Nehru Cup.  Started and played 90 minutes in India's 0-0 draw with Nepal.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 4-0 loss to Chivas.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - No game this week.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Dressed but did not play in Santos' 0-0 draw with Pachuca.  Started and played 77 minutes in Santos' 3-1 win over Toronto.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Season is over.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - Came off the bench and played 21 minutes in Bahia's 1-1 draw with Atletico Go.  Did not dress in Bahia's 3-1 win over Santos.
Mike Jones - FC Hjorring - Denmark - Did not play Hjorring's 3-0 loss to Bronshoj.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Started and played 70 minutes in Tiraspol's 4-0 win over Costuleni.
Carlos Marinelli - Alvarado - Argentina - Did not dress in Alvardo's 1-0 loss to Racing Olavarria.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring 2 goals in Krasnodar's 2-2 draw with Amkar Perm.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Did not dress in Emmen's 3-1 loss to Fortuna Sittard.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Started and played 90 minutes in Fjolnir's 2-1 loss to Tindastoll.
Milos Stojcev - FC Akzhayik - Kazakhstan - Dressed but did not play in Akzhayik's 1-1 draw with Ordabasy.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Munster's 1-1 draw with Heidenheim. Started and played 86 minutes, scoring a goal in Munster's 2-0 win over Hallescher.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Season is over.

More Espinoza Rumors

We're now less than 48 hours away from the end of the European transfer window for the vast majority of clubs (some countries have through 9/1), which means that Sporting KC fans only have to wait with bated breath a little while longer to see if Roger Espinoza will finish the season with Sporting KC or not.  Greg Seltzer, from No Short Corners spoke with Espinoza's agent today and got some information from him regarding the clubs chasing the Honduran's signature.  Wigan is the favorite per his agent and is looking to land him either now or during the January window when Espinoza is out of contract.

Wigan isn't the only English club that is interested in Espinoza though, there's another (unnamed) club that is apparently interested as well.  Espinoza has made it known that he'd like to play in England so Wigan and this unnamed club would appear to be the favorites to land the signature of the midfielder either now or in January.  Still there are other clubs interested to, the initial Spanish interest is probably still there, and there is apparently also interest in Denmark, Holland, Portugal, and Turkey.  There hasn't been this much interest in a KC player since Eddie Johnson was playing with the club before his move to Fulham.

This news though is a little different than what the team and even Espinoza have portrayed.  Today Peter Vermes said that nobody has contacted the team or the league about Espinoza, and Espinoza himself has said he hasn't heard any offers from his agent either.  This is all the fun of the song and dance that is the transfer window when a player is a target of multiple clubs.  This will all play out fairly quickly if Espinoza is going to move.  I'm still not sure he does this window though.  I think he's still more likely to leave in January on a free.

Espinoza Called Up and Warzycha Loaned Out

The Roger Espinoza news continues today as Honduras announced their roster for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers on September 7th and 11th, both against Cuba.  Even though he's suspended for their first game on the 7th due to his red card in the Olympics again Brazil, Espinoza has been named to the roster.  Espinoza will likley play a starting role in the team's second game in Honduras on the 11th.  The good news for Sporting fans is that there are no games scheduled during the time so Espinoza shouldn't miss any games (if he's still with the team since the Wigan rumors are still around).

Kansas City hosts Toronto on the 1st and is then off until the 14th when they play Houston at Livestrong Sporting Park.  So Espinoza shouldn't miss any games, although he would arrive in KC only 2 days before the Houston game.

Warzycha Loaned to Railhawks

KC made one roster move today, they loaned defender/midfielder, Konrad Warzycha to the Carolina Railhawks of the NASL for the rest of the season.  Warzycha has made 1 league appearance as a substitute in stoppage time against Toronto in the teams.  He also made 2 appearances in KC's US Open Cup run, starting against Orlando City in the 3rd round.

Warzycha though will be made available for both of KC's remaining reserve games on September 11th and 25th.  The Railhawks are currently 5th in the 8 team NASL with a record of 8-7-7.  Also on the Railhawks team is former Wizard, Amir Lowery.

Espinoza to Wigan?

The first I saw of this rumor was reading The Daily Wiz, which linked to an article from The Mirror in the UK.  Needless to say I took it with a large grain of salt, even though it does make some sense.  Wigan has in the past brought in other Hondurans, like Wilson Palacios and currently has Maynor Figueroa in their squad as well.  Espinoza seems like the type of player that manager Roberto Martinez would like in his squad, and he plays a hard nosed, workman like game that will do well with a club like Wigan.

Since the Mirror article though the rumor seems to continue to be growing legs and really can't be ignored.  Wigan has until Saturday night to work out a deal if they want to bring him in during the summer transfer window, as the window in England closes on the 31st.  But with him out of contract he could just make the move in the winter window as well.  Obviously KC wants to keep him, that is the big priority this offseason, but if Espinoza wants to go to Europe there's probably little that KC can do in that regard.  I'm sure there's a price he'd stay in KC, but the question would be would it be worth it at that price? 

The thought of losing both Espinoza and Teal Bunbury in the same week is a tough pill to swallow, with both being current members of the starting 11, their roles are hard to fill, Espinoza's bigger than Bunbury.  Espinoza has arguably been KC's most consistent player, and their MVP this season.

Attendance Comparison for the 13th Home Game

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

Here's this week's  comparison for home games.  Through 13 home games, Kansas City has once again gotten another sellout at Livestrong keeping the 2012 season well ahead of last year's pace for the most well attended season.


1996 - Arrowhead
7,891
Thursday August 15, 1996 vs San Jose 4-1 win
Average - 12,762

1997 - Arrowhead
9,278
Saturday August 17, 1997 vs New York 3-3(2-0) shootout win
Average - 8,928

1998 - Arrowhead
6,401
Wednesday August 26, 1998 vs DC 1-2 loss.
Average - 7,742

1999 - Arrowhead
6,223
Sunday August 29, 1999 vs Miami 2-0 win
Average - 8,871

2000 - Arrowhead
4,960
Wednesday August 2, 2000 vs Colorado 3-1 win
Average - 9,155

2001 - Arrowhead
20,734
Saturday September 8,2001 vs San Jose 1-0 win
Last game of the season, final home game on September 16th was canceled due to 9/11
Average - 10,954

2002 - Arrowhead
20,173
Saturday August 31, 2002 vs Chicago 2-1 win
Average - 11,750

2003 - Arrowhead
13,069
Saturday October 4, 2003 vs Colorado 4-2 win
Average - 16,101

2004 - Arrowhead
10,873
Saturday September 18, 2004 vs San Jose 1-0 win
Average - 14,133

2005 - Arrowhead
7,891
Saturday September 10, 2005 vs New York 0-1 loss
Average - 9,457

2006 - Arrowhead
6,103
Wednesday August 30, 2006 vs New York 2-2 draw
Average - 10,313

2007 - Arrowhead
10,217
Saturday September 15, 2007 vs Columbus 3-2 win
Average - 9,736

2008 - Community America Ballpark
10,385
Sunday October 5, 2008 vs Chicago 1-1 draw
Average - 10,877

2009 - Community America Ballpark
9,784
Saturday September 26, 2009 vs Colorado 0-0 draw.
Average - 10,022

2010 - Community America Ballpark
10,385
Saturday September 25, 2010 vs Dallas 1-3 loss
Average - 10,097

2011 - Livestrong Sporting Park
20,512
Monday September 5, 2011 vs LA 2-2 draw
Average - 17,804

2012 - Livestrong Sporting Park
18,491
Sunday August 26, 2012 vs New York 1-1 draw
Average - 19,314

And here is the list of the average attendances for each of the year's throughout Sporting's history.

1. 2012 - 19,314 (-)
2. 2011 - 17,804 (-)
3. 2003 - 16,101 (-)
4. 2004 - 14,133 (-)
5. 1996 - 12,762 (-)
6. 2002 - 11,750 (-)
7. 2001 - 10,954 (+2)
8. 2008 - 10,878 (-1)
9. 2006 - 10,313 (-1)
10. 2010 - 10,097 (-)
11. 2009 - 10,022 (-)
12. 2007 - 9,736 (-)
13. 2005 - 9,457 (-)
14. 2000 - 9,155 (-)
15. 1997 - 8,928 (+1)
16. 1999 - 8,871 (-1)
17. 1998 - 7,442 (-)

S.A.S. Monday After Stats

Kei Kamara's goal was his 32nd in all competitions for KC, tying him with Mo Johnston for 5th on that list.

Kamara's goal was his 21st at home in league play tying him with Chris Klein and Mo Johnston for 3rd on that list.

Kamara's goal was his 23rd in all competitions at home for KC, tying him with Klein for 3rd on that list.

Graham Zusi's assist was his 12th of the season, the most by a player not named Preki, and the 6th most in a single season in team history.

The assist was Zusi's 20th in league play in his career, tying him with Jack Jewsbury for 8th on that list.

Kamara's and Zusi's appearances were their 100th for the team in all competitions, they're the 27th and 28th players to hit that mark.

