Comets Top Ambush Again

From the Comets

The Missouri Comets earned their second victory in St. Charles in seven days. After winning by 21 points last weekend, the team had to work a little harder tonight to walk out with a 12-10 overtime win. Stefan St. Louis scored his first goal of the year in overtime to give the Comets the win.

The St. Louis Ambush were not going to concede the Comets another lopsided victory tonight and set out from the beginning to slow down the Missouri attack. Ambush defenders Chris Mattingly and Corey Adamson repeatedly stepped in front of Comets’ Leo Gibson and Vahid Assadpour as they tried to shoot on net. When the shots were able to get through, goalkeeper Jeff Richey was solid in the Ambush net. For the first time all season, the Comets were shutout in the first quarter against the Ambush.

 

The second period was a different story. The Comets took advantage of several Ambush mistakes, including a ball-handling mishap for Richey that led directly to a Bryan Perez tap in goal. The Comets capitalized three times in the second quarter and led 6-0 at halftime.

 

Leo Gibson kept up the attack for the Comets early in the second half, scoring 52 seconds after the kickoff. However, St. Louis came roaring back; scoring four more goals in the third quarter and cutting the Comets lead to 10-8.

 

Ambush second leading scorer, Daniel Antoniuk, scored the only goal of the fourth quarter with 11 minutes to play. His score tied up the game and sparked an exciting overtime ending, fitting for two rivals. The Comets gave up several chances in the opening couple of minutes of overtime, but team captain Vahid Assadpour calmed down his crew and Missouri was able to sustain an attack for nearly four minutes. The game was ended Stefan St. Louis gained a step on his defender, cutting the ball to the inside and tucking a shot just inside the near post.

 

The Comets move to 2-1 on the season and will have a bye this weekend. The next match will be at the Independence Events Center on December 13^th at 7:35p.m. CT against the Milwaukee Wave. The Comets will be looking to avenge their only loss on the season to the Wave on Opening Night.

Another Look at Ticket Gate

The ticket cancelation emails that Real Salt Lake mentioned last night did go out from Ticket Master today. Anyone that utilized the leaked code, 13STMCUP did not have their tickets go through.

Today though as the dust has cleared there's been a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunications of the process. First season ticket holders who purchased playoff packages had the chance to do a preorder for their tickets for MLS Cup starting an hour after Sporting's Eastern Conference final ended (this is when I purchased my ticket, shortly after I got home from the game).

After that came a Visa pre-sale and then the pre-sale to season ticket holders, specifically those who had not purchased the playoff package. And this is where the issue started to occur. During the presale, season ticket holders were sent an email with a link to get into their Account Manager. When they logged in their tickets for MLS Cup were there for them to purchase. Where the issue occurred was the code, 13STMCUP. According to the team's chief revenue officer Jake Reid, the code was only there for ticket holders who had trouble logging into the account manager.

The code leaked onto the net with reports stating the first location was in the comments section of a KC Star article. Once on the net, as things tend to do, it spread like wildfire and according to reports, close to 1,000 tickets were purchased using that code. The code even got retweeted by the RSL twitter account (later deleted). How the code originally was leaked was not known, but the code itself isn't hard so it's not a stretch to think someone guessed it.

However it leaked, a number of RSL fans jumped on the chance to purchase the tickets and once it was realized what was going on, the code was made invalid and the shit storm started. The issue became so big that MLS felt the need to put out a statement regarding what went down with the ticket process. The announcement by the league though puts a lot of blame on RSL fans, which is probably not entirely fair. Yes the code was not for them, which is why they deserve some of the blame, it was known to most of the people I read about that the code was a KC STH code, but many used it anyway. On the other hand blame lies with MLS, Ticket Master and KC in the situation because of how the situation went down. The code should have likely not been valid yet, and probably should have been a little harder to guess. The other issue with the code is that it did not put any sort of limit on purchases, I know of a KC fan that was able to purchase 16 South Stand tickets that he was in turn trying to sell.

So the RSL fans were back to square one with either going through their team for ticket allocation. They were allocated 1,000 tickets, but apparently a number of those tickets went to sponsors, families, and other groups that were not necessarily the die hards.

Obviously many are still not happy, but Ticket Master is well within their rights according to their purchase policy, which states: If the amount you pay for a ticket is incorrect regardless of whether because of an error in a price posted on this Site or otherwise communicated to you, or you are able to order a ticket before its scheduled on-sale or presale date or you are able to order a ticket that was not supposed to have been released for sale, then we will have the right to cancel that ticket (or the order for that ticket) and refund to you the amount that you paid. This will apply regardless of whether because of human error or a transactional malfunction of this website or other Ticketmaster operated system.

That seems a pretty cut and dry reason for the tickets being invalidated.

Other blame can be put on MLS as well, according to their media guide for MLS Cup, "the match will be operated by League Office staff and its designees.”

The way I read that, the league is controlling the game and the preparations for it.

So there's plenty of blame to go around to all parties involved in this.

The whole ticket situation has brought up the question of whether the game should be moved to the 76,000 seat Arrowhead Stadium, giving more RSL fans the chance to purchase tickets. There are issues with that though. First by December, the field is a mess from a number of football games on it, with both KC and RSL likely to play a lot of balls on the deck; it'd cause problems for both teams. Second, Peter Vermes has designed his team to be able to take advantage of the field size at Sporting Park. A move to Arrowhead would see a much narrower and shorter field that would not work as well with the way Vermes likes to play, and with KC earning home field advantage they should be able to play at their home field. This brings me to the third point, which is that Sporting KC wants to show off their stadium, not Arrowhead. Sporting KC want their stadium to get the exposure of being on national TV, they don't want to forfeit that chance for the game to be played at Arrowhead. And that's all without discussing how many people would show up to the game at Arrowhead. Even a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 would leave 30,000 to 40,000 empty seats in the stadium for the league's marquee match up.

It's a sucky situation, especially for RSL fans that after purchasing tickets through the invalid code went out and bought airline tickets and booked a hotel. But there is blame for each group involved in this.

Two Sporting Players Miss Out on Awards

Sporting KC defenders Matt Besler and Erik Palmer-Brown both ended up missing out on awards this week.

Starting defender, and US national team player, Belser was once again up for MLS defender of the year. Besler was a finalist along with New England's Jose Goncalves and LA's Omar Gonzalez. Besler ended up finishing a distant second to Goncalves who took the award. Goncalves finished with 36.74% of the club vote compared to Besler's 14.29%, 46.75% of the media vote to 27.27% and 18.83% of the player vote compared to 13.75%. In my opinion it's a fair win for the New England man, who had a very big season for the Revolution.

Sporting's latest home grown player, Palmer-Brown was also up for an award. The US U18 international was up for US Soccer's Young Male Athlete of the Year. Palmer-Brown ended up losing out on the award as well. The winner ended up being Columbus Crew midfielder, Will Trapp. Again it's hard to argue against this. Trapp, of the four nominees has had the most success so far at the club level along with playing for the youth national teams.

Bravo Heads Home to Chivas - Former SKC Wizards Update

Omar Bravo is headed home. The former KC designated player is headed back to the club he started his career with, Chivas Guadalajara. He heads back to the struggling club having spent the last year with city rival, Atlas.  Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Brian Fekete
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Jonathan Leathers
Scott Sealy
Michael Thomas
Ivan Trujillo
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh

Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Offseason.
Bobby Convey - Toronto - Offseason
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 win over Portland.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 1-0 loss to Salt Lake.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Offseason.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 71 minutes in Portland's 1-0 loss to Salt Lake.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Offseason.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Offseason
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Did not dress in Portland's 1-0 loss to Salt Lake.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Did not dress in Salt Lake's 1-0 win over Portland.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Offseason

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason.

USL
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason.
Neal Kitson - Phoenix - Offseason.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

PDL
Scott Angevine - Des Moines - Offseason

Other
Birahim Diop - New England Force

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - St. Louis - Did not play in either of the Ambush's games.
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Played in Baltimore's 8-0 loss to Milwaukee.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Offseason.
Vicente Arze - Sporting Charleroi - Belgium - Did not dress in Sporting's 2-1 win over Anderlecht.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - No game this week, moved to Chivas.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - No game this week.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Bengaluru's 0-0 draw with Sporting Goa. Started and played 90 minutes in Bengaluru's 2-1 win over Salgaocar.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Came off the bench and played 7 minutes in UAI's 0-0 draw with Defensores de Belgrano.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Pablo Escobar - Patriotas Boyaca - Colombia - No game this week.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Dressed but did not play in Wigan's 1-0 loss to Brighton.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - No game this week.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - AC Goianiense - Brazil - Dressed but did not play in Atletico's 4-2 win over Oeste.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Started and played 80 minutes in Azal's 1-0 loss to Qabala.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Middlesbrough's 2-1 loss to Leeds.
Igor Kostrov - Slavia - Belarus - Started and played 90 minutes in Slavia's 2-1 loss to Naftan.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 78 minutes in San Martin's 0-0 draw with Universitario.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Started and played 90 minutes in Servette's 3-1 win over Biel-Bienne
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 58 minutes in Spartak's 1-0 loss to CSKA.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Did not dress in Zilina's 2-1 loss to Slovan Bratislava.
Akeem Priestly - RoPS - Finland - Offseason.
Pablo Punyed - Fylkir - Iceland - Offseason.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Did not dress in Blackburn's 0-0 draw with Reading.
Milos Stojcev - Atyrau - Kazakhstan - Offseason.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 73 minutes, scoring a goal in Munster's 1-0 win over Stuttgarter Kickers.

