Match Day 14: Can We Skip May Next Year?

Every year Sporting KC should just skip the month of May. Since Peter Vermes has taken over the team, KC has just three wins in the month of May. KC is 5-11-7 in the month of May since Vermes took charge, and two of those five wins have come this year against Columbus (2-0) and Montreal (3-0). KC's struggles this year have a lot to do with their defensive issues with losing Matt Besler and Lawrence Olum to international call ups as the same time that Aurelien Collin went down with a hamstring injury. He was back for Tuesday's game against the New York Red Bulls. And this will also be the last game without Lawrence Olum. So KC's issues may slowly be resolving themselves.

Tomorrow's opponent DC got a midweek boost when the red card that Eddie Johnson received last week against the New England Revolution was rescinded. The former KC Wizard and US national team snub will be available for selection by Ben Olsen tomorrow. Against KC's still makeshift back line, combined with Fabian Espindola, the DC offense has to be excited for this match up tomorrow. United also now has one of KC fans' "favorite" players, after his crawling act a few years ago while a member of the Chicago Fire. Chris Rolfe has also been a paint for KC through the years with the Fire.

While KC is still far from 100%, they've done a good job of holding things together as best they can. While the team hasn't gotten a win since the injury and call up issues started, they haven't been beaten into submission. Most teams by the team they were on their eighth and ninth string center backs would be leaking in a number of goals. And while by KC's standard, the number is higher than normal, the team has done well to maintain a good position in the league to make a run when more players return. At this point though, it's time to start to get some wins again. The current four game winless run is the longest since a 0-3-1 run in 2012. One more winless game would be the club's longest since their 10 game league winless run in 2011 when KC had the long road trip before the opening of Sporting Park. On the field there's not much to change from the lineup that took the field against the Red Bulls, maybe insert Jacob Peterson on one wing to provide more defensive cover on the road. Other than that the only change I'd make is if Oriol Rosell is healthy enough to return.

Kronberg

Juliao - Ellis - Collin - Sinovic

Feilhaber - Nagamura

Martinez

Peterson - Dwyer - Dovale

Number to Remember - 2 - That's the number of goals in the last eight not scored by Dom Dwyer. It's great to finally see a KC forward in some really fantastic form, but KC also needs to start getting production from elsewhere. Dwyer has still scored over half the team's regular season goals, and the team's second leading scorer is Aurelien Collin with two.

Key Match Up - KC's defense vs Eddie Johnson and Fabian Espindola - Once again many questions will be asked of Sporting KC's defense tomorrow as they face another formidable strike force in Johnson and Espindola. While Johnson only has one goal this year, his history in the league is one that can't be discounted. Espindola as well has a good scoring record in his history in the league.

PREDICTION - May can't end soon enough. KC's not had a good month. The team also can't get to the World Cup break soon enough. DC's been on hard times recently, but they're a better team than they were last year by far. It only took one mistake against New York to be punished and Johnson or Espindola are also capable of pouncing on those mistakes. With the partnership of Collin and Ellis, it'd allow Ellis to drift some with Espindola (while he'd also need to rely on Juliao when Espindola drifts wide) while Collin deals with Johnson in the middle. KC's offense should be able to find space, hopefully Dwyer's form stays high.

SKC -1 (Dwyer)
DC - 2 (Johnson, Rolfe)

Olum and Kenya Advance in ACN Qualifying

Lawrence Olum and the Kenyan national team advanced in their efforts to qualify for the 2015 African Cup of Nations in Morocco after a 1-1 draw with Comoros in Moroni, the country's capital. The draw means that Kenya advances 2-1 on aggregate after their 1-0 win in Nairobi a few weeks ago.

Like the first match up, Olum started and played just over an hour for the Harambee Stars before subbing out with Kenya leading 1-0 thanks to a 58th minute goal by Ayub Masika. Comoros found a lifeline when Yacine Saandi scored in the 72nd to tie the game, but Kenya held on to advance.

Kenya will now play the winner of the Liberia and Lesotho match. The first leg saw Liberia win 1-0. The second leg is tomorrow. The game dates for that home and away series are set for July 18th-20th for the first leg and August 1st-3rd for the second leg.

What this means is that if Olum is called up again for Kenya, he'll miss at least three league games (LA on the 19th, at Toronto on the 26th, and Philadelphia on the 1st), possibly four (Columbus 16th), and the friendly against Manchester city on the 23rd. Thankfully KC will have Matt Besler back by then, but it'll still leave KC short defensively again.

Josh Gardner Retires Becomes Professional in Another Sport - Former SKC Wizards Update

On the Benny Feilhaber Show today we found out that former KC midfielder/defender, Josh Gardner has retired from playing professional soccer and has moved on to playing professional one on volleyball. See the video below.


Also this week, congratulations are due to Milos Stojcev whose new club, FK Sarajevo won the Bosnia and Herzegovina Cup this past week. Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jamar Beasley
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Aaron Hohlbein
Mechack Jerome
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Nelson Pizarro
Akeem Priestly
Peter Schmetz
Scott Sealy
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - Started and played 87 minutes in DC's 2-1 loss to New England.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Started and played 90 minutes in New England's 2-1 win over DC.
Bobby Convey - New York - Started and played 90 minutes in New York's 2-1 loss to Portland. Started and played 90 minutes in New York's 1-1 draw with KC.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 8 minutes in RSL's 0-0 draw with Dallas.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Did not dress in Portland's 2-1 win over New York. Did not dress in Portland's 2-0 win over Chivas.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 2-1 win over New York. Did not dress in Portland's 2-0 win over Chivas.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Started and played 82 minutes before being red carded in DC's 2-1 loss to New England.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Dressed but did not play in Toronto's 2-2 draw with KC. Dressd but did not play in Toronto's 1-1 draw with Montreal.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Started and played 79 minutes in Portland's 2-1 win over New York. Came off the bench and played 12 minutes in Portland's 2-0 win over Chivas.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Started and played 86 minutes, scoring two goals in San Jose's 3-0 win over Houston.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus' 2-0 win over Chicago.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 90 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 3-2 loss to Tampa Bay. Dresed but did not play in Fort Lauderdale's 3-2 loss to Laredo in the US Open Cup.