In the 10th minute last night, Matt Besler pass Kevin Hartman and moved into 20th place for league minutes played, Besler finished the game with 8181 minutes played.

In the 71st minute, Besler moved past Chris Brown and into 18th place for minutes played in all competitions, Besler finished the game with 9477 minutes played.

Besler made his 104th start in all competitions for Sporting, breakging his tie with Mark Chung for 18th on that list.

Besler also made his 90th start in league play for Sporting, tying him with Hartman for 20th on that list.

More Points Dropped

Sporting KC didn't allow New York to get a shot on goal, the 3rd time this season that Kansas City has kept a team from getting a shot on goal, but KC still couldn't get all 3 points as an own goal allowed New York to escape with a 1-1 draw in the first of 3 match ups between the two teams.

KC came out strong and in the 4th minute grabbed an early lead.  Graham Zusi played a long ball over the top to Teal Bunbury who had gotten in behind the Red Bulls defense.  Bill Gaudette came off his line and collided with Bunbury.  But Bunbury had gotten the first touch and flicked it into the air.  Kei Kamara continued his run and headed the ball into the open net from the top of the box to make it 1-0.  KC continued to control the game and create some chances but couldn't find the net.  In the 27th off a Zusi corner, Aurelien Collin got a free header but put it right at Gaudette, who made the save.  New York came right down the field and won a free kick.  Off that free kick, Sebastien Le Toux played the ball towards Tim Cahill in the box.  Kamara was marking Cahill and beat him to the ball, but headed it past Jimmy Nielsen and into his own net to tie the game.  The play as a hole is more on Nielsen than Kamara though.  The ball was landing right at the 6 when Kamara headed it.  As a keeper you have to control your box and that's always been something that Nielsen has struggled with.  He's never been good at controlling the box and this time it came back to bite him as New York equalized.  KC continued to dominate the rest of the half, holding New York without a shot, but KC couldn't capitalize on it.  Late in first half stoppage time Paulo Nagamura had an open look from the top of the box but blasted it over the bar.

In the second half Kansas City continued to control the game, but still couldn't find the back of the net.  Nagamura again had a chance in the 56th as New York failed to clear Nagamura hit it first time.  The shot deflected but went right into the arms of Gaudette.  Finally in the 65th minute New York got their first shot of the game as Le Toux skied an effort well over Nielsen's net.  New York started to get a few chances, but KC kept pushing as well.  In the 80th minute on a free kick from Kamara off a touch from Zusi was put just wide of the post as KC looked for the winner.  Then a minute later Kamara had another opportunity off a Zusi corner but his header was over the bar.  Into stoppage time KC was still pressuring but almost got caught on the counter.  Off another corner the ball got to Le Toux who fed Dax McCarty and the two started a break.  McCarty played Le Toux behind Chance Myers and the KC defense and continued his run.  Le Toux got caught by Myers, but he squared the ball into the middle for McCarty, but his first touch let him down and Myers was able to recover and break up the play.  KC couldn't find a winner and had to settle for another disappointing result at home.

Wizards Man of the Match - Roger Espinoza - Controlled the midfield extremely well with all the talent that New York has there.  Espinoza made sure that McCarty and Cahilll were kept in check for the most part. 

Honorable Mention - Matt Besler and Aurelien Collin

Player Ratings - Nielsen 4, Sinovic 5, Besler 7, Collin 7, Myers 5, Cesar 6, Nagamura 5, Espinoza 7, Kamara 6, Bunbury 6, Zusi 5. Subs Sapong 5.

Bunbury Done for the Year

Sporting KC got some extremely bad news today on the injury front.  Teal Bunbury, who only played 14 minutes last night against the Red Bulls before being subbed out, is done for the year.  Today Sporting announced the Bunbury had torn his ACL and damaged his LCL.  Bunbury picked up the injury on Kansas City's goal after colliding with New York goalkeeper, Bill Gaudette.  Bunbury then played another 10 minutes before being subbed off.

Bunbury will miss 6-8 months and will likely end up missing the start of the 2013 season as well due to the recovery time.

The good news for KC is that they have another forward who can start at center forward, in CJ Sapong.  Sapong though has struggled with his form lately and will need to pick his performance up.  KC also needs for Jacob Peterson and Bobby Convey to get healthy and start contributing again.  Their return would also help to offset the loss of Bunbury.

KC will need someone to step up for them, Bunbury, Kei Kamara, and Graham Zusi have scored Sporting's last 8 league goals between the 3 of them.  Sapong hasn't scored a league goal since June 17th when KC beat Toronto 2-0.  The big loss in this instance though is the loss of a forward that can stretch the opposing defense.  Bunbury has the ability to get behind the defenders with pace, Sapong on the other hand is more of a man up, back to goal type forward.  The lack of someone that stretches the field is worrisome.  There aren't other options on the bench either, as Soony Saad isn't the type of forward that will stretch a defense, nor is Dom Dwyer.  KC could look outside the team, either try to make a trade within MLS before the roster deadline or a potential free agent elsewhere in the world.

Battle at the Top

Thanks to the crazy schedule that MLS has this year, Sporting KC and the New York Red Bulls have not met in a game yet this year.  The two teams will now meet 3 times over the next 9 weeks as both teams close in on the end of their season.  And with only 2 points currently separating the two teams as they sit first and second in the Eastern Conference each one of those 3 games are going to be absolutely huge in the grand scheme of things.  Arguably each one of those 3 games are "must wins" if KC wants to guarantee that that they have home field advantage in the playoffs.

KC did get a bit of good news from the Red Bulls camp earlier this week.  The Red Bulls announced that French striker, Thierry Henry will miss tomorrow's game as he awaits the birth of his son.  With that, KC will only have to deal with a New York attack that include Tim Cahill, Kenny Cooper, Sebastien Le Toux, and Joel Lindpere, no easy task for KC's defense to handle.  New York's problems all season have been in the back where they've struggled at times.  Their goalkeeper who started the season, rookie Ryan Meara, he's been replaced in net by Bill Gaudette, who has been playing well lately not just for club, but for his country as he put on a masterful performance for Puerto Rico in their 2-1 loss to Spain a few weeks ago.

Kansas City has had another full week of training, a rarity for Kansas City up until the last few weeks has allowed KC to get healthier.  Jacob Peterson is still out with his shoulder injury, while Bobby Convey is questionable from his hamstring.  The worrying thing though is that Kei Kamara has joined Convey on the questionable list.  Missing Kamara, KC's leading scorer could be a big loss for KC, he's been one of KC's most consistent players all season, and without him, KC's offense could struggle.  If Kamara can't play, CJ Sapong seems the likely player to take his place in the starting 11. The good news for KC though with the high powered New York attack is that the first choice defense is again available for KC and KC's record when Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, Chance Myers, and Seth Sinovic is 25-2-5 in MLS competitions. 

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Cesar - Nagamura 

Espinoza

Zusi - Bunbury - Sapong

Number to Remember - 2 - That's the number of points that KC is ahead of New York.  A win by New York and they jump over KC and into first place.A KC win and they extend that lead to 5 points.  A draw and nothing changes, but could allow Houston to get closer depending on their result against Toronto tonight.

Key Match Up - Paulo Nagamura/Julio Cesar vs Tim Cahill - New York's latest designated player is going to be hard to shut down not just during the run of play by KC's midfield, but he's likely to be matched up with Aurelien Collin on set pieces due to Cahill's heading ability.

PREDICTION - New York is an extremely talented team, even without Henry.  It's going to be a difficult task for KC to shut down the Red Bulls.  They have a lot of fire power that will come at KC from a number of different angles.  While KCs defense is playing well, I don't think they'll be able to get a shutout, the question will be whether KC's offense can come alive more than they did against Toronto last weekend.  If KC doesn't finish the chances NEw York gives them, they'll see New York jump over them.

SKC - 1 (Bunbury)
NY - 1 (Cooper)

Heineman Statement on Armstrong (and some Espinoza News

In a follow up to the news that came out last night regarding Lance Armstrong and him giving up his battle against the USADA, Sporting's CEO, Robb Heineman made a statement today.

Here is Robb's statement: "The naming rights partnership between our stadium and LIVESTRONG provides an opportunity to spread health and wellness messages that emphasizes the spirit of cancer survivorship. LIVESTRONG's focus is the fight against cancer and the support of 28 million people around the world affected by this disease, and we believe strongly in this mission. The statements made last night by the Lance Armstrong Foundation speak for themselves: moving forward and continuing the fight against this horrible disease."

Pretty much what I said last night, Heineman is focusing on the organization LIVESTRONG, not the person who is the main face of the organization, Armstrong.  Anyone that was expecting something more dramatic from the team on this was kidding themselves.  Especially since there is a growing number of sponsors of the LIVESTRONG organization AND Armstrong that are standing behind both of them during this time.  The largest of which are Nike and Anheuser-Busch.  So Sporting is definitely not alone in their stance at this time.

Could that stance change?  Certainly, there's plenty of time for it to change.  If the USADA makes their findings public on the reasons they are banning him for life and vacating his Tour de France titles things can certainly change, but at this time there is no reason for Sporting to make any changes.