Ticket "Fun"

With Sporting Park hosting MLS Cup on December 7th the process for purchasing tickets started fairly early. Just an hour after the game ended, season ticket holders who had purchased the three game playoff package could purchase their ticket for the final using their credit for the play-in game that was not used. Other season ticket holders had to wait until today to begin the purchasing process. And today is where the fun started.

First, the KC Cauldron put up their allotment of tickets for the Members' Stand up for sale at 10am. Just before 10am, their site started to move slower. Right at 10am, according to the Cauldron, 3,000 carts were initiated with tickets, well over the 500 that they'd been allocated. From reports that I read from friends on Twitter, it took minutes to navigate a single page. By 10:30 all the tickets were gone, although it seemed like if you hadn't been on right at 10am you were not getting tickets.

This lead to a loud gnashing of teeth from many members of the Cauldron, some who had tickets in their cart for check out, only to be told that the tickets were all gone as they attempted to check out from the site. So much so that the Cauldron felt that they needed to put out a statement regarding the issues today (linked above).

Then at noon today, the season ticket holder pre-sale started. This was for all season ticket holders that had not purchased the playoff package, giving them a chance to purchase their ticket(s) for the final. That code, given to Season Ticket Holders was unique for each ticket account. As the day went on, another code was posted on the net that allowed a number of fans to go in and get tickets. Fans were apparently able to use that code to make purchases, even if they didn't have season tickets and allowed them to purchase anywhere in the stadium. This included a number of Real Salt Lake fans that were able to buy tickets using the code.

Since then, the code has been declared invalid and ALL tickets purchased using the code have been canceled with refunds being distributed.

#RSL fans :: if you bought @MLS Cup today via Ticketmaster, the leaked code was declared invalid by SKC/TM & your tix will be cancelled
— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) November 27, 2013

To be clear, ALL tix bought today with that code are invalid, regardless of where/how/who bought them
— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) November 27, 2013

This announcement throws a giant wrench into a number of people's plans, including RSL fans who had already gone and purchased these tickets. It could also cause a number of problems with the secondary market, where a number of the tickets purchased today using that code are already up for purchase. The question remains though where originally the code came from and how it was valid. As I mentioned earlier, the sale today was only for Sporting KC STH.

So with under two weeks to go, the ticket situation has turned into a giant, confusing, cluster f*ck, not just for Cauldron members, but for season ticket holders, RSL fans, and other KC fans as well.

2014 Schedule Released

The 2013 season hasn't ended, and we already have the 2014 schedule. For the past few years it's been January, or even February before we got the schedule for the new year, so getting it in late November is already a real treat.

For the fourth straight year, Sporting KC opens the season on the road. This time it's a trip to the Pacific Northwest to take on the Seattle Sounders in an afternoon game on NBC Sports. The game is the first of 12 that Sporting KC will have on national TV this year.

The home opener is the next weekend, on the 15th, when they'll welcome FC Dallas to Sporting Park. In between those two games is their CCL quarterfinal opener at Sporting Park against Cruz Azul. The Wednesday after the Dallas game, Sporting will travel to Mexico for the return leg. KC also hosts San Jose and travels to Colorado in the month of March, giving them a busy start to the league season.

Like the 2010 World Cup, the league will take a break for the group stage from June 12th through the 24th. KC's break during that stretch sees their last game on Friday June 6th in Houston, returning to action on June 27th at Portland. The team will go from May 27th through July 6th without a home game, but have just two games in that stretch with the World Cup.

Any players going to the World Cup from KC will likely miss 3-4 games before the World Cup depending on how early Jurgen Klinsmann pulls the players in. With games on May 23rd (Toronto), 27th (New York), 31st (at DC), and June 6th (at Houston), the likes of Matt Besler and Graham Zusi could miss all those games while with the US team. Advance from the group stage and they'll miss the trip to Portland on June 27th. A quarterfinal birth would see them miss the game against the Chicago Fire on July 6th.

KC will get to close the season at home this year though, ending against New York on October 26th on ESPN. Along with the opener and finale, KC's other nationally televised games feature them at home against the Crew (May 4th, NBCSN), at Chicago (May 18, Unimas), vs New York (May 27th, ESPN2), at Portland (June 27th, NBCSN), vs Chicago (July 6th, ESPN), vs LA (July 19th ESPN2), vs Philadelphia (August 1st, NBCSN), vs Houston (August 29th, NBCSN), vs New England (September 26th, NBCSN), at DC (October 3rd, NBCSN). SO KC get a total of 7 games on NBC Sports, 4 of them home games, 4 ESPN games, all at home, and 1 Unimas game.

Sporting will play the majority of their games on Saturday's again this year. They'll play seven times at home on Saturday, 10 on the road. They'll have five games on Sundays, three at home, two away. KC will have just two midweek home games, one on a Tuesday and one on Wednesday. They'll also have two Wednesday away games. KC will get to play Friday night lights eight times through the season next year, five times at home, three on the road.

Unfortunately for road trippers, there is no Cascadia Wednesday-Saturday trip this year to make; KC will make three separate trips to the Northwest. If you are looking for a Wednesday-Saturday trip though, September 3rd against New England and September 6th in New York is your best bet. A trip to Colorado in March or the always well-traveled trips to Chicago are some of your other prime choices this year.

Sporting KC to Face Real Salt Lake at MLS Cup

With a 1-0 win tonight and a 5-2 win on aggregate, Real Salt Lake booked themselves a trip to Kansas City for the MLS Cup final on December 7th. Salt Lake had a dominating effort over two legs and took out the Western Conference's top seeded Portland Timbers.

The two teams will meet for the second time this season.  KC won the first meeting at Rio Tinto Stadium earlier this year, 2-1. Soony Saad and Ike Opara got the goals for KC in that game, Opara's coming in the 97th minute to win the game.

The match up on December 7th though will be completely different. When the two teams met on 7/20 both teams were missing first team contributors. KC was missing the likes of Matt Besler and Paulo Nagamura. Salt Lake was suffering the bigger loss, playing without Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando.

Despite the different players being available, a cup final is going to be completely. Different. Like it 2000 though, the final is going to be one of the best offensive teams facing off against one of the best defensive ones with RSL scoring 57 goals in the regular season while KC allowed an MLS low 30 goals. It's going to be a long wait over the next 2 weeks for this one.

Sunday After Stats

Oriol Rosell and Seth Sinovic set a team record for appearances in a season. Both players made their 41st appearance of the season. Previous record had been held by 5 players with 40. Nick Garcia and Peter Vermes in 2000, Chris Brown in 2002, CJ Sapong in 2011, and Jimmy Nielsen in 2012.

Rosell and Sinovic also tied a team record for starts in a season with 40, tying Garcia, Vermes, and Nielsen.

Sporting KC's game was their 44th of the season, continuing to set a team record for most in a season.

CJ Sapong's goal was his 25th in all competitions for KC, he's the 9th player to hit that mark for KC.

Sapong's goal broke his tie with Teal Bunbury for goals scored in all competitions, giving him sole possession of 9th place on that list.

Sapong's goal was his 16th in all competitions at home, tying him with Digital Takawira for 8th all time on that list.

In the 13th minute, Matt Besler moved past Josh Wolff and into 12th place for minutes played in all competitions. He finished the game with 13,017 minutes played.

Last night was Besler's 150th appearance in all competitions, he's the 14th player to hit that mark for KC.

Besler tied Chris Brown for 13th place for appearances in all competitions last night.

Besler made his 143rd start last night in all competitions for KC, tying him with Michael Harrington for 12th on that list.

In the 56th minute, Graham Zusi moved past Uche Okafor and into 18th place for minutes played in all competitions. He finished the game with 10,315 minutes played.

Jimmy Nielsen made his 141st appearance in all competitions, tying him with Francisco Gomez for 17th place on that list.

Sporting Headed to MLS Cup

Sporting Kansas City finally got the better of the Houston Dynamo in the playoffs and clinched a spot in MLS Cup this year 2-1. With the win, Sporting KC will host the game at Sporting Park on December 7th.  For the first time in KC's now six times they've met Houston in the playoffs, both teams scored in the same game. In previous games at least one team has earned a shutout when the teams met in the playoffs.

