Today was the first day that Sporting KC season ticket holders could purchase tickets for this year's playoffs. We'd been waiting for the dates of the playoffs to be announced, and we now have those dates thanks to the Seattle Sounders playoff ticket page.
According to the Sounders, the play-in game between the 4th and 5th seed will take place either on Wednesday, October 30th or Thursday the 31st at the 4th seed. The Conference semifinals kick off that next Saturday, November 2nd or Sunday the 3rd at the home of the lower seed. The second leg of the semifinal will again take place midweek, on Wednesday the 6th or Thursday the 7th. The Conference finals will actually have a week break between the two legs because of a FIFA international break that occurs around the weekend of the 16th. The first leg of the finals will take place on Saturday the 9th or Sunday the 10th. The second leg will take place either Saturday the 23rd or Sunday the 24th. The MLS Cup finalists will then have two weeks off before the MLS Cup final on December 7th.
Palmer-Brown called up
Sporting KC's youngest player, former academy player, Erik Palmer-Brown has been called up by the US U18 national team for a tournament in France coming up. Palmer-Brown had been training with the US team in preparation for the tournament. Palmer-Brown has made the final roster for the tournament. The tournament kicks off for the US on Wednesday the 9th against hosts France. They'll then play the Czech Republic on Friday the 11th before wrapping up the tournament on the 13th against Poland.
End of Season Awards
Sporting KC has opened up end of year award voting this year to all fans. In the past it's specifically been the media that has voted on the awards. This year though the fans have a vote, and the winners of the awards will be announced at the club's Pitch Black on October 19th at Sporting Park.
The first category is up for voting now. It is the Newcomer of the Year award. Voting is between Claudio Bieler, Benny Feilhaber, Josh Gardner, Mechack Jerome, and Ike Opara. Offensive and Defense player of the Year voting begins tomorrow, with Goal of the Year voting starting on Friday along with the MVP award. Other awards, like Humanitarian and the Bob Gansler Award (for outstanding academy player) will chosen by the club. And Golden Boot is decided on the field by who finishes with the most goals.
Personally I dislike voting on year end awards until the regular season is over. Once the regular season is over I'll make all my selections know.
The MLS playoff schedule is once again unfair to the higher-seeded teams in the conference semi-finals, since they host midweek after the lower-seeded teams host on the weekend. In my mind, this effectively cancels out the limited advantage that the higher seeds have from playing the second leg at home, including extra time and penalties if necessary. The long break between legs of the conference finals is odd, but I guess unavoidable due to the FIFA date.
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