USL
Brian Fekete - Pittsburgh - Dressed but did not play in Pittsburgh's 5-1 loss to Wilmington. Started and played 90 minutes in Pittsburgh's 1-0 loss to Charleston. Started and played 66 minutes in Pittsburgh's 3-2 win over RWB Adria.
Adnan Gablejic - Oklahoma City - Did not dress in OKC's 5-0 loss to LA. Did not dress in OKC's 2-1 loss to Arizona in the US Open Cup.
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - Came off the bench and played 15 minutes in OKC's 5-0 loss to LA. Started and played 120 minutes in OKC's 2-1 loss to Arizona in the US Open Cup.
Jonathan Leathers - Charlotte - Did not dress in Charlotte's 2-0 loss to Richmond. Did not dress in Charlotte's 2-0 loss to Carolina.
Kyle Miller - Oklahoma City - Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 5-0 loss to LA. Started and played 120 minutes in OKC's 2-1 loss to Arizona in the US Open Cup.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Did not dress in Rochester's 1-0 loss to Sacramento.
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 5-0 loss to LA. Started and played 47 minutes before being red carded in OKC's 2-1 loss to Arizona in the US Open Cup.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 2-0 win over Charlotte. Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 2-1 win over the New York Greek Ameicans in the US Open Cup.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 win over Pittsburgh. Did not dress in Charleston's 2-2 (12-11) shootout loss to Orlando City U23 in the US Open Cup.

Indoor
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Servette FC - Switzerland - Offseason.
Scott Angevine - Sporting Kristina - Finland - Started and played 90 minutes in Kristina's 1-0 loss to Kraft. Started and played 90 minutes in Kristina's 3-1 loss to AIFK.
Vicente Arze - FK Hoverla Uzhhorod - Ukraine - Offseason.
Federico Bessone - Millwall - England - Offseason.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Offseason.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Offseason.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Offseason.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Did not play in UAI's 2-0 loss to Los Andes
Daneil Cyrus - Ha Noi T&T (W Connection) - Vietnam (Trinidad) - Started and played 90 minutes in Ha Noi's 2-0 win over Dong Nai. Started and played 90 minutes in Ha Noi's 2-0 win over Da Nang.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - No game until 6/28
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Joined Honduras in preparations for the World Cup.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - Offseason.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Offseason.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Offseason.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - No game this week.
Igor Kostrov - FC Costuleni - Moldova - Offseason.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - No game this week.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Offseason.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Offseason.
Michal Mravec - Podbeskidzie - Poland - Did not dress in Podbeskidzi's 3-0 win over Widzew Lodz. Dressed but did not play in Podbeskidzie's 2-0 win over Zaglebie Lubin.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - Started and played 90 minutes in Stjarnan's 1-1 draw with Valur. Beat Selfoss 6-0 in the Iceland Cup.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Offseason.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia -  Started and played 90 minutes in Sarajevo's 3-1 win over Celik, clinching the domestic cup in Bosnia.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Offseason.
Ivan Trujillo - Deportivo Lara - Venezuela - Offseason.

Sporting to Trial US U17 Defender

Reports out today that Sporting KC will be bringing in another defender on trial in the month of June. That player is 16 year old defender, Alexis Velela, a defender for the US U17 national team. He's captained the team on a number of occasions.

Velala has been in the US Soccer residency program, but recently hired an agent. Velala apparently has multiple professional options.

If KC wants to sign Velala, the acquisition process would need to be sorted out. Since he's on trail the assumption would seem to be that Velala would not be a Generation Adidas player or previously offered a contract by MLS. Because if either of those occurred, then Velala would be required to go through a weighted lottery (unless all other teams pass, in which case he could be claimed as a waiver). In this instance it would appear the more likely acquisition process would be as a waiver selection or discovery signing.

From looking at some of his previous matches, Velela appears to be an outside back. If KC were to end up signing him, it'd give Sporting three teenager defenders on their roster, joining Igor Juliao and Erik Palmer-Brown.

OKC Bow Out of the Open Cup - Sporting KC Loan Update

One of Sporting KC's two USL-Pro affiliates bowed out of the US Open Cup last night. Oklahoma City lost 2-1 in extra time to Arizona United to go out in the third round of the tournament. Sporting KC's Christian Duke had the opportunity late in extra time to send the game to penalties, but he had a 119th minute penalty saved by Arizona's goalkeeper. Duke played the full 120 minutes for the Energy in the loss while goalkeeper Jon Kempin did not dress for the game.

It was the second game of the week for OKC. Their first game was a league game on Sunday in LA against the Galaxy II. It wasn't a pretty game for the Energy. OKC lost to "Los Dos" 5-0. Duke started and played the first 57 minutes of the game before Jimmy Nielsen made three subs, including pulling the KC loaned player. Sporting KC goalkeeper, Kempin started in goal and played the full 90 minutes for OKC.

KC's other affiliate, Orlando City fared better in the US Open Cup, taking down NASL side, the Tampa Bay Rowdies 4-1. Sporting's loaned player, Mikey Lopez did not dress for the Lions in the game. He did contribute in Orlando's league game last Wednesday though. Lopez subbed into the game for the final 13 minutes and had an immediate impact as he picked up the assist on Orlando's third goal by Kevin Molino, his third of the night as well. Orlando ended up winning the game 3-1 over the Charleston Battery.

Both affiliates are back in league action on Saturday when Orlando City hosts the Battery this time, while OKC will be hosting the New York Red Bulls reserves.

S.A.S. Wednesday After Stats

Not much stat wise from last night's game. Really only two noteworthy stats.

Toni Dovale scored his first MLS goal.

Soony Saad made his 50th appearance for KC in all competitions, he's the 60th player to hit that mark for KC.

