The announced crowd of 18,609 was Sporting's 17th straight league sellout for Sporting, and the 18th in all competitions. It's the team's 19th league sellout in the last 20 games.
Graham Zusi's goal was his 13th in league play for KC, tying him with Matt McKeon, Jose Burciaga, Sasha Victorine, and Claudio Lopez for 16th on that list.
It was Zusi's 15th in all competitions, tying him with Burciaga, Victorine, Lopez, and Jack Jewsbury for 19th on that list.
Zusi's goal was his 9th league goal at home, giving him sole possession of 15th place on that list.
It was his 10th goal at home in all competitions for KC, tying him with Eddie Johnson for 17th on that list.
Last night was Zusi's 100th league appearance for KC.
In the 8th minute, Matt Besler passed Sean Bowers and moved into 16th place for minutes played in league play for KC, Besler finished the game with 9,261 minutes played.
It was Besler's 107th league appearance for KC, breaking his tie with Victorine for 20th on that list.
In the 45th minute, Jimmy Nielsen moved past Bo Oshoniyi and into 18th place for minutes played in all competitions for Kansas City, Nielsen finished the game wtih 9,727 minutes played.
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Complete Performance
Last night was the Sporting Kansas City team that people had hoped to see from the start of the season. There was possession, the attack flowed, and there were plenty of chances. And in the end KC got the result they deserved, handing the Montreal Impact their first loss of the season and ending their own goalless drought while keeping their shutout streak going.
From the start KC came out and dominated play and in the 5th minute were rewarded with a goal. A poor pass by the Impact was picked off by Seth Sinovic, who's first touch found Benny Feilhaber. Feilhaber turned up field and threaded a through ball for Claudio Bieler. The Argentine cut inside and then first a shot into the far corner to give Kansas City the early 1-0 lead. In the 11th minute it looked like KC had doubled the lead. A Graham Zusi free kick found the head of Aurelien Collin who flicked the ball onto the post and into the net, but Collin was judged to have been offside. Stills show that the play was extremely close, but it remained 1-0. Sporting kept up the high pressure and forced the Impact into a few mistakes. One in the 23rd should have led to a second goal. Sinovic won a clearance by Troy Perkins and fed the ball to Zusi. Zusi cut inside his man and then played the ball to an open Bieler who was around the penalty spot, but Bieler skied the effort with only Perkins to beat. Bieler had another opportunity to score before the half ended winning the ball off the foot of an Impact defender and racing on goal. Bieler though didn't have the speed to get him away from the closing defenders and ended up having to shoot from outside the box and it went right into the arms of Perkins.
The second half continued to show Sporting take the game to Montreal as the Impact were unable to get Patrice Bernier really involved in the game. Sporting's wingbacks were even involved in the opportunities as both Chance Myers and Sinovic had opportunities that they put just wide or high of the goal. As the half wore on, you started to worry that if KC didn't grab the second soon the Impact would sneak one in and grab a point. That almost happened in the 60th minute as a long ball into KC's box was headed down to Marco Di Vaio who got good contact on it from the top of the box, but Jimmy Nielsen was there to make the save. In the 71st Bieler again had a great opportunity receiving the ball in the box he cut inside his defender and curled a shot towards the far post, but it curled just wide, keeping the score at 1-0. Finally in the 80th minute KC found their second. Again it was Feilhaber who was the creator, playing a nice through ball for Zusi to run onto. Zusi shrugged off a foul from Montreal defender Karl Ouimette and then chipped the ball over Perkins who was going to ground and the ball rolled into the net securing the points for Kansas City. Fantastic work by Zusi and the goal was well deserved after the performance he put in.
Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - There are a number of candidates I could go with this one, Zusi played fantastic and was beating men 1v1 left and right all night. Or I could go with Oriorl Rosell and his job in neutralizing Bernier all night so that the Canadian couldn't get involved in the game. Instead I'm going to go with Feilhaber. This was the Feilhaber KC fans were hoping to get regularly when the team traded for his rights. He played fantastic passes on both goals and was a menace on the field as well. Hopefully it was just a case of him needing to settle in and we'll now see more of this.
Honorable mention: Graham Zusi, Oriol Rosell
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Myers 7, Collin 7, Besler 7, Sinovic 6, Rosell 8, Nagamura 8, Feilhaber 8, Zusi 8, Bieler 6, Sapong 6. Subs Joseph NR, Olum NR, Saad NR.
From the start KC came out and dominated play and in the 5th minute were rewarded with a goal. A poor pass by the Impact was picked off by Seth Sinovic, who's first touch found Benny Feilhaber. Feilhaber turned up field and threaded a through ball for Claudio Bieler. The Argentine cut inside and then first a shot into the far corner to give Kansas City the early 1-0 lead. In the 11th minute it looked like KC had doubled the lead. A Graham Zusi free kick found the head of Aurelien Collin who flicked the ball onto the post and into the net, but Collin was judged to have been offside. Stills show that the play was extremely close, but it remained 1-0. Sporting kept up the high pressure and forced the Impact into a few mistakes. One in the 23rd should have led to a second goal. Sinovic won a clearance by Troy Perkins and fed the ball to Zusi. Zusi cut inside his man and then played the ball to an open Bieler who was around the penalty spot, but Bieler skied the effort with only Perkins to beat. Bieler had another opportunity to score before the half ended winning the ball off the foot of an Impact defender and racing on goal. Bieler though didn't have the speed to get him away from the closing defenders and ended up having to shoot from outside the box and it went right into the arms of Perkins.
The second half continued to show Sporting take the game to Montreal as the Impact were unable to get Patrice Bernier really involved in the game. Sporting's wingbacks were even involved in the opportunities as both Chance Myers and Sinovic had opportunities that they put just wide or high of the goal. As the half wore on, you started to worry that if KC didn't grab the second soon the Impact would sneak one in and grab a point. That almost happened in the 60th minute as a long ball into KC's box was headed down to Marco Di Vaio who got good contact on it from the top of the box, but Jimmy Nielsen was there to make the save. In the 71st Bieler again had a great opportunity receiving the ball in the box he cut inside his defender and curled a shot towards the far post, but it curled just wide, keeping the score at 1-0. Finally in the 80th minute KC found their second. Again it was Feilhaber who was the creator, playing a nice through ball for Zusi to run onto. Zusi shrugged off a foul from Montreal defender Karl Ouimette and then chipped the ball over Perkins who was going to ground and the ball rolled into the net securing the points for Kansas City. Fantastic work by Zusi and the goal was well deserved after the performance he put in.
Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - There are a number of candidates I could go with this one, Zusi played fantastic and was beating men 1v1 left and right all night. Or I could go with Oriorl Rosell and his job in neutralizing Bernier all night so that the Canadian couldn't get involved in the game. Instead I'm going to go with Feilhaber. This was the Feilhaber KC fans were hoping to get regularly when the team traded for his rights. He played fantastic passes on both goals and was a menace on the field as well. Hopefully it was just a case of him needing to settle in and we'll now see more of this.
Honorable mention: Graham Zusi, Oriol Rosell
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Myers 7, Collin 7, Besler 7, Sinovic 6, Rosell 8, Nagamura 8, Feilhaber 8, Zusi 8, Bieler 6, Sapong 6. Subs Joseph NR, Olum NR, Saad NR.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Sporting Look to End Streaks
Saturday at Sporting Park, Sporting KC will look to end two streaks, the first, their own goalless drought, which now stands at 193 minutes after two 0-0 draws with Chicago and New England. The second streak they'll look to end is Montreal's perfect start to the season. They're the last remaining team in the league to have a perfect record, that currently stands at 4-0. The thing with that record is that they've been doing it against decent competition. They won on the road at both Seattle and Portland, two places that are hard to go into and get results. They then came home and have beaten both Toronto and New York to get to the point their at.
The Impact are a veteran team, with a lot of experience with guys like Davy Arnaud, Patrice Bernier, Marco Di Vaio, and Alessandro Nesta. That's great for leadership, but one question for the team going forward the rest of the season is how those players' legs will hold up over the course of the season. All four of those players are over 30, and Di Vaio and Nesta are 36 and 37 respectively. Still, they're a very dangerous side, Bernier has become a very good set up man for the Impact, and Di Vaio tows the offside line, so Aurelien Collin and either Matt Besler or Ike Opara will need to be mindful of that.
The big question for Sporting heading into the game is whether we are going to see the team's two national team players, Matt Besler and Graham Zusi. Both started the USA's draw in Mexico, Besler going the full 90 minutes. They returned to KC on Wednesday and returned to practice on Thursday and Vermes has said was going to speak with the players before making a decision. Push comes to shove, I think both start this weekend, with Zusi probably being subbed out at some point during the game to give him a bit of a rest. Other than those two the other question is whether we could see the return of Bobby Convey to the 18 after he missed the New England game with some minor injury issues. If neither Zusi or Convey can go I'd expect Soony Saad to get another start for Sporting in one of the three forward spots. Meanwhile I'm not sure that Chance Myers is going to make his return as a starter quite yet, maybe on the bench, but not quite sure he'll be back to game speed yet.
Number to Remember - 4 - The number of goals KC has scored through the first four games, the number of wins that Montreal has so far this season.
Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Marco Di Vaio - As I mentioned earlier, Di Vaio will play right on the back shoulder of Collin the entire game, towing the offside line. Collin's going to have to be very mindful of the Italian forward. Another match up to watch will be Oriol Rosell against Patrice Bernier in the midfield as he'll likely be the main set up man for Di Vaio.
PREDICTION - KC seems to have solved some of the early defensive issues that plagued the team in their games against Philadelphia and Toronto, but the offense now needs to step up a gear and start putting the game in the net. Montreal is in some really good form, they've been good defensively only allowing two goals in the first four games and have been able to get it done offensively as well. At this point I'm not confident there's enough in our offense to really get this done. Maybe the offense will wake up and make me change my mind, but the attack just isn't looking up to snuff enough to make me want to predict a win tomorrow.
SKC - 1 (Bieler)
MTL - 1 (Bernier)
The Impact are a veteran team, with a lot of experience with guys like Davy Arnaud, Patrice Bernier, Marco Di Vaio, and Alessandro Nesta. That's great for leadership, but one question for the team going forward the rest of the season is how those players' legs will hold up over the course of the season. All four of those players are over 30, and Di Vaio and Nesta are 36 and 37 respectively. Still, they're a very dangerous side, Bernier has become a very good set up man for the Impact, and Di Vaio tows the offside line, so Aurelien Collin and either Matt Besler or Ike Opara will need to be mindful of that.
The big question for Sporting heading into the game is whether we are going to see the team's two national team players, Matt Besler and Graham Zusi. Both started the USA's draw in Mexico, Besler going the full 90 minutes. They returned to KC on Wednesday and returned to practice on Thursday and Vermes has said was going to speak with the players before making a decision. Push comes to shove, I think both start this weekend, with Zusi probably being subbed out at some point during the game to give him a bit of a rest. Other than those two the other question is whether we could see the return of Bobby Convey to the 18 after he missed the New England game with some minor injury issues. If neither Zusi or Convey can go I'd expect Soony Saad to get another start for Sporting in one of the three forward spots. Meanwhile I'm not sure that Chance Myers is going to make his return as a starter quite yet, maybe on the bench, but not quite sure he'll be back to game speed yet.
Nielsen
Jerome - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Rosell - Nagamura
Feilhaber
Sapong - Bieler - Zusi
Number to Remember - 4 - The number of goals KC has scored through the first four games, the number of wins that Montreal has so far this season.
Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Marco Di Vaio - As I mentioned earlier, Di Vaio will play right on the back shoulder of Collin the entire game, towing the offside line. Collin's going to have to be very mindful of the Italian forward. Another match up to watch will be Oriol Rosell against Patrice Bernier in the midfield as he'll likely be the main set up man for Di Vaio.
PREDICTION - KC seems to have solved some of the early defensive issues that plagued the team in their games against Philadelphia and Toronto, but the offense now needs to step up a gear and start putting the game in the net. Montreal is in some really good form, they've been good defensively only allowing two goals in the first four games and have been able to get it done offensively as well. At this point I'm not confident there's enough in our offense to really get this done. Maybe the offense will wake up and make me change my mind, but the attack just isn't looking up to snuff enough to make me want to predict a win tomorrow.
SKC - 1 (Bieler)
MTL - 1 (Bernier)
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
International Break, Former SKC Wizards Update
Of the former Wizards called up to their national teams, only one, Jermaine Hue did not appear for his country this past week. Omar Bravo, Daneil Cyrus, Roger Espinoza, Herculez Gomez, Eddie Johnson, Kei Kamara and Yura Movsisyan all appeared for their national teams this past week. Here's the rest of this week's update.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Scott Sealy
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 1-0 win over New York.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - No game this week.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 66 minutes in RSL's 2-0 loss to Dallas.
Michael Harrington - Portland - No game this week.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Did not dress in New York's 1-0 loss to Montreal.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - No game this week.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Came off the bench and played 14 minutes in the USA's 1-0 win over Costa Rica. Came off the bench and played 35 minutes in the USA's 0-0 draw with Mexico.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - No game this week.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Dressed but did not play in Salt Lake's 2-0 loss to Dallas.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Columbus' 2-1 win over DC.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 2-1 win over DC.
NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Christian Duke - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Dom Dwyer - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Edson Elcock - Richmond - No game this week.
Brian Fekete - Orlando - No game this week.
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Started and played 90 minutes in Phoenix's 2-0 loss to LA.
Jon Kempin - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Started and played 64 minutes in LA's 2-0 win over Phoenix
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - No game this week.
Yann Songo'o - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Yomby William - Richmond - No game this week.
John Wilson - Charleston - No game this week.
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Offseason
Boris Pardo - Comets - Offseason
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Offseason
Paul Wright - San Diego - Offseason
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - No game this week.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - No game this week.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 25 minutes in Mexico's 2-2 draw with Honduras. Came off the bench and played 9 minutes in Mexico's 0-0 draw with the USA.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Churchill's 1-1 draw with ONGC. Started and played 90 minutes in Churchill's 0-0 draw with Salgaocar.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in Urquiza's 1-0 loss to Lanus in the Copa Argentina. Beat Excursionistas 2-1.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in Trinidad's 0-0 draw with Belize. Started and played 86 minutes in Trinidad's 3-0 loss to Peru.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - No game this week.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Honduras' 2-2 draw with Mexico. Started and played 90 minutes in Honduras' 2-0 loss to Panama.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - No game this week.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 89 minutes in the USA's 1-0 win over Costa Rica. Started and played 71 minutes in the USA's 0-0 draw with Mexico.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Dressed but did not play in Jamaica's 1-1 draw with Panama. Dressed but did not play in Jamaica's 2-0 loss to Costa Rica.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - No game this week.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Sierra Leone's 2-1 loss to Tunisia.
Igor Kostrov - Dacia - Moldova - No game this week.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - No game this week.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes in Armenia's 3-0 loss ot the Czech Republic.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - No game this week.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - No game this week.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - No game this week.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - No game this week.
Ivan Trujillo - Llaneros - Colombia - Started and played 80 minutes, scoring a goal in Llaneros' 2-1 win over Express Rojo.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Tied Samut Songkhram 0-0.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Scott Sealy
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 1-0 win over New York.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - No game this week.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 66 minutes in RSL's 2-0 loss to Dallas.
Michael Harrington - Portland - No game this week.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Did not dress in New York's 1-0 loss to Montreal.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - No game this week.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Came off the bench and played 14 minutes in the USA's 1-0 win over Costa Rica. Came off the bench and played 35 minutes in the USA's 0-0 draw with Mexico.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - No game this week.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Dressed but did not play in Salt Lake's 2-0 loss to Dallas.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Columbus' 2-1 win over DC.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 2-1 win over DC.
NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Christian Duke - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Dom Dwyer - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Edson Elcock - Richmond - No game this week.
Brian Fekete - Orlando - No game this week.
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Started and played 90 minutes in Phoenix's 2-0 loss to LA.
Jon Kempin - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Started and played 64 minutes in LA's 2-0 win over Phoenix
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - No game this week.
Yann Songo'o - Orlando (Loan) - No game this week.
Yomby William - Richmond - No game this week.
John Wilson - Charleston - No game this week.
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Offseason
Boris Pardo - Comets - Offseason
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Offseason
Paul Wright - San Diego - Offseason
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - No game this week.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - No game this week.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 25 minutes in Mexico's 2-2 draw with Honduras. Came off the bench and played 9 minutes in Mexico's 0-0 draw with the USA.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Churchill's 1-1 draw with ONGC. Started and played 90 minutes in Churchill's 0-0 draw with Salgaocar.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in Urquiza's 1-0 loss to Lanus in the Copa Argentina. Beat Excursionistas 2-1.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in Trinidad's 0-0 draw with Belize. Started and played 86 minutes in Trinidad's 3-0 loss to Peru.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - No game this week.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Honduras' 2-2 draw with Mexico. Started and played 90 minutes in Honduras' 2-0 loss to Panama.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - No game this week.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 89 minutes in the USA's 1-0 win over Costa Rica. Started and played 71 minutes in the USA's 0-0 draw with Mexico.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Dressed but did not play in Jamaica's 1-1 draw with Panama. Dressed but did not play in Jamaica's 2-0 loss to Costa Rica.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - No game this week.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Sierra Leone's 2-1 loss to Tunisia.
Igor Kostrov - Dacia - Moldova - No game this week.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - No game this week.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes in Armenia's 3-0 loss ot the Czech Republic.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - No game this week.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - No game this week.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - No game this week.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - No game this week.
Ivan Trujillo - Llaneros - Colombia - Started and played 80 minutes, scoring a goal in Llaneros' 2-1 win over Express Rojo.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Tied Samut Songkhram 0-0.
US Take Point in Mexico
The US did something last night they've only done once before in Mexico City. Against Mexico in a World Cup qualifier, the US walked out of Azteca with a point thanks to a 0-0 draw last night. The US didn't put on the greatest performance offensively, but defensively the team was solid. Starting center backs Matt Besler and Omar Gonzalez were making just their 2nd and 6th cap respectively and in arguably one of the toughest places to play in the world, looked World Class. Gonzalez probably had the better match of the two, but it wasn't by much as Besler was all over the place, doing the exact same things he does for Kansas City on a regular basis, cleaning up the trash in the box and cutting out lanes. Both center backs certainly made Jurgen Klinsmann's choice to start them look genius.
It wasn't just the USA's center backs that played well defensively. Arguably everyone had a good defensive game for the US, even DaMarcus Beasley, who was the go at target for Mexico all night, but Beasley kept plugging away and frustrated Mexico. Sporting's other call up, Graham Zusi also had an impressive performance defensively, making a nice tackle in the first half and then making a 20 yard sprint to head away a ball at the back post on what would have been a free header on goal.
That said the US did get lucky to not have a penalty called on Maurice Edu in the second half for a poor challenge in the box. But overall the night belonged to the US defense and Besler, Gonzalez, and Brad Guzan.
It wasn't just the USA's center backs that played well defensively. Arguably everyone had a good defensive game for the US, even DaMarcus Beasley, who was the go at target for Mexico all night, but Beasley kept plugging away and frustrated Mexico. Sporting's other call up, Graham Zusi also had an impressive performance defensively, making a nice tackle in the first half and then making a 20 yard sprint to head away a ball at the back post on what would have been a free header on goal.
That said the US did get lucky to not have a penalty called on Maurice Edu in the second half for a poor challenge in the box. But overall the night belonged to the US defense and Besler, Gonzalez, and Brad Guzan.
Saturday, March 23, 2013
S.A.S. Saturday Of Stats
Benny Feilhaber started his 50th MLS league game of his career.
In the 56th minute, Jimmy Neilsen moved past Roger Espinoza and into 19th place for minutes played in all competitions. Nielsen finished the game with 9,637 minutes played.
Nielsen made his 107th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Espinoza for 18th place on that list.
The draw was the 28th of his MLS career, breaking his tie with Bo Oshoniyi for 2nd on that list.
In was the 29th draw in all competitions for Nielsen, tying him with Kevin Hartman for 3rd on that list.
In the 56th minute, Jimmy Neilsen moved past Roger Espinoza and into 19th place for minutes played in all competitions. Nielsen finished the game with 9,637 minutes played.
Nielsen made his 107th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Espinoza for 18th place on that list.
The draw was the 28th of his MLS career, breaking his tie with Bo Oshoniyi for 2nd on that list.
In was the 29th draw in all competitions for Nielsen, tying him with Kevin Hartman for 3rd on that list.
Well That was Lackluster
It wasn't the beautiful game, today's game between Sporting KC and the New England Revolution will not be a game you are going to show your non-soccer friends in an attempt to get them to like the sport. Neither team looked very good attacking or possessing the ball. Plenty of that had to do with the weather in New England which saw wind gusts of 30 MPH throughout the game causing plenty of issues with passes. Combined with KC being without Graham Zusi and Matt Besler, KC had plenty of excuses. As I said in my preview, "KC's offensive troubles, combined with New England being without Bengston has me thinking this may be a game most people want to forget." Still with all those excuses, KC had a few chances, but the lack of finishing again came back to haunt them.
Neither team had much possession early on, for some reason with the wind teams weren't playing the ball on the ground, instead resorting to balls over the top that ended up getting caught in the wind. KC did have the games first really good chance in the 19th minute. Off a long throw from Seth Sinovic, the ball didn't get cleared and fell to CJ Sapong. Sapong's shot beat Matt Reis in the Revolution net, but a Revs defender got back and blocked the shot onto the bar. The rebound fell to Ike Opara who had his shot blocked, the third attempt fell to Claudio Bieler who took a touch but Benny Feilhaber was the one that took the shot firing it right at Reis who collected the shot. That was about the only chance of the first half that really tested either side. In the 34th Bieler had a freekick that was curling towards the near post, but it didn't have enough pace on it to really trouble Reis.
The second half saw the Revolution with a couple dangerous opportunities, but not really testing Jimmy Nielsen in the Sporting net. In fact it took until a 77th minute free kick from Juan Toja before the Revolution even created a shot, with Toja's effort going just over Nielsen's net, although Nielsen looked to have it covered. Sporting had a few chances themselves, but they too really struggled to test Reis in the Revolution net. In fact, the team's second best chance of the game didn't test Reis, when Opara put a header just wide of the goal off a corner in the 83rd. In the end neither side did enough to win the game today, and neither side did enough to lose the game either. It's a game that is better forgotten and move on to the next one.
Wizards Man of the Match - Aurelien Collin - Collin helped shut down the Revolution offense when they came forward. The Revolution offense looked anemic for much of the game, plenty of that was thanks to Collin taking Chad Barrett out of the game, the other part was that the Revolution just aren't that good without Jerry Bengston and Saer Sene when it comes to attacking.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Sinovic 6, Collin 7, Opara 5, Jerome 6, Nagamura 7, Rosell 7, Feilhaber 5, Saad 4, Bieler 4, Sapong 5. Subs Joseph 5.
Neither team had much possession early on, for some reason with the wind teams weren't playing the ball on the ground, instead resorting to balls over the top that ended up getting caught in the wind. KC did have the games first really good chance in the 19th minute. Off a long throw from Seth Sinovic, the ball didn't get cleared and fell to CJ Sapong. Sapong's shot beat Matt Reis in the Revolution net, but a Revs defender got back and blocked the shot onto the bar. The rebound fell to Ike Opara who had his shot blocked, the third attempt fell to Claudio Bieler who took a touch but Benny Feilhaber was the one that took the shot firing it right at Reis who collected the shot. That was about the only chance of the first half that really tested either side. In the 34th Bieler had a freekick that was curling towards the near post, but it didn't have enough pace on it to really trouble Reis.
The second half saw the Revolution with a couple dangerous opportunities, but not really testing Jimmy Nielsen in the Sporting net. In fact it took until a 77th minute free kick from Juan Toja before the Revolution even created a shot, with Toja's effort going just over Nielsen's net, although Nielsen looked to have it covered. Sporting had a few chances themselves, but they too really struggled to test Reis in the Revolution net. In fact, the team's second best chance of the game didn't test Reis, when Opara put a header just wide of the goal off a corner in the 83rd. In the end neither side did enough to win the game today, and neither side did enough to lose the game either. It's a game that is better forgotten and move on to the next one.
Wizards Man of the Match - Aurelien Collin - Collin helped shut down the Revolution offense when they came forward. The Revolution offense looked anemic for much of the game, plenty of that was thanks to Collin taking Chad Barrett out of the game, the other part was that the Revolution just aren't that good without Jerry Bengston and Saer Sene when it comes to attacking.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Sinovic 6, Collin 7, Opara 5, Jerome 6, Nagamura 7, Rosell 7, Feilhaber 5, Saad 4, Bieler 4, Sapong 5. Subs Joseph 5.
Friday, March 22, 2013
Another Home Opener
For the fourth time this season, Sporting KC will get to play a home opener, for the third time it will be on the road. After playing both Philadelphia and Toronto in their home opener Sporting opened Sporting Park last week. This weekend they'll get to do another home opener, heading on the road to play the New England Revolution in their home opener. MLS didn't do Sporting any favors when it came to the early part of the schedule.
New England come into the game with a 1-1 record after two 1-0 results, one in Chicago that they won and one in Philadelphia that they lost last week. The Revs are in the process of rebuilding roster. Familiar names like Sharlie Joseph are gone and Matt Reis is nearing the end of his career. They do have some decent upcoming talent in the back, specifically in AJ Soares and the 2013 first overall pick Andrew Farrell. Up top is where the Revolution look like they're going to struggle this year. Jerry Bengston, who would be considered the team's best forward will miss the match up away with Honduras for World Cup qualifiers. That'll open a spot in the starting lineup for the Revolution that could be replaced by Chad Barrett who has 4 career goals verse Kansas City, but is more known for his misses against KC than his goals.
While New England will be missing one player, KC will be missing two with the call ups of Matt Besler and Graham Zusi to the US squad ahead of their qualifiers vs Costa Rica and Mexico. Combine that with the injury list for KC that includes Chance Myers, Peterson Joseph, and long term injuries Jacob Peterson and Teal Bunbury, and Sporting will get an early chance to test their depth. The forward spot seems the easier decision to make, and that's reinserting Bobby Convey to the lineup on the left side, where Zusi played against Chicago. An outside chance could be Soony Saad, but I think Convey will get the nod. Defensively is the more interesting debate, where you could go with Lawrence Olum who filled in for Besler and Aurelien Collin when they missed time last year. The other option is recently acquired Ike Opara who had an injury plagued career at San Jose before coming to Kansas City. I think at this point Opara is ahead of Olum with Olum providing more support as midfield depth.
Number to Remember - 6 - That's the number of wins in a row the New England have in their home openers. Their last time they didn't pick up all 3 points in their home opener was a 2-1 loss to Chicago back in 2006.
Key Match Up - Mechack Jerome vs Lee Nguyen - Jerome looks set to make his second start of the season in place of Myers who is still having some quad issues. His likely match up in this game would be New England's MVP last year, Nguyen. Jerome doesn't appear to have the push forward that Myers has shown for KC, but that may serve him better against Nguyen, although getting forward and keeping Nguyen honest.
PREDICTION - In their 4th home opener Kansas City will again get to play on a crappy surface (Gillette Stadium was recently given a 1 star rating for it's surface by FIFA). I'm still worried about the way that Kansas City's offense has looked this season. I still feel that Claudio Bieler is too isolated up top, especially on the road. Hopefully that changes this weekend. KC's offensive troubles, combined with New England being without Bengston has me thinking this may be a game most people want to forget.
SKC - 0
NE - 0
New England come into the game with a 1-1 record after two 1-0 results, one in Chicago that they won and one in Philadelphia that they lost last week. The Revs are in the process of rebuilding roster. Familiar names like Sharlie Joseph are gone and Matt Reis is nearing the end of his career. They do have some decent upcoming talent in the back, specifically in AJ Soares and the 2013 first overall pick Andrew Farrell. Up top is where the Revolution look like they're going to struggle this year. Jerry Bengston, who would be considered the team's best forward will miss the match up away with Honduras for World Cup qualifiers. That'll open a spot in the starting lineup for the Revolution that could be replaced by Chad Barrett who has 4 career goals verse Kansas City, but is more known for his misses against KC than his goals.
While New England will be missing one player, KC will be missing two with the call ups of Matt Besler and Graham Zusi to the US squad ahead of their qualifiers vs Costa Rica and Mexico. Combine that with the injury list for KC that includes Chance Myers, Peterson Joseph, and long term injuries Jacob Peterson and Teal Bunbury, and Sporting will get an early chance to test their depth. The forward spot seems the easier decision to make, and that's reinserting Bobby Convey to the lineup on the left side, where Zusi played against Chicago. An outside chance could be Soony Saad, but I think Convey will get the nod. Defensively is the more interesting debate, where you could go with Lawrence Olum who filled in for Besler and Aurelien Collin when they missed time last year. The other option is recently acquired Ike Opara who had an injury plagued career at San Jose before coming to Kansas City. I think at this point Opara is ahead of Olum with Olum providing more support as midfield depth.
Nielsen
Jerome - Collin - Opara - Sinovic
Rossell - Nagamura
Feilhaber
Sapong - Bieler - Convey
Number to Remember - 6 - That's the number of wins in a row the New England have in their home openers. Their last time they didn't pick up all 3 points in their home opener was a 2-1 loss to Chicago back in 2006.
Key Match Up - Mechack Jerome vs Lee Nguyen - Jerome looks set to make his second start of the season in place of Myers who is still having some quad issues. His likely match up in this game would be New England's MVP last year, Nguyen. Jerome doesn't appear to have the push forward that Myers has shown for KC, but that may serve him better against Nguyen, although getting forward and keeping Nguyen honest.
PREDICTION - In their 4th home opener Kansas City will again get to play on a crappy surface (Gillette Stadium was recently given a 1 star rating for it's surface by FIFA). I'm still worried about the way that Kansas City's offense has looked this season. I still feel that Claudio Bieler is too isolated up top, especially on the road. Hopefully that changes this weekend. KC's offensive troubles, combined with New England being without Bengston has me thinking this may be a game most people want to forget.
SKC - 0
NE - 0
New Byline to Back Post
This week's From the Byline to the Back Post is available for you to listen to. This week Thad and I talk about games vs the Fire and upcoming vs New England, call ups to the national team and Jurgen Klinsmann. In part 2 we talk about the Missouri Comets losing in the MISL finals, FC Kansas City preseason and jersey unveiling, and former Wizards update. Enjoy on Posterous and iTunes.
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Sporting Park to Host USA-Jamaica World Cup Qualifier
US Soccer today announced the venues for the USA's final four home World Cup qualifiers. As had been rumored for a few weeks now, Kansas City will be hosting the USA's final home qualifier and 9th of 10 qualifiers on October 11th against Jamaica at Sporting Park. This will be the 4th World Cup qualifier held in the KC area (vs Bermuda 1968, vs Costa Rica 2001, vs Guatemala 2011). KC has also proven to be a friendly home for the US, they've won all 3 of the previous World Cup qualifiers here as well as the Gold Cup game against Guadeloupe in 2010 as well.
The qualifier could very well be a key qualifier for the US, similar to last year's qualifier against Guatemala. The 9th game has been the game where the US has clinched World Cup qualification in 3 of the last 4 World Cups.