Things didn't start off very well for KC though, as in just the third minute, Houston grabbed the lead. A cross into the box by Andrew Driver was headed up by Aurelien Collin.  Cam Weaver kept the ball in play as it then went to Brad Davis. Davis headed the ball to the back post for Oscar Boniek Garcia. Garcia cut inside on Seth Sinovic. Matt Besler tried to get over to help out, but as he made a sliding challenge, Garcia took his shot. The shot deflected off of Besler and lofted over Jimmy Nielsen and into the net giving the Dynamo an early lead. In the eighth minute, KC should have been level though. A nice cross field ball by Benny Feilhaber found Chance Myers as he raced down the line. Before the ball went out, Myers got a touch on the ball playing it into the middle for Dom Dwyer who was racing into the box. Dwer didn't make solid contact with the ball though and it ended up underneath him. Dwyer couldn't readjust and put the ball on frame as Houston cleared. In the fourteenth minute though KC did get level. After a give away in the Houston end, Oriol Rosell picked out Feilhaber in the middle. Feilhaber dribbled at the Houston defense before losing the ball. A poor clearance by the Dynamo put the ball right into the path of CJ Sapong in the Houston box. Sapong made no mistake, beating Tally Hall and leveling the game. The 29th minute saw another decent opportunity by Dwyer. The Englishman did a very good job keeping the ball in play along the side line before racing towards the Dynamo box. Again he kept the ball in play on the end line before going down in the box under little contact looking for a PK that wasn't coming. A minute later the Dynamo should have gone back on top. A cross by Corey Ashe made it's way through to the back post where Weaver was unmarked. The Dynamo forward though, skied his effort over the bar. Just before half time, it was KC's turn again to blow a good chance. Dwyer did a good job dribbling by his man and into the box. Dwyer then squared the ball to the back post to Sapong. The ball was a little bit behind Sapong, but he also stumbled as he tried to hit it and ended up falling to the ground and hurting his arm as the two teams went into half time level.

The second half saw KC control the game as they had for decent periods of the first half, but it was the Dynamo in the 58th who almost grabbed the lead. A cross to the back post by Driver was cleared by Sinovic only as far as Garcia who fired a shot into the side netting. In the 63rd, KC took the lead. Some good combination play near midfield saw Graham Zusi free Feilhaber in the middle of the field. After racing towards the Houston back line, Feilhaber put a little chip over the defense into the path of Dwyer. Dwyer cut outside on his defender as he slid by and then slotted a shot into the near post past Hall to make it 2-1 KC. The 67th saw KC with another good opportunity as Zusi floated a free kick into the box for Collin. Hall came to meet him, trying to catch the ball, but it fell to the ground. Collin tried to turn and hit the shot, but it went over the goal keeping the score 2-1. KC started to sit just a little deeper, conceding more possession to the Dynamo. In the 80th minute, Ashe had a good opportunity to level the score. A cross by Kofi Sarkodie bounced through a number of KC players to Ashe at the back post. Ashe fired a shot on goal that Nielsen couldn't hold. The Dane though fell on the rebound keeping the lead for KC. The Dynamo pressured, but couldn't find a second goal and KC advanced to their third MLS Cup.

Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - A number of players performed quite well in the game. But with Ricardo Clark out a lot of pressure fell on Feilhaber and Graham Zusi to take advantage of that space in Houston's midfield. Both of them did as they were able to run at the Houston defense. Two times Feilhaber runs at the Houston midfield/defense led to KC's two goals on the night.

Honorable mention - Graham Zusi, Aurelien Collin

Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Myers 6, Collin 8, Besler 7, Sinovic 6, Nagamura 7, Rosell 7, Feilhaber 8, Zusi 8, Dwyer 7, Sapong 7. Opara NR, Peterson NR, Bieler NR

Can Sporting Take the Next Step?

After having last week off, Sporting KC is back in action for the deciding game of the Eastern Conference against the Houston Dynamo. The two teams come to Kansas City with the series level at 0-0 after a draw in Houston two weeks ago. With the scores level, everything is to play for in the second leg, basically making it a one game series.

They Dynamo have to feel decent about their chances heading to Kansas City. For the past two years they have ended Kansas City's season at Sporting Park. Two years ago it was in a one off series the Dynamo came into KC and left 2-0 winners. Last year after a 2-0 win in the first leg, the Dynamo came into KC, sat back and lost 1-0, which was enough to send them through over KC again. This year it looks like Houston could be down a couple of starters. Both Will Bruin and Ricardo Clark have missed practice since the first leg due to injuries. With Bruin out, the Dynamo offense takes a hit. Based on the way the Dynamo played after he went off, Ricardo Clark's absence may be felt the least. After Clark went off in the first leg, the Dynamo's switch to a 4-3-3 caused KC plenty of problems over the rest of the game.

Sporting KC will be looking to win their first series against the Dynamo in their fourth attempt. KC has lost series against the Dynamo in 2007, 2011, and 2012. The first leg saw Sporting put out a line up extremely similar to the one that they put out in the first leg against the Revolution that KC lost 2-1. If Peter Vermes follows a similar plan, I'd expect KC to make some changes, specifically in the front line. Like against New England, I expect Teal Bunbury to make way for Dom Dwyer to come in. With the change in the lineup, also expect a bit of a change in philosophy, KC will likely bring out a little more attacking wise

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Rosell - Nagamura

Feilhaber

Sapong - Dwyer - Zusi

Number to Remember - 14 - This is the fourteenth time in the last 3 years that Sporting KC and Houston have met up in all competitions. KC's played no one else even near that many times in the time frame.

Key Match Up - Dom Dwyer vs Bobby Boswell - With Dwyer likely to be inserted into the lineup for Bunbury, a lot of the offense is going to fall on Dwyer. Up against the Dynamo back line, Dwyer is going to need to step up his game as he only has three goals. KC will need Dwyer to step up tomorrow.

PREDICTION - These two teams don't exactly play pretty soccer when they meet up. The games tend to be quite physical and tight. Tomorrow I'd expect no different from the two teams. In fact I'd be quite surprised if it wasn't. This game is going to be decided by a single goal. If KC can grab an early lead though the game could open up more as Houston has to chase the game. The opposite happens, Houston scores early, and this game will drag as Houston sit back.

I'm still not sure which way the game will go, but whichever way it goes I expect it to be just by a 1-0 scoreline.

Pending USSF Plan, Sporting KC Not in CCL Next Year with Win

Previous years, a win tomorrow would see Sporting KC book their place in the 2014-2015 CONCACAF Champions League. But there had been rumors for the last few weeks that a change was coming to the way the CCL spots were designated by the USSF. Today the league finally confirmed that the changes had been submitted to CONCACAF.

The two MLS Cup finalists no longer get a spot in the CCL. Only the winner gets the spot. The spot that went to the MLS Cup runner up in the new USSF plan will instead go to the top team in the conference that does not have the Supporters' Shield winner. That means that under the new plan, Portland has qualified for the CCL.

What that means is that for Sporting KC to qualify for next year's Champions League one of two things needs to happen. Either Sporting KC or Portland need to win MLS Cup. If Sporting wins they grab the spot given to the winner. A Portland win would see their spot fall to the next highest finisher in the Supporters' Shield race, which is KC.

With Portland trailing by two goals heading home, they have the toughest job of the four teams. So Kansas City may just want to pull a Major League.

Wolff Moving to Take Job in Columbus - Former SKC Wizards Update

Josh Wolff has left his position with DC United to take the same position under former teammate, Gregg Berhatler in Columbus. Wolff will server as an assistant coach for the Crew after spending last year as an assistant coach and the year before as a player-coach for DC. Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Brian Fekete
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Jonathan Leathers
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Offseason.
Bobby Convey - Toronto - Offseason
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - No game this week.
Michael Harrington - Portland - No game this week.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Offseason.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - No game this week.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 62 minutes in the USA's 0-0 draw with Scotland. Came off he bench and played 34 minutes in the USA's 1-0 loss to Austria.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Offseason
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - No game this week.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - No game this week.
Michael Thomas - Toronto - Offseason
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Offseason
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Offseason

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason.

USL
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason.
Neal Kitson - Phoenix - Offseason.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

PDL
Scott Angevine - Des Moines - Offseason

Other
Birahim Diop - New England Force

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - St. Louis - No game this week.
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Had a goal and 2 assists in Baltimore's 19-8 win over Rochester.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Offseason.
Vicente Arze - Sporting Charleroi - Belgium - No game this week.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - No game this week.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Defeated Orizaba 2-1.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in India's 1-1 draw with the Philippines. Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in India's 2-0 win over Nepal. 
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Did not play in UAI's 4-2 loss to Deportivo Moron.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in Trinidad's 1-0 win over Jamaica. Started and played 90 minutes in Trinidad's 2-0 win over Jamaica.
Pablo Escobar - Patriotas Boyaca - Colombia - No game this week.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Started and played 63 minutes in Honduras' 5-0 loss to Brazil. Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in Honduras' 2-2 draw with Ecuador.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - No game this week.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - AC Goianiense - Brazil - Did not dress in Atletico's 3-0 loss to America Mineiro.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - No game this week.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - No game this week.
Igor Kostrov - Slavia - Belarus - No game this week.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 74 minutes in San Martin's 3-0 win over Jose Galvez.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - No game this week.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - No game this week.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - No game this week.
Akeem Priestly - RoPS - Finland - Offseason.
Pablo Punyed - Fylkir - Iceland - Offseason.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - No game this week.
Milos Stojcev - Atyrau - Kazakhstan - Offseason.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - No game this week.

Besler and Nielsen Up for Year End Awards

Today, MLS announced the finalists for their awards. Sporting Kansas City has two players up for the year end awards.  Matt Besler is up for defender of the year, while Jimmy Nielsen is up for goalkeeper of the year.

