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.