Personally I struggle to see how this game isn't key for the US, this game will very likely need to be a win for the US for them to clinch a top 3 spot and an automatic World Cup birth.
The qualifier could very well be a key qualifier for the US, similar to last year's qualifier against Guatemala. The 9th game has been the game where the US has clinched World Cup qualification in 3 of the last 4 World Cups.
Personally I struggle to see how this game isn't key for the US, this game will very likely need to be a win for the US for them to clinch a top 3 spot and an automatic World Cup birth.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
FCKC Unveil Jerseys and Sponsor
FC Kansas City today unveiled their team's jerseys for this year as well as their first jersey sponsor as well. The jersey sponsor is Title Boxing Club. The boxing/kickboxing fitness club first started in the Kansas City metro back in 2008. I think the sponsorship matches up well with the Blues and fits well with both sides.
The team also unveiled their three jerseys, a blue, black, and white. See them here.
The Blues also played their first preseason game yesterday, beating the University of Missouri women's team 6-2. A good start to their preseason. The team also announced that they'll have another preseason game at Julian Field on the campus of Park University on April 6th.
So far with the NWSL, a few teams have lost 1 or 2 of their allocated players for one reason or another. FCKC has now joined that list. Marylin Diaz, a defender on the Mexican national team is not going to be coming to Kansas City. No reason was given to Thad as to the reason why she isn't going to be coming to the Blues.
The team also unveiled their three jerseys, a blue, black, and white. See them here.
The Blues also played their first preseason game yesterday, beating the University of Missouri women's team 6-2. A good start to their preseason. The team also announced that they'll have another preseason game at Julian Field on the campus of Park University on April 6th.
So far with the NWSL, a few teams have lost 1 or 2 of their allocated players for one reason or another. FCKC has now joined that list. Marylin Diaz, a defender on the Mexican national team is not going to be coming to Kansas City. No reason was given to Thad as to the reason why she isn't going to be coming to the Blues.
Bravo Recalled by Mexican National Team, Former SKC Wizards Update
We're heading into the international break and quite a few former Wizards are receiving call ups. Probably one of the most surprising of those call ups is that of Omar Bravo, who was recalled by the Mexican national team for their upcoming qualifiers against Honduras and the US. Bravo has had a solid season for Atlas that has earned him this recall to the national team. Other call ups include Roger Espinoza for Honduras, Kei Kamara for Sierra Leone, Eddie Johnson and Herculez Gomez for the USA, Jermaine Hue of Jamaica Daneil Cyrus for Trinidad and Yura Movsisyan for Armenia. Here's the rest of this week's update.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Kevin Hartman
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Montreal's 2-1 win over Toronto.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - Did not dress in Toronto's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Salt Lake's 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw with Seattle.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 70 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw wtih Seattle.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, recording a goal in Seattle's 1-1 draw with Portland.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 1-0 win over New England.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Started and played 45 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus 1-1 draw with San Jose.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 1-1 draw with San Jose.
NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Christian Duke - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Dom Dwyer - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Offseason
Brian Fekete - Orlando - Offseason
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason
Jon Kempin - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Offseason
Yann Songo'o - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Played in both of the Blast's wins over the Comets.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in either of the Comets games.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Out injured
Paul Wright - San Diego - Offseason
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - No game this week.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - Tied Naft Tehran 1-1.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Atlas' 2-1 loss to Santos.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Chruchill's 3-0 win over Air India.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Beat San Miguel 2-0.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 3-0 win over St. Ann's Rangers.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - Started and played 90 minutes in Huila's 2-0 loss to Deportes Tolima.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Did not dress in Wigan's 2-1 win over Newcastle.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Did not play in the Stars' 2-2 draw with Police FC.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes in Santos 2-1 win over Atlas.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Portmore United 0-0.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - No game this week.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 65 minutes, recording an assist in Norwich's 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Came off the bench and played 22 minutes in Tiraspol's 3-1 win over Costuleni.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 90 minutes in San Martin's 3-0 loss to Pacifico.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - STarted and played 66 minutes in Spartak's 0-0 draw with Lokomotiv Moscow.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Did not play in Zilina's 1-0 loss to Kosice.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - Came off the bench and played 26 minutes in Xanthi's 2-0 win over Panthrakikos.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - Started and played 90 minutes in Leotar's 1-1 draw with Celik.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 69 minutes in Munster's 4-1 win over Alemannia Aachen
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - No game this week.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Kevin Hartman
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Montreal's 2-1 win over Toronto.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - Did not dress in Toronto's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Salt Lake's 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw with Seattle.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 70 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw wtih Seattle.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, recording a goal in Seattle's 1-1 draw with Portland.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 1-0 win over New England.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Started and played 45 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-1 draw with Colorado.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus 1-1 draw with San Jose.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 1-1 draw with San Jose.
NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Christian Duke - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Dom Dwyer - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Offseason
Brian Fekete - Orlando - Offseason
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason
Jon Kempin - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Offseason
Yann Songo'o - Orlando (Loan) - Offseason
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Played in both of the Blast's wins over the Comets.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in either of the Comets games.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Out injured
Paul Wright - San Diego - Offseason
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - No game this week.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - Tied Naft Tehran 1-1.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Atlas' 2-1 loss to Santos.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Chruchill's 3-0 win over Air India.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Beat San Miguel 2-0.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 3-0 win over St. Ann's Rangers.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - Started and played 90 minutes in Huila's 2-0 loss to Deportes Tolima.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Did not dress in Wigan's 2-1 win over Newcastle.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Did not play in the Stars' 2-2 draw with Police FC.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes in Santos 2-1 win over Atlas.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Portmore United 0-0.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - No game this week.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 65 minutes, recording an assist in Norwich's 1-1 draw with Sunderland.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Came off the bench and played 22 minutes in Tiraspol's 3-1 win over Costuleni.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 90 minutes in San Martin's 3-0 loss to Pacifico.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - STarted and played 66 minutes in Spartak's 0-0 draw with Lokomotiv Moscow.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Did not play in Zilina's 1-0 loss to Kosice.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - Came off the bench and played 26 minutes in Xanthi's 2-0 win over Panthrakikos.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - Started and played 90 minutes in Leotar's 1-1 draw with Celik.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 69 minutes in Munster's 4-1 win over Alemannia Aachen
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - No game this week.
Monday, March 18, 2013
Time to Switch to a 4-4-2?
Since Peter Vermes' first full season in charge of Sporting Kansas City he's worked to fit the team into his image and get a team that will play the style that he wants them to play. A high speed, high tempo, attacking oriented style through the 4-3-3 formation.
Through his time he's gone through a number of different players trying to get the best group of players to make that formation work for him. Over the past two seasons he's had probably his best lineup for that. With the likes of Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, and Teal Bunbury up top, with Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza, and Julio Cesar in the midfield, and the development of Chance Myers and Matt Besler along with additions of Aurelien Collin and Seth Sinovic have made the defense solid. The 4-3-3 has helped to lead Kansas City to two straight 1st place finishes in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and a US Open Cup title last season.
But then this offseason, Roger Espinoza departed for the Premier League, and Kei Kamara followed going on loan at least until May. With those two gone, Sporting KC's 4-3-3 so far this season has looked different. Without Kamara, KC lost a lot of athleticism in their attack, the unpredictability, and the speed that Kamara brought. His move to Norwich on loan has also affected KC defensively as well, as it's hurt Chance Myers and his ability to get forward. Zusi, who played in the right forward spot in the first two games has played quite well , he's not the same type of player as Kamara, he doesn't offer the same style that Kamara did that really complemented Myers.
Without Espinoza, KC's midfield has changed a bit. Paulo Nagamura has helped to fill the void, but no one can replace Espinoza's work ethic and engine on the field. Oriol Rosell has done a decent job of replacing Julio Cesar, but doesn't have the experience of the Brazilian.
With those two exiting, KC has moved new parts in and has kept the 4-3-3. Zusi has moved into the right forward position with Benny Feilhaber moving into the midfield. With the changes though the team just doesn't seem to be playing the same. The style that KC exhibited in the 4-3-3 the last two years isn't there. The team now has more play making ability in the lineup, but don't have the dynamic game changer there like Kamara. So far this season, Kansas City's new designated player, Claudio Bieler, while having scored 2 goals this season has been starved for service for long periods of the game. With Zusi on one wing and Bobby Convey on the other, Sporting is getting some service, but the crosses aren't the type of service that Bieler really takes advantage of. When CJ Sapong has come on, KC has scored 3 of their 4 goals. When Sapong was inserted into the lineup over the weekend against the Fire, I had hopes that Sapong would be able to combine with Bieler more, but it didn't work as well as expected. Sapong spent a lot of time out wide on the right and didn't really get much opportunity to combine with Bieler.
At this point you have to start to wonder if Kansas City needs to consider a switch to a 4-4-2 from the 4-3-3. While the 3 forward lineup has served KC well, with the pieces that Kansas City currently has a 4-4-2 would fit more for KC.
A 4-4-2 formation would allow Kansas City to play with Bieler and Sapong paired together up top with Sapong playing more back to goal and Bieler being able to play off of him. I think that style would benefit both players as Bieler has been isolated quite a bit this year with the way KC has played, providing him with a partner I think would make Bieler more successful.
In the midfield KC could play two main different ways. The team could play an "empty bucket" with 2 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the two wings with Nagamura and Rosell behind them in the middle playing more defensively. The other possibility is to have all 3 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the field with Nagamura or Rosell playing the defensive midfield position behind them. This puts a lot of pressure on whichever of the two plays the defensive midfield position, but could be a good formation for KC to play at home where teams are going to sit back and KC is going to have the possession to play another attacking midfielder.
The 4-3-3 has served KC quite well the past two years. But with KC's player personnel right now, it may be time to take a step away from that formation, at least temporarily, and play a formation that will play more to KC's strengths and get Bieler some support up top so he is not as isolated.
Through his time he's gone through a number of different players trying to get the best group of players to make that formation work for him. Over the past two seasons he's had probably his best lineup for that. With the likes of Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, and Teal Bunbury up top, with Graham Zusi, Roger Espinoza, and Julio Cesar in the midfield, and the development of Chance Myers and Matt Besler along with additions of Aurelien Collin and Seth Sinovic have made the defense solid. The 4-3-3 has helped to lead Kansas City to two straight 1st place finishes in the Eastern Conference in the regular season and a US Open Cup title last season.
But then this offseason, Roger Espinoza departed for the Premier League, and Kei Kamara followed going on loan at least until May. With those two gone, Sporting KC's 4-3-3 so far this season has looked different. Without Kamara, KC lost a lot of athleticism in their attack, the unpredictability, and the speed that Kamara brought. His move to Norwich on loan has also affected KC defensively as well, as it's hurt Chance Myers and his ability to get forward. Zusi, who played in the right forward spot in the first two games has played quite well , he's not the same type of player as Kamara, he doesn't offer the same style that Kamara did that really complemented Myers.
Without Espinoza, KC's midfield has changed a bit. Paulo Nagamura has helped to fill the void, but no one can replace Espinoza's work ethic and engine on the field. Oriol Rosell has done a decent job of replacing Julio Cesar, but doesn't have the experience of the Brazilian.
With those two exiting, KC has moved new parts in and has kept the 4-3-3. Zusi has moved into the right forward position with Benny Feilhaber moving into the midfield. With the changes though the team just doesn't seem to be playing the same. The style that KC exhibited in the 4-3-3 the last two years isn't there. The team now has more play making ability in the lineup, but don't have the dynamic game changer there like Kamara. So far this season, Kansas City's new designated player, Claudio Bieler, while having scored 2 goals this season has been starved for service for long periods of the game. With Zusi on one wing and Bobby Convey on the other, Sporting is getting some service, but the crosses aren't the type of service that Bieler really takes advantage of. When CJ Sapong has come on, KC has scored 3 of their 4 goals. When Sapong was inserted into the lineup over the weekend against the Fire, I had hopes that Sapong would be able to combine with Bieler more, but it didn't work as well as expected. Sapong spent a lot of time out wide on the right and didn't really get much opportunity to combine with Bieler.
At this point you have to start to wonder if Kansas City needs to consider a switch to a 4-4-2 from the 4-3-3. While the 3 forward lineup has served KC well, with the pieces that Kansas City currently has a 4-4-2 would fit more for KC.
A 4-4-2 formation would allow Kansas City to play with Bieler and Sapong paired together up top with Sapong playing more back to goal and Bieler being able to play off of him. I think that style would benefit both players as Bieler has been isolated quite a bit this year with the way KC has played, providing him with a partner I think would make Bieler more successful.
In the midfield KC could play two main different ways. The team could play an "empty bucket" with 2 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the two wings with Nagamura and Rosell behind them in the middle playing more defensively. The other possibility is to have all 3 of Zusi, Feilhaber, and Convey on the field with Nagamura or Rosell playing the defensive midfield position behind them. This puts a lot of pressure on whichever of the two plays the defensive midfield position, but could be a good formation for KC to play at home where teams are going to sit back and KC is going to have the possession to play another attacking midfielder.
The 4-3-3 has served KC quite well the past two years. But with KC's player personnel right now, it may be time to take a step away from that formation, at least temporarily, and play a formation that will play more to KC's strengths and get Bieler some support up top so he is not as isolated.
Besler and Zusi Called Up for Qualifiers
Jurgen Klinsmann today announced his roster ahead of two key World Cup qualifiers, starting on Friday in Colorado against Costa Rica. Sporting Kansas City will be represented by two players on the roster for the game, defender Matt Besler, and midfielder Graham Zusi both return to the national team.
Zusi continues to be an almost automatic call up for the US during this qualifying cycle since coming onto the scene in last year's Camp Cupcake. Zusi will likely be expected to be the bigger contributor of KC's two call ups, and potentially start. The worry with Zusi, is that he, like Clint Dempsey, Michael Bradley, and the previously mentioned Edu are all carrying yellow cards and will be suspended for the next Hex game should they pick one up.
Both players will miss this weekend's trip to New England for Sporting KC. With both of them out, it would appear that Ike Opara could make his first appearance for Sporting KC, partnering Aurelien Collin in the middle of defense. This could also see the return of Bobby Convey to the starting lineup after he sat out Saturday's draw with the Chicago Fire. The only other possibility could be a first start of the season for Soony Saad, who was KC's only substitute against the Fire. On the New England side of things, the Revolution will be without Jerry Bengston who was called up for Honduras.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
Sunday After Stats
In the 4th minute, Jimmy Nielsen moved past Sasha Victorine and into 18th place for minutes played in league play. Nielsen finished the game with 8,707 minutes played.
In the 1st minute Nielsen broke his tie with Chris Brown and took sole possession of 20th place on the list in all competitions, finishing the game with 9,547 minutes played.
Nielsen made his 106th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Bo Oshoniyi for 19th on that list and tied him with Roger Espinoza for 19th.
It was Nielsen's 97th start in league play, breaking his tie with Victorine for 18th on that list.
The draw was the 27th of Nielsen's career in league play for Sporting, tying him with Oshoniyi for 2nd all time on that list.
In the 68th minute, Matt Besler moved past Jose Burciaga and into 14th place for minute played in all competitions, Besler finished the game with 10,647 minutes played.
Besler made his 106th league appearance for KC, tying him with Victorine for 20th place on that list.
Besler made his 117th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Uche Okafor for 15th on that list.
In the 1st minute Nielsen broke his tie with Chris Brown and took sole possession of 20th place on the list in all competitions, finishing the game with 9,547 minutes played.
Nielsen made his 106th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Bo Oshoniyi for 19th on that list and tied him with Roger Espinoza for 19th.