Besler's award will be announced next Tuesday, the 26th. For the second year in a row Besler is up for the award. He's up against his center back partner for the national team, Omar Gonzalez, and New England Revolution defender, Jose Goncalves. Full disclosure on my part, I voted for Goncalves first on my ballot, and second I believe I put down Jamison Olave. The thing that knocked Besler in my book was his time away from the team. I understand that he was away representing the US, but I based the awards on their time with their club team. And I felt Besler's absence for KC hurt him. Not just because of missed games, but because of how well his back up, Ike Opara, filled in when he was gone.

The goalkeeper of the year award gets announced on Wednesday December 4th. Like Besler, Nielsen is making another appearance on this list. This year, Nielsen is up against Real Salt Lake's Nick Rimando, and Portland's Donovan Ricketts. Like with Belser, I did not vote Nielsen for goalkeeper of the year. Numbers wise, Nielsen's 2013 wasn't incredibly different than his 2012, but they were worse. He faced 2 less shots in 2013 (100) vs 2012 (102). He saved 9 less (68 to 77), he posted two less shutouts (13 to 15), allowed 3 more goals (30 to 27), and his save percentage was 7 points lower (68% to 75%). Personally I voted for Ricketts after his performance this season for Portland. Like Besler, Rimando fell victim in my mind to national team call ups. My second nominee was Clint Irwin for Colorado.

Palmer-Brown, Holiday Up for Awards, Saad and Lebanon Fall

Some news for you today.

Palmer-Brown and Holiday up for US Soccer awards.

US Soccer has announced the finalists for the year end awards for 2013, and two players for local teams were named finalists.

Sporting KC's latest home grown player, Erik Palmer-Brown is up for Young Male Athlete of the Year. Palmer-Brown represented the US at the U15, U17, and U18 levels this year competing in tournaments in Italy, Japan, and France. Palmer-Brown is up against three other professional, Kellyn Acosta of FC Dallas, Shane O'Neill from Colorado, and Will Trapp from Columbus. Also nominated is Shaquell Moore, from the US U17 team.

Also nominated for one of the awards is NWSL MVP and FCKC midfielder, Lauren Holiday, is nominated for Female Athlete of the Year. Holiday had 12 goals and nine assists for FC Kansas City this year in her MVP season. She added three goals and six assists while playing with the US national team. Holiday is up against Sydney Leroux, Carli Loyd, Alex Morgan, Christen Press, and Abby Wambach.

Saad and Lebanon Fall to Iran

It ended up being the minor news of the day in Beirut after the bombing, but Soony Saad and the Lebanese national team played Iran in a big AFC Asian Cup qualifier. After the bombing though, the game was played behind closed doors with no fans in attendance. Saad ended up being an unused substitute in the game as Lebanon fell to Iran 4-1.

The loss put Lebanon in 3rd place in the group with one game left. There is still a chance that Lebanon can qualify for the 2015 AFC Asian Cup though as the best 3rd place team. They currently are the second best team, one point behind Iraq. The final match day sees Lebanon play in Thailand against the fourth place team in their group. Iraq meanwhile plays at home against China who is second place in their group.

There is another question though and that's Group A, where only one team has played 5 games. Oman has clinched a spot in the tournament having played just four games. Jordan is on 5 points after only 3 games. Syria has played 5 games and sits on 4 points, while Singapore has 3 points from 4 games. So there's certainly some questions there that could keep Lebanon out of the tournament.

Playoff Week

This weekend MLS returns to action. After taking this past weekend off for the international break, Kansas City, Houston, Salt Lake, and Portland will all get back to action this weekend with a trip to MLS Cup on the line.

Sporting and Houston get things kicked off on Saturday at Sporting Park, where a "fire marshal" capacity crowd will be on hand. The game sold out in about 24 hours, and the standing room only capacity was hit a week before the game. Two hundred plus of those people will be Dynamo fans who will travel to KC for the third straight year hoping to leave with a win.

The two teams played to a 0-0 draw that wasn't exactly a ringing endorsement for the beautiful game. And don't expect that to change much in the second leg. Expect it to be tight and be decided by a single goal. In the 24 games that KC and Houston have played in all competitions since San Jose moved to Houston, 18 games have been a draw or decided by a single goal. The way that Peter Vermes and Dom Kinnear coach, expect the same Saturday.

The way these two teams have played against each other isn't entirely new. You can look back in 2007 in the Western Conference finals when Nate Jaqua gave Jack Jewsbury a forearm in the middle of the field. Then there was Eddie Robinson clocking Tyson Wahl in the face. More recently, you have Aurelien Collin getting two Houston players sent off last year.

Expect similar play on Saturday, and unlike the first leg where not a single card was handed out, I wouldn't be surprised to see a sending off with Baldomero Toledo refereeing the game.

Three of the last four trips to the playoffs, KC has been eliminated at the hands of the Dynamo (2007, 2011, 2012. 2008 vs Columbus the lone exception). The rivalry, in the playoffs at least, has been distinctly one sided, but I'd expect another chapter to be added on Saturday.

Comets Fall in Overtime.

The Missouri Comets blew leads of 8 and 6 points over the course of the game and ended up falling in over time to the Milwaukee Wave 23-21 in their season opener at the Independence Events Center.

The Comets got off to an early lead though. Just 17 seconds in off of a restart, John Sosa found Vahid Assadpour near the boards. Assadpour's shot sneaked between the post and Marcel Feenstra to give the Comes a quick 2-0 lead. A little over a minute and a half in the Comets doubled that lead. New signing, Alex Megson stole the ball at the top of the box and fired a shot into the opposite corner to make it 4-0. The Comets controlled much of the possession, but couldn't add to their lead. Then just over the half way mark the Wave cut the lead to 1. Pablo DaSilva won the ball near midfield. He played the ball towards Ian Bennett who won the ball and raced towards the Missouri goal. Right by the 3 point line, Bennett let fly with a shot. He fired into the upper corner, beating Danny Waltman to make it 4-3. Bennett's goal was called a 3 pointer, but replays showed that it very well may have been on the line and should have been ruled a two. The goal stood though. Late on in the first quarter the Comets were able to add to their lead. Off a poor Wave free kick, the ball came to Assadpour. The Comets captain raced the length of the field before squaring the ball off the wall into the middle for Leo Gibson who had the simplest of tap ins to make it 6-3. Then with under a minute left in the quarter the Comets scored again. As the Wave pressed, Gibson sprung the ball up the field for Milan Ivanovic. Ivanovic raced in on goal and five-holed Feenstra to make it 8-3 as the first quarter came to an end.

Early in the second quarter, the Wave cut the lead to three. Off a Wave restart, Marcio Leite laid the ball back to Luan Oliveira. Oliveira fired the ball through the wall and into the net to make it 8-5. The second quarter continued with the Wave pressuring looking for another goal, but Danny Waltman and Missouri's defense came up with some big saves and blocks. Late in the quarter though the Comets started to get more possession. Gibson hit the bar with a rocket of a shot. And off a restart, Geison's effort was saved off the line. With under 2 minutes left the Comets almost had another goal. Gibson got played in 1v1 with Feenstra after a long through from Waltman.Feenstra up ended Gibson and ended up given a blue card. Geison took the shootout attempt for Missouri, his initial attempt was saved by Feenstra and the rebound fell back to him but his chip went just wide.

The Comets came out in the third quarter and grabbed another goal just under three minutes in. Gibson stole the ball inside Missouri's half and raced in towards Milwaukee's end. He fired a shot from three point range that went into the far corner giving the Comets an 11-5 lead. The game started to get very physical and cards started to fly. Just before the halfway point, Carlos Munoz fouled Stefan Stokic in the corner, elbowing the Comets defender. Stokic though got up and ended up hitting Munoz in the face. Both players were given blue cards and the teams played 4v4. Shortly after that blue card was given the Comets were down to three on the field as Assadpour was given a blue card for boarding. With the 4v3 advantage the Wave took advantage as Leite fed the ball to Oliveira to cut the lead to 4. The two teams then played 4v4 until the Wave penalty ended. But right as it ended, the Comets added another goal. Lucas Rodriguez played the ball to Sosa in the corner. Sosa beat Feenstra with pace on his shot to make it 13-7. Less than a minute later the Comets made it 15-7. Brian won the ball outside the yellow line, dribbled into the Milwaukee end and fired a shot into the far corner. Late in the third though the Wave started their first come back. Just over 12 minutes into the quarter, Oliveira played the ball to the back post for Giuliano Oliviero whose diving header cut the lead to 15-9. Shortly after the goal the two teams were down to 4v4 again. And again it was Missouri's lack of composure that caused it. Wave midfielder, Judson McKinney was given a blue card for boarding, but in retaliation, Ramone Palmer was given a blue card for retaliation. With the extra space on the field, the Wave took advantage, scoring 2 goals in that span to make it 15-13. Both plays were extremely similar. The first play saw Leite start a 3v1 break. He fed the ball forward to Victor Quiroz, Quiroz laid the ball back to Leite who fired home. Shortly after it was Fabinho playing the ball back to Bennett for his second of the night and cutting the lead to two points.

