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.