It was Nielsen's 97th start in league play, breaking his tie with Victorine for 18th on that list.
The draw was the 27th of Nielsen's career in league play for Sporting, tying him with Oshoniyi for 2nd all time on that list.
In the 68th minute, Matt Besler moved past Jose Burciaga and into 14th place for minute played in all competitions, Besler finished the game with 10,647 minutes played.
Besler made his 106th league appearance for KC, tying him with Victorine for 20th place on that list.
Besler made his 117th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Uche Okafor for 15th on that list.
New Year, Same Home Form
The hope for Sporting KC heading into this season was that the team would be able to do better with their chances and scoring goals, especially at home where over the previous two years at Sporting Park, KC would get plenty of the possession, but would not be able to capitalize on it as much as they should. During the last two years KC has controlled possession in many of their home games and out shot their opponents by a large margin, but have struggled to consistently find the net. Such was the case again yesterday at Sporting Park as KC and the Chicago Fire played to a 0-0 draw.
Kansas City had plenty of possession in the early going but weren't creating chances, one of the best came in the 13th minute after a long throw from Matt Besler was only partially cleared, Mechack Jerome, starting in place of the injured Chance Myers fired the rebound towards goal. CJ Sapong jumped out of the way as the shot went through but Sean Johnson in the Chicago net had it covered. KC had another dangerous pass after a 1-2 saw Sapong move in on goal, but the return pass had been a little much as Johnson was quickly off his line to collect. Shortly after that there was a penalty shout for Kansas City as a cross into the box bounced off the ground and off the arm of Jalil Anibaba. Not an intentional handball, but with Anibaba's arm extended away from his body a little bit, the call could easily have been made. But such is the game when KC plays Chicago at home when it comes to PKs. Throughout the rest of the first half KC had some half chances, but really didn't test Johnson much, putting most of the efforts high or wide of his goal.
In the second half Sporting continued to be the more aggressive side but the end product still was not there. Some great work on the sideline saw Seth Sinovic play a nice cross into the middle but neither Claudio Bieler, or the trailing Sapong could reach the ball in time to turn it in. KC kept attacking and a long blast from Paulo Nagamura forced a decent save out of Johnson and the rebound fell to Bieler, but he couldn't make good contact with his head to put the ball on goal. In the 77th minute, KC inserted Soony Saad for Benny Feilhaber, and Saad had an immediate impact, dribbling at a Fire defender and firing a shot that went just wide of Johnson's post, with Johnson struggling to get there. Kansas City kept racking up shots, but not quality ones. In the 86th minute, Graham Zusi and Sapong combined down the right hand side that saw Zusi get into the box with some space, but he fired his shot over the goal. In the 90th minute, completely against the run of play Chicago almost stole all 3 points from Kansas City as some good combination play by the Fire found 3 players behind KC's back line, but Jimmy Nielsen was quick off his line and blocked a shot by Daniel Paladini to keep the game level. In the end Kansas City couldn't capitalize on possession that was north of 70% for the either game and the Fire escaped with their first point of the season in the 0-0 draw.
Wizards Man of the Match - Matt Besler - Sporting's defense didn't concede for the first time this season, and were able to deal with Chicago's attack throughout the game, save for the one opportunity in the 90th minute, when Nielsen came up with the nice save to keep the game scoreless. Besler also got a chance to get forward with some long throws, which is something that had been lacking a bit for Sporting, using that extra weapon.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Jerome 6, Collin 6, Besler 7, Sinovic 6, Nagamura 6, Rosell 6, Feilhaber 5, Zusi 4, Bieler 4, Sapong 4. Subs Saad 5.
Kansas City had plenty of possession in the early going but weren't creating chances, one of the best came in the 13th minute after a long throw from Matt Besler was only partially cleared, Mechack Jerome, starting in place of the injured Chance Myers fired the rebound towards goal. CJ Sapong jumped out of the way as the shot went through but Sean Johnson in the Chicago net had it covered. KC had another dangerous pass after a 1-2 saw Sapong move in on goal, but the return pass had been a little much as Johnson was quickly off his line to collect. Shortly after that there was a penalty shout for Kansas City as a cross into the box bounced off the ground and off the arm of Jalil Anibaba. Not an intentional handball, but with Anibaba's arm extended away from his body a little bit, the call could easily have been made. But such is the game when KC plays Chicago at home when it comes to PKs. Throughout the rest of the first half KC had some half chances, but really didn't test Johnson much, putting most of the efforts high or wide of his goal.
In the second half Sporting continued to be the more aggressive side but the end product still was not there. Some great work on the sideline saw Seth Sinovic play a nice cross into the middle but neither Claudio Bieler, or the trailing Sapong could reach the ball in time to turn it in. KC kept attacking and a long blast from Paulo Nagamura forced a decent save out of Johnson and the rebound fell to Bieler, but he couldn't make good contact with his head to put the ball on goal. In the 77th minute, KC inserted Soony Saad for Benny Feilhaber, and Saad had an immediate impact, dribbling at a Fire defender and firing a shot that went just wide of Johnson's post, with Johnson struggling to get there. Kansas City kept racking up shots, but not quality ones. In the 86th minute, Graham Zusi and Sapong combined down the right hand side that saw Zusi get into the box with some space, but he fired his shot over the goal. In the 90th minute, completely against the run of play Chicago almost stole all 3 points from Kansas City as some good combination play by the Fire found 3 players behind KC's back line, but Jimmy Nielsen was quick off his line and blocked a shot by Daniel Paladini to keep the game level. In the end Kansas City couldn't capitalize on possession that was north of 70% for the either game and the Fire escaped with their first point of the season in the 0-0 draw.
Wizards Man of the Match - Matt Besler - Sporting's defense didn't concede for the first time this season, and were able to deal with Chicago's attack throughout the game, save for the one opportunity in the 90th minute, when Nielsen came up with the nice save to keep the game scoreless. Besler also got a chance to get forward with some long throws, which is something that had been lacking a bit for Sporting, using that extra weapon.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Jerome 6, Collin 6, Besler 7, Sinovic 6, Nagamura 6, Rosell 6, Feilhaber 5, Zusi 4, Bieler 4, Sapong 4. Subs Saad 5.
Saturday, March 16, 2013
Comets Fall in
The 2012-2013 Missouri Comets set some high goals for themselves at the beginning of the year. They nearly accomplished all of them tonight after jumping out to a 4-0 halftime lead in Game Two of the MISL Championship against the Baltimore Blast. The Blast scored four straight goals in the second half, and held off a Comets comeback attempt to become the 2013 MISL Champions.
After falling behind early in Game One, the Comets were determined to have a stronger start game. Playing strong on both sides of the field, Missouri controlled possession for much of the quarter. With 5:02 remaining in the opening quarter Byron Alvarez put the Comets on the board. In the second quarter a streaking Robert Palmer was heading towards goal when he was taken out from behind by Baltimore’s Max Ferdinand. Byron Alvarez converted the resulting shootout opportunity and the Comets went into the halftime break leading 4-0.
The Baltimore Blast, playing in their third straight Championship Series, were not ready to go down easy. Ferdinand, Tony Donatelli, Adriano Dos Santos and Lucas Roque rattled off four straight goals across the third quarter and first part of the fourth quarter. With seven minutes remaining and the season in the balance, the Comets began a furious comeback attempt. Byron Alvarez completed his hat trick, scoring his third goal with five minutes remaining to bring Missouri back to within 2 points, 8-6.
Inserting Vahid Assadpour as the sixth attacker with two minutes remaining gave the Comets many chances, but Baltimore goalkeeper, William Vanzela, came up with several game-preserving saves. His performance earned him the 2013 MISL Most Valuable Player Award.
The Comets finish with a regular season record of 13-13 and a second-place finish in the 2013 MISL Playoffs.
After falling behind early in Game One, the Comets were determined to have a stronger start game. Playing strong on both sides of the field, Missouri controlled possession for much of the quarter. With 5:02 remaining in the opening quarter Byron Alvarez put the Comets on the board. In the second quarter a streaking Robert Palmer was heading towards goal when he was taken out from behind by Baltimore’s Max Ferdinand. Byron Alvarez converted the resulting shootout opportunity and the Comets went into the halftime break leading 4-0.
The Baltimore Blast, playing in their third straight Championship Series, were not ready to go down easy. Ferdinand, Tony Donatelli, Adriano Dos Santos and Lucas Roque rattled off four straight goals across the third quarter and first part of the fourth quarter. With seven minutes remaining and the season in the balance, the Comets began a furious comeback attempt. Byron Alvarez completed his hat trick, scoring his third goal with five minutes remaining to bring Missouri back to within 2 points, 8-6.
Inserting Vahid Assadpour as the sixth attacker with two minutes remaining gave the Comets many chances, but Baltimore goalkeeper, William Vanzela, came up with several game-preserving saves. His performance earned him the 2013 MISL Most Valuable Player Award.
The Comets finish with a regular season record of 13-13 and a second-place finish in the 2013 MISL Playoffs.
Friday, March 15, 2013
Results of Sporting KC Rival Questions
A few days ago on Twitter I asked Kansas City fans to list their top three rivals in order for a post I did ahead of MLS' rivalry week and whether tomorrow's opponent, the Chicago Fire, really was Kansas City's rival in the eyes of the fans (at least those that responded to me).
The full results of the responses I got are below.
I received 57 responses. Of those, there were a few that didn't give answers for 1 through 3. Some gave only 1 answer, some gave 2. There was also one ballot that didn't list a number 1 rival, just 2 and 3. So that's why you'll see the second and third place votes less than the first place votes.
Houston appeared on 54 of the 57 votes, appearing first 34 times, second 16 times, and third 4 times.
Chicago (KC's "rival" according to MLS and pushed by the team) isn't seen as the main rival, appearing on 48 of the 57 votes. 18 first place votes, 16 second place, and 14 third.
The team with the third most votes was Seattle, appearing getting 32 votes, 4 first place votes, 14 second, and 14 third.
Of the rest of the votes, they were scattered between 6 other teams. DC was the highest of those, earning 2 second place votes and 3 third. New York was behind them with 1 second place vote and 3 third. Los Angeles got 2 third place votes. Dallas, Philadelphia, and Portland all got 1 third place vote each.
And then for humor purposes Simon Borg, the defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny, and Manchester United all got 1 third place vote as well.
The full results of the responses I got are below.
I received 57 responses. Of those, there were a few that didn't give answers for 1 through 3. Some gave only 1 answer, some gave 2. There was also one ballot that didn't list a number 1 rival, just 2 and 3. So that's why you'll see the second and third place votes less than the first place votes.
Houston appeared on 54 of the 57 votes, appearing first 34 times, second 16 times, and third 4 times.
Chicago (KC's "rival" according to MLS and pushed by the team) isn't seen as the main rival, appearing on 48 of the 57 votes. 18 first place votes, 16 second place, and 14 third.
The team with the third most votes was Seattle, appearing getting 32 votes, 4 first place votes, 14 second, and 14 third.
Of the rest of the votes, they were scattered between 6 other teams. DC was the highest of those, earning 2 second place votes and 3 third. New York was behind them with 1 second place vote and 3 third. Los Angeles got 2 third place votes. Dallas, Philadelphia, and Portland all got 1 third place vote each.
And then for humor purposes Simon Borg, the defunct Tampa Bay Mutiny, and Manchester United all got 1 third place vote as well.
Opening Sporting Park
Sporting KC return to Sporting Park tomorrow for the first time this season when they'll take on the Chicago Fire tomorrow afternoon on NBC Sports as part of the league's "rivalry week." It's the second of three matches that day on NBC or NBC Sports. KC gets to match up with the team that they've tried to build a rivalry with over the past few years since the club's rebranding.
Chicago comes into the game on the backs of a 1-0 loss to New England in Chicago's home opener last weekend. It's was the second straight loss for the Fire to open the season after being beaten 4-0 in their season opener against the LA Galaxy. The defense shored itself up against New England, but the offense has really not gotten going at this time. The Fire will still be without Arne Friedrich who is out has gone to Germany for treatment on an injury. While the offense hasn't gotten going they are still dangerous with the likes of Joel Lindpere, who always seems to play well against KC, in the midfield and Chris Rolfe up top, who most KC fans will remember for crawling back onto the field to try to get play stopped for an injury last year.
For Sporting it's become about coming out ready to play. Both of KC's games so far this season have seen them come out slow and they've been made to pay for it conceding goals early in both games. Sporting needs to get that taken care of fast, the team can't continue to come out the way they have against Philadelphia and Toronto. The defense has been shaky in the first two games, but the offense also hasn't exactly been lighting things up early on either. Three of KC's four goals so far have come in the second half, and with CJ Sapong on the field instead of Bobby Convey. I'm not saying that Convey's been the worst player on the field for KC, but at this time he's bringing less offensively to the team than the other options I'd see being replaced for Sapong (Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi the other two). Hopefully seeing Sapong from the start will help him and Claudio Bieler combine from the start instead of getting going in the second half.
Number to Remember - 3 - KC is undefeated in their last 3 home openers, including a 0-0 draw with the Chciago Fire in 2011 when Sporting Park was opened. T
Key Match Up - Claudio Bieler vs Austin Berry - Two goals in two games for Bieler, a nice start for the Argentine. This week he'll likely get to match up mainly against the 2012 rookie of the year. Chicago will look to continue their defensive improvement ever since the big loss on the road to LA in the season opener.
PREDICTION - In recent history (1-3-1) and historically (11-23-9 in league play) Chicago has been the better team, but the games lately have all been extremely close affairs usually decided by a single goal. I'd be shocked if we get anything different from that tomorrow at Sporting Park. Chicago's defense did a better job against New England but will be getting a more dynamic attack from Kansas City than they did against New England (especially if Sapong starts up top). On the other side, the Fire will be looking to again catch the KC back line napping again early like Philadelphia and Toronto have.
SKC - 2 (Bieler x2)
CHI - 0
Chicago comes into the game on the backs of a 1-0 loss to New England in Chicago's home opener last weekend. It's was the second straight loss for the Fire to open the season after being beaten 4-0 in their season opener against the LA Galaxy. The defense shored itself up against New England, but the offense has really not gotten going at this time. The Fire will still be without Arne Friedrich who is out has gone to Germany for treatment on an injury. While the offense hasn't gotten going they are still dangerous with the likes of Joel Lindpere, who always seems to play well against KC, in the midfield and Chris Rolfe up top, who most KC fans will remember for crawling back onto the field to try to get play stopped for an injury last year.
For Sporting it's become about coming out ready to play. Both of KC's games so far this season have seen them come out slow and they've been made to pay for it conceding goals early in both games. Sporting needs to get that taken care of fast, the team can't continue to come out the way they have against Philadelphia and Toronto. The defense has been shaky in the first two games, but the offense also hasn't exactly been lighting things up early on either. Three of KC's four goals so far have come in the second half, and with CJ Sapong on the field instead of Bobby Convey. I'm not saying that Convey's been the worst player on the field for KC, but at this time he's bringing less offensively to the team than the other options I'd see being replaced for Sapong (Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi the other two). Hopefully seeing Sapong from the start will help him and Claudio Bieler combine from the start instead of getting going in the second half.
Nielsen
Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Nagamura - Rosell
Feilhaber
Zusi - Bieler - Sapong
Number to Remember - 3 - KC is undefeated in their last 3 home openers, including a 0-0 draw with the Chciago Fire in 2011 when Sporting Park was opened. T
Key Match Up - Claudio Bieler vs Austin Berry - Two goals in two games for Bieler, a nice start for the Argentine. This week he'll likely get to match up mainly against the 2012 rookie of the year. Chicago will look to continue their defensive improvement ever since the big loss on the road to LA in the season opener.