Early in the fourth quarter, the Wave got themselves level. Comets defender, Andre Braithwaite got caught in possession in the Comets end by Marcelo Fontana. Fontana fed the ball into the middle for Nicolas Perera who tapped the ball into the net to make it 15-15. Just over two minutes into the quarter the Comets retook the lead. Off a restart at the top of the arc, Sosa fed the ball into the corner for Assadpour. The Comets captain turned the ball in and put the Comets back on top. Just seven seconds later the Comets had a four point lead. The Comets won the ball back off the kick off and Palmer fed the ball into the middle for Geison who scored to make it 19-15. Just four minutes into the quarter, the Wave have a 1v1 opportunity but Waltman comes up with a big save. Off the save the Comets countered. Gibson fed the ball to Sosa who rounded Feenstra and put the ball home to make it 21-15.

With just five minutes left and a six point deficient, the Wave went to their 6th attacker. Two minutes later the Wave cut the lead to four. Munoz got the ball in the corner and beat Waltman to the near post. Less than a minute later, the Wave had the game down to a single score. Leite crossed the ball into the middle and Bennett finished his hattrick poking the ball home. Just forty seconds later, the game was level. On the counter, Bennett fired the ball from the corner and beat Waltman to make it 21 all.

The two teams went into overtime. The overtime turned into a very tight game as neither team wanted to make a mistake. The best chance came to the Wave as they had a 2v1 opportunity. Waltman started to cheat far post and the shot was fired towards the near post, but hit the bar. Just over the half way point of the OT, the game ended. Off a restart to Waltman's left, Leite fired a shot off the boards that bounced right into the path of Bennett, who knocked the ball home to give the Wave their first lead of the game, but the only one that mattered as the Wave won 23-21.

Sporting to Play in the Desert Friendlies Again

Teams in 2014 pre-Desert Diamond Cup friendlies: @HoustonDynamo, @TimbersFC, @SJEarthquakes, @SportingKC, @ChicagoFire, @SoundersFC.
— Garrett Cleverly (@AZKicksit) November 16, 2013

During half time of their Fall Classic against Chivas USA, PDL side, FC Tucson announced the clubs that would be participating in the Desert Friendlies and the Desert Diamond Cup. And for the second straight year, Sporting KC will be participating in the Desert Friendlies. KC's made a habit of traveling down to Arizona as they have headed down there each year for at least a portion of preseason since 2010.

Other teams participating in the friendlies are Houston, Portland, San Jose, Chicago, and Seattle.

KC will not be participating in the Desert Cup itself, most likely because the team is headed back to Orlando as the second part of the preseason.

Saad Cap Tied in Lebanon AFC Asian Cup Draw

Soony Saad made his first appearance for Lebanon in an official FIFA competition today in an AFC Asian Cup qualifier. The Sporting KC forward started and played 74 minutes as Lebanon played to a 0-0 draw with Kuwait in Group B. The appearance cap-ties Saad to Lebanon after he represented the United States at the youth level.

The draw leaves Lebanon in 3rd place on 5 points in their four team group with two match days left. The top two in each group automatically qualifies for the tournament, with the best third place team also qualifying. Lebanon currently holds that "best 3rd place" spot as they currently sit on 6 points.

Lebanon has one more qualifier in this round of games, on the 19th at home against group leaders Iran. A loss in that game could be a big blow for Lebanon as second place Kuwait plays Thailand, who has yet to win a game in the group. A draw wouldn't be the end of the world, but would force Lebanon to win the final match day against Thailand, while Kuwait plays Iran, and hope to make up goal difference. A win would likely put Lebanon in a very good position to qualify considering their final match day opponent.

Collin, Joseph, and Other News

I've been sick much of this week so I haven't gotten to post a lot. Here's some information from this week that I would have touched on at the time if I had been feeling better.

Collin says he has no interest in Europe.

Last week in an interview with France Football, Aurelien Collin said that he was interested in returning to Europe. At the time when the article was brought to his attention, Collin said that it was a "bad translation." He spoke with Steve Brisendine and reiterated his interest in staying with KC, but that it is also up to the owners and the coach.

Joseph passes out at practice

Last week before the second leg of KC's series against New England we found out that both Lawrence Olum and Peterson Joseph were out due to injuries. We found that Olum was out due to a broken bone in his leg. Joseph's issue had not been disclosed. Later we found that Joseph was out because he passed out at practice last week. He's currently having tests done to figure out what caused him to collapse. In the mean time Peter Vermes is not going to let Joseph practice until they are sure of what caused him to collapse.

Besler and Zusi not called up

Jurgen Klinsmann called up his roster for friendlies against Scotland and Austria. Last week in a Q&A with US Soccer he'd dropped hints that he would be selecting players in the MLS Cup playoffs. When the official announcement was made though, none of the players still involved in the playoffs were called up. That included Sporting KC's Matt Besler and Graham Zusi. They'll now get time to rest and train with Sporting ahead of next week's playoff game against Houston.

Movsisyan Nets a Hattrick, Kamara Named Captain - Former SKC Wizards Update

Yura Movsisyan is atop the Russian Premier League's scoring charts, and pushed Spartak closer to the top spot as he scored a hattrick in their 4-2 win over the current team in first place, Zenit St. Petersburg. Meanwhile in England, Kei Kamara has been named the captain of Middlesbrough. With them recently naming a new coach we'll see if he retains that title under the new coach. Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Brian Fekete
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Jonathan Leathers
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Offseason.
Bobby Convey - Toronto - Offseason
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 120 minutes in Salt Lake's 2-0 win over LA. Started and played 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 4-2 win over Portland.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 3-2 win over Seattle. Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 4-2 loss to Salt Lake.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Offseason.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 3-2 win over Seattle. Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Portland's 4-2 loss to Salt Lake.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Seattle's 3-2 loss to Portland.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Offseason
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Did not dress in either of Portland's games.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 31 minutes in Salt Lake's 2-0 win over LA. Dressed but did not play in Salt Lake's 4-2 win over Portland.
Michael Thomas - Toronto - Offseason
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Offseason
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Offseason

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Offseason.

USL
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason.
Neal Kitson - Phoenix - Offseason.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

PDL
Scott Angevine - Des Moines - Offseason

Other
Birahim Diop - New England Force

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - St. Louis - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Offseason

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Offseason.
Vicente Arze - Sporting Charleroi - Belgium - Did not dress in Sporting's 1-0 loss to Gent.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Started and played 87 minutes in Atlas' 1-0 loss to Tigres.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Tied Inter Playa del Carmen 0-0.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - No game this week.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - No game this week.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Pablo Escobar - Patriotas Boyaca - Colombia - Did not play in Boyaca's 1-0 loss 1-0 to Once Caldas.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Wigan's 1-0 loss to Rubin Kazan. Came off the bench and played 5 minutes in Wigan's 1-0 win over Yeovil Town.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - Dressed but did not play in Tijuana's 5-0 loss to Leon.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - AC Goianiense - Brazil - Came off the bench and played 33 minutes in Atletico's 2-0 loss to Bragantino. Dressed but did not play in Atletico's 2-1 win over Sport Recife.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Started and played 90 minutes in Azal's 1-1 draw with Qarabag.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Middlesbrough's 2-2 draw with Watford.
Igor Kostrov - Slavia - Belarus - Started and played 90 minutes in Slavia's 2-1 loss to Minsk.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 63 minutes in San Martin's 4-0 win over UTC Cajamarca.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Did not dress in Servette's 2-1 loss to Chiasso.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 58 minutes, scoring 3 goals in Spartak's 4-2 win over Zenit.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Did not dress in Zilina's 0-0 draw with Spartak Trnava.
Akeem Priestly - RoPS - Finland - Offseason.
Pablo Punyed - Fylkir - Iceland - Offseason.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Did not dress in Blackburn's 3-0 loss to Brighton.
Milos Stojcev - Atyrau - Kazakhstan - Offseason.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 81 minutes, scoring a goal in Munster's 2-2 draw with Saarbrucken.

Orlando to be 21st MLS Team

Orlando City announced today that next Tuesday, November 19th they would be making a major announcement. The emphasis on major was made by Orlando in their releases. With the stadium funding passing, it was only a matter of time before MLS officially made the announcement. And it looks like that is finally coming on the 19th.

Orlando would become the 21st team in the league after New York City FC. Right now New York is set to begin play in 2015 so it's possible that Orlando would be coming in at the same time.

The timing would work out well for KC when it comes to their partnership with Orlando. Earlier this year, Sporting signed a two year agreement with Orlando. That agreement expires after the 2014 season. So an entry into the league in 2015 would coincide with the the end of that agreement. Robb Heineman has already hinted at the club establishing their own USL-Pro team for the reserve league closer to home, with Omaha, Des Moines, and KC all being mentioned.

Right now, Orlando looks to be in the best shape of the latest crop of expansion teams, already having their stadium funding. NYCFC has the major media market, but is still needing to get a stadium. And David Beckham looks very likely to be headed to Miami with his expansion team and they too are still needing a stadium.

But congrats to Orlando, I look forward to a road trip there in the future.