Espinoza to Miss World Cup Qualifier due to Red Card

Roger Espinoza had a fantastic final game of the Olympics against Brazil, scoring a goal, assisting on another, being the best player on the field that including a player worth a possible $70+ million transfer, and getting a standing ovation from the neutral crowd in Newcastle.  The red card that brought about the standing ovation will cost Espinoza though.  Even though the card came in a under 23 tournament, Espinoza will miss his country's next World Cup qualifier on September 7th in Cuba.  Espinoza will be a big loss for Honduras but he'll be able to come back 4 days later when they play Cuba again in Honduras.

In other Espinoza news, all is quiet lately on the transfer front for Espinoza.  There's been no recent rumors or world that I've found on Espinoza and a potential move abroad.  That's not to say that KC hasn't gotten any offers for the midfielder, but that the team has turned them down and there's been little made public from the other club or foreign tabloids that deal more with transfer rumors.  With it a week until the European transfer deadline things could still change, but as of right now Espinoza is still a Sporting KC player.

Sporting KC and Lance Armstrong

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

So Lance Armstrong is no longer going to fight the US Anti-Doping Agency and the charges that they've brought against him for doping.  With that announcement tonight, it has brought out the questions again with regards to Sporting KC and the naming of their stadium as LiveSTRONG Sporting Park.  LiveSTRONG, the brand of the Lance Armstrong Organization, an organization founded to help cancer survivors.  As part of the deal with LiveSTRONG, Sporting is donating a portion of all proceeds at the stadium to the organization to help fight cancer.

The big thing that many people fail to see in this situation is that while the two are related, Lance Armstrong the person and the LiveSTRONG organization are two separate entities.  The LiveSTRONG organization has gown beyond Armstrong and has become a movement all on it's own.  It's work has raised over $500 million to help cancer survivors.  That goal and that work that is being done is not going to stop with this lifetime ban from cycling for Armstrong.  I'd make a simple guess that the majority of the people that LiveSTRONG has helped don't care at all about these allegations.

The question though is what if anything Sporting will do about this.  Their name will be brought up in this discussion, because their home stadium is named after Armstrong's organization.  The team likely won't make a direct comment immediately on this, but I don't expected it to change much from the comment that was made in June by Rob Thomson, Executive VP, Communications "For us, it's all about Livestrong and helping raise $500 million for fighting cancer and all the good they've done."

That said, will Sporting KC take a look at this and have some talks about this latest news?  Probably, they'd be stupid to not at least have discussions about it, but I don't expect anything on this to change.  That said the team has already said in the past that they separate the two from one another the same way everyone else should.  The LiveSTRONG organization has grown beyond Armstrong and become a much bigger entity on it's own.  And with the continued backing of Nike, the organization isn't going to receive much backlash from this.  And LiveSTRONG Sporting Park will be unlikely to be changing it's name.

SKC fans will hear the ribs from other teams around the league, there will be plenty of cute nicknames brought up for LSP in the aftermath from fans of other teams around the league.  And that's to be expected, it's unavoidable, and guess what, ignore it and it'll go away slowly.

Former SKC Wizards Update

Another week of former Wizards updates, and a few changes as the European leagues begin to get going.  Eloy Colombano, Zoltan Hercegfalvi and Neal Kitson have moved back into the unknown list as they're no longer with their clubs from last season.  One player, Carlos Marinelli has moved back onto the list as he's signed with an Argentine 3rd division club.  Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Eloy Colombano
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Zoltan Hercegfalvi
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
luke Sassano
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 3-1 win over San Jose.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and plyaed 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 2-1 loss to Dallas.  Dressed but did not play in Sal Lake's 2-0 win over Tauro.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 2-1 win over RSL.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Out recovering from surgery.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 3-2 loss to New York.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Seattle's 2-0 win over Vancouver.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Did not dress in Philadelphia's 1-1 draw with DC.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Chivas - Did not dress in Chivas' 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Scott Sealy - Dallas - Did not dress in Dallas' 2-1 win over RSL.
Ryan Smith - Chivas - Did not dress in Chivas' 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Came off the bench and played 16 minutes in San Jose's 3-1 loss to Montreal.
Shavar Thomas - Montreal - Dressed but did not play in Montreal's 3-1 win over San Jose.
Tyson Wahl - Colorado - Dressed but did not play in Colorado's 1-1 draw with Chivas.
Josh Wolff - DC - Did not dress in DC's 1-1 draw with Philadelphia.

NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Did not dress in Atlanta's 0-0 draw with Minnesota.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not play in Minnesota's 0-0 draw with Atlanta.
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Did not play in Fort Lauderdale's 0-0 draw with Puerto Rico
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 64 minutes in Carolina's 3-2 win over Edmonton.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 82 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 0-0 draw with Puerto Rico.

USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Came off the bench and played 7 minutes in Richmond's 1-0 win over Antigua.  Came off the bench and played 47 minutes in Richmond's 2-1 loss to Antigua.
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Did not dress in Dayton's 1-1 draw with Orlando.  Did not dress in Dayton's 0-0 draw with Charleston.
Yomby William - Richmond - Did not dress in Richmond's 1-0 win over Antigua.  Did not dress in Richmond's 2-1 loss to Antigua.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 0-0 draw with Dayton.

PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Season is over.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Season is over.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Season is over.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Season is over.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Season is over.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Season is over.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Season is over.

International
Vicente Arze - R. Charleroi S.C. - Belgium - Came off the bench and played 32 minutes in Charleroi's 6-2 loss to Standard Liege.
Omar Bravo - Cruz Azul - Mexico - Started and played 56 minutes in Cruz Azul's 1-1 draw with Leon.
Sunil Chhetri - Sporting Clube de Portugal B - Portugal - Did not play in either of Sporting's games.  Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in India's 2-1 win over Syria in the Nehru Cup.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - No game this week.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 51 minutes in Santos' 2-1 loss to Pumas.  Came off the bench and played 24 minutes in Santos' 5-0 CCL win over Aguila.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Season is over.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - Did not play in either of Bahia's games.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Season is over.
Mike Jones - FC Hjorring - Denmark - Played in Hjorring's 2-0 loss to Skive.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Started and played 90 minutes in Tiraspol's 1-1 draw with Dacia.
Carlos Marinelli - Alvarado - Argentina - Season hasn't started yet.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes in Krasnodar's 0-0 draw with Rostov.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Did not dress in Emmen's 2-0 loss to Excelsior.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Started and played 90 minutes in Fjolnir's 1-1 draw with Vikingur Reykjavik.  Started and played 90 minutes in Fjolnir's 2-1 win over Leiknir Reykjavik.
Milos Stojcev - FC Akzhayik - Kazakhstan - Did not dress in Akzhayik's 3-2 loss to Taraz.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 120 minutes, scoring 3 goals in Munster's 4-2 extra time with over Werder Bremen.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Season is over.

So We're in the Champions' League Next Year

When Eddie Johnson skied the final PK of the US Open Cup final over the bar, it gave Sporting KC their first trophy under their new name, and the team's first trophy since 2004.  Before we continue on, let's relive that night again with a video that still gives me goosebumps.



Now that we've relived that.  Not only did the win give KC their first trophy, it also qualified them for another competition next year.  Next season, Sporting KC will compete in the CONCACAF Champions' League, the confederation championship of the CONCACAF region.  The 2013-2014 CCL will kick off around the beginning of August, as it did this year.

The reason I bring it up now is because tonight the tournament kicks back off for the first time after Sporting won the US Open Cup title.  Tonight on FSC Real Salt Lake play at home vs Tauro of Panama in their second group game.  For an idea of what Sporting KC could face on the road, turn on FSC tomorrow when the Houston Dynamo play FAS in El Salvador.  CONCACAF road environments are notoriously a tough place for MLS teams to play.  Up until the last two years or so, MLS has had an extremely poor record on the road throughout the rest of CONCACAF.  The league has started to do better in many of the rest of the locations, save one, Mexico.  Only last year did Dallas win the first ever game south of the border by an MLS squad.

So how is the tournament set up?  Starting in 2008, CONCACAF went from a traditional knockout tournament to a larger tournament that included a group phase.  From the 2008-2009 version of the tournament 2011-2012 version of the tournament there was a qualifying stage and then the teams that won the qualifiers and other teams were put into 4, 4 team groups.  The top two teams in that group advanced to the quarterfinals.  From then on it was a home-home competition between the remaining teams in a knock out style tournament.

Starting with the 2012-2013 tournament, things changed.  No longer is there a qualifying stage for the group stage.  Instead all the teams that qualifying go into the group stage.  And instead of groups of four, there are 8 groups of 3.  That means fewer match days for the teams in the group stage as they'll play 4 instead of 6.  The top team in each of the groups advances to the quarterfinals, where the format remains the same.

If the tournament remains with the same format, in the group stage, Sporting will be grouped with 1 or 2 teams from Central America.  If it's only one, the other team in KC's group will be a team from the Caribbean.  KC would not face another MLS side or a team from Mexico in the group stage.  Those match ups would not happen until the knockout rounds of the tournament.