Sporting to Host Minnesota in US Open Cup Fourth Round

Sporting KC knows their opponent for their fourth round US Open Cup match on Wednesday June 18th. The team will play NASL side, Minnesota United, who defeated USASA qualifier, the Des Moines Menace 1-0 tonight in Des Moines.

The Loons controlled the game for most of the game based off the feed I was able to get, but couldn't find a goal, being denied by the post and by Des Moines' goalkeeper. It took until the 86th minute when substitute, Christian Ramirez finally found the back of the net giving United the lead that they deserved.

The two teams will not meet in the middle of both teams' breaks that both leagues are taking during the World Cup. Sporting's last game is on June 6th in Houston while Minnesota's last game is a day later on June 7th in Tampa. So both teams should be able to play their best available players for the game.

This game will be the first time that these two teams meet up, but the third time that Kansas City will play a team from Minnesota. Sporting lost to the Minnesota Thunder in 2005 3-1 at Park University and then drew with the Thunder in Minnesota in 2009, advancing 4-3 on penalty kicks after a 3-3 draw.

The game will be the first one played on Sporting Park's new service that is set to be installed on June 2nd.

Sporting Have Eight Players Up for Fan Vote for All Star Game

MLS today announced the players eligible for each team that can be voted into this year's All Star game in Portland against Bayern Munich. Sporting KC had eight players named to the list available for selection.

KC's goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg, defenders Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, and Seth Sinovic, midfielders Benny Feilhaber, Oriol Rosell, and Graham Zusi, and forward Dom Dwyer were all named to the list of available players. With each team had eight players nominated for voting which began today and runs through July 11th. Fans can choose a full 11 players for the team. The All Star Fan XI will be made available to Caleb Porter, who will coach the match. The full roster will include 32 players, but only 18 will be available on game day. The rest will be "reserves" as the collective bargaining agreement requires.

I'll get on my soap box for just a second here. I understand that it's an honor to be selected and it's fun to see your team's players play against the likes of Bayern Munich, but I'll again implore not voting for Sporting players. It's extra games that Sporting won't need at that point of the season with a game in Vancouver four days later and Champions League starting soon after that.

The past three years the all star game has been less than kind to KC. In 2011, Omar Bravo played 81 minutes against Manchester United. Then in 2012, Aurelien Collin suffered a facial fracture in a challenge with Michael Essien and missed the next two league games because of it. Then in 2013 at KC, Graham Zusi limped off after just 24 minutes with a quad injury. Zusi missed the next four games (three league, one Champions League).

And while injuries can happen in any game, it's the fact that it's not a game that means anything come the end of the season that's always been my problem. As I stated above, 32 players end up being "all stars" the rest of the roster that doesn't make the game day 18 still receives their all star bonus. So if they really are deserving all stars, they'll still make the reserves and get their bonus.

Sporting Gets Rematch Chances in 2014-2015 CONCACAF Champions League

Sporting KC has a rough draw for the 2014-2015 CONCACAF Champions League, but will get the chance for some revenge against teams they've previously played in the competition.

KC ended up with one of the tougher draws in competition, getting drawn with Costa Rican side, Deportivo Saprissa and Nicaraguan team, Real Esteli. Sporting has previously played both teams in international competition, Saprissa in the 2005 CONCACAF Champions Cup (the precursor to the current Champions League) and Esteli in last year's group stage.

Combined, Sporting is1-1-2 against the two teams. Sporting drew both home games against the teams, winning on the road in Nicaragua, and losing in Costa Rica.

Against Saprissa, the Wizards drew 0-0 in front of a very small crowd at Arrowhead at the end of the 2005 preseason, right before the season started. When KC traveled to Costa Rica, they took a late 1-0 lead through Jose Burciaga in the 79th minute. At the time there was plenty of hope that KC would hold on with the strong defense they had at the time, but in stoppage time, Gerald Drummond found net to tie the game at 1-1. That's how the game ended at full time. In the current format of the competition, the Wizards would have gone through on away goals. But in the competition at that time, there was no away goals so the two teams went to extra time. Early in the first extra period, Drummond found net again to give Saprissa the lead. They held on to win the series 2-1 and ended up winning the entire competition that year beating two Mexican sides on the way to the championship.

Saprissa's stadium, Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Ayma, the Monster's Cave, is an extremely intimidating stadium for any team to come and play. It'd been the national team stadium for years until their new stadium was built. In fact after Snowmageddon in Denver in a World Cup qualifier, the Costa Rican FA tried to move their qualifier against the US to the Monster's Cave but were turned down. The fans are right on top of the field there and it's known for having some of the worst turf around. It'll be definitely be one of the most intimidating environments most KC players will have played in.

Sporting KC matched up against Esteli first on the road, getting a 2-0 win thanks to goals by Ike Opara and Dom Dwyer. In the return leg, KC dominated play throughout the game, but as is normal for KC at times, they couldn't find the net. Early in the second half, Rudel Calero scored off a corner to give Esteli the lead. Jacob Peterson saved Sporting's blushes as he turned in a corner at the near post in the 78th to level the game at 1-1.

It's going to be a tough go for KC this time around. Like last year when KC played Olimpia and Esteli, I said KC needed to win both at home and get a result on the road at Esteli.  The same holds true this year. KC needs to win both of their home games, that's going to be key for them this year. They can't expect to walk into Saprissa and get a result like they did last year at both Esteli and Saprissa. And Esteli will know more of what to expect from KC having played them last year.

Will May Just End Already?

Once again the month of May cannot end soon enough for Sporting KC. With a 1-1 draw tonight against the New York Red Bulls, Sporting KC is now an abysmal 3-11-6 in the month of May under Peter Vermes.