Saad Called Up by Lebanon

Sporting announced today that forward, Soony Saad will be heading to the Middle East to represent Lebanon in their upcoming AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Lebanon has two qualifying matches on November 15th and 19th. Both games are key games if Lebanon hopes to qualify for the 2015 edition in Australia.

Lebanon currently sits third in their group on four points, one behind Kuwait for second. The top two teams automatically qualify for the tournament, as does the best third place team. Lebanon travel to Kuwait on the 15th with a chance to leapfrog them and get into second in the group. They will then host Iran in their second game. Iran currently sit top of the group with seven points.

Saad should return to Kansas City on November 20th, giving him three days to re-acclimate himself to the Central Time Zone before KC's second leg of the Eastern Conference finals vs Houston. This could be the first of a few call ups for KC as the US roster for their two friendlies in Europe are set to be announced tomorrow.

Sunday After Stats

In the 73rd minute, Chance Myers moved past Uche Okafor and into 17th place for minutes played in all competitions. He finished the game with 10,299 minutes played.

Aurellien Collin played his 100th game in all competitions for KC, he's the 34th player to hit that mark.

Seth Sinovic and Oriol Rosell tied a club record for appearances in all competitions in a season yesterday with their 40th appearance. They tied Nick Garcia and Peter Vermes in 2000, Chris Brown in 2002, CJ Sapong in 2011, and Jimmy Nielsen in 2012.

Sinovic also made his 100th start in all competitions for KC, he's the 27th player to hit that mark.

Graham Zusi started his 109th game in all competitions, breaking his tie with Kei Kamara for 20th on that list.

All to Play For

I feel sorry for you if today's Sporting KC vs Houston Dynamo game was the first professional soccer or MLS game you've watched. Because it was not a pretty game. It was a not a pretty game at all. In fact it looked a lot like all three of KC's three previous games against the Dynamo this year, where a grand total of three goals were scored. Just one of those three were scored in two games at Houston's BBVA Compass Stadium.

The Dynamo, while tired came out from the start and had the better of play, it was KC that should have taken the lead in the 14th minute. A cross field ball was headed by Chance Myers into the path of Graham Zusi. Zusi collected the ball and then squared a ball to the penalty spot for an unmarked Jacob Peterson. Peterson though didn't get enough on his turning shot and hit it weakly wide of the goal. Kofi Sarkodie thought he'd given the the Dynamo the lead in the 17th minute. After some possession in KC's end of the field, KC couldn't clear their end and Sarkodie played a delayed 1-2 with Omar Cummings. The delay on Cummings return ball is what cost Sarkodie as by the time he received the ball there was a question of whether he was still onside. Replays showed just how close the play was. The Dynamo got a blow in the 26th minute when Ricardo Clark had to sub out with a knee injury. A few minutes earlier him and Benny Feilhaber had collided, Clark tried to continue, but could not as the Dynamo put on Andrew Driver in his place. Houston almost took the lead in the 29th. After a foul by KC about 25 yards out from goal Oscar Boniek Garcia took the shot on goal, but Jimmy Nielsen made a nice save punching the ball away. Both teams had chances in the 39th minute. First off a Matt Besler long through, the ball went ot the back post where Teal Bunbury fired a shot on goal that had beaten Tally Hall, but the Dynamo had put another player on the line and it was knocked away. KC tried to keep the Dynamo pinned in their own end, but the Dynamo broke through Will Bruin. Going alone against a number of KC defenders he fired a shot from 35 yards out that went just over the goal.

The second half started with the Dynamo sitting a little deeper to start to conserve energy, but they quickly came back into the game. In the 53rd off a free kick the ball went to the back post for Bobby Boswell who headed it back into the middle. The ball pinged around the box before KC finally cleared the ball. The Dynamo had another opportunity in the 57th as Mike Chabala crossed to Cam Weaver into the box, but Weaver's header was right at Nielsen. KC's best chance of the second half came in the 64th minute off another Besler long throw. Aurelien Collin got up over the Houston defense, but couldn't head the ball on goal as it went over the bar. The 72nd saw some controversy as a ball towards the end line was collected by Weaver in the corner of the box. Collin ended up stepping on Weaver's foot. The Dynamo forward went down like he'd been shot, but it easily could have been a penalty kick. In the end, neither side could produce the moment needed to get a goal and the two teams will head to KC square. The season will come down to the single game in KC in two weeks.

Wizards Man of the Match - Jimmy Nielsen - Made the big save when called upon against Garcia. He made the saves he needed to to keep the game scoreless and help KC get home with the series level.

Player ratings: Nielsen 6, Sinovic 6, Besler 6, Collin 6, Myers 6, Rosell 6, Nagamura 6, Feilhaber 4, Zusi 4, Bunbury 4, Peterson 3. Subs Sapong 4, Dwyer 4, Opara NR.

Changes to the CCL Qualification?

For the past few years, the qualification for US based teams to get into the CONCACAF Champions League has involved one of three things. Either you win the US Open Cup, the Supporters' Shield, or make it to the MLS Cup final. Now it looks like that will be changing. Two separate articles today are stating that changes are coming, although both articles say that different spots are being dropped.

First came an article from Prost Amerika, a blog that mainly focuses on soccer in the Cascadian part of the country. They were reporting that Portland had already qualified for the tournament. Their report said that the spot for the MLS Cup runner up would be going away, and the four qualification spots would be the Supporters' Shield winner, the top finisher in the other conference, the US Open Cup winner, and the MLS Cup winner. That would mean that KC would either need to win MLS Cup, or Portland would, which would drop one of Portland's two spots to Kansas City as the next best team in the regular season standings.

Then came this article from Goal.com. They're reporting as well that changes are coming to the way the US based spots in the CONCACAF Champions League, but they're reporting that a different competition is losing the spot and a different spot is gaining the spot. The changes according to Goal.com is that it's not the MLS Cup runner up that is losing their spot, but the US Open Cup champion that loses the spot. And it's not the top finisher in the other conference that gets the spot, it's the second overall in the table. The changes according to Goal.com though will not come until the 2015-2016 version of the tournament. If those changes took affect this year, then Sporting KC would have qualified for next year's competition as they finished second to New York in the Supporters' Shield standings.

If the Goal.com article is correct, then it's a big blow to the Open Cup, the nations longest running soccer competition. It's already fighting for respect and prestige in the US, this would almost be a death blow to the competition, at least from the aspect of MLS teams competing. Without the CCL spot how serious are MLS teams going to take it, unless the prize money is increased greatly.

Collin Hinting at Move Back to Europe UPDATED

In an interview with the site French Football, Aurelien Collin has hinted at a move back to Europe. When asked about his future, Collin makes mention that he has one year left on his contract with Sporting KC, and that he wants to return to Europe. "The major European championships attract me. Big MLS clubs like New York and Los Angeles want me, but my ambition is to play at a good level in Europe this winter."

It's a surprising, but not a shocking statement from the French defender. I had always assumed that Collin would eventually head back to Europe at some point. But it's still a surprise to see it in print, especially with a time table for when Collin wants to leave.

Collin had been fairly unsuccessful in Europe as a professional before his move to MLS. He spent time in Scotland, Greece, England, and Portugal, not really settling until coming to Kansas City. Here he's become one of the best defenders in the league, earning Best XI honors last year.

While the loss of Collin would certainly hurt, the blow is softened a bit by the acquisition last year of Ike Opara. Filling in throughout the season for both Collin and Matt Besler, Opara has proven to be a good back up that can start in this league. Collin also has some other reasons as well, specifically because his fiancée has been denied a visa into the United States. Back in May he Tweeted this: "For the 3rd time my girlfriend got denyed of her visa.. She cant even visit me in the USA! Thats crazyyyyy :("

If she can't get into the country, that's certainly something that would weight on his mind when it comes to his decision making. Still the timing of this coming out, with KC's playoff game today is a bit rough. In the end though I cannot fault Collin, MLS will still for the foreseeable future be a selling league, selling players abroad to bigger leagues where those players will make more money.

Collin posted this on Twitter a little bit ago in response to the Soccer News article that originally brought it to my attention.

@TheOffsideRules bad translation brother !!
— Aurelien COLLIN (@ampC2) November 9, 2013

Take that for what you will, but I'm told "cet hiver" literally translates to this winter (I don't do French).

Haven't I Seen You Before?

If tomorrow's opponent looks failure, it's because they are. This is the third straight year that Sporting KC will face off against the Houston Dynamo in the playoffs, and the second time the two will meet in the conference finals. It's also the fourth time they'll meet in the playoffs. The Dynamo have won each of the previous playoff match ups though.

Houston should come into this game with some tired legs. Like KC, they played 120 minutes on Wednesday in New York. They also had one less day of rest having played last Sunday while KC played on Saturday. With the play in game against Montreal, this is already Houston's fourth game of the playoffs. So heading into this game there may be a few tired legs that KC can take advantage of. The Dynamo will be without Corey Ashe who is suspended due to yellow card accumulation.