This will be Kansas City's 5th foray into a competitive international competition.  In the previous 4 competitions, Kansas City is 4-9-4 (W-L-D) in international competitions.  The team's first trip into international competitions was in 2001 when the team played in the Copa Mercanorte.  The team went 1-4-1 in the tournament, finishing 3rd in the group of 4 teams.  The team's 2 results came against Barcelona SC out of Ecuador.  The team lost their games against Santos Laguna of Mexico and Sporting Cristal of Peru.  That international competition is remembered for a curious refereeing move and the fact that KC became the first professional sports team to play after the events of 9/11, playing on 9/12 down in Peru.

KC's second trip into international play was the next year when KC went into the CONCACAF Champions' Cup (the precursor to the current CCL).  KC won their first round match up beating Trinidad side W Connection 3-0 on aggregate.  In the second round KC faced Santos Laguna again and made some history.  KC lost the first leg in Mexico 2-1.  At home in Kansas City, KC won 2-0, advancing 3-2 on aggregate, making them the first, and still only MLS side to win a home-home knockout match up with a Mexican league team.  In the semifinals though KC's run came to an end.  Against Morelia, KC lost 6-1 down in Mexico before drawing 1-1 in the return leg in the United States to go out 7-2 on aggregate.

KC's next trip was in 2005 when KC went into the CONCACAF Champions' Cup again.  KC played Costa Rica side Deportivo Saprissa.  After a 0-0 draw at Arrowhead, KC took a late lead in Costa Rica on a goal by Jose Burciaga.  Saprissa tied it in the 90th minute.  At the time there was no away goal rule (which would have seen KC through).  Instead the game went to extra time where Saprissa scored again to win 2-1.  KC's last trip into international competitions was the 2009 SuperLiga.  While KC never left the US for the tournament it was still some international experience.  KC drew with then sister club Atlas 0-0 in St. Louis in one of the hottest, most boring games ever.  That was followed by a 1-1 draw in New England before KC lost the final group game to old friends, Santos Laguna, 3-1.

For those keeping track, that's 19 goals for KC in international competitions.  The team's leading scorers are Chris Brown and Roy Lassiter who both have scored 3 for KC.  Currently there are only 2 players on KC's roster that have scored in international play.  Kei Kamara has scored 3 Champions' League goals for Houston and a SuperLiga goal as well.  Jacob Peterson has also scored a champions league goal.  The only other player currently on KC's roster that has experience playing in the Champions' League/Cup is Bobby Convey.  Although Julio Cesar has experience from playing in Mexico and Central America, and Roger Espinoza, Graham Zusi, and Matt Besler have experience in tough environments from international call ups.  And that's without mentioning KC's other European players who have played in some tough environments, but the ones in Europe are a bit different than the ones in Central America.  Besler, Espinoza, Michael Harrington, and Seth Sinovic also have some international experience from previous SuperLiga tournaments.

So get ready next year, it's a bit of a long shot, but winning the CCL and KC will find themselves in Morocco in December of 2014 potentially playing against the likes of Barcelona, Manchester City, or Bayern Munich at the Club World Cup.

How Good Has Sporting Been on the Road?

Here is a bit of a statistical look at Sporting's road form this season and how it compares to the rest of the league all time and KC's road history.  For comparison purposes I mainly did the non-shootout years where the game wasn't decided by the shootout for a more level comparison.  I do throw the shootout years out in a few of the comparisons though.

This past weekend in Toronto, Sporting Kansas City picked up their 7th road win of the season.  Needless to say, winning on the road has not exactly been something that Sporting fans are used to.  My record as a traveling supporter (0-5-4 before last season in competitive games, 3-2 in the last two seasons) speaks to that.  KC mainly relied on their home form as a way to get them into the playoffs.  This year though, as KC has struggled at times to find the net at home they've picked up their away form.  Right now the two records are about the same.  At home KC is 7-3-2 and 7-4-2 on the road.

KC isn't the only team that has struggled on the road, traditionally the home team in MLS has controlled the series.  Sporting still has 4 road games left, and at this time there are only 4 MLS teams in the league's history (post shootout, so 2000 and after) that have recorded more than the 7 wins Sporting currently have.  San Jose in 2005, LA in 2010, and Seattle in 2011 all finished with 9 road wins (SJ 9-4-3, LA 9-3-3, Seattle 9-3-5) and New York in 2000 finished with 8 wins (8-8).  Seven other teams have finished the season with 7 road wins.  Currently points per game wise, KC has the 4th best points per game in league history at 1.77 PPG, tied with the 2001 Chicago Fire. Only the 2010 Galaxy, 2 PPG, Seattle 2011, 1.88 PPG, and 2005 San Jose at 1.86 have a better PPG than Sporting currently has away from home.  So this is an area that few MLS teams had been in the past if KC can keep the form up, they'll finish with a very good away record.

As I mentioned earlier, KC is not known as a team that traditionally does well on the road.  For more information on KC's road history, look at it this way.  With 4 road games left, KC has already set a team record for away wins in a non-shootout season.  The previous record was only 5, done 3 times, in 2000, 2004, and 2005.  The seven wins is also the second most all time, including the shootout years, behind only the 9 wins in 1997.  Take away the top 3 away wins (9 in 1997, 7 in 2012, and 6 in 1996) and KC averages under 3.5 wins a season away from home. 

Besides averaging under 3.5 wins a season, KC only averaged 14.4 points per season on the road up until this season.  In this season alone, KC has already earned 23 points.  That 23 points equals the best ever point total on the road in the season, tying the 2000 season when KC went 5-3-8.  The 2000 season is also the only season currently where Sporting has finished with a winning record on the road in a non-shootout season (in 1997 the team finished 9-7 on the road with 3 shootout wins and 2 shootout losses, so 6-5-5 if you want to take shootouts out of the equation).  The 2005 season saw KC finish with a .500 road record at 5-5-6. 

One more win by KC guarantees Sporting with a winning record on the road this year.  Two draws will also guarantee that as well.  The final 4 road games see KC travel to New York twice, and Montreal and Columbus once each.  While New York will be two tough trips KC could definitely pick up points in the other two games.

Sunday After Stats

5 years, 3 months, and 21 days is how long it'd been since Sporting KC scored at BMO Field on 4/28/2007 when Eddie Johnson scored.

KC's 7 road wins is a franchise record for road wins in a non-shootout season.

Kei Kamara's goal was his 50th in all competitions in his MLS career.  He's the 48th player to hit that mark.  He's the 10th player to hit that mark that's spent time with Kansas City.

Kamara's goal was his 3rd vs Toronto for KC, he's the team's leading scorer vs Toronto now.

It was also his 9th away from home in league play, breaking his tie with Sasha Victorine for 9th on that list.

It was his 9th in all competitions for KC as well, tying him with Chris Brown and Matt McKeon for 9th on that list.

Kamara's goal was also his 29th in league play for KC, breaking his tie with Scott Sealy and Digital Takawira for 6th on that list.

It was his 31st in all competitions, tying him with Takawira for 6th on that list.

Kamara has now hit double digits in 3 straight season for KC, Preki is the only other player in KC history to do that.  He's also only the 3rd to have 3 double digit scoring seasons.

Kamara scored his 9th game winner in league play for KC, breaking his tie with Takawira for 5th on that list.

It was also Kamara's 9th in all competitions, tying him with Miklos Molnar for 5th on that list.

Graham Zusi's assist was his 19th in league play for his career, tying him with Victorine and Takawira for 9th on that list.

Zusi's his only the 3rd player to record 11 assists in a league season, and the only player to record more in a single season was Preki (5 times).

It was Zusi's 12th assist in all competitions, the most by any Sporting player in a season not named Preki.

Seth Sinovic and Julio Cesar both appeared in their 50th game in all competitions for KC, they're the 53rd and 54th players to hit that mark.

Sinovic also made his 50th start in all competitions for KC, he's the 48th player to hit that mark.

Roger Espinoza made his 107th appearance in league play for KC, breaking his tie with Sasha Victorine for 19th on that list.

Matt Besler started his 103rd game in all competitions, tying him with Mark Chung for 18th on that list.

You're Typical Sporting KC vs Toronto FC Game

Yesterday was the 7th game between Sporting Kansas City and Toronto FC at BMO Field and yesterday's game was extremely similar to the previous 6 match ups.  Games that were for the most part dull and lacking good finishing chances.  For only the 4th time in the 7 games one of the two teams scored.  Not once have both teams scored in the same game, and there have been only 5 goals in the 7 games.  Yesterday at BMO Field matched up perfectly with the other ones.