PREDICTION - In recent history (1-3-1) and historically (11-23-9 in league play) Chicago has been the better team, but the games lately have all been extremely close affairs usually decided by a single goal. I'd be shocked if we get anything different from that tomorrow at Sporting Park. Chicago's defense did a better job against New England but will be getting a more dynamic attack from Kansas City than they did against New England (especially if Sapong starts up top). On the other side, the Fire will be looking to again catch the KC back line napping again early like Philadelphia and Toronto have.
SKC - 2 (Bieler x2)
CHI - 0
Thursday, March 14, 2013
Poor Second Quarter Dooms Comets
The Comets and Blast played a fast paced first quarter but it was the second quarter that did the Comets in tonight in the first game of the MISL championship series at the Independence Events Center. The Blast out scored the Comets 8-0 in the second as they completely out played the Comets and hit on the counter, putting on a bit of a clinic on both ends of the field. The Comets fought back in the second half but couldn't overcome the poor quarter.
The game started with a frantic pass and inside 30 seconds the Blast had the lead. Mike Lookingland played a pass towards the back post where Cristiano tried to break it up, but only put it into the path of Tony Donatelli. Donatelli turned on goal and beat Danny Waltman to make it 2-0. The Comets came back down the field and found an equalizer less than a minute later. Byron Alvarez collected a turnover from goalkeeper William Vanzela and fed the ball to Vahid Assadpour in the corner. Assadpour returned the pass and Alvarez slotted it far post to tie the game. Shortly after that though the Blast retook the lead. After Leo Gibson got caught in possession at the yellow line, Max Ferdinand led a 3v1 break on Waltman. Ferdinand fed it to Aduato Neto who tucked it into the empty net to make it 4-2 Blast. Th Blast continued to push the game and around the midway point of the quarter Neto had the ball deep in the Comets corner but he was able to get the ball out to Ptah Myers who put the ball high on Waltman to make it 6-2. The Comets attacked for much of the rest of the quarter but with all their possession they were unable to get many shots on goal.
In the second quarter the Blast again started things quickly again. Just a minute into the quarter the Blast scored again. After a turnover in the Comets end Neto fed the ball to Donatelli who beat Waltman to the far post making it 8-2. The Comets continued to push the game with plenty of possession, but it left them exposed in the back and just over a minute after going down 8-2 they were down 10-2 as Myers led a fast break feeding it across to Lucas Roque who touched the ball past Waltman and into the net. Before five minutes were even played in the quarter the Blast scored another one. After Coady Andrews made a decent slide tackle in his own defensive third the ball went to Machel Millwood who roofed the shot against Waltman to make it 12-2. Up to that point the Waltman had yet to record a save as the Blast had gone 6 for 6 shooting. Finally with just over 7 minutes played Waltman finally made a save on a break by Myers. But the rebound fell back to Myers who played the ball to a trailing Neto who beat Waltman to make it 14-2 Blast. The Comets had plenty of possession as the rest of the quarter wore on as the Blast were content to sit back and absorb pressure. Vanzela made 5 saves in the quarter to keep the Comets off the board. The Comets also shot themselves in the foot, passing up decent shots looking for better ones that never came. Seven of nine shooting by the Blast made the Comets pay for mistakes.
Comets came out after the half time break again pushing the game and just under 3 minutes in had pulled a goal back. John Sosa raced down the wing and fired a ball off the wall into the middle where Milan Ivanovic tapped the ball home to make it 14-4. Forty seconds later though the Blast had pulled another one back as a rebound off a save from Waltman found Donatelli who played it into the middle for Myers who beat Waltman to make it 16-4. The Comets continued to push with most of the possession being in the Blast defensive end. With just over five minutes played the Comets pulled another back as Ryan Junge toe poked the ball from under Ferdinand's foot and into the net to make it 16-6. The Comets continued to push it as Waltman pushed up the field. And 7 minutes into the quarter Waltman fired a shot that was going wide, but Lucas Rodriguez deflected the shot into the net to make it 16-8. The Blast tried to hit on the counter, but the Comets defense showed up in the second, as did Waltman who made a number of good saves to keep the Comets within 8 the rest of the quarter.
In the fourth quarter the Comets continued to be the aggressor, looking to continue the come back. The Blast defense was strong, keeping the Comets off the board. Just before the 8 minute mark in the quarter it was the Blast that added another goal off a restart. Mike Lookingland fed the ball to Millwood out wide and he fired the ball past Waltman and into the net making it 18-8. Shortly after that the Comets pulled Watlman going with the 6th attacker. The Comets kept the ball plenty during that period and eventually got one back with just under 5 minutes left when Assadpour found Alvarez who fired home from just inside the 3 point line. The Comets won the ball back shortly after the Blast kick off and went back to the 6th attack and again found the net. A shot by Sosa was saved by Vanzela, the rebound fell to Gibson who volleyed the ball home to make it 18-12. The Comets kept with the 6th attacker looking for another goal, but the Blast finally hit on the counter as Adriano Dos Santos broke out and fed the ball to Donatelli, who finished his hattrick from 3 point range into the empty net to make it 21-12 which is how the game ended.
The Comets now head to Baltimore needing to again to the double on the road to try to win the championship. It'll be a tough ask for the Comets to do it on the road again. They've beaten Baltimore there once this year, but that's been the Blast's only home loss this year and the Comets only win over the Blast this year as well.
The game started with a frantic pass and inside 30 seconds the Blast had the lead. Mike Lookingland played a pass towards the back post where Cristiano tried to break it up, but only put it into the path of Tony Donatelli. Donatelli turned on goal and beat Danny Waltman to make it 2-0. The Comets came back down the field and found an equalizer less than a minute later. Byron Alvarez collected a turnover from goalkeeper William Vanzela and fed the ball to Vahid Assadpour in the corner. Assadpour returned the pass and Alvarez slotted it far post to tie the game. Shortly after that though the Blast retook the lead. After Leo Gibson got caught in possession at the yellow line, Max Ferdinand led a 3v1 break on Waltman. Ferdinand fed it to Aduato Neto who tucked it into the empty net to make it 4-2 Blast. Th Blast continued to push the game and around the midway point of the quarter Neto had the ball deep in the Comets corner but he was able to get the ball out to Ptah Myers who put the ball high on Waltman to make it 6-2. The Comets attacked for much of the rest of the quarter but with all their possession they were unable to get many shots on goal.
In the second quarter the Blast again started things quickly again. Just a minute into the quarter the Blast scored again. After a turnover in the Comets end Neto fed the ball to Donatelli who beat Waltman to the far post making it 8-2. The Comets continued to push the game with plenty of possession, but it left them exposed in the back and just over a minute after going down 8-2 they were down 10-2 as Myers led a fast break feeding it across to Lucas Roque who touched the ball past Waltman and into the net. Before five minutes were even played in the quarter the Blast scored another one. After Coady Andrews made a decent slide tackle in his own defensive third the ball went to Machel Millwood who roofed the shot against Waltman to make it 12-2. Up to that point the Waltman had yet to record a save as the Blast had gone 6 for 6 shooting. Finally with just over 7 minutes played Waltman finally made a save on a break by Myers. But the rebound fell back to Myers who played the ball to a trailing Neto who beat Waltman to make it 14-2 Blast. The Comets had plenty of possession as the rest of the quarter wore on as the Blast were content to sit back and absorb pressure. Vanzela made 5 saves in the quarter to keep the Comets off the board. The Comets also shot themselves in the foot, passing up decent shots looking for better ones that never came. Seven of nine shooting by the Blast made the Comets pay for mistakes.
Comets came out after the half time break again pushing the game and just under 3 minutes in had pulled a goal back. John Sosa raced down the wing and fired a ball off the wall into the middle where Milan Ivanovic tapped the ball home to make it 14-4. Forty seconds later though the Blast had pulled another one back as a rebound off a save from Waltman found Donatelli who played it into the middle for Myers who beat Waltman to make it 16-4. The Comets continued to push with most of the possession being in the Blast defensive end. With just over five minutes played the Comets pulled another back as Ryan Junge toe poked the ball from under Ferdinand's foot and into the net to make it 16-6. The Comets continued to push it as Waltman pushed up the field. And 7 minutes into the quarter Waltman fired a shot that was going wide, but Lucas Rodriguez deflected the shot into the net to make it 16-8. The Blast tried to hit on the counter, but the Comets defense showed up in the second, as did Waltman who made a number of good saves to keep the Comets within 8 the rest of the quarter.
In the fourth quarter the Comets continued to be the aggressor, looking to continue the come back. The Blast defense was strong, keeping the Comets off the board. Just before the 8 minute mark in the quarter it was the Blast that added another goal off a restart. Mike Lookingland fed the ball to Millwood out wide and he fired the ball past Waltman and into the net making it 18-8. Shortly after that the Comets pulled Watlman going with the 6th attacker. The Comets kept the ball plenty during that period and eventually got one back with just under 5 minutes left when Assadpour found Alvarez who fired home from just inside the 3 point line. The Comets won the ball back shortly after the Blast kick off and went back to the 6th attack and again found the net. A shot by Sosa was saved by Vanzela, the rebound fell to Gibson who volleyed the ball home to make it 18-12. The Comets kept with the 6th attacker looking for another goal, but the Blast finally hit on the counter as Adriano Dos Santos broke out and fed the ball to Donatelli, who finished his hattrick from 3 point range into the empty net to make it 21-12 which is how the game ended.
The Comets now head to Baltimore needing to again to the double on the road to try to win the championship. It'll be a tough ask for the Comets to do it on the road again. They've beaten Baltimore there once this year, but that's been the Blast's only home loss this year and the Comets only win over the Blast this year as well.
Sporting Loan Four to Orlando
Sporting KC today announced the four players that will be going to Orlando City on loan during the 2013 season as part of the two clubs partnership. Kansas City will be sending Christian Duke, Dom Dwyer, Jon Kempin, and Yann Songo'o to the USL-Pro club for the 2013 season, although Kansas City will have the ability to recall the player from their loan at any time should the player be needed.
All four players could greatly benefit from the chance to get more playing time and all of them are expected to compete for starting spots immediately with Orlando. Of the 4 players, Dwyer is the most experienced in MLS play, having appeared in one league game and a playoff game last year for Sporting, although only for a total of 14 minutes of game play. He did appear for Sporting KC last year in the Open Cup as well, against the same Orlando team he's now going to play for. He played the first 45 minutes of KC's 3-2 win. Dwyer will compete for time with the likes of Dennis Chin, who played quite well against KC last year, Long Tan, the former Vancouver and DC forward, and Jamie Watson, a former MCP winner in the old USL-2 league.
Another player that played in that game is Kempin. He started in goal for Sporting KC in that game and played quite well making a number of good saves for Sporting to help them keep the game tied or preserve the lead after they had gotten it. That's been the only senior appearance for Kempin, the club's first home grown player. In Orlando Kempin will be the primary back up for Miguel Gallardo, who has been solid in net for Orlando (and Austin before the team's move). So while it may be odd for Kempin to be going on loan as the backup, he's more likely to get more time there being behind one goalkeeper instead of two in Kansas City.
Duke and Songo'o are in their first year with the club, Sporting acquired Duke through the MLS Supplemental draft this year while Songo'o was signed in the offseason and is the brother of former MLSer, Franck Songo'o. Duke was going to likely be far down the depth chart in midfield in Kansas City, with the likes of Michael Thomas ahead of him most likley not even making the bench right now. It'll give the former Juniors' player a chance to get game time and possibly come back and contribute later. Songo'o was behind both of KC's starting defenders as well as primary back up Ike Opara at this point. He probably was also behind Lawrence Olum at this point. So he was unlikely to see much game time at all this year.
With all four of these guys, it's about getting them game time, the average age of the 4 is 20.75, with Dwyer being the oldest at 22. Hopefully all four will benefit from this and be able to come back ready to contribute either late in the season this year or next year.
New Byline to Back Post
A new episode of From the Byline to the Back Post is up for your listening pleasure. This week Thad and I discuss Toronto FC, the Chicago Fire, Sporting KC's rivalry (or lack thereof) with Chicago. In segment two, Thad and I talk about the Comets playoff run and the upcoming matchup against Baltimore in the finals. We finish with a quick discussion of the start of FC Kansas City's preseason and former Wizards updates. Listen on Posterous and iTunes.
KC's Rivalry Week
It's rivalry week in MLS this weekend. Many of the leagues marquee rivalries will be taking place this weekend, including Seattle vs Portland and New York vs DC. Both of those games will be on the NBC family of channels this weekend. Sandwiched between these two matches is another rivalry match between Kansas City and Chicago.
But how much of a rivalry is the KC vs Chicago match? Since the team's rebranding to Sporting KC, Kansas City's front office has made a concerted effort to push the rivalry against the Fire. From deals with Firehouse Sub to donating money to Livestrong each time the Fire are scored on, the KC front office tried to push the rivalry with Chicago by making it important to Kansas City fans. On the Chicago end, many Chicago fans scoffed at the attempts by Kansas City to manufacture the rivalry.
To be fair the rivalry has started to build on the field. Since the rebranding of KC, there's been a grand total of only 1 game in the series (of 5) that has been decided by more than 1 goal, that KC's 2-0 at home last year. The other 4 games (3 Chicago wins and a draw) have all been close. As Scott from On the Fire said, "despite the clever PR, most of the growth has been driven by highly competitive matches between the two clubs. Let's be honest, you can give away all of the free subs you want, and coin imaginative ads all day long, but at the end of the day a true rivalry is built on the field."
That competition has been supplemented by some villains as well four of the last five games have seen a team go down a man due to a red card. Roger Espinoza earned one last year in Chicago, while Gonzalo Segares earned one in the team's last match up.
It's not just red cards though, most KC fans have not forgotten the team's first meeting at Sporting Park last year that Chicago won 1-0, when Fire forward Chris Rolfe got injured off the field then crawled onto the field in an attempt to get play stopped for his injury.
To be fair, up until recently Chicago hasn't had much reason to consider KC a rival. While rivalries are built on the field they're also built through the fans and up until recently KC hasn't had the fan support to really get the attention of the Fire. And recently the growth of KC's fan base has seemed a bit like a little brother trying to hang out with their older brother.
But the growth of the fan base in KC can certainly help the development of the rivalry as well as continuing to see tight games on the field. While many older KC fans will consider Chicago a rival because of the wins in MLS Cup 2000 and the US Open Cup in 2004, few fans were around for that from the KC perspective and there's a disconnect from that because of the history. But if the two teams can continue to have competitive games, both sides will see it grow. If KC were to knock Chicago out of the playoffs, or "if the competition between Sporting and the Fire continues to be tightly hinged upon playoff positioning for a number of years in a row" as Scott put it, younger fans, specifically Fire fans may look as the KC rivalry instead of another team. The same way younger fans in KC's fan base are starting to push towards a different rival.
KC's record against the Fire has probably helped to contribute to a bit of the apathy. KC is a miserable 11-23-9 against the Fire in their history in the regular season, including a horrible 3-15-2 on the road. Giving the other team a reason to hate you for winning in their house is certainly a good way to get a rivalry going, but KC hasn't been able to do that.
While the league and team may be publicly pushing the KC-Chicago rivalry, Kansas City fans seem to be pushing towards a different rivalry more. The last two years, KC's season has ended thanks to the Houston Dynamo.
The games with the Dynamo have been close as well, fourteen of Kansas City's twenty games in all competitions against the Dynamo have been draws or decided by one goal. And each side has it's villains, Aurelien Collin for getting two Houston players red carded in the same game in the 2011 season and a player like Carlo Costly, who even though he's no longer with the team drew plenty of ire after scoring the second goal in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals at Sporting Park.