Sporting KC started incredibly brightly though, in just the second minute, Igor Juliao made a great run from midfield towards the New York goal. The Brazilian got into the box and chipped Luis Robles from close range, but before the ball crossed the goal line it was cleared away by the New York defense. A few minutes later Sporting had another chance cleared off the line as a Sal Zizzo headed was knocked away. Off the header, KC eventually won a free kick right at the top of the box. Benny Feilhaber stepped up and curled a free kick towards the corner of the net. The ball though hit the underside of the cross bar and bounced back out into play leaving the game still level at 0-0. Finally in the ninth minute Sporting took advantage of their early possession. Again it came from some good dribbling. This time it was Toni Dovale receiving a ball from Feilhaber. Dovale dribbled towards the middle as Dom Dwyer pulled defenders away. Dovale fired a shot that curled into the far corner past Robles and into the net giving KC the deserved 1-0 lead. KC couldn't make much more of their early pressure and the game settled down quite a bit as the half went on. Neither team was really able to test the opposing keeper though.

Early in the second half, the Red Bulls returned the early pressure and found an equalizer in the 50th minute. And they did it with a man advantage after Dwyer went down with a bloody nose after catching an elbow. Thierry Henry dribbled the ball through the middle of the field before playing a ball through for Bradley Wright-Phillips who was held on by Juliao. One v one with Eric Kronberg, Wright-Phillips slotted a ball past him to the far post leveling the game at 1-1 on his 11th goal of the year. New York almost took the lead a couple minutes later on the counter. Eric Alexander tried to pick out Wright-Phillips again but Aurelien Collin cut the ball out. Not enough though as the ball fell to Wright-Phillips who had his shot well saved by Kronberg one v one. New York continued the pressure, winning a free kick at the top of the box after Kronberg touched the ball outside the box, thinking a foul had been called at midfield. The ensuing free kick was headed away by the wall. KC finally started to come into the game a bit more again, Juliao set up a nice chance by Dwyer, but the forward's effort was just over the bar. Dovale and Juliao continued to cause issues down New York's left side. In the 79th Dovale forced a good save out of Robles after winning the ball at the corner of the box and cuting inside. KC continued to search for an winner, but were never able to find the net again as both teams settled for a draw. Both teams extended their winless run to four now.

Wizards Man of the Match - Toni Dovale - Had some of KC's best chances and just looked like a menace on the dribble tonight from KC's right side. He combined well with Juliao and scored his first goal for the club.

Honorable mention - Igor Juliao

Player Ratings - Kronberg 5, Juliao 6, Collin 6, Ellis 6, Sinovic 6, Feilhaber 6, Nagamura 5, Martinez 5, Zizzo 5, Dwyer 5, Dovale 7. Subs Saad 5, Medranda 4.

Match Day 13: Who Needs a Center Back Part 3: Back in Training

There may finally be an end in sight to the current center back crisis for Kansas City. Even though Sporting added another name to the long list of center back injuries, Aurelien Collin was back in training today with an eye towards playing tomorrow against the New York Red Bulls. Collin's return along with Erik Palmer-Brown's return from red card suspension actually gives them two available center backs, which they haven't had since the loss to Philadelphia. The team could also welcome back another center back option, Oriol Rosell who has missed the last two games with a quad strain.

New York heads into tomorrow night's game on a losing streak. The Red Bulls fell on Saturday night at home to the Portland Timbers 2-1, their third loss in a row and second straight at home. Before that they'd lost in Toronto 2-0 and a barnburner 5-4 at home to Chicago. The Red Bulls have the league's joint leading scorer, Bradley Wright-Phillips, who tied Dom Dwyer on Saturday with a penalty kick in the lost to the Red Bulls. The Red Bulls will be without one of their two designated players tomorrow as Tim Cahill has left to join Australia ahead of the World Cup. They'll still have Thierry Henry who is second in both goals and assists for the club at this point.

Getting Collin back would be a huge boost for Sporting, it would certainly take some pressure off of whoever it is that partners him at center back. Whether it's Kevin Ellis, who partnered Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic in KC's 2-2 draw with Toronto, Palmer-Brown, who returns from his red card suspension, or Rosell, who has also missed the last two games with an injury. One thing that KC doesn't appear to have to worry about is forward, where Dom Dwyer continues to find the net and now is tied for the league lead in goals scored. One thing about that that does concern me though is the lack of goals from elsewhere. Dwyer has scored 10 of KC's 18 goals, 6 of the last 7 and 8 of the last 11. The team's second leading scorer is Collin with just two. KC is going to need production from other players as well if KC is going to continue to be successul.

Number to Remember - 0 - That's the number of goals that Thierry Henry has scored against KC. He has picked up more red cards (1) and delayed suspensions (1) than he has goals against Sporting.


Key Match Up - KC defense vs Thierry Henry and Bradley Wright-Phillips - While KC's issues in central defense appear to be getting a little better, it's not going to be an easy go of it tomorrow against the league's joint leading scorer and the ever dangerous Henry on the field. If Collin plays, no matter who partners him in central defense a lot of the leadership responsibilities will fall on the Frenchman's shoulders tomorrow.

PREDICITON - Last season's Supporters' Shield winner and last season's MLS Cup champions have picked up a combined 1 point in their last 3 games each. Not the level you'd expect from either one of those two teams. With the league's top two leading scorers going at it, one would assume that there will be plenty of space to find in each team's back line for the two teams. Add in a goal scorer like Henry still lurking there and there are a number of concerns still for Sporting defensively. On the other hand, the Red Bulls have shown that they struggle to stop other teams from scoring, having allowed 21 goals already this season. I'm just not sure that either team is going to be able to end their winless runs tomorrow.

SKC - 1 (Dwyer)
NY - 1 (Henry)

FCKC Top Boston

From FC Kansas City

FC Kansas City faced off with the Boston Breakers to a 2-0 win in front of 2,622 fans at Harvard Stadium in Boston. This was the first matchup between the two clubs; the win moves Kansas City to 4-4-3 and third place in the National Women's Soccer League standings. Tonight's goals came from team and league leading scorer, Amy Rodriguez, while Nikki Phillips scored her first professional goal.