Things almost became a disaster early for Kansas City in the 12th minute.  Toronto played a long ball over the top towards Eric Hassli who was going up against Aurelien Collin.  As Hassli looked to be getting away Collin pulled Hassli down.  Collin was immediatley given a yellow card for the challenge, but the protests from the Toronto players was that Collin had denied a goal scoring opportunity and should have been sent off.  While I could have seen that happening for the challenge, I think Hassli's distance from goal on the play is what kept Collin on the field.  On the ensuing free kick Torsten Frings put his shot just over Jimmy Nielsen's goal.  Kansas City started to get the better of the play, but really struggled to create chances, most of the ones they did create were from outside the box.  Both Paulo Nagamura and Seth Sinovic tried their luck from outside the box in the first 20 minutes but missed either wide or Milos Kocic made the save.  KC continued to control much of the game, but they still struggled to get chances inside the area.  In the 30th minute Kei Kamara had another opportunity outside the box, but Kocic got down and made the save.  KC's best chance of the first half came in the 33rd minute.  Graham Zusi played a nice ball over the top to Teal Bunbury who had gotten in behind the Toronto defense.  Bunbury though tried to slot the ball past Kocic but didn't put enough pace on it and Kocic made an easy save.  Bunbury went with the quick options, he could have let the ball roll across his body and fire it with his left, he could have tried to chip it, or even tried to round Kocic, but went with the quick shot option and didn't get enough on it to put KC on top.  In the 42nd minute Toronto almost grabbed the lead off a corner.  After a few corners in a row, Frings played a corner towards the near post and almost scored an Olympic goal as his corner hit the outside of the near post and bounced into as Nielsen tried to get over to make sure he could punch it away.  As Nielsen recovered the ball was headed back on goal but hit the top of the cross bar and went out of play.

In the second half, KC continued to control without much substances while Toronto continued to have a few chances.  In the 54th Hassli should have done better with a header that he put wide of the goal.  The second half shortly after became the game that was expected as neither side did much going forward and the game got clogged in the midfield.  Toronto had a chance in the 71st when Ryan Johnson headed over, but other than that for the most part the majority of the second half was beyond forgettable. Finally in the 83rd minute the game came alive a little bit.  After a foul just outside the Toronto penalty area, Zusi stepped over the ball with Kamara next to him.  Zusi touched the ball to Kamara who ripped a shot that took a small deflection on it's way past the wall.  Kocic also made a mess of the shot as he stepped too far to his right and let the ball go just past him and into the net.  After the lead, Toronto tried to push numbers forward looking for an equalizer, but offered very little.  In the 90th minute confusion reigned.  Quincy Amarikwa was called for a foul.  Disagreeing with the call, Amarikwa voiced his opinions to the referee.  Referee Jorge Gonzalez went to the back pocket and pulled out the red card.  Shortly after though Gonzalez realized he pulled the wrong call and changed it to a yellow card.  Toronto though offered little going forward in stoppage time and KC picked up their 7th win of the season.

Wizards Man of the Match - Paulo Nagamura  - No one played amazing yesterday, the game as a whole was very drab.  Nagamura though did an extremely good job of shutting down Toronto in the midfield and forcing them to basically bypass the midfield entirely.

Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Myers 5, Collin 5, Besler 5, Sinovic 6, Cesar 5, Nagamura 6, Espinoza 6, Kamara 6, Bunbury 4, Zusi 5.  Subs Sapong NR, Olum NR.

Back At It

After having the full week off for the majority of the team, Sporting KC is back at it on Saturday when they take on Toronto FC on Saturday afternoon at BMO Field in Toronto.  After 8 weeks with two games a week KC had a full week of training ahead of the game.  And for the first time since May 27th when KC played San Jose, they'll play a team on shorter rest than them tomorrow.  Toronto played the Portland Timbers at home on Wednesday night, drawing 2-2 in that game.

Toronto was missing quite a few players on Wednesday night against Portland due to international call ups.  Those players, including Ryan Johnson, Terry Dunfield, and new signing Darren O'Dea.  Kansas City will also get to see Eric Hassli again as he was traded earlier this year from Vancouver to Toronto.  Toronto have lost 2 of their last 3 league games, but did pull off a big 5-1 win at home in the Champions League last weekend.

Other than Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, and Graham Zusi, the rest of the Sporting team has had the entire week to train and prepare for tomorrow's game.  The rest is much needed for Kansas City after the busy schedule.  They avoided a hangover game against DC last weekend, but the goal with the lighter schedule now is to get players healthy.  The likes of Bobby Convey and Jacob Peterson, although Neven Markovic has joined the injury report this week.  The good news is that the likes of Chance Myers, CJ Sapong, and Seth Sinovic are no longer on the injury report which is a good sign heading towards the final part of the season.

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Nagamura - Cesar

Espinoza

Kamara - Bunbury - Zusi

Number to Remember - 0 -  Kansas City won the very first game played at BMO Field back in 2007.  Since then, Kansas City has not won a single game in Toronto.  KC has gone a combined 0-2-3 in those games.  Zero is also the number of goals that KC has scored since the first game at BMO.  While KC has 3 draws in the 5 other games, KC has not scored since the first game.

Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Eric Hassli - These two matched up when KC met Vancouver earlier this season and it was quite the physical match up.  The two of them going at it again should be more fun.  The other match up would be Collin and O'Dea on set pieces.

PREDICTION - The road is never really a friendly place for teams in MLS.  The travel is one of the main reasons for that.  But if KC wants to be considered a serious contender for the Supporters' Shield this year, beating Toronto in Toronto is something that has to happen.  While Paul Mariner has done a decent job of turning them around, they still are not a very good team.  KC should be able to get the win.  Based off of KC's history in Toronto 1 goal will decide this game.

SKC - 1 (Kamara)
TFC - 0

Historic Win

The United States pulled off a historic win tonight in Mexico City, winning the first game by the men's national team at the Azteca Stadium.  A goal by Michael Orozco Fiscal in the 79th minute, set up by a great run from Brek Shea and a back heal from Terrance Boyd gave the US a 1-0 win.  As a whole it wasn't really a game the US deserved as they showed very little going forward for much of the game.  Quite a bit of it was spent in their own half.  Goalkeeper Tim Howard had a fantastic game in goal for the US, especially late as he twice denied Javier Hernandez with some fantastic saves.  The biggest came after the US were up.  The first off a deflection that caught Howard going the wrong way.  Howard though came back across and saved the ball on the line to keep it 1-0.  Then a little later he made a great reaction save on Hernandez again palming a shot off the line and the US defense cleared it away. 

While Howard was definitely the man of the match, the defense in front of him did an extremely good job of limiting Mexico's chances during the game as Mexico ended the game with 66% of possession.  Sporting KC players, Graham Zusi and Matt Besler started the game on the bench.  Zusi came on in the 60th minute as a sub for Daniel Williams.  He was quiet for the most part but did help lead to one decent chance for the US off a free kick that was cleared and then Kyle Beckerman hit just over the bar.  Besler though did not win his first camp, but he did make it onto the game day roster ahead of a few other players.  Even with limited minutes for Zusi and just being on the bench for Besler, the experience in Mexico in the environment there will do nothing but help those two, especially come next year in the CCL.

Former SKC Wizards Update

More European leagues are kicking off.  Here's a look at this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Jonathan Leathers
Carlos Marinelli
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
luke Sassano
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 87 minutes in Montreal's 1-0 win over New England.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Salt Lake's 2-1 loss to Vancouver.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 3-2 win over Colorado.  Started and played 90 minutes, recording the shutout in Dallas' 2-0 win over Vancouver.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Out recovering from surgery.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 2-2 draw with Toronto.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Came off the bench and played 22 minutes in Seattle's 2-1 loss to San Jose.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Did not dress in Philadelphia's 3-1 loss to Chicago.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Chivas - Dressed but did not play in Chivas' 4-0 loss to LA.
Scott Sealy - Dallas - Did not dress in Dallas' 3-2 win over Colorado.  Did not dress in Dallas' game vs Vancouver.
Ryan Smith - Chivas - Did not dress in Chivas' 4-0 loss to LA.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Dressed but did not play in San Jose's 2-1 win over Seattle.
Shavar Thomas - Montreal - Did not play in Montreal's 1-0 win over New England.
Tyson Wahl - Colorado - Dressed but did not play in Colorado's 3-2 loss to Dallas.
Josh Wolff - DC - Came off the benchand played 19 minutes in DC's 2-1 loss to KC.

NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Did not dress in Atlanta's 0-0 draw with Tampa.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not play in Minnesota's 1-0 loss to San Antonio.
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Did not play in Fort Lauderdale's 1-0 win over Carolina.
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 90 minutes in Carolina's 1-0 loss to Fort Lauderdale.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Came off the bench and played 1 minute in Fort Lauderdale's 1-0 win over Carolina.

USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Dressed but did not play in Richmond's 2-1 win over Harrisburg.
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Did not dress in Dayton's 2-2 draw with Charlotte.
Yomby William - Richmond - Sarted and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Richmond's 2-1 win over Harrisburg.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 4-0 win over Rochester.

PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Season is over.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Season is over.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Season is over.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Season is over.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Season is over.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Season is over.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Season is over.