Public opinion even seems to be leaning towards the Dynamo being KC's rival instead of Chicago. I took an informal poll yesterday on Twitter asking KC fans who their top 3 rivals were in order. The top two were no surprise as it was Houston and Chicago. But there was a large difference when it came to fan opinions on it. Of the 57 responses I received the Dynamo appeared on 54 of them and the Fire on 48. Houston though ranked as the number one rival on almost 60% (34) of the votes I got. Chicago had just over half of that with 18, the second most first place votes.
The Houston rivalry also seems to be gaining some traction the other way as well, and has been helped by off the field incidents involving fans from both sides, from the smoke bombs and throwing stuff on the field at the 2011 Eastern Conference finals that helped to get some away privileges of Dynamo away support restricted to reports that the Cauldron bus was surrounded by Houston supporters after the first leg of the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals.
So while the league and Sporting may be pushing the KC-Chicago rivalry, right now I'm not sure that the majority of either fan base (especially Chicago) consider the other to be their main rival at this point. For Chicago that main rival is Columbus or one of the other East coast MLS originals (DC, NY, NE). For KC at this point that rival would seem to be Houston, based on recent history. Again that's not to say KC and Chicago can't become a rivalry, or aren't on their way to becoming more of a rivalry, it's just that right now it's not at the level that the league is trying to make it out to be. There have been some good wins for each side (KC's two 1-0 wins in cup finals, Chicago's 7-0 win in KC on July 4, 2001) but as a whole the rivalry has lacked real drama, as Scott said, "it's easier to create or fuel a rivalry when matches are bitterly contested, when something's at stake."
Lately that hasn't been the case with KC-Chicago.
But how much of a rivalry is the KC vs Chicago match? Since the team's rebranding to Sporting KC, Kansas City's front office has made a concerted effort to push the rivalry against the Fire. From deals with Firehouse Sub to donating money to Livestrong each time the Fire are scored on, the KC front office tried to push the rivalry with Chicago by making it important to Kansas City fans. On the Chicago end, many Chicago fans scoffed at the attempts by Kansas City to manufacture the rivalry.
To be fair the rivalry has started to build on the field. Since the rebranding of KC, there's been a grand total of only 1 game in the series (of 5) that has been decided by more than 1 goal, that KC's 2-0 at home last year. The other 4 games (3 Chicago wins and a draw) have all been close. As Scott from On the Fire said, "despite the clever PR, most of the growth has been driven by highly competitive matches between the two clubs. Let's be honest, you can give away all of the free subs you want, and coin imaginative ads all day long, but at the end of the day a true rivalry is built on the field."
That competition has been supplemented by some villains as well four of the last five games have seen a team go down a man due to a red card. Roger Espinoza earned one last year in Chicago, while Gonzalo Segares earned one in the team's last match up.
It's not just red cards though, most KC fans have not forgotten the team's first meeting at Sporting Park last year that Chicago won 1-0, when Fire forward Chris Rolfe got injured off the field then crawled onto the field in an attempt to get play stopped for his injury.
To be fair, up until recently Chicago hasn't had much reason to consider KC a rival. While rivalries are built on the field they're also built through the fans and up until recently KC hasn't had the fan support to really get the attention of the Fire. And recently the growth of KC's fan base has seemed a bit like a little brother trying to hang out with their older brother.
But the growth of the fan base in KC can certainly help the development of the rivalry as well as continuing to see tight games on the field. While many older KC fans will consider Chicago a rival because of the wins in MLS Cup 2000 and the US Open Cup in 2004, few fans were around for that from the KC perspective and there's a disconnect from that because of the history. But if the two teams can continue to have competitive games, both sides will see it grow. If KC were to knock Chicago out of the playoffs, or "if the competition between Sporting and the Fire continues to be tightly hinged upon playoff positioning for a number of years in a row" as Scott put it, younger fans, specifically Fire fans may look as the KC rivalry instead of another team. The same way younger fans in KC's fan base are starting to push towards a different rival.
KC's record against the Fire has probably helped to contribute to a bit of the apathy. KC is a miserable 11-23-9 against the Fire in their history in the regular season, including a horrible 3-15-2 on the road. Giving the other team a reason to hate you for winning in their house is certainly a good way to get a rivalry going, but KC hasn't been able to do that.
While the league and team may be publicly pushing the KC-Chicago rivalry, Kansas City fans seem to be pushing towards a different rivalry more. The last two years, KC's season has ended thanks to the Houston Dynamo.
The games with the Dynamo have been close as well, fourteen of Kansas City's twenty games in all competitions against the Dynamo have been draws or decided by one goal. And each side has it's villains, Aurelien Collin for getting two Houston players red carded in the same game in the 2011 season and a player like Carlo Costly, who even though he's no longer with the team drew plenty of ire after scoring the second goal in the 2011 Eastern Conference finals at Sporting Park.
Public opinion even seems to be leaning towards the Dynamo being KC's rival instead of Chicago. I took an informal poll yesterday on Twitter asking KC fans who their top 3 rivals were in order. The top two were no surprise as it was Houston and Chicago. But there was a large difference when it came to fan opinions on it. Of the 57 responses I received the Dynamo appeared on 54 of them and the Fire on 48. Houston though ranked as the number one rival on almost 60% (34) of the votes I got. Chicago had just over half of that with 18, the second most first place votes.
The Houston rivalry also seems to be gaining some traction the other way as well, and has been helped by off the field incidents involving fans from both sides, from the smoke bombs and throwing stuff on the field at the 2011 Eastern Conference finals that helped to get some away privileges of Dynamo away support restricted to reports that the Cauldron bus was surrounded by Houston supporters after the first leg of the 2012 Eastern Conference semifinals.
So while the league and Sporting may be pushing the KC-Chicago rivalry, right now I'm not sure that the majority of either fan base (especially Chicago) consider the other to be their main rival at this point. For Chicago that main rival is Columbus or one of the other East coast MLS originals (DC, NY, NE). For KC at this point that rival would seem to be Houston, based on recent history. Again that's not to say KC and Chicago can't become a rivalry, or aren't on their way to becoming more of a rivalry, it's just that right now it's not at the level that the league is trying to make it out to be. There have been some good wins for each side (KC's two 1-0 wins in cup finals, Chicago's 7-0 win in KC on July 4, 2001) but as a whole the rivalry has lacked real drama, as Scott said, "it's easier to create or fuel a rivalry when matches are bitterly contested, when something's at stake."
Lately that hasn't been the case with KC-Chicago.
Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Movsisyan Scores Hattrick in Debut for Spartak - Former SKC Wizards Update
In his debut for Spartak Moscow, Yura Movsisyan scored himself a hattrick, in Moscow's 3-1 in win their first game back from winter break. Check out the highlights below. Also, Milos Stojcev has a new club moving to Bosnia to play with Leotar. Here's the rest of this week's update.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Kevin Hartman
Aaron Hohlbein
Will John
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 2-1 win over Portland.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - Did not dress in Toronto's 2-1 win over KC.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to DC.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 86 minutes in Portland's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Dressed but did not play in Portland's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Seattle's 3-1 win over Tigres.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 2-1 win over Colorado.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Started and played 81 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to DC.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus' 2-1 loss to Vancouver.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 2-1 loss to Vancouver.
NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Offseason
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Offseason
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Played in Baltimore's 10-7 win over Chciago.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in either of the Comets games.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Out injured
Paul Wright - San Diego - Did not play in San Diego's win over Las Vegas. Scored a goal in San Diego's 8-6 win over Detroit.
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - Started and played 68 minutes in DPMM's 2-1 win over Young Lions. Started and played 90 minutes in DPMM's 2-1 win over Albirex Niigata.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - Did not play in Esteghlal's 1-0 win over Tractor Sazi. Started and played 36 minutes in Esteghlal's 2-0 win over Al Ain.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Started and played 85 minutes in Atlas' 1-0 win over Toluca.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Churchill's 2-2 draw with Semen in the AFC Cup.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Tied Sportivo Italiano 0-0.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 1-0 loss to Caledonia.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - Came off the bench and played 16 minutes in Huila's 1-1 draw with Junior. Lost 2-0 in the Copa Colombia.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Did not dress in Wigan's 3-0 win over Everton.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Did not play in the Stars' 1-0 win over Defence Force.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Santos' 2-1 win over Atlante. Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Santos' 3-0 win over the Houston Dynamo.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Boys' Town 0-0.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 79 minutes in Norwich's 0-0 draw with Southampton.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Came off the bench and played 1 minute in Tiraspol's 1-0 win over Zimbru.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Suspended for San Martin's 1-0 loss to Cesar Vallejo.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 81 minutes, scoring 3 goal in Spartak's 3-1 win over Terek Grozny.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Did not dress in Emmen's 2-0 win over Go Ahead Eagles.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Xanthi's 1-0 loss to PAS Giannina.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - Started and played 90 minutes in Leotar's 2-1 loss to Radnik Bijeljina.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 59 minutes in Munster's 1-1 draw with Arminia Bielefeld.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Tied Police United 1-1.
Active without a club or unknown
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Kevin Hartman
Aaron Hohlbein
Will John
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Started and played 90 minutes in Montreal's 2-1 win over Portland.
Julio Cesar - Toronto - Did not dress in Toronto's 2-1 win over KC.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to DC.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 86 minutes in Portland's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Dressed but did not play in Portland's 2-1 loss to Montreal.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Seattle's 3-1 win over Tigres.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 2-1 win over Colorado.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Started and played 81 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to DC.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus' 2-1 loss to Vancouver.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Did not dress in Columbus' 2-1 loss to Vancouver.
NASL
Jose Burciaga - Atlanta - Offseason
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason
Scott Lorenz - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
Amir Lowery - Carolina - Offseason
Luke Sassano - Carolina - Offseason
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason
USL
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Offseason
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason
Akeem Priestley - Dayton - Offseason
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason
PDL
Michael Kraus - FC Tucson - Offseason
NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Offseason
Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Syracuse Silver Knights - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Played in Baltimore's 10-7 win over Chciago.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in either of the Comets games.
Craig Rocastle - Comets - Out injured
Paul Wright - San Diego - Did not play in San Diego's win over Las Vegas. Scored a goal in San Diego's 8-6 win over Detroit.
International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Season starts in April.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - Started and played 68 minutes in DPMM's 2-1 win over Young Lions. Started and played 90 minutes in DPMM's 2-1 win over Albirex Niigata.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - Did not play in Esteghlal's 1-0 win over Tractor Sazi. Started and played 36 minutes in Esteghlal's 2-0 win over Al Ain.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Started and played 85 minutes in Atlas' 1-0 win over Toluca.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Churchill's 2-2 draw with Semen in the AFC Cup.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Tied Sportivo Italiano 0-0.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 1-0 loss to Caledonia.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - Came off the bench and played 16 minutes in Huila's 1-1 draw with Junior. Lost 2-0 in the Copa Colombia.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Did not dress in Wigan's 3-0 win over Everton.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - Did not play in the Stars' 1-0 win over Defence Force.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Santos' 2-1 win over Atlante. Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Santos' 3-0 win over the Houston Dynamo.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Boys' Town 0-0.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - No games until April.
Kei Kamara - Norwich - England - Started and played 79 minutes in Norwich's 0-0 draw with Southampton.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Came off the bench and played 1 minute in Tiraspol's 1-0 win over Zimbru.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Suspended for San Martin's 1-0 loss to Cesar Vallejo.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 81 minutes, scoring 3 goal in Spartak's 3-1 win over Terek Grozny.
Michal Mravec - FC Emmen - Netherlands - Did not dress in Emmen's 2-0 win over Go Ahead Eagles.
Pablo Punyed - Fjolnir - Iceland - Season starts in May.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Xanthi's 1-0 loss to PAS Giannina.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - Started and played 90 minutes in Leotar's 2-1 loss to Radnik Bijeljina.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 59 minutes in Munster's 1-1 draw with Arminia Bielefeld.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Tied Police United 1-1.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Comets Advance to MISL Finals
The Missouri Comets broke up the "good old boys" finals of the past few seasons. After the Baltimore Blast took care of the Chicago Soul last night in Baltimore and the Milwaukee win at the Independence Events Center it looked like the league was on it's way to a third straight Baltimore vs Milwaukee finals series. Instead, the Comets scored the final goal of regulation with under a minute remaining to send the game to the mini game with a 9-8 win, and scored with only 5 seconds left in the mini game to book the trip to the final winning 5-4. The Comets will now play the Blast, looking to win their first title since the team relaunched 3 years ago.
Here's the press release from the team about the two games.
In what has been the most exciting playoff series so far this year, the Comets and Milwaukee Wave battled for 75 minutes to determine who would face the Baltimore Blast for the MISL Championship. The MISL Playoffs are played with two full games and, if necessary, a 15 minute ‘mini-game’ to decide the winner. After being down 8-5 in Game Two and 4-3 in the ‘mini-game’ the Comets came back both times to win Game Two 9-8 and Game Three 5-4.
After losing Game One 12-10 in overtime on Thursday night, the Comets knew they had a big mountain to climb today. To advance to the next round, they would first have to be only the second team to win in Milwaukee’s US Cellular Arena this season and then beat them again in a 15 minute ‘Mini-Game’.
They got behind early when the Game One hero for Milwaukee, Guiliano Oliverio scored halfway through the opening quarter. Oliviero’s initial shot was saved by Comets goalkeeper, Danny Waltman, but was still bouncing slowly towards the goal-line. Vahid Assadpour raced to save it off the line, but his shot went off Oliviero’s head and in the net. Jeff Hughes put the Comets on the board 3 minutes later when his cross in front of the Wave goal was deflected in by the Milwaukee defender. In the second quarter, the Wave were the only ones to tally a score and took a 4-2 lead into the half.
The Comets and Wave traded goals in the third period. Coady Andrews’ goal was a three-point shot that went between the legs of two Milwaukee defenders before passing Wave goalkeeper, Marcel Feenstra. Andrews’ goal got the Comets to within one point and they were only down 6-5 as they entered the final quarter of Game Two.
Oliviero tried to put it away for Milwaukee nine seconds into the fourth quarter. He took advantage of a defensive miscue from the Comets and scored over Danny Waltman’s head. Leading 8-5, the Wave fell into a defensive shell, giving Missouri the bulk of the possession in the quarter. Feenstra was unrelenting though as he faced several shots from the Comets and turned most of them away. Brian Harris was able to get the Comets back within one though when he took a shot from outside the penalty box that ricocheted through the Wave defense and into the net. The Comets brought Vahid Assadpour on as a sixth attacker with around two minutes remaining in the game to try and overcome their 8-7 deficit. With 34 seconds remaining they were able to do just that when Leo Gibson, returning from a three-game suspension, deflected a ball into the net. The Comets won Game Two 9-8, forcing a Game Three ‘Mini-Game’.
The ‘Mini-Game’ is a full 15 minute period and counts as a completely separate game, with scores reset to zero. Coady Andrews, who scored only four goals all season, knocked in his second three-point goal of the day only two minutes into the extra game. Milwaukee is the two-time defending champion though and was not ready to give up their chance for a three-peat. Luan Oliviera weaved through the Comets defense for a goal, then had the assist four minutes later when Hewerton’s goal put the Wave in front 4-3 with a little over five minutes to play.
Once again, bringing on Assadpour as the sixth attacker proved to be the solution. The extra pressure that comes from having one more attacker than the Wave had defenders forced Milwaukee to put the ball out of bounds and gave the Comets a corner kick with less than twenty seconds left. Milan Ivanovic threaded the needle on the restart and found a wide-open Byron Alvarez at the penalty mark. The former MISL MVP wasted no time and buried the shot and the Wave.
The Comets advance to the MISL Finals for the first time since they returned to the league in 2010. Game One will be played at the Independence Events Center on Thursday March 14th at 7:35pm. Tickets will be on sale tomorrow, March 11th, at 1:00pm. The Comets offices will be open at 9:00am. For questions and information call 855.4KC.GOAL (855.452.4625).