The Blues started the game by stopping a few attacks from Boston. Once rewarded a corner, Kansas City's captain Becky Sauerbrunn headed it just wide of the goal. Kansas City kept the traditional 4-2-3-1 formation with familiar faces such as Tymrak, Holiday and Rodriguez in the starting eleven.

Possession transferred between teams, but both defenses held strong. There was a close call from Boston in the 28th minute when Lianne Sanderson sent a bouncing corner to the other side of the box. A Boston player got a hold of it just beyond the byline and sent it to Julie King. The ball was headed in to the net, but the cross was ruled out of bounds and the goal was not counted. The referee's decision left both sides at zero 30 minutes in to the match.

Right before the dangerous corner, Liz Bogus went down and sat out the play. Kansas City made an injury substitution and brought on impact rookie, Frances Silva to replace Bogus. Late in the first half, Silva found a running Holiday but Boston's goalkeeper came out for a sliding save, the game stayed scoreless at the whistle for halftime.

Kansas City would capitalize on a corner kick in the 62nd minute. Holiday set up for the corner and sent it soaring in to the box. Phillips got the ball on the far post and tapped it in for the first goal of the match and her professional career.

The second goal would start with Holiday finding Buczkowski running up the right side, open. Holiday sent it over to Buczkowski who saw Rodriguez up the middle and on side. Buczkowski crossed the ball over and Rodriguez sent it right past Boston's goalkeeper for a 2-0 lead in the 82nd minute. There would not be much action in the last 8 minutes, giving Kansas City 3 road points and ending a grueling 9 game streak

FC Kansas City is back in action at home on June 4th to host the Western New York Flash. Kick off is set for 7:00 PM Central Time on that Wednesday. For tickets to this or any home match, call 855.4KC.GOAL

Myers Done for the Season

Sporting KC's injury crisis in defense continues. The rumors that the injury Chance Myers picked up on Friday night being severe are true. Today the team announced that Myers will have surgery Wednesday to repair a ruptured Achilles tendon in his left ankle.

The injury is the last bit of news that Sporting needed at this point. The team has now lost two defenders to season ending surgery, Ike Opara being the other. Add in Aurelien Collin still having not returned from injury, Matt Besler and Lawrence Olum on international duty, and Oriol Rosell a midfielder who can cover defensively also injured, and KC is in a full blown injury crisis.

The injury leaves KC with just four defenders available for Tuesday's game vs New York, Kevin Ellis, Igor Juliao, Erik Palmer-Brown, and Seth Sinovic, unless Collin or Rosell can return.

With the injury I'd expect Juliao and Ellis to fill in back on the right side once the current center back issues are resolved. What that means is that I really don't expect Ellis to be going back to Oklahoma City this season.

S.A.S. Saturday After Stats

Benny Feilhaber made his 50th appearance in all competitions for KC, he's the 59th player to hit that mark.

Chance Myers made his 123rd league appearance for KC, tying him with Chris Brown for 16th on that list.

Myers made his 98th league start for KC, breaking his tie with Kei Kamara for 20th on that list.

Seth Sinovic made his 114th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Sean Bowers for 20th on that list.

Dom Dwyer's two goals give him 8 league goals at home, tying him with Claudio Lopez, Jose Burciaga, and Teal Bunbury for 18th on that list.

They gave him nine goals at home in all competitions, tying him with Lopez, Matt McKeon, and Aurelien Collin for 20th on that list.

Dwyer Linked with Move to Wigan

Ahead of last night's game a new rumor started to circulate around KC regarding the team's leading scorer, Dom Dwyer. Reports from the UK were saying that English Championship side, Wigan Athletic was interested in bringing in the striker.

This is not a surprise, nor should Sporting fans expect rumors like this to stop, especially once the summer window opens in England. I'd expect we'll see a number of English teams interested in Dwyer if he continues his current form.

The reason for this is because Dwyer is not only English and wouldn't require a work permit, but is playing extremely well right now, having become the league's leading scorer after his brace last night against Toronto. The other thing is that Dwyer has shown an interest in wanting to return to the UK. Two years ago he nearly went on a loan to Scottish club St. Mirren and then this past January was on the verge of a loan move to Charlton Athletic before a managerial change derailed that move.

Dwyer has scored 10 goals in 12 appearances so far this season to go along with his two from last year. Last season, Wigan scored 61 goals as they finished 5th in the Championship, losing out to QPR in the playoffs. If Dwyer were to join Wigan, he'd be joining another former Sporting player, Roger Espinoza. He'd also become the fifth former player in the Championship with Kei Kamara (Middlesbrough), Yann Songo'o (Blackburn), and Federico Bessone (Millwall).

When a Draw Feels Like a Loss

Before last night's game, if you'd have told me that Sporting KC would finish the game with their eighth and ninth string center backs on the field and still pick up a draw against Toronto, I'd probably take it. But the way that it went down last night, the 2-2 draw with Toronto felt more like a loss. Sporting twice blew a one goal lead, both times after they'd gone up a man due to a Steven Caldwell picked up a red card.

The first half of the game lacked for chances for either side. Sporting kept the majority of the possession throughout the half as they controlled the game and attempted to shield the center back pairing of Chance Myers and Kevin Ellis from dealing more with Jermain Defoe and Gilberto. The possession worked as Defoe was denied service. The one big thing of note in the first half was in the 33rd minute when Myers went down with an injury after fighting with Defoe for the ball and drew a foul. Myers though stayed down clutching his left ankle. Reports after the game were not good as Myers is scheduled to have an MRI and worries are that his season is over.