International
Vicente Arze - R. Charleroi S.C. - Belgium - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Charleroi's 1-0 win over Kortrijk.
Omar Bravo - Cruz Azul - Mexico - Started and played 59 minutes in Cruz Azul's 1-0 win over Puebla.
Sunil Chhetri - Sporting Clube de Portugal B - Portugal - Did not dress in Sporting's 1-0 loss to Oliveirense.
Eloy Colombano - Defensores de Cambaceres - Argentina - Season is over.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Season is over.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 54 minutes in Santos' 3-0 loss to Leon. Started and played 78 minutes in the USA's 1-0 win over Mexico.
Zoltan Hercegfalvi - Vasas - Hungary - Season is over.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Season is over.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - Did not play in Bahia's games.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Season is over.
Mike Jones - FC Hjorring - Denmark - Did not play in either of Hjorring's games.
Neal Kitson - Northampton Town - England - Did not play in Northampton's 2-1 win over Cardiff.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Started and played 63 minutes in Tiraspol's 3-0 win over Speranta.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Krasnodar's 2-1 loss to Kuban Krasnodar.  Lost to Belarus 2-1 in an international friendly.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Did not dress in Emmen's 1-1 draw with Bordrecht.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Started and played 90 minutes in Fjolnir's 2-1 loss to KA.
Milos Stojcev - FC Akzhayik - Kazakhstan - No game this week.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Munster's 2-2 draw with Wehen Wiesbaden.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Season is over.

Player News

Some quick Sporting KC player news for today. 

Julio Cesar gets green card.

In the weekly news update that the team puts out, they announced that the team has opened up an international spot.  The team announced that midfielder, Julio Cesar has received his green card.  As a green card holder, Cesar will no longer take one of Kansas City's international spots.  In the past Cesar has talked about coaching in the US when his playing career is done.  Having a green card is a step in the right direction for doing that.  Congrats to him.

Espinoza suffering from "muscular overload"

Roger Espinoza is in Miami for Honduras' training ahead of their friendly against Boca Juniors, but he's not going to play a part in the game now.  Espinoza pulled out of training early due to "muscular overload."  During today's press conference, Peter Vermes put it in more easily understandable terms saying: "I think that they realized everything that I realized, he’s played enough games and it’s probably best to give him a little bit of a break now that they see him there.”

It's a shame that it took Espinoza taking a flight down to Miami for his national team to realize this, but hopefully now Espinoza will get a little bit of a break and be able to re-charge his batteries ahead of KC's run in towards the end of the season and Honduras' World Cup qualifiers.

Reserves Fall in Houston

The Swope Park Rangers got back to their reserve league season yesterday against the Houston Dynamo down in Houston.  Cam Weaver of the Dynamo scored both of the goals in the game.  The first in the 17th minute on a header from a Colin Clarke cross.  In the second half, goalkeeper Eric Kronberg earned himself a red card as he took down Weaver in the box.  League keeper Scott Angevine came off the bench and his first touch was to pick the ball out of his own net as Weaver scored to double the Dynamo advantage. 

Two Sporting Juniors players made appearances in the game as Eduardo Moreno started and played  66 minutes, while Joey Piatczyc came on at half time for Neven Markovic.  It was both players' second reserve league appearance them after both had previously made substitute appearances.  The game also saw the return of the beloved Trialist 1.  He also brought his friends Trialist 2 and 3 with him for the game.  The loss drops the Rangers to 2-4-2 on the reserve league season with two games left, one at home vs Real Salt Lake and they finish on the road against Dallas.

Concert at LSP Moved

There will be no Y'allapalooza at Livestrong Sporting Park this year.  The concert which was set to be held on September 9th at Livestrong Sporting Park, and feature Dierks Bentley and Big & Rich has been moved to Cricket Wireless Amphitheater (Sandstone) to protect the field at LSP.  This is good news for Sporting fans as it's one less time the field has to be covered.  And while KC doesn't have a game at home the weekend of the the concert it'll be nice for the field to get a break.

Now if something could just be done about the Journey concert at LSP that's set to occur on August 31, the date before Sporting takes on Toronto at LSP.

Attendance Comparison After 12 games

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

Another over capacity attendance and only 400 short of the record attendance at Livestrong Sporting Park yesterday as Sporting KC took on DC United.

1996 - Arrowhead
12,362
Saturday August 11, 1996 vs Los Angeles 2-2(3-1) shootout win
Average - 13,168

1997 - Arrowhead
10,029
Saturday July 26, 1997 vs New England 0-0(4-3) shootout win
Average - 8,899

1998 - Arrowhead
8,283
Sunday August 23, 1998 vs Miami 2-0 win
Average - 7,853

1999 - Arrowhead
9,107
Thursday August 5, 1999 vs Chicago 1-2 loss
Average - 9,091

2000 - Arrowhead
8,269
Saturday July 22, 2000 vs Columbus 3-1 win
Average - 9,504

2001 - Arrowhead
9,361
Sunday August 19,2001 vs Colorado 3-2 win
Average - 10,139

2002 - Arrowhead
8,364
Sunday August 18, 2002 vs Columbus 0-4 loss.
Average - 11,048

2003 - Arrowhead
30,308
Saturday September 20, 2003 vs San Jose 1-4 loss
This was one of the team's "Break the Record" Nights when KC tried to top the attendance from the World Cup qualifier in 2001.
Average - 16,354

2004 - Arrowhead
10,430
Saturday September 4, 2004 vs New York 1-0 win
Average - 14,404

2005 - Arrowhead
6,030
Friday August 26, 2005 vs Columbus 0-1 loss
Average - 9,587

2006 - Arrowhead
6,573
Saturday August 27, 2006 vs Dallas 1-0 win
Average - 10,664

2007 - Arrowhead
12,468
Wednesday August 22, 2007 vs Chicago 3-2 win
Average - 9,696

2008 - Community America Ballpark
8,720
Saturday September 20, 2008 vs Toronto 2-0 win
Average - 10,919

2009 - Community America Ballpark
10,385
Saturday September 19, 2009 vs Dallas 3-2 win
Average - 10,042

2010 - Community America Ballpark
9,679
Wednesday September 22, 2010 vs Houston 4-3 win
Average - 10,073

2011 - Livestrong Sporting Park
20,018
Saturday August 27, 2011 vs Dallas 2-3 loss
Average - 17,578

2012 - Livestrong Sporting Park
20,439
Saturday August 12, 2012 vs DC 2-1 win
Average - 19,382

Here's the rankings of the years with their average attendance.


1. 2012 - 19,382 (-)
2. 2011 - 17,578 (-)
3. 2003 - 16,354 (-)
4. 2004 - 14,404 (-)
5. 1996 - 13,168 (-)
6. 2002 - 11,048 (-)
7. 2008 - 10,919 (-)
8. 2006 - 10,664 (-)
9. 2001 - 10,139 (-)
10. 2010 - 10,073 (-)
11. 2009 - 10,042 (-)
12. 2007 - 9,696 (+2)
13. 2005 - 9,587 (-1)
14. 2000 - 9,504 (-1)
15. 1999 - 9,091 (-)
16. 1997 - 8,899 (-)
17. 1998 - 7,853 (-)

Sunday After Stats

The game was Peter Vermes' 100th in charge of KC.  That ties him with Ron Newman for the second most games coached for Sporting KC.

It was also Vermes' 50th win in all competitions as a coach.  He is the 3rd coach to reach that mark for KC.

Oriol Rosell became the 7th youngest player to ever appear in a game for Sporting KC at 20 years and 25 days.  He knocked Peter Byaruhanga at 20 years 325 days off the list.

Rosell is the 8th youngest to appear in a game in all competitions, knocking Daneil Cyrus at 20 years 220 days off the list.

Teal Bunbury's goal was his 8th in league play at home, tying him with Claudio Lopez and Jose Burciaga for 15th on that list.

It was his 11th in all competitions at home, tying him with Jack Jewsbury, Miklos Molnar and CJ Sapong for 13th on that list.

Graham Zusi's assist was his 10th in league play this year, he's only the 4th player (after Preki, Chris Klein, and Matt McKeon) to hit double digit assists in a season.

It was also Zusi's 18th career assist in league play, giving him sole possession of 11th place, breaking his tie with McKeon and Burciaga.

It was Zusi's 22nd in all competitions, breaking his tie with Jewsbury for 8th place on that list.

Zusi's goal was his 4th game winner in league playing, tying him with Mark Chung and Sapong for 17th on that list.

It was also his 4th game winner in all competitions for KC, tying him with Chung and Aurelien Collin for 19th on that list.

Kei Kamara's assist was his 15th in league play for KC, tying him with Lopez, and Chris Henderson.

It was also Kamara's 15th in all competitions, tying him with Diego Gutierrez, Michael Harrington, and Henderson for 16th on that list.

In the 15th minute, Michael Harrington moved past Josh Wolff and into 10th place on the list of most minutes in league play for KC, Harrington finished the game with 11,543 minutes played.

Harrington was also making his 169th appearance for KC in all competitions, tying him with Mo Johnston for 9th on that list.

Harrington also made his 127th league start, breaking his tie with McKeon for 10th on that list.

Roger Espinoza broke his tie with Sean Bowers on that list for 18th as he made his 121st appearance in all competitions for KC.

Espinoza also tied Sasha Victorine for 19th on the list for league appearances with 106.

Matt Besler made his 102nd start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Victorine for 19th on that list.