Here's the press release from the team about the two games.
In what has been the most exciting playoff series so far this year, the Comets and Milwaukee Wave battled for 75 minutes to determine who would face the Baltimore Blast for the MISL Championship. The MISL Playoffs are played with two full games and, if necessary, a 15 minute ‘mini-game’ to decide the winner. After being down 8-5 in Game Two and 4-3 in the ‘mini-game’ the Comets came back both times to win Game Two 9-8 and Game Three 5-4.
After losing Game One 12-10 in overtime on Thursday night, the Comets knew they had a big mountain to climb today. To advance to the next round, they would first have to be only the second team to win in Milwaukee’s US Cellular Arena this season and then beat them again in a 15 minute ‘Mini-Game’.
They got behind early when the Game One hero for Milwaukee, Guiliano Oliverio scored halfway through the opening quarter. Oliviero’s initial shot was saved by Comets goalkeeper, Danny Waltman, but was still bouncing slowly towards the goal-line. Vahid Assadpour raced to save it off the line, but his shot went off Oliviero’s head and in the net. Jeff Hughes put the Comets on the board 3 minutes later when his cross in front of the Wave goal was deflected in by the Milwaukee defender. In the second quarter, the Wave were the only ones to tally a score and took a 4-2 lead into the half.
The Comets and Wave traded goals in the third period. Coady Andrews’ goal was a three-point shot that went between the legs of two Milwaukee defenders before passing Wave goalkeeper, Marcel Feenstra. Andrews’ goal got the Comets to within one point and they were only down 6-5 as they entered the final quarter of Game Two.
Oliviero tried to put it away for Milwaukee nine seconds into the fourth quarter. He took advantage of a defensive miscue from the Comets and scored over Danny Waltman’s head. Leading 8-5, the Wave fell into a defensive shell, giving Missouri the bulk of the possession in the quarter. Feenstra was unrelenting though as he faced several shots from the Comets and turned most of them away. Brian Harris was able to get the Comets back within one though when he took a shot from outside the penalty box that ricocheted through the Wave defense and into the net. The Comets brought Vahid Assadpour on as a sixth attacker with around two minutes remaining in the game to try and overcome their 8-7 deficit. With 34 seconds remaining they were able to do just that when Leo Gibson, returning from a three-game suspension, deflected a ball into the net. The Comets won Game Two 9-8, forcing a Game Three ‘Mini-Game’.
The ‘Mini-Game’ is a full 15 minute period and counts as a completely separate game, with scores reset to zero. Coady Andrews, who scored only four goals all season, knocked in his second three-point goal of the day only two minutes into the extra game. Milwaukee is the two-time defending champion though and was not ready to give up their chance for a three-peat. Luan Oliviera weaved through the Comets defense for a goal, then had the assist four minutes later when Hewerton’s goal put the Wave in front 4-3 with a little over five minutes to play.
Once again, bringing on Assadpour as the sixth attacker proved to be the solution. The extra pressure that comes from having one more attacker than the Wave had defenders forced Milwaukee to put the ball out of bounds and gave the Comets a corner kick with less than twenty seconds left. Milan Ivanovic threaded the needle on the restart and found a wide-open Byron Alvarez at the penalty mark. The former MISL MVP wasted no time and buried the shot and the Wave.
The Comets advance to the MISL Finals for the first time since they returned to the league in 2010. Game One will be played at the Independence Events Center on Thursday March 14th at 7:35pm. Tickets will be on sale tomorrow, March 11th, at 1:00pm. The Comets offices will be open at 9:00am. For questions and information call 855.4KC.GOAL (855.452.4625).
Sunday After Stats
Matt Besler made his 100th league start for Kansas City. He's the 17th player to hit that mark for KC.
Besler made his 116th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Uche Okafor for 15th on that list.
Jimmy Nielsen finished the game yesterday with 9,457 minutes played in all competitions for KC. That ties him with Chris Brown for 20th place on that list.
At 35 years and 215 days, Nielsen became the 4th oldest player to play in a game or start a game in all competitions for KC, moving ahead of Tony Meola who was 35 years and 214 days on his last appearance/start.
It was Nielsen's 96th league start for KC, tying him with Sasha Victorine for 18th place on that list.
Nielsen made his 105th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Bo Oshoniyi for 19th on that list.
Besler made his 116th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Uche Okafor for 15th on that list.
Jimmy Nielsen finished the game yesterday with 9,457 minutes played in all competitions for KC. That ties him with Chris Brown for 20th place on that list.
At 35 years and 215 days, Nielsen became the 4th oldest player to play in a game or start a game in all competitions for KC, moving ahead of Tony Meola who was 35 years and 214 days on his last appearance/start.
It was Nielsen's 96th league start for KC, tying him with Sasha Victorine for 18th place on that list.
Nielsen made his 105th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Bo Oshoniyi for 19th on that list.
Sporting Pay for Poor Start
For the second straight game, Sporting KC didn't come out of the locker room ready to play and fell behind early. Unlike last week against Philadelphia though, Toronto FC made KC pay for the poor scoring 2 goals and holding off KC's attack in the second half to win their home opener 2-1.
Sporting got off to a horrible start and it was their own fault. Kansas City was in possession in their own half of the field in the 3rd minute. Matt Besler received a pass from Aurelien Collin. Besler tried to play the ball back to Collin, but the pass was too short and Collin had started moving away. This allowed TFC forward Robert Earnshaw to race in and pick the ball off. Then 1v1 with Jimmy Nielsen, Earnshaw fired the ball into the net to make it 1-0. Toronto kept pushing the game while Sporting didn't wake up, and in the 20th minute won a penalty kick. John Bostock brought the ball down the wing against Seth Sinovic. He cut into the middle and Paulo Nagamura came over to try to help. Bostock cut between the two defenders with both sticking a leg out to try to win the ball. Bostock went down and the referee pointed to the spot. Toronto's new signing certainly made a meal out of the contact going down like he'd been shot, but the call as a whole was correct. Earnshaw stepped up and put the ball to Nielsen's right to make it 2-0 Toronto. Unlike last week against Philadelphia, KC wasn't able to really get going before the half time break and went in down 2-0.
KC made one change at half time, bringing on CJ Sapong at half time for Bobby Convey. KC was able to look more dangerous in the second half with Sapong's bigger body giving Sporting a target. In the 61st minute KC almost pulled a goal back off a corner kick. Graham Zusi found Sapong unmarked on the back post. Sapong got a powerful header on goal, but Joe Bendik got a touch on the ball and pushed it onto the cross bar and the rebound was cleared out. In the 77th minute KC did get one back. Off a restart just outside KC's own box, Nielsen played the ball up field. Sapong flicked the ball on and into the path of Claudio Bieler who one timed his shot past Bendik and into the net to cut the lead to 2-1. KC continued to push trying to find an equalizer. Bieler forced a good save out of Bendik in the 88th minute after a partial clearance. As the game entered stoppage time Sporting kept pushing and Zusi fired a shot from distance that went just wide of the post. Toronto held on though and took all 3 points as KC couldn't recover from the slow start this week.
Wizards Man of the Match - CJ Sapong - There wasn't a lot for KC in this game, the defense was poor and there was little in the attack. But much of KC's attack in the second half came from the addition of Sapong at half time. Up until that point Bieler was isolated up top. The insertion of Sapong got Bieler more involved. If Sapong isn't starting next week against Chicago I'll be disappointed.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 5, Myers 4, Collin 4, Besler 3, Sinovic 3, Nagamura 4, Rosell 4, Feilhaber 4, Zusi 4, Bieler 5, Convey 3. Subs Sapong 6, Saad NR
Sporting got off to a horrible start and it was their own fault. Kansas City was in possession in their own half of the field in the 3rd minute. Matt Besler received a pass from Aurelien Collin. Besler tried to play the ball back to Collin, but the pass was too short and Collin had started moving away. This allowed TFC forward Robert Earnshaw to race in and pick the ball off. Then 1v1 with Jimmy Nielsen, Earnshaw fired the ball into the net to make it 1-0. Toronto kept pushing the game while Sporting didn't wake up, and in the 20th minute won a penalty kick. John Bostock brought the ball down the wing against Seth Sinovic. He cut into the middle and Paulo Nagamura came over to try to help. Bostock cut between the two defenders with both sticking a leg out to try to win the ball. Bostock went down and the referee pointed to the spot. Toronto's new signing certainly made a meal out of the contact going down like he'd been shot, but the call as a whole was correct. Earnshaw stepped up and put the ball to Nielsen's right to make it 2-0 Toronto. Unlike last week against Philadelphia, KC wasn't able to really get going before the half time break and went in down 2-0.
KC made one change at half time, bringing on CJ Sapong at half time for Bobby Convey. KC was able to look more dangerous in the second half with Sapong's bigger body giving Sporting a target. In the 61st minute KC almost pulled a goal back off a corner kick. Graham Zusi found Sapong unmarked on the back post. Sapong got a powerful header on goal, but Joe Bendik got a touch on the ball and pushed it onto the cross bar and the rebound was cleared out. In the 77th minute KC did get one back. Off a restart just outside KC's own box, Nielsen played the ball up field. Sapong flicked the ball on and into the path of Claudio Bieler who one timed his shot past Bendik and into the net to cut the lead to 2-1. KC continued to push trying to find an equalizer. Bieler forced a good save out of Bendik in the 88th minute after a partial clearance. As the game entered stoppage time Sporting kept pushing and Zusi fired a shot from distance that went just wide of the post. Toronto held on though and took all 3 points as KC couldn't recover from the slow start this week.
Wizards Man of the Match - CJ Sapong - There wasn't a lot for KC in this game, the defense was poor and there was little in the attack. But much of KC's attack in the second half came from the addition of Sapong at half time. Up until that point Bieler was isolated up top. The insertion of Sapong got Bieler more involved. If Sapong isn't starting next week against Chicago I'll be disappointed.
Player Ratings - Nielsen 5, Myers 4, Collin 4, Besler 3, Sinovic 3, Nagamura 4, Rosell 4, Feilhaber 4, Zusi 4, Bieler 5, Convey 3. Subs Sapong 6, Saad NR
Saturday, March 09, 2013
Appearances and Minutes vs Vancouver
Here are the appearances and minutes against Vancouver. Sporting and Vancouver have only met in league play.
Here are the appearances for KC.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 3
Matt Besler - 3
Roger Espinoza - 3
Kei Kamara - 3
CJ Sapong - 3
6. Teal Bunbury - 2
Chance Myers - 2
Aurelien Collin - 2
Seth Sinovic - 2
Graham Zusi - 2
Michael Harrington - 2
Julio Cesar - 2
Milos Stojcev - 2
Davy Arnaud - 2
Here are the minutes for KC.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 270
Matt Besler - 270
Roger Espinoza - 270
4. CJ Sapong - 233
5. Kei Kamara - 189
6. Chance Myers - 180
Aurelien Collin - 180
Seth Sinovic - 180
Graham Zusi - 180
10. Juio Cesar - 172
Here are the appearances for both teams.
1. Camilo - 3
CJ Sapong - 3
Davide Chiumiento - 3
Jimmy Nielsen - 3
Kei Kamara - 3
Matt Besler - 3
Roger Espinoza - 3
8. Atiba Harris - 2
Aurelien Collin - 2
Chance Myers - 2
Eric Hassli - 2
Gershon Koffie - 2
Graham Zusi - 2
Jay DeMerit - 2
Joe Cannon - 2
Seth Sinovic - 2
Teal Bunbury - 2
Alain Rochat - 2
Davy Arnaud - 2
Jonathan Leathers - 2
Julio Cesar - 2
Michael Boxall - 2
Michael Harrington - 2
Milos Stojcev - 2
Nizar Khalfan - 2
Terry Dunfield - 2
And here are the minutes with both teams.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 270
Matt Besler - 270
Roger Espinoza - 270
4. CJ Sapong - 233
5. Camilo - 210
6. Kei Kamara - 189
7. Aurelien Collin - 180
Chance Myers - 180
Eric Hassli - 180
Gershon Koffie - 180
Graham Zusi - 180
Joe Cannon - 180
Seth Sinovic - 180
Alain Rochat - 180
Jonathan Leathers - 180
Michael Boxall - 180
Here are the appearances for KC.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 3
Matt Besler - 3
Roger Espinoza - 3
Kei Kamara - 3
CJ Sapong - 3
6. Teal Bunbury - 2
Chance Myers - 2
Aurelien Collin - 2
Seth Sinovic - 2
Graham Zusi - 2
Michael Harrington - 2
Julio Cesar - 2
Milos Stojcev - 2
Davy Arnaud - 2
Here are the minutes for KC.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 270
Matt Besler - 270
Roger Espinoza - 270
4. CJ Sapong - 233
5. Kei Kamara - 189
6. Chance Myers - 180
Aurelien Collin - 180
Seth Sinovic - 180
Graham Zusi - 180
10. Juio Cesar - 172
Here are the appearances for both teams.
1. Camilo - 3
CJ Sapong - 3
Davide Chiumiento - 3
Jimmy Nielsen - 3
Kei Kamara - 3
Matt Besler - 3
Roger Espinoza - 3
8. Atiba Harris - 2
Aurelien Collin - 2
Chance Myers - 2
Eric Hassli - 2
Gershon Koffie - 2
Graham Zusi - 2
Jay DeMerit - 2
Joe Cannon - 2
Seth Sinovic - 2
Teal Bunbury - 2
Alain Rochat - 2
Davy Arnaud - 2
Jonathan Leathers - 2
Julio Cesar - 2
Michael Boxall - 2
Michael Harrington - 2
Milos Stojcev - 2
Nizar Khalfan - 2
Terry Dunfield - 2
And here are the minutes with both teams.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 270
Matt Besler - 270
Roger Espinoza - 270
4. CJ Sapong - 233
5. Camilo - 210
6. Kei Kamara - 189
7. Aurelien Collin - 180
Chance Myers - 180
Eric Hassli - 180
Gershon Koffie - 180
Graham Zusi - 180
Joe Cannon - 180
Seth Sinovic - 180
Alain Rochat - 180
Jonathan Leathers - 180
Michael Boxall - 180
Friday, March 08, 2013
Appearances and Minutes vs Toronto
Here are the appearances and minutes for Sporting KC against Toronto FC. The two teams have only ever met in league play.
Here's appearances for KC.
1. Michael Harrington - 11
2. Roger Espinoza - 10
3. Davy Arnaud - 9
Jimmy Conrad - 9
Jack Jewsbury - 9
6. Kevin Hartman - 8
7. Graham Zusi - 7
Chance Myers - 7
9. Jimmy Nielsen - 6
Teal Bunbury - 6
Here are the minutes for KC.
1. Michael Harrington - 980
2. Roger ESpinoza - 812
3. Davy Arnaud - 810
Jimmy Conrad - 810
5. Jack Jewsbury - 724
6. Kevin Hartman - 720
7. Chance Myers - 605
8. Jimmy Nielsen - 540
9. Graham Zusi - 461
10. Teal Bunbury - 454
In the list that includes both teams, Sporting dominates due to the roster turnover that Toronto seems to continually be going through.
1. Michael Harrington - 11
2. Roger Espinoza - 10
3. Davy Arnaud - 9
Jack Jewsbury - 9
Jimmy Conrad - 9
6. Carl Robinson - 8
Jim Brennan - 8
Kevin Hartman - 8
9. Chance Myers - 7
Graham Zusi - 7
Danny Dichio - 7
Marvell Wynne - 7
Here's the minutes when both teams are included.