In the second half though Sporting came out and quickly took advantage of their possession. Dwyer got the ball wide to Sal  Zizzo who collected the ball in the box before squaring the ball back into the middle for Dwyer who one timed a shot into the far corner past Joe Bendik and into the net giving KC the lead. Things got worse for Toronto in the 63rd minute when Caldwell picked up his red card. On a bouncing ball around midfield, Caldwell went up against Toni Dovale trying to reach it first. Caldwell missed he ball, catching Dovale squarely in the thigh. Referee Baldomero Toledo did not hesitate going to his back pocket and producing a red card. It was TFC though that responded first to being down a man. A turnover in midfield allowed TFC to break through Defoe. Defoe had acres of space as Benny Feilhaber couldn't close him down fast enough and Ellis shielded him towards the middle. Defoe ate up the space and then played a ball to Luke Moore who made a cutting run away from Jacob Peterson. Moore beat Eric Kronberg inside his right hand post and TFC was level. With the man advantage still KC continued to keep possession but really couldn't really test Bendik in the TFC net. In the 82nd they finally tested him. After working the ball from one side of the field to the other, Peterson played a cross into the middle that was cut out, knocking the ball into the air. Dwyer beat his man to the ball knocking the ball back to Paulo Nagamura who one times his effort, but it's right at Bendik. A couple minutes later though, Sporting won themselves a penalty kick. Again after a lot of possession around the top of the box the ball was cleared wide to Igor Juliao. The Brazilian touched it back into the box and looked to touch it past Doneil Henry. The ball went past but Juliao was knocked over by the Canadian defender. Toledo pointed right to the spot giving KC a PK. Dwyer stepped up and put the ball in the corner past Bendik to give KC a 2-1 lead. Once again KC couldn't hold on late as in stoppage time TFC again found an equalizer. Off a long free kick, Dwyer won the ball but didn't get it cleared far enough. The ball got knocked right back into the middle of the box where Bradley Orr had lost his man and beat Kronberg to the ball knocking it into the net to level the game at 2-2. KC went back on the attack with possession, but couldn't find another goal as KC settled for the draw.

Wizards Man of the Match - Benny Feilhaber - When I saw Feilhaber sitting in the deep lying midfield position for KC I was disappointed, it negated his offensive abilities. But Feilhaber sitting deep actually helped KC's attack more. He was able to help get the ball out of the back quicker, distributing all over the field in Oriol Rosell's role.

Honorable mention - Dom Dwyer

Player Ratings - Kronberg 4, Sinovic 5, Ellis 5, Myers 5, Juliao 6, Feilhaber 7, Nagamura 6, Martinez 6, Dovale 6, Dwyer 7, Jacob Peterson 6. Subs Zizzo 6, Medranda NR, Sapong NR.

Match Day 12: Who Needs Center Backs Part 2: Electric Boogaloo

Sporting Kansas City is back at it in league play tomorrow night when they'll take on Toronto FC at Sporting Park. Like Sunday against Chicago, Kansas City continues to have issues with the center back position, and they've been multiplied now by the red card that Erik Palmer-Brown picked up against the Chicago Fire. KC heads into the game without a single true center back available for the game.

Sporting KC's opponent, Toronto comes into the game having picked up their first win since April 5th last week when they beat the New York Red Bulls 2-0. While they'll be without midfielder, Michael Bradley who is with the US national team, and Julio Cesar who has left to join the Brazilian national team, they still have Jermain Defoe up top and his four goals. Toronto has improved their roster from last year when they once again missed the playoffs, but there is still improvement that is needed in their squad.

Sporting's defensive issues look like they'll once again leave KC playing a 3-5-2 on Friday. With Aurelien Collin and Oriol Rosell set to miss out again KC will likely be playing three outside backs in the defensive positions. Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic are two of the three most likely. The third will probably be either Kevin Ellis or Igor Juliao. Ellis was recalled from his loan to Oklahoma City ahead of KC's game in Chicago, and with the Energy not playing until Sunday, Ellis staying with KC through tomorrow's game at least seems likely. And with Juliao seeming more comfortable on the wing Ellis in the middle seems likely. I'd expect the rest of the team to look similar to the team that took the field against Chicago.

Kronberg

Myers - Ellis - Sinovic

Juliao - Nagamura - Peterson

Feilhaber - Dovale

Dwyer - Bieler

Number to Remember - 0 - That's the number of available players for tomorrow that won't dress. Looking through KC's roster, of the 29 players currently listed, four are out injured, three are with their national team, three are currently on loan, and one is suspended.

Key Match Up - Sporting KC defense vs Jermain Defoe - Defoe has to be licking his chops ahead of tomorrow's game against a depleted, makeshift back line. Defoe will punish the mistakes that the back line makes and really hurt KC much worse than Chicago did on Sunday.

PREDICTION - I wasn't expecting much out of last weekend's game in Chicago with the way the back line was. Tomorrow I'm not sure I feel much better. Defoe is a much better forward than Quincy Amarikwa. He won't blow a 1v1 the way that Mike Magee and Dilly Duka did on Sunday. While I think KC's offense can score against the TFC defense, I feel it's going to be one of those games where they're going to have to score multiple goals to win the game cause the defense is going to give up some.

On the other hand Peter Vermes has had more than two days of preparations with the team to get them ready for this game. Including training with the formation that they'll be using and the players in those positions. I'm just not sure KC break their winless streak tomorrow.

SKC - 1 (Dwyer)
TFC - 1 (Defoe)

Besler and Zusi Named to 23 Man Roster for the World Cup

US national team coach, Jurgen Klinsmann today named his 23 man roster for the World Cup this summer in Brazil. Today he cut seven players from his initial 30 man roster to get himself the 23 that got tickets to Brazil.

Included in that 23 are two players from Sporting KC. Both Matt Besler and Graham Zusi made the cut and will be headed to Brazil here in the next few weeks with the US team. It's the first World Cup for both players as Klinsmann took just five players who have previously played in the World Cup.

With the selection, Sporting KC continues to be one of only two MLS teams (LA the other) to send a player to every World Cup since the league began play. The pair become the eighth and ninth players to represent their country while playing for KC. The total nine is the most for any one team in MLS history as well, LA is second having sent seven different players, and eight total (Cobi Jones went to two World Cups while a member of LA).

