The 2014 season feels extremely close now after Sporting KC kicked off their preseason slate of games against PDL side, FC Tucson. Sporting KC got a first half goal from CJ Sapong to help lead them to a 1-0 win. The main talking point of the game ended up being how Sporting KC designated player, Claudio Bieler lined up. With Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi away with the US national team, Bieler lined up in an attacking midfield position right behind starting center forward, Dom Dwyer. Bieler ended up getting the assist on Sapong's opening goal, and was praised by Peter Vermes after the game as being "very fit at the moment (compared) to last year."
Sporting played 26 players in all in the game today with none playing more than 45 minutes. Of the players on the roster and in camp, that left six players that didn't appear. Goalkeepers Jon Kempin and Jacole Turner did not play as Eric Kronberg and AndyGruenebaum split time. Seth Sinovic just arrived back with the team after training with the US team and did not play. Also not playing was Peterson Joseph, who we've had no update on his health and the tests that were done since the end of the 2013 season. The other two, Jacob Peterson and Oriol Rosell, I can find no specific reason why they did not play.
Sporting Chasing Former Barcelona Winger?
There are two positions that Sporting KC fans have said the team could stand to upgrade this offseason. The first was a midfielder to play the box-to-box role to help take pressure off of Paulo Nagamura. The second was a left sided winger. Word out of Spain, picked up by Tribal Football, has Sporting in the running to try to land former Barcelona Winger, Jeffren Suarez. The Venezuelan, who has represented Spain at the youth levels has most recently been playing with Sporting Lisbon. But from reading the Spanish article, it appears the winger is more likely to Real Valladolid or Rayo Vallecano, as he's apparently wanting to return to Spain. Still if Sporting can grab him, it could solve one of KC's problems.
Palmer-Brown call up
While he's been the rumor of transfer speculation the last week or so, Erik Palmer-Brown made a 45 minute appearance for Sporting KC today as a second half sub. That will be Palmer-Brown's only game with the team in Arizona as he's been called up to the US U18 team for the Copa del Atlantico in Spain. The tournament is held in Spain from January 30th through February 8th with the US playing games on the 4th, 5th, and 7th against the hosts Spain, Argentina, and the Canary Islands.
Myers Close to Re-Signing?
It's amazing how things can change in a day. Yesterday I was thinking that Chance Myers was on his way out of KC. Comments from a few people on Twitter made it sound like Myers was wanting more money than KC was willing to pay and Myers was ready to head abroad. Now news today from Vermes says that Sporting is close to re-signing the right back. In an interview with the Star, Vermes said that they'd hope to have news today or tomorrow about Myers' return to the team.
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