1. Michael Harrington - 980
2. Roger Espinoza - 812
3. Davy Arnaud - 810
Jimmy Conrad - 810
5. Jack Jewsbury - 724
6. Carl Robinson - 720
Kevin Hartman - 720
8. Jim Brennan - 662
9. Marvell Wynne - 630
10. Chance Myers - 605
Here's appearances for KC.
1. Michael Harrington - 11
2. Roger Espinoza - 10
3. Davy Arnaud - 9
Jimmy Conrad - 9
Jack Jewsbury - 9
6. Kevin Hartman - 8
7. Graham Zusi - 7
Chance Myers - 7
9. Jimmy Nielsen - 6
Teal Bunbury - 6
Here are the minutes for KC.
1. Michael Harrington - 980
2. Roger ESpinoza - 812
3. Davy Arnaud - 810
Jimmy Conrad - 810
5. Jack Jewsbury - 724
6. Kevin Hartman - 720
7. Chance Myers - 605
8. Jimmy Nielsen - 540
9. Graham Zusi - 461
10. Teal Bunbury - 454
In the list that includes both teams, Sporting dominates due to the roster turnover that Toronto seems to continually be going through.
1. Michael Harrington - 11
2. Roger Espinoza - 10
3. Davy Arnaud - 9
Jack Jewsbury - 9
Jimmy Conrad - 9
6. Carl Robinson - 8
Jim Brennan - 8
Kevin Hartman - 8
9. Chance Myers - 7
Graham Zusi - 7
Danny Dichio - 7
Marvell Wynne - 7
Here's the minutes when both teams are included.
1. Michael Harrington - 980
2. Roger Espinoza - 812
3. Davy Arnaud - 810
Jimmy Conrad - 810
5. Jack Jewsbury - 724
6. Carl Robinson - 720
Kevin Hartman - 720
8. Jim Brennan - 662
9. Marvell Wynne - 630
10. Chance Myers - 605
New Byline to Back Post
A new From the Byline to the Back Post is up for you to listen to. This week in the first half Thad and I discussed Sporting's game vs Philadelphia, the upcoming match vs Toronto, the U20's, the changes to the US Open Cup, and more. In part two we previewed the Comets vs Wave series (thanks Posterous for the late posting of it the first leg is already over), FCKC getting close to the start of their season, and former Wizards. Listen to Posterous (which we're looking for a new hosting site as Posterous will apparently no longer host) or iTunes.
Sporting Looking to Make it Two
Sporting will play another home opener this week when they travel to Toronto to take on TFC at the Rogers Centre. With the earlier start, Toronto is moving the game from BMO Field to the larger facility.
TFC comes into the game on the heals of a 1-0 loss in Vancouver in the opener. Overall I wasn't that impressed watching them last week, but they were missing a few players as well. This week it looks like they'll welcome back Luis Silva, last year's first round pick for TFC who impressed quite a bit in a very dismal season. Julio Cesar looks set to make his TFC debut against his former team tomorrow and should help bring a calming influence to the midfield for Toronto. The game could also see the return of Stefan Frei who suffered a broken bone in his nose in preseason and hasn't been able to play since. They also have had a week of practice to help integrate Rober Earnshaw with the team after he started against Vancouver a day after officially signing for the club. The 31 year old former Wales international is likely to be the focal point of the TFC attack.
At the other end the question for Kansas City will be which of the two teams that took the field will show up on Saturday. Will it be the team that started the game and got out played for the first 30 minutes and was lucky to be down just 1-0? Or will we see the team that started playing around the 30th minute and really came on in the second half, controlling Philadelphia and grabbing the win? The team hasn't had some of the early injury issues that Toronto has had. The only injuries really affecting lineup selection at this point are the long term injuries of Teal Bunbury and Jacob Peterson. I'd expect the exact same lineup to start the game on Saturday in Toronto.
Number to Remember - 1 - Of the 7 league games KC and Toronto have played in Toronto, all but one has been decided by a single goal. There are been 3 0-0 draws, 3 1-0 wins for one side or the other, and 1 2-0 win for Toronto. Both teams have never scored in the same game in Toronto.
Key Match Up - Benn Feilhaber vs Julio Cesar - Sporting's new midfielder matching up against their old midfielder. Cesar is probably going to play a role quite similar to his one with KC sitting right in front of the center backs, which will be the spot that Feilhaber will look to operate in. Feilhaber will need to try to exploit Cesar's lack of pace and get him pulled out of position which could allow for Paulo Nagamura or Oriol Rosell to get forward into the attack.
PREDICTION - The X-factor in this game is going to be the turf at the Rogers Centre and how that's going to effect the team. Sporting left for Toronto yesterday so they'll get a training session in Toronto today at the stadium to hopefully give them a chance to learn the field a little bit before the game. Overall while Toronto's improved their team, they still don't impress me a whole lot. While it is their home opener and I'm sure they'll come out ready to play, this is a game that Sporting should be able to take care of business. A point is good, 3 points is great.
SKC - 1 (Bieler)
TFC - 0
TFC comes into the game on the heals of a 1-0 loss in Vancouver in the opener. Overall I wasn't that impressed watching them last week, but they were missing a few players as well. This week it looks like they'll welcome back Luis Silva, last year's first round pick for TFC who impressed quite a bit in a very dismal season. Julio Cesar looks set to make his TFC debut against his former team tomorrow and should help bring a calming influence to the midfield for Toronto. The game could also see the return of Stefan Frei who suffered a broken bone in his nose in preseason and hasn't been able to play since. They also have had a week of practice to help integrate Rober Earnshaw with the team after he started against Vancouver a day after officially signing for the club. The 31 year old former Wales international is likely to be the focal point of the TFC attack.
At the other end the question for Kansas City will be which of the two teams that took the field will show up on Saturday. Will it be the team that started the game and got out played for the first 30 minutes and was lucky to be down just 1-0? Or will we see the team that started playing around the 30th minute and really came on in the second half, controlling Philadelphia and grabbing the win? The team hasn't had some of the early injury issues that Toronto has had. The only injuries really affecting lineup selection at this point are the long term injuries of Teal Bunbury and Jacob Peterson. I'd expect the exact same lineup to start the game on Saturday in Toronto.
Nielsen
Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Rosell - Nagamura
Feilhaber
Zusi - Bieler - Convey
Number to Remember - 1 - Of the 7 league games KC and Toronto have played in Toronto, all but one has been decided by a single goal. There are been 3 0-0 draws, 3 1-0 wins for one side or the other, and 1 2-0 win for Toronto. Both teams have never scored in the same game in Toronto.
Key Match Up - Benn Feilhaber vs Julio Cesar - Sporting's new midfielder matching up against their old midfielder. Cesar is probably going to play a role quite similar to his one with KC sitting right in front of the center backs, which will be the spot that Feilhaber will look to operate in. Feilhaber will need to try to exploit Cesar's lack of pace and get him pulled out of position which could allow for Paulo Nagamura or Oriol Rosell to get forward into the attack.
PREDICTION - The X-factor in this game is going to be the turf at the Rogers Centre and how that's going to effect the team. Sporting left for Toronto yesterday so they'll get a training session in Toronto today at the stadium to hopefully give them a chance to learn the field a little bit before the game. Overall while Toronto's improved their team, they still don't impress me a whole lot. While it is their home opener and I'm sure they'll come out ready to play, this is a game that Sporting should be able to take care of business. A point is good, 3 points is great.
SKC - 1 (Bieler)
TFC - 0
Thursday, March 07, 2013
Comets Fall in Overtime
The Comes had a good start to their first round playoff match up against the Milwaukee Wave, but couldn't make it stand up. Missouri jumped out to a 10-0 lead over the Wave by the early point of the third quarter, but couldn't keep the lead and ended up falling 12-10 in overtime against the Wave putting themselves into a tough situation needing to win the game in Milwaukee Sunday and the mini game after.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes after a piece of plexiglass above the goal broke during warmups.
The Comets started much of the first quarter on the back foot as the Wave had much of the possession. They really didn't get the shots to amount to much for the Wave though, it just let to a very quick quarter. As the quarter went on, the Comets started to get more of the ball as the quarter went on. Finally with under 5 minutes left the Comets grabbed the lead. Danny Waltman played a ball down the line for Byron Alvarez. Alvarez turned on his defender and fired a shot on goal. Wave goalkeeper Nick Vorberg made the save but pushed the shots right into the path of Coady Andrews who chested the ball down and fired it past Vorberg and into the net making it 2-0 Comets. With less than a minute left, the Comets doubled their lead. The Comets had plenty of possession and then Jeff Hughes played a nice through ball to Milan Ivanovic, who one timed the ball into the far corner to make it 4-0 Comets.
The second quarter saw the Wave come out attacking from the start and they won a free kick at the top of the arc. Ibrahim Kante blocked the initial shot off the restart. Robert Palmer then played the ball up the field to Hughes who was racing down the field. Hughes was able to get Vorberg to commit and then laid the ball off the Mads Falck. Falck tapped the ball home to make it 6-0 Comets. The Comets continued to push the game and then with just over 3 minutes gone the Comets went on the power play after a blue card on Tom Oatley. The Comets took advantage of the man advantage passing the ball around the perimeter before it got to Alvarez in the corner. He played a cross to the back post where Hughes headed it home to make it 8-0. The Wave really pushed the game from there trying to get back into the game, but the Comets defense held them off as the Comets went into the half up 8-0.
Comets came out in the 3rd quarter looking to extend the lead. Lucas Rodriguez hit the inside of the post from 3 point range but couldn't get the ball to go in. Then with just under 5 minutes played the Comets made it 10-0. The Comets worked the ball around their end before Cristiano raced towards goal. He flicked the ball over to Robert Palmer who buried his volley past Vorberg to give the Comets some breathing room. Shortly after that though the Wave were on the board. Off a restart in the corner, Luan Oliveira fed the ball quickly to Hewerton who put it top shelf on Waltman to make it 10-2. The Wave continued to push for another goal and late in the quarter the Wave got it. Fabio Ribeiro played a pass off the wall that bounced right into the middle of the box where Guiliano Oliviero tapped it home past Waltman. The Wave continued to push looking for more goals. The Comets got some chances at the other end but couldn't capitalize. With 3 seconds left the Wave had a fast break that Cristiano tried to slide to break up but caught the Wave player instead going to the box for the final 3 seconds. In those 3 seconds the Wave almost scored again, putting a header off the foot of the post.
Into the fourth quarter the Wave capitalized on the power play finally. A 3 pointer from Luan Oliveira was turned in by Hewerton appeared off his arm, but it counter and the gap was closed to 4. Both teams kept pushing for the next goal but both side were done in by superb goalkeeping by each keeper as the quarter wore on. Just around the half way point of the quarter the Wave cut the lead to a single goal when G. Oliviero received the ball in the corner and played it off the wall to L. Oliveira who tapped home to make it 10-8. The Wave continued to push while the Comets countered. With just over 3 minutes left the Wave went with the 6th attacker. The Comets had some chances but couldn't capitalize on the possession with another goal. Then with only 20 seconds left, G. Oliviero received the ball in the corner again and played a ball to the back post where Hewerton tapped it home to tie the game.
Into overtime the game went. Both teams slowed the game down a bit with the game level. As the quarter went on, both teams had their chances. Alvarez had the majority of the Comets chances forcing Vorberg into a few saves. With just over 6 minutes left in the game though the Wave won it. Oatley played a ball in to G. Oliviero who turned Kante and hit a shot that curled into the far corner to give the Wave the golden goal win 12-10.
As mentioned earlier, the Comets will now need to win 2 games in Milwaukee on Sunday. The first, a regular game, and then a mini game after that should they win on the road. The good news for the Comets is that they're the only team to win in Milwaukee this season, the bad news the Wave only lost that one game at home this year. It's going to be a big uphill climb for the Comets.
The game was delayed for about 20 minutes after a piece of plexiglass above the goal broke during warmups.
The Comets started much of the first quarter on the back foot as the Wave had much of the possession. They really didn't get the shots to amount to much for the Wave though, it just let to a very quick quarter. As the quarter went on, the Comets started to get more of the ball as the quarter went on. Finally with under 5 minutes left the Comets grabbed the lead. Danny Waltman played a ball down the line for Byron Alvarez. Alvarez turned on his defender and fired a shot on goal. Wave goalkeeper Nick Vorberg made the save but pushed the shots right into the path of Coady Andrews who chested the ball down and fired it past Vorberg and into the net making it 2-0 Comets. With less than a minute left, the Comets doubled their lead. The Comets had plenty of possession and then Jeff Hughes played a nice through ball to Milan Ivanovic, who one timed the ball into the far corner to make it 4-0 Comets.
The second quarter saw the Wave come out attacking from the start and they won a free kick at the top of the arc. Ibrahim Kante blocked the initial shot off the restart. Robert Palmer then played the ball up the field to Hughes who was racing down the field. Hughes was able to get Vorberg to commit and then laid the ball off the Mads Falck. Falck tapped the ball home to make it 6-0 Comets. The Comets continued to push the game and then with just over 3 minutes gone the Comets went on the power play after a blue card on Tom Oatley. The Comets took advantage of the man advantage passing the ball around the perimeter before it got to Alvarez in the corner. He played a cross to the back post where Hughes headed it home to make it 8-0. The Wave really pushed the game from there trying to get back into the game, but the Comets defense held them off as the Comets went into the half up 8-0.
Comets came out in the 3rd quarter looking to extend the lead. Lucas Rodriguez hit the inside of the post from 3 point range but couldn't get the ball to go in. Then with just under 5 minutes played the Comets made it 10-0. The Comets worked the ball around their end before Cristiano raced towards goal. He flicked the ball over to Robert Palmer who buried his volley past Vorberg to give the Comets some breathing room. Shortly after that though the Wave were on the board. Off a restart in the corner, Luan Oliveira fed the ball quickly to Hewerton who put it top shelf on Waltman to make it 10-2. The Wave continued to push for another goal and late in the quarter the Wave got it. Fabio Ribeiro played a pass off the wall that bounced right into the middle of the box where Guiliano Oliviero tapped it home past Waltman. The Wave continued to push looking for more goals. The Comets got some chances at the other end but couldn't capitalize. With 3 seconds left the Wave had a fast break that Cristiano tried to slide to break up but caught the Wave player instead going to the box for the final 3 seconds. In those 3 seconds the Wave almost scored again, putting a header off the foot of the post.
Into the fourth quarter the Wave capitalized on the power play finally. A 3 pointer from Luan Oliveira was turned in by Hewerton appeared off his arm, but it counter and the gap was closed to 4. Both teams kept pushing for the next goal but both side were done in by superb goalkeeping by each keeper as the quarter wore on. Just around the half way point of the quarter the Wave cut the lead to a single goal when G. Oliviero received the ball in the corner and played it off the wall to L. Oliveira who tapped home to make it 10-8. The Wave continued to push while the Comets countered. With just over 3 minutes left the Wave went with the 6th attacker. The Comets had some chances but couldn't capitalize on the possession with another goal. Then with only 20 seconds left, G. Oliviero received the ball in the corner again and played a ball to the back post where Hewerton tapped it home to tie the game.
Into overtime the game went. Both teams slowed the game down a bit with the game level. As the quarter went on, both teams had their chances. Alvarez had the majority of the Comets chances forcing Vorberg into a few saves. With just over 6 minutes left in the game though the Wave won it. Oatley played a ball in to G. Oliviero who turned Kante and hit a shot that curled into the far corner to give the Wave the golden goal win 12-10.
As mentioned earlier, the Comets will now need to win 2 games in Milwaukee on Sunday. The first, a regular game, and then a mini game after that should they win on the road. The good news for the Comets is that they're the only team to win in Milwaukee this season, the bad news the Wave only lost that one game at home this year. It's going to be a big uphill climb for the Comets.
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