1998
Uche Okafor - Nigeria
Preki - USA

2002
Tony Meola - USA

2006
Jimmy Conrad - USA
Eddie Johnson - USA
Josh Wolff - USA

2010
Roger Espinoza - Honduras

The biggest news out of the announcement was that veteran and probably the best player to ever put on a US jersey, Landon Donovan did not make the roster. Donovan was among the seven players that were cut today by Klinsmann. The move is a surprise and has brought out a lot of negative comments from fans this evening and even led to Klinsmann's son deleting his Twitter after a Tweet he made regarding Donovan. Arguments that Klinsmann is already looking towards 2018 with this roster since he has a contract through the next World Cup and questions of how a player who hasn't a professional game for his club was selected ahead of him. For me personally my expectations of the World Cup remain the same. I expect a group phase exit based on the group.

FCKC Draw with Seattle

From FC Kansas City

FC Kansas City hosted Seattle Reign FC tonight in front of 2,011 fans at Verizon Wireless Field. The Blues ended Seattle’s 7 game winning streak with a 1-1 draw. The National Women’s Soccer League leading scorers, Amy Rodriguez and Kim Little take credit for the two goals of the night.

The first half started off with both teams fighting for the solid possession of the ball. Neither team could keep the ball long before the other stole it.  Though possession was tough to keep, there were still plenty of exciting shots from both sides. In the 6th minute, Rodriguez made a run and shot, but Hope Solo was there to stop it. A foul just outside the box set Seattle up with a free kick. Little took it and Kendall Fletcher tried to head it, but the ball went wide.

A goal came in the 42nd minute on a play from Liz Bogus. Three minutes later, Nikki Phillips fouled a Seattle player in the box. Little took the penalty kick for Seattle. Barnhart proved her skills and the guessed correct side, but just barely missed the ball; Seattle found the equalizer just before half.

After a short break, both teams came out eager for the goal to get ahead. Seattle and Kansas City refined the possession-minded style and created problems for each other. The teams’ notorious attackers were out in full force. Holiday and Rodriguez looked for each other while Little and Leroux were working hard to make plays.

This game was physical just like the previous matchup between Kansas City and Seattle. Jenna Richmond received her first yellow card while Lauren Barnes and Keelin Winters of Seattle were shown yellow cards as well. The final whistle sounded, ending the match and Seattle’s season-long winning streak.

FC Kansas City takes a point away from tonight’s match in to Sunday’s in Boston. This will be the first time the Blues play against the Breakers this season. Kickoff at Harvard Stadium is set for 6:00 PM Central Time. FC Kansas City will return home on June 4th to host Western New York Flash. For tickets to home games, call 855.4KC.GOAL

Kamara and Sierra Leone Draw ACN Qualifier - Former SKC Wizards Update

Lawrence Olum may have been the only current Sporting KC player in Africa this past week, but another former Sporting KC player was also representing his country. Kei Kamara and Sierra Leone were also in action on the road against Swaziland. The Leone Stars got a 1-1 draw in the first leg away from home and will head home hoping to finish off the smaller country and advance.

In other national team news, Roger Espinoza has joined up with the Honduras team ahead of the World Cup, he was one of the first Honduran players to be in camp having just ended his season in England with Wigan. In other news, former defender Daneil Cyrus is leaving Trinidad again. This time he's headed to Vietnam on loan to play with Ha Noi T&T.

Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jamar Beasley
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Josh Gardner
Aaron Hohlbein
Mechack Jerome
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Nelson Pizarro
Akeem Priestly
Peter Schmetz
Scott Sealy
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - Started and played 65 minutes in DC's 1-1 draw with Montreal. Started and played 90 minutes in DC's 2-0 win over Houston.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in New England's 5-3 win over Philadelphia.
Bobby Convey - New York - Started and played 81 minutes in New York's 2-0 loss to Toronto.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 1 minute in RSL's 2-1 win over Colorado.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Did not dress in Portland's 3-3 draw with Columbus.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 3-3 draw with Columbus.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Started and played 89 minutes, scoring a goal in DC's 1-1 draw with DC. Suspended for DC's 2-0 win over Houston.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Dressed but did not play in Toronto's 2-0 win over New York.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Loaned to Orange County.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Started and played 90 minutes in San Jose's 1-0 loss to Seattle.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus' 3-3 draw with Portland.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 90 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 3-1 loss to Minnesota.

USL
Brian Fekete - Pittsburgh - Dressed but did not play in Pittsburgh's 1-0 loss to Rochester.
Adnan Gablejic - Oklahoma City - Did not dress in OKC's 4-1 loss to Richmond.
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - Dressed but did not play in OKC's 4-1 loss to Richmond.
Jonathan Leathers - Charlotte - Did not play in Charlotte's 3-1 loss to Orlando.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Orange County - Did not dress in Orange County's 1-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders reserves.
Kyle Miller - Oklahoma City - Stared and played 45 minutes in OKC's 4-1 loss to Richmond.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Did not dress in Rochester's 1-0 win over Pittsburgh.
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 4-1 loss to Richmond.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Richmond's 4-1 win over OKC. Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 0-0 draw with the Chicago Fire reserves.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 loss to Wilmington.