No Open Cup Hangover

Three days after the US Open Cup final there were plenty of fans that were worried about a potential let down last night at Livestrong Sporting Park when Kansas City took on DC United.  It was anything but though as KC controlled the game and could have won by quite a bit more than the 2-1 score line. 

KC came out and controlled the early going, but it was DC that had the first chance, as a ball into the box by Andy Najar was knocked down for Brandon McDonald who fired the shot well over the goal.  KC's early possession almost paid off in the 13th off a long throw from Matt Besler.  McDonald one the first header against Aurelien Collin but the header went up into the air and Collin won the second ball heading it on goal.  DC keeper, Bill Hamid had to tip the ball over the bar for a corner.  On the ensuing corner kick, KC did grab the lead.  Teal Bunbury lost Chris Pontius and headed Graham Zusi's corner inside the far post to give KC the lead.  KC continued to push and should have doubled the lead off another corner in the 23rd minute as Zusi picked out Collin on the back post, but with his free header he pushed it wide.  KC paid for that miss less than a minute later as DC came right down the field and Najar played a ball to the back post for Nick DeLeon.  DeLeon and Michael Harrington went up for the ball, but DeLeon got the touch.  The ball landed in front of him and he scrambled the ball past Jimmy Nielsen and ahead of Collin to make it 1-1. Kansas City started to control the game more, but luck was not on their side.  In the 38th minute they were denied by the wood work.  Neven Markovic played a cross into the box that didn't get cleared, Bunbury ended up touching the ball back to Paulo Nagamura who fired a shot on goal that hit off the post.  DC didn't get the ball cleared, but when Harrington crossed the ball into the box, Kei Kamara committed a foul giving the ball to DC.  Then in the 40th Hamid had to make a diving save on Michael Thomas off a free kick from Zusi.

In the second half Kansas City continued to control the game but continued to remain unlucky.  In the 53rd minute Bunbury made a good run down the line and crossed into the box for Zusi.  Zusi's one time effort hit off the underside of the cross bar and bounced down on the wrong side of the line for KC right in front of Hamid who collected the ball.  In the 63rd KC found their deserved second.  Kamara played a cross in from the left to Zusi at the back post.  Zusi was completely unmarked had enough time to settle the ball and 5-hole Hamid to give Sporting the lead again.  With the lead, KC settled down a little bit but still controlled the game, finishing with over 60% possession for the game.  The win moved Kansas City back to the top of the Eastern Conference as they jumped ahead of Houston and New York.

Wizards Man of the Match - Graham Zusi - Zusi redeemed himself from a poor performance in the US Open Cup final with a goal and an assist.  The post denied him a second goal and some better finishing would have seen him with more assists.

Player Ratings - Nielsen 5, Markovic 6, Collin 6, Besler 6, Harrington 5, Nagamura 6, Thomas 6, Espinoza 6, Kamara 6, Bunbury 6, Zusi 7. Subs Sapong NR, Cesar NR, Rosell NR.

Besler and Zusi Called Up for US

The official announcement should be coming out later today on the full roster for the US squad that will go down to Mexico City to play Mexico on Wednesday in a friendly, but Robb Heineman let some news creep out early as he announced on Twitter that both Matt Besler and Graham Zusi have earned call ups.

It's Besler's first call up to the national team level.  An honor that is well past due for the KC product as he's been playing extremely well for KC.  While Aurelien Collin gets plenty of credit for helping solidify KC's back line, Besler deserves just as much credit for KC's good defense, not just this year but last year as well.  Besler and Collin formed a formidable partnership in central defense for KC.  Collin does much of the dirty work while Besler cleans up.  But when Collin's been out he's shown the ability to do more of the dirty work.  His performance in the Open Cup final against Seattle was great, he completely took Fredy Montero out of the game and did a great job helping Lawrence Olum contain Eddie Johnson.

Zusi returns to the national team after being called in to the January camp.  He appeared in both games of the camp against Venezuela and Panama, scoring the lone goal in the USA's win over Panama in Panama City.

Espinoza Called Up for Honduras

Roger Espinoza will be back with his national team midweek next week for an international date.  Honduras will be taking on Argentine club side, Boca Juniors in Miami on Wednesday August 15th.  Espinoza is one of 6 MLS players that have been called up for the game.  The good news for Kansas City is that for the first time in a long time they don't have a midweek game this week so Espinoza is unlikely to miss any games with this call up as he should be back with the team for their game against Toronto on the 18th at BMO Field.  The only problem is more travel for Espinoza.  A little over a week after he got back from London he will be flying to Miami to join his national team for a friendly against a club side.

Busy Stretch Closing Out For Sporting

It's been 56 days since Sporting Kansas City defeated Toronto 2-1 at Livestrong Sporting Park.  That game started a string of 17 games in that time frame.  Basically a game every 3 days for an 8 week period sees KC with some very tired legs.  Meanwhile in that same stretch of time, Kansas City's opponent tomorrow is DC United has played only 8 games.  While 5 of KC's games are their own doing (2 friendlies and 3 US Open Cup games), only one of DC's has been their own doing, a friendly against PSG.  So without the extra games in the last 8 weeks, KC has played 12 league games while DC has only played 5.  Not once did DC play a Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday stretch while KC played 2 games a week each week during that time frame.  All that adds up to a tired KC vs a comparatively fresh DC side.  And that's without taking into account KC's big win on Wednesday in the Open Cup that went for 120 minutes.

DC comes into the game on the backs of a 1-0 win over Columbus at RFK Stadium, but has won one of their last 4.  Dwayne De Rosario is tied for the league lead currently in assists with 10, although he is currently listed as doubtful on the lastest injury report.  Chris Pontius has seemed to earn himself back into the national team conversation with a good performance so far this season.  DC will be without designated player Hamdi Salihi who while out with an injury was also called up for his native Albania for a friendly this coming week.

Sporting KC besides being tired after 120 minutes against Seattle on Wednesday, still has plenty of injury issues to deal with.  Despite being on the bench for the Open Cup final, Jacob Peterson has been downgraded to out tomorrow.  The questionable list is where more of KC's current troubles lie with Bobby Convey, Peterson Joseph, Lawrence Olum, and Seth Sinovic all appear.  CJ Sapong is up to probable.  The good news for KC is that Aurelien Collin should hopefully be back for the game tomorrow to partner Matt Besler in central defense.  With Sinovic unlikely to play and Chance Myers still recovering from injury, Michael Harrington could possibly start and a first start could be given to Never Markovic.  Plenty of potential changes to the lineup that defeated Seattle on penalty kicks could take place.

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Harrington

Nagamura - Thomas

Zusi

Kamara - Bunbury - Sapong

Number to Remember - 2 - DC currently has two games in hand on Sporting KC and is only 4 points behind KC for 3rd currently in the East after New York's win tonight.  Extending the lead against DC so that their two games in hand won't allow them to pass KC would be a good bonus.

Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Chris Pontius - Pontius is playing extremely well for DC lately.  And with Collin returning from injury this could be an interesting match up to watch for Kansas City tomorrow night.

PREDICTION - From the highs on Wednesday it wouldn't be surprising to see a let down tomorrow against DC in the league game.  Still, in terms of league positioning, this game is extremely important.  A loss and the chasing pack in the East closes even closer and KC allows teams to move further towards their position in the table.  With only 11 games left in the season getting into the postseason and trying to win even more silverware becomes the key.  But with injury issues, and KC's poor form at home lately (KC hasn't won in their last 5 games at home in all competitions, the Seattle game officially goes down as a draw) I'm not sure KC will pull off the win tomorrow.

SKC - 1 (Sapong)
DC - 1 (Pontius)

S.A.S Thursday After Stats

Sporting KC is now 3-2 in shoot outs, including 2-0 at home.

Kei Kamara's goal was his 30th in all competitions, tying him with Scott Sealy for 7th on that list.

Kamara's goal was his 22nd in all competitions at home for KC.  That ties him with Josh Wolff and Mo Johnston for the 4th most in team history.

In the 82nd minute, Matt Besler passed Mark Chung for 20th on the list of most minutes played in all competitions.  Then in the 98th minute he passed Sasha Victorine and move into 19th place on that list.  He finished the game with 9,207

Besler's start was his 101st career start for KC, breaking his tie with Kevin Hartman for 20th on that list.

Roger Espinoza made his 120th appearance for KC in all competitions, tying him with Sean Bowers for 18th on that list.

Champione Champione Ole Ole Ole

It's been eight years since KC last lifted the trophy.  That drought ended last night on penalty kicks as KC won 1-1(3-2) on penalty kicks against the defending champion Seattle Sounders FC.  The game had plenty of talking points and a little bit of controversy especially late in the PK shootout as Michael Gspurning saved Paulo Nagamura's PK but was called for being off his line too early and Nagamura buried his second attempt before Eddie Johnson skied his effort to give the US the title.