Speaking of tired legs, KC should also have some after 120 minutes vs the Revolution on Wednesday. Graham Zusi ran 14 kilometers over the course of the game according to a Robb Heineman Tweet. So KC may have some heavy legs as well. In the series against New England, KC showed off more of their depth as they were able to make some key changes in the second leg that gave them some fresh legs. Some of that depth has taken a hit though. Peterson Joseph and Lawrence Olum both missed the New England game and appear to be done for the season. I'd expect KC to play the Houston game similar to the first leg of the New England series, a little bit more reserved, but they'll still look to come home with the lead.

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Rosell - Nagamura 

Feilhaber

Sapong - Dwyer - Zusi

Number to Remember - 0 - That's the number of wins that Houston has against KC this year. That'd be important, but I'd also point out that the Dynamo also had zero wins against New York heading into the playoffs and they just got past them. It's also the number of goals the Dynamo have scored at home this season against KC (1-0 KC win and 0-0 draw).

Key Match Up - Seth Sinovic vs Oscar Boniek Garcia - Sinovic put in a man of the match performance against New England on Wednesday but will now face a bigger challenge on his wing. Garcia has been taking over more of the playmaking duties for the Dynamo this season giving them a two pronged attack with Brad Davis. Sinovic will need to try to keep the Honduran in check.

PREDICTION - The Dynamo are always a different team in the playoffs. Dominic Kinnear has proven that over the past few years. He's out coached Vermes each of the last two years and did it again to Mike Petke in the conference semifinals this year. KC cannot afford a game like they had last year down in Houston, the Dynamo aren't going to let KC dominate the game in KC like they did last year where they were lucky to only lose 1-0. This game will be a great opportunity to see how far Vermes has come as a coach. But with the big break between this game and the second leg, KC needs to try to get something out of the game tomorrow.

SKC - 0
HOU - 0

S.A.S. Thursday After Stats

Just getting this out in time (at least in the Central Time Zone). Lots of good stats from last night, including the 100th goal in all competitions scored by KC at Sporting Park.

The game was Sporting KC's 42nd of the season, a team record for one season.

Seth Sinovic's goal was the 100th scored by Sporting KC at Sporting Park in all competitions.

Sinovic also made his 100th appearance in all competitions for KC, he's the 32nd player to hit that mark.

The win was Jimmy Nielsen's 64th in all competitions for KC, breaking his tie with Tony Meola for most in team history.

Claudio Bieler's goal was his 10th at home in all competitions this year, tying him with Eddie Johnson for 18th on that list.

Bieler's game winner was his 5th in all competitions for KC, tying him with Jack Jewsbury and Jimmy Conrad for 19th on that list.

Those 5 game winners in 1 season is good for a tie for 4th best all time with Preki in 1997.

Aurelien Collin's goal was his third playoff goal for KC, tying him with Chris Klein, Igor Simutenkov, and Matt McKeon for 4th place all time for KC on that list.

Paulo Nagamura made his 50th appearance in all competitions for KC.

Matt Besler made his 148th appearance in all competitions for KC, breaking his tie with Diego Gutierrez for 14th on that list.

Graham Zusi made his 142nd appearance in all competitions for KC, breaking his tie with Francisco Gomez for 16th on that list.

Zusi also made his 108th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Kei Kamara for 20th on that list.

Chance Myers made his 109th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Kamara for 19th on that list.

Brian Bliss Out in Columbus - Former SKC Wizards Update

Brian Bliss pulled double duty for Columbus with the firing of Robert Warzycha becoming the head coach along with his technical director position. He almost got the Crew into the playoffs this year, falling just short. He was one of the club's candidates to take over the job permanently. He didn't get the full time coaching job, and ended up losing his technical director position as well, as the club hired Gregg Berhalter to come in.  Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Brian Fekete
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Jonathan Leathers
Scott Sealy
Ivan Trujillo
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Dressed but did not play in Montreal's 3-0 loss to Houston.
Bobby Convey - Toronto - Offseason
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 90 minutes in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to LA.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 2-1 win over Seattle.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Did not dress in either of New York's games.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Portland's 2-1 win over Seattle.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes in Seattle's 2-1 loss to Portland.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Offseason
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Did not dress in Portland's 2-1 win over Seattle.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Did not dress in Salt Lake's 1-0 loss to LA.
Michael Thomas - Toronto - Offseason
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Offseason
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Offseason

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 90 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 1-1 draw with Edmonton.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Dressed but did not play in Minnesota's 6-4 win over Tampa Bay.

USL
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Offseason.
Neal Kitson - Phoenix - Offseason.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles - Offseason.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

PDL
Scott Angevine - Des Moines - Offseason

Other
Birahim Diop - New England Force

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - St. Louis - Offseason
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Offseason
Boris Pardo - Missouri - Offseason
Craig Rocastle - Missouri - Offseason
Paul Wright - San Diego - Offseason

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Offseason.
Vicente Arze - Sporting Charleroi - Belgium - Did not dress in Sporting's 2-1 loss to Lierse.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes, scoring a goal in Atlas' 1-1 draw with Toluca. Started and played 45 minutes, scoring a goal, before being sent off with a red card in Atlas' 3-3(1-3) shootout loss to Morelia in the Copa Mexico.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Tied 1-1 with Toros Neza.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Started and played 87 minutes, scoring a goal in Bengaluru's 2-2 draw with Mumbai. Started and played 85 minutes in Bengaluru's 1-0 loss to Pune.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in Argentina's 2-0 loss to Estudiantes Caseros.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Pablo Escobar - Patriotas Boyaca - Colombia - Did not play in Boyaca's 1-1 draw with Envigado.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Dressed but did not play in Wigan's 2-1 win over Huddersfield Town.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Tijuana's 4-1 win over Atlante.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - AC Goianiense - Brazil - Dressed but did not play in Atletico's 3-1 loss to Ceara.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Started and played 89 minutes in Azal's 0-0 draw with Sumqayit.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Middlesbrough's 1-0 loss to Blackburn.
Igor Kostrov - Slavia - Belarus - Started and played 90 minutes in Slavia's 1-0 win over Dnepr Mogilev.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Did not dress in San Martin's 3-1 loss to Inti Gas.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Did not dress in Servette's 2-2 draw with Wil.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 70 minutes, scoring a goal in Spartak's 3-1 loss to Lokomotiv Moscow.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Did not dress in either of Zilina's games.
Akeem Priestly - RoPS - Finland - Offseason.
Pablo Punyed - Fylkir - Iceland - Offseason.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Dressed but did not play in Blackburn's 1-0 win over Middlesbrough.
Milos Stojcev - Atyrau - Kazakhstan - Started and played 90 minutes in Atyrau's 3-0 loss to Akzhayik.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Munster's 2-1 loss to Hansa Rostock.

Sporting KC Advance to Conference Finals

Sporting Kansas City controlled every aspect of the game last night against the New England Revolution, but it took extra time to knock off the Revs and see KC through to their second conference finals in three years where they'll meet their old friends, Houston. The 3-1 score line flattered the Revs in aspects of the game, but it really was a typical Sporting performance at home. They outshot the Revs 32-5 and 10-2 in shots on goal, but Matt Reis in the New England net made a number of fantastic saves to keep New England in the game.

As was expected, KC came out pushing the game from the start in the first half. Their first good opportunity came in the 17th minute. Seth Sinovic played a nice cross into the box where Dom Dwyer had lost his mark. Dwyer put his header on goal, but Reis did very well to get down and palm the ball away. He then jumped on the rebound before Dwyer could get a touch. CJ Sapong had another opportunity in the 33rd off a cross from Graham Zusi, but the forward directed his header right at Reis. Finally in the 41st, Sporting leveled the aggregate scoring. Off a short free kick, Chance Myers played a cross into the box towards Dwyer, Sapong, and Aurelien Collin, the ball bounced off of Andrew Farrell into the path of Collin whose sliding left footed shot went past Reis and into the net making it 2-2 on aggregate. Dwyer and the returning Paulo Nagamura also had opportunities, but couldn't give KC the aggregate lead in the first half.

The second half saw KC look to improve on their 72% possession in the first half and find a second goal. Again though, Reis denied KC. In the 55th minute, Myers played a great cross into the near post for Dwyer who headed the ball on goal. The rebound fell to Benny Feilhaber who was racing in. Reis recovered from the first save though and knocked away Feilhaber's header as well. This led to a counter for the Revolution that Myers ended up having to clear. In the 70th minute, KC paid for the missed chances. After Matt Besler fouled Juan Agudelo out by the end line. Kelyn Rowe whipped a ball into the box where Dimitry Imbongo, falling down, hit a side volley that Jimmy Nielsen couldn't keep out and the Revs were level on the night and ahead on aggregate again.

Needing another goal, KC pushed forward in greater numbers, and it didn't take them long to get back on top on the night. A long ball over the top by Collin was flicked on by Zusi into the path of Seth Sinovic. Sinovic had made a driving run up field after seconds earlier being up-ended by Agudelo. The ball fell nicely into Sinovic's path and he fired a rocket past Reis and into the net. The type of strike any striker would be proud of, Sinovic had leveled the aggregate scoring at 3-3. The Revolution almost added another in the 85th. Diego Fagundez led a 2v2 break with Agudelo. Dribbling at Besler, Fagundez fired a shot from about 25 yards out. His shot skimmed the top of the cross bar and went out, with Nielsen thinking it was going well over. KC had one last chance in regulation to grab the win. After getting by Farrell and referee Mark Geiger playing advantage, Zusi squared a ball for Nagamura at the top of the box. He tried to pick out the far corner, but his shot went just wide of the post. Seconds later we were headed to extra time.