Indoor
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Servette FC - Switzerland - Did not dress in Servette's 5-0 loss to Wohlen.
Scott Angevine - Sporting Kristina - Finland - Started and played 90 minutes in Kristina's 4-0 loss to MaPS.
Vicente Arze - FK Hoverla Uzhhorod - Ukraine - Game vs Sevastopol was postponed.
Federico Bessone - Millwall - England - Offseason.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Offseason.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Drew 1-1 with Linces de Tlaxcala.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Offseason.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Did not play in UAI's 1-0 win over Flandria.
Daneil Cyrus - Ha Noi T&T (W Connection) - Vietnam (Trinidad) - Joined Ha Noi T&T on loan.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - Did not play in either of Cucuta's games.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Joined Honduras in preparations for the World Cup.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - Offseason.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Offseason.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Started and played 45 minutes in Azal's 3-1 loss to Inter Baki.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Sierra Leone's 1-1 draw with Swaziland in an African Cup of Nations qualifier.
Igor Kostrov - FC Costuleni - Moldova - Defeated Rapid Ghidighici 3-0 by forfeit. Beat Olimpia 2-1.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 90 minutes in SAn Martin's 3-1 win over Melgar.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Dressed but did not play in Servette's 5-0 loss to Wohlen.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 88 minutes in Spartak's 3-2 win over Dinamo Moscow.
Michal Mravec - Podbeskidzie - Poland - Did not dress in Podbeskidzie's 0-0 draw with Slask Wroclaw.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - Started and played 90 minutes in Stjarnan's 4-3 win over Thor.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Offseason.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia -  No game this week.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Offseason.
Ivan Trujillo - Deportivo Lara - Venezuela -  Did not play in Lara's 1-0 win over Carabobo.

CCL Group Draw is May 28th

Sporting KC will find out their opponents for the 2014-2015 version of the CONCACAF Champions League a week from today. Sporting qualified for this year's version of the event after winning the 2014 MLS Cup. 

This year, KC will be grouped into Pot A because of their MLS Cup win. Last year they'd been in Pot B. Included in Pot A is fellow MLS side, New York, along with Mexico's Apertura and Clausura champion, Leon, and the Clausura runner up, Pachuca. Also included are the 2013 Invierno champion of Costa Rica, Alajuelense, Honduras' Clasura champion, Olimpia, who Sporting beat and drew with last year, Tauro, Panama's Apertura champion, and Guatemala's Apertura and Clausura champion, Comunicaciones.

Sporting will be grouped with one team from Pot B and one from Pot C to complete their group. Pot B has limited selections for Sporting KC to draw. This is because it contains the other two Mexican teams (America and Cruz Azul) and the other two US based MLS teams (Portland and DC). Teams from the US and Mexico cannot be grouped together and teams from the same federation cannot be grouped together. So that leaves five teams that KC can be grouped with. KC could be grouped with Costa Rica's Verano champion, Saprissa, who KC lost to 2-1 on aggregate in the old CONCACAF Champions Cup in 2005. (Minor bitter point, if there'd been away goals in that series KC would have gone through. The series saw a 0-0 draw in KC and a 1-1 draw in Costa Rica, but with no away goals rule the game went to extra time which KC lost.) KC could also see a different Honduran team this year, Real España, the country's Apertura champion. Another possibility is El Salvador's Apertura champion and Clasura finalist, Isidro Metapan. The final potential grouping is the Canadian representative, which could be Toronto FC or Montreal, depending on who wins the 2014 Canadian Championship which is set to be played over two legs on May 28th and June 4th.

The Pot C participant can come from any of the available teams. Currently there are nine potential teams, but that'll be cut to 8 after this weekend's match up in El Salvador. Metapan plays Dragon for the Clasura championship. If Dragon wins, they'll get El Salvador's spot in pot C. If Metapan wins, the spot goes to the team with the best record in El Salvador over the Apertura and Clasura that is not Metapan. That would mean that FAS would be the other qualifier from El Salvador. 

The other seven qualifiers in Pot C have already been decided. Sporting could get a rematch from last year, against Real Esteli s the Nicaraguan side again qualified. Also qualifying was Municipal from Guatemala as the runner up with the best aggregate record after Comunicaciones won the Apertura and Clasura. Chorrillo, the Panamanian Clasura champion is another participant. The three Caribbean teams were decided from the CFU Championship group stage after the finals were canceled. Puerto Rico's Puerto Rico Bayamon FC, Jamaica's Waterhouse, and Guyana's Alpha United. 

The last spot in the pot belongs to Belize side, Belmopan Bandits, the winner of both the Opening and Closing season. The Bandits though may not get to participate in the tournament. The past few years, Belize has lost their spot in the tournament because they do not have a stadium that meets CONCACAF's minimum standards for the Champions League. Last year, Belize's spot was replaced by a Costa Rican team (Cartagines), the year before it was a team from El Salvador (FAS). Based on the fact that a Costa Rican team made it further in the tournament than any other non-Mexican team, I'd expect the spot to go to a Costa Rican team, which would probably be Herediano, who finished 2nd in the Invierno and third in the Verano this past season.

Here are the Pots broken down.

Pot A
Leon (Mexico)
Pachuca (Mexico)
Sporting KC (USA)
New York Red Bulls (USA)
Alajuelense (Costa Rica)
Olimpia (Honduras)
Comunicaciones (Guatemala)
Tauro (Panama)

Pot B (those with a * cannot be grouped with KC)
*America (Mexico)
*Cruz Azul (Mexico)
*Portland Timbers (USA)
*DC United (USA)
Saprissa (Costa Rica)
Real España (Honduras)
Isidro Metapan (El Salvador)
Toronto FC/Montreal Impact (Canada)

Pot C
Municipal (Guatemala)
FAS/Dragon (El Salvador)
Chorrillo (Panama)
Real Esteli (Nicaragua)
Belmopan Bandits (Belize)
Puerto Rico Bayamon FC (Puerto Rico)
Waterhouse (Jamaica)
Alpha United (Guyana)

Ellis Recalled from OKC - Sporting Loan Update

I quiet weekend for the most part for Sporting KC's four loaned players. The biggest news of the past week was the fact that after playing on Friday night against Richmond, defender Kevin Ellis was recalled by Sporting KC for their game Sunday in Chicago. Ellis came off the bench and played 23 minutes in KC's 2-1 loss to the Fire. With Erik Palmer-Brown picking up a red card, and depending on the health of Oriol Rosell and Aurelein Collin, Ellis may well stay with KC through Friday's game against Toronto at least.

In Friday's game, OKC continued their winless run at home. This time suffering a big 4-1 loss to the Richmond Kickers. Three first half goals and a late goal in the 88th were enough for Richmond to send the Energy to their third straight home loss. Once again Jon Kempin started in goal and played