Like what I think many people have come to expect from cup finals, last night's final started off with both teams just feeling each other out.  Both Seattle and Kansas City looked like many teams do in a cup final, not wanting to make the first mistake.  Finally in the 24th minute, Kansas City almost grabbed the lead.  Graham Zusi won the ball with a tackle playing the ball to Kei Kamara.  Kamara controlled the ball and fired from about 30 yards out.  The shot took a deflection and hit the cross bar and bounced back into play.  In the 30th minute Seattle had probably the best chance of the first half.  Off a corner kick, Mauro Rosales found Eddie Johnson in the box.  Johnson headed his shot on goal but Jimmy Nielsen did a great job of getting down and knocking the ball away and keeping the game scoreless.  Shortly after his first effort Johnson had another chance, as he received a pass that just eluded Matt Besler, allowing Johnson to run at Lawrence Olum.  Olum did a good job of shadowing him and Johnson pushed his shot wide of the post.  KC had another chance in the 37th through Seth Sinovic who let rip from distance and hit side netting, but confused the confetti cannon operators enough to set off the confetti cannon.  The game had really opened up as Johnson at the other end had a shot blocked by Besler.  Then in stoppage time KC had a bit of possession at the top of the Sounders box, when Seattle was unable to clear and the ball came to Roger Espinoza who fired a shot on goal that Gspurning had to punch away.

Kansas City continued to control the game in the second half.  The early yellow card that Osvaldo Alonso seemed to give KC a little more ability to control the midfield, and they were able to control the game.  Espinoza, Nagamura, and Julio Cesar controlled it not allowing Seattle's offense to really get going through Rosales.  Kansas City's offense though continued to get shots but as has been their problem for much of the season they struggled to finish their chances.  Finally in the 82nd minute KC got a break.  Teal Bunbury received a ball down the wing and cut back inside.  He played a cross towards the middle of the box for Zusi.  The cross was cut out by Zach Scott with his arm and Ricardo Salazar pointed to the spot.  Kamara stepped up and sent Gspurning the wrong way as Sporting went up 1-0.  The lead didn't last long for Sporting as Seattle came right back down the field and won a free kick.  Rosales played the free kick into the box where Scott beat Nagamura to the ball and headed the ball into the corner past Nielsen to tie the game at 1-1.  KC produced one last good chance in regulation after the equalizer, a ball was partially cleared to Kamara who hit a side volley that went just over the goal.

Into extra time the two teams went.  KC again continued to control the midfield keeping Seattle from really pressuring.  The best chance of extra time came in only the 3rd minute of extra time after CJ Sapong was fouled just outside the box.  Instead of playing a cross into the box, Zusi touched the ball wide to Kamara who blasted a shot on goal.  Gspurning didn't try to hold it and just punched the ball away.  Late on in stoppage time the Sounders ended up getting reduced to 10 men as Patrick Ianni picked up a second yellow.  But there wasn't a lot of time to take advantage of the extra man as Salazar blew his whistle shortly after that.

Into penalty kicks we went to decide who would hoist the trophy in this year's open cup.  Kansas City stepped up to take the first PK.  Kamara went the opposite way that he'd gone in regulation.  Gspurning guessed right this time and got a hand on the penalty but couldn't do enough to keep it out as KC went up 1-0.  Brad Evans stepped up for Seattle and sent Nielsen the wrong way putting his in the back of the net making it 1-1.  Espinoza took Sporting's next PK.  Espinoza didn't strike the penalty well and Gspurning easily saved the attempt giving Seattle the advantage.  Marc Burch for Seattle stepped up and took advantage of the chance burying the penalty and putting Seattle in front 2-1 through 2 rounds.  Besler stepped up 3rd for Sporting.  Besler took a short run up and fired the ball off the underside of the cross bar and in giving Gspurning no chance even though he guessed right.  Up 3rd for the Sounders was Alonso.  Alonso though skied the opportunity well over the goal and after 3 rounds it was 2-2.  Up 4th for KC stepped Zusi.  Zusi sent Gspurning the wrong way, but tried to do a cheeky chip and the ball went over the bar and handed the advantage back to Seattle.  Christian Tiffert, Seattle's new DP stepped up as the 4th shooter for Seattle.  Nielsen guessed right on the German's attempt though and knocked the ball away leaving the shootout tied a 2-2.  Nagamura stepped up to take the 5th attempt.  He went to Gspurning's left but the Austrian made the save.  Salazar though blew he whistle and forced it to be retaken saying that Gspurning was off his line.  With a new lease on life, Nagamura chose the opposite corner and buried it even though Gspurning went the right way.  Stepping up last for the Sounders was the former Wizard, Johnson.  Johnson took a long time taking his shot as Nielsen danced back and forth on the line trying to get in Johnson's head.  When Johnson took the shot he skied it over the goal and the celebration was on.

Enjoy the call and a bit of the post game from the call on Sport Radio 810am from Callum Williams and Yadrich from right before Johnson's deciding PK to a little later.

Wizards Man of the Match - Jimmy Nielsen - There are a number of players I could go with for this after last night.  But Nielsen's save on Johnson on the end line, the PK save and getting in the heads of Alonso and Johnson to get them to sky their attempts gives the award to the KC captain.

Honorable Mention - Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, Kei Kamara, Seth Sinovic

Player Ratings - Nielsen 9, Myers 6, Olum 7, Besler 9, Sinovic 8, Cesar 7, Nagamura 7, Espinoza 8, Kamara 8, Bunbury 5, Zusi 5.  Subs Sapong 5, Harrington 6.

Former SKC Wizards Update

A lot of goals in this week's former Wizards update that is a day late due to last night's Sporting KC US Open Cup final.  And while the news comes from today I'll add for last week's the retirement of Kurt Morsink as he moves to a job with the DC scouting staff.

Active without a club or unknown
Stephane Auvray
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Pablo Escobar
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Tom Gray
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Aaron Hohlbein
Jonathan Leathers
Carlos Marinelli
Ryan McMahen
Anthony Noriega
Ryan Pore
Sergei Raad
Ofori Sarkodie
luke Sassano
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 2-0 win over Philadelphia.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Dressed but did not play in RSL's 1-0 loss to Colorado.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Started and played 90 minutes in Dallas' 1-1 draw with Portland.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Out recovering from surgery.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes scoring a goal in Jewsbury's 1-1 draw with Dallas.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Seattle's 4-0 win over LA.  Started and played 120 minutes, missing the deciding PK in Seattle's 1-1 (2-3) PK shootout loss to KC in the US Open Cup.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Did not dress in Philadelphia's 2-0 loss to Montreal.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Chivas - No game this week.
Kurt Morsink - DC - Retired today.
Scott Sealy - Dallas - Started and played 57 minutes, scoring a goal in Dallas' 1-1 draw with Portland.
Ryan Smith - Chivas - No game this week.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - No game this week.
Shavar Thomas - Montreal - Dressed but did not play in Montreal's 2-0 win over Philadelphia.
Tyson Wahl - Colorado - Dressed but did not play in Colorado's 1-0 win over RSL.
Josh Wolff - DC - Dressed but did not in DC's 1-0 win over Columbus.

NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Did not play in Atlanta's 4-2 win over Fort Lauderdale.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not play in Minnesota's 1-1 draw with Edmonton.
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Came off the bench and played 8 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 4-2 loss to Atlanta.
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Started and played 90 minutes in Carolina's 3-3 draw with Tampa.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Came off the bench and played 11 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 4-2 loss to Atlanta.

USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Dressed but did not play in Richmond's 2-0 win over Antigua.
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - No game this week.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 2-0 win over Antigua.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 2-2 draw with Wilmington.  Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 3-3 draw with Harrisburg.

PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Season is over.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Season is over.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Season is over.
Nick Garcia - Kansas Magic - Season is over.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Season is over.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Season is over.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Season is over.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Season is over.

International
Vicente Arze - R. Charleroi S.C. - Belgium - Came off the bench and played 17 minutes in Charleroi's 1-0 loss to Brugge.
Omar Bravo - Cruz Azul - Mexico - Started and played 58 minutes in Cruz Azul's 0-0 draw with Chivas.  Did not play in Cruz Azul's 1-0 win over Altamira.
Sunil Chhetri - Sporting Clube de Portugal B - Portugal - Season is over.
Eloy Colombano - Defensores de Cambaceres - Argentina - Season is over.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 2-2 draw with Xelaju.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Season is over.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 70 minutes, scoring a goal in Santos' 2-2 draw with Puebla.
Zoltan Hercegfalvi - Vasas - Hungary - Season is over.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Season is over.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - Did not play in Bahia's games.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Season is over.
Mike Jones - FC Hjorring - Denmark - Did not play in either of Hjorring's.
Neal Kitson - Northampton Town - England - Season is over.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Started and played 90 minutes in Tiraspol's 0-0 draw with Milsami-Ursidos.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes, scoring a goal in Krasnodar's 3-1 win over Lokomotiv Moscow.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Season is over.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Called and played 90 minutes in Fjolnir's 3-0 win over IR.
Milos Stojcev - FC Akzhayik - Kazakhstan - Started and played 51 minutes in Akzhayik's 2-2 draw with Zhetysu.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Munster's 2-1 loss to Darmstadt 98.  Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Munster's 5-2 win over Hansa Rostock.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Season is over.