Into extra time, KC continued to control the play but again could not finish their chances. In the second period of extra time, it almost cost them. In the 109th minute, Agudelo received a pass from Lee Nguyen. Agudelo cut inside Besler and was 1v1 with Nielsen. Nielsen though did extremely well and made a kick save as Agudelo tried to slide the ball in near post. The Revs paid for the miss in the 113th. After Reis collected the ball he tried to quickly play Fagundez on the counter. Feilhaber though read the play and won the ball in front of Fagundez and started back in on goal. Feilhaber played a nice ball on the ground to the middle of the box where substitute, Claudio Bieler slotted the ball into the far post, giving KC a 3-1 lead on the night and 4-3 on aggregate. Sapong ended up playing a crucial part on the goal as he looked to have partially screened Reis so he did not get a good job on the ball. KC sat back after that a bit, almost immediately bringing on another defender in Ike Opara for Feilhaber to help in the back. KC though almost made it four, although it was not without a bit of controversy. With the Revs pushing forward, Reis became more of a sweeper keeper. He was forced into a give away in his own end. On the giveaway though Reis went down in a pile and immediately waved to the bench. Geiger didn't stop play and Zusi dribbled in on goal. With a couple Revs players between him and the goal he tried to chip it, but hit the cross bar, the follow up header didn't go in either and Geiger blew the whistle to get Reis treatment for what appears to be a muscle tear. Farrell had to go in net for the Revs and they finished the game with 10 men as they exited the playoffs.

Wizards Man of the Match - Seth Sinovic - There's a number of players I could choose from here, but I'll give it to Sinovic. He was solid on the left side all night and his goal was perfectly taken.

Honorable mention - Oriol Rosell, Aurelien Collin

Player Ratings - Nielsen 6, Sinovic 8, Collin 8, Besler 6, Myers 6, Rosell 8, Nagamura 7, Feilhaber 7, Sapong 6, Dywer 6, Zusi 7. Subs Bieler 8, Saad 6, Opara NR.

38 the Spot to Broadcast Sporting Games Next Year

Sporting Kansas City will have a new television partner next season. KMCI, 38 the Spot announced today that they will be broadcasting up to 26 games of Sporting's next year. It was also announced that their sister station, KSHB will be broadcasting some programing as well throughout the season.
Sporting will move away from KSMO after they'd broadcasted games for the last few years. The 26 games seems a little low considering the fact that Sporting played 34 games this past year, but KC had a number of games on national television this year, both home and away so the expectation has to be that Sporting will have a number of games on national television again next year.

It's All Down to This for Sporting

Sporting KC have 90 minutes left in their season, unless they get a win against the New England Revolution tomorrow. A one goal win and KC will force extra time. A two goal win and KC advances. Anything else and Kansas City's season is over.

The Revolution took care of business in the home leg, riding second half goals from Andy Dorman and Kelyn Rowe to lift them to a 2-0 lead before Aurelien Collin cut the lead in half. The Revolution's young lineup caused a number of problems in KC's midfield and they were able to capitalize on it. In the back, other than a few opportunities, the Revolution defense, anchored by Jose Goncalves kept KC's forwards off the scoreboard.

While the forwards didn't find the net, Aurelien Collin did, and it could prove to be a crucial goal in the series. KC came back from Houston last year down two goals and were unable to find the two they needed to tie the series and force overtime. This year KC need just one goal to tie the series. To do that, or to get two goals tomorrow and avoid overtime, Sporting's forwards are going to have to pick up their goal scoring. Since beating the Crew 3-0, KC's forwards have scored a grand total of three goals, with all three coming against bottom feeders in the league (two vs Toronto, one vs DC). In that same stretch, KC's defenders have scored just one less goal than the forwards. The lack of goals from the forwards in that stretch has made the absence of designated player, Caludio Bieler, all the more curious. With Bieler being left at home over the weekend, it'll be interesting to see if he's in the 18 tomorrow, if not can there be any doubt that Bieler won't be back next year? The other question is who is going to play in the midfield tomorrow. KC has tended to field a more attacking lineup when they play at home, so the loss of Lawrence Olum may not be felt that much. It could also be boosted by the return of Paulo Nagamura. If Nagamura can't go, a midfield of Oriol Rosell, Benny Feilhaber, and Graham Zusi seems likely.

Nielsen
Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic
Rosell
Nagamura - Feilhaber
Zusi - Dwyer - Saad

Number to Remember 2-0-2 - That's KC's record at Sporting Park against the Revolution. The team has alternated ties and wins. The first match up in KC was a 1-1 draw, then a 3-0 win, then a 0-0 draw before a 3-0 win this year. If that pattern holds true, KC would be going out, so hopefully KC can break that.

Key Match Up - KC forwards vs NE defense - KC needs their forwards to come to life, they need to start putting the ball in the net. The struggle with the forwards has become a major concern. If Dom Dwyer or Soony Saad had really come alive and started banging the ball into the net the questions over Bieler's absence from the team would have likely been a smaller issue, but their lack of goals has caused a lot of questions.

PREDICTION - I am surprisingly not worried about this game. I'm concerned, wondering if Kansas City's forwards will wake up and start putting the ball in the net, but I'm not worried. I think that KC will find at least one goal to win this game. Whether they can find a second in regulation, I don't know, but I just think that KC's experience will help them to win the game. The Revs are going to probably sit a little deeper and force KC to have to come at them. KC will need to take advantage of their opportunities. I think this game likely gets decided by a Zusi set piece, KC has the height advantage and should really be using it more on set pieces.

SKC - 2 (Saad, Collin)
NE - 0
SKC advance 3-2 on aggregate

Olum Done for the Year

Sporting Kansas City are getting ready to play their biggest game of the year tomorrow in their second leg of the Eastern Conference Semifinals. They'll be down two players for the game in Lawrence Olum and Peterson Joseph. While Joseph hasn't played much of a role the last few games, Olum has, starting the last two games and scoring the game winning goal in KC's 2-1 win over Philadelphia.

Olum's season is done though after it was reported today that Olum had a fracture in his shin that will end his season. The break apparently occurred in stoppage time on a foul by Chad Barrett that resulted in a yellow card for the New England forward.



Watching the video I have to say I don't see how the break occurred, but I've seen injuries happen with less contact on the field before. It's a blow to KC because of Olum's role lately. With Joseph out tomorrow as well, KC's midfield depth takes a hit. With Paulo Nagamura still uncertain, that leaves KC with three regular midfielders that regularly play, Oriol Rosell, Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi.

Is Bieler Being Bravo'd?

photo courtesy of Graham Greem

Last night, for the seventh time in the last eight games in all competitions, Claudio Bieler, Sporting KC's designated player did not see the field for KC. In fact for the fourth time in that stretch Bieler wasn't even on the bench.

In fact, in the post game interview, Peter Vermes said it was a tactical decision to leave Bieler in KC.

Vermes says leaving Claudio Bieler back in Kansas City was "tactical decision." #NEvSKC
— Andrew Wiebe (@andrew_wiebe) November 3, 2013

Bieler's lack of play down the stretch run for Kansas City has started to draw comparisons to another designated player disappearing act for KC, Omar Bravo. Back in the 2011 season Bravo picked up an injury right before the playoff series against Colorado began. It wasn't bad enough to keep Bravo out of the 18, but he wasn't healthy enough to start. KC walked out of Colorado with a 2-0 win. The team came home and in cold, rainy conditions got the same result. Bravo  was on the bench for both games, but didn't play. In the second leg the assumption was because of the weather and keeping him from picking up an injury that could keep him out longer. Then the Conference finals against Houston saw him again on the bench through out the game. With Sporting falling behind in the 53rd minute, it wasn't until the 85th that Bravo entered the game for Seth Sinovic, two minutes before Carlo Costly sealed the game.

After the season ended, questions started to swirl about whether Bravo would return to KC next year. Even Bravo himself said that he had a lot to think about regarding the next season. Rumors swirled of loan moves or selling him to a club in Mexico. Then on December 5th came the rumor from ESPN Deportes that Bravo was done in KC due to "problems with the coach." A week later, Bravo was on his way to Cruz Azul. After the fact plenty of rumors came out about Bravo's unhappiness here in KC.

Similar rumors about issues with the coach have been swirling for the last few weeks regarding Bieler. None anyone is speaking on, but it's not surprising if they are there based on Bieler's lack of playing time.

At some point you have to question whether it's the players or the coach. With Bieler, Vermes said that they'd been scouting the player for a few years, so they should have known the type of player that Bieler was and what would be expected of him when he came to Kansas City. If not, then the blame lies on Vermes and his scouting department for failing to realize the type of player that Bieler is.

Questions are being asked of Vermes and his acquisitions, specifically of DPs after Bravo's departure after a year and Bieler's lack of playing time lately. If Bieler isn't even in the 18 come Wednesday I think we can easily assume that Bieler's time in KC will end with just one season, the third DP under Vermes that won't last more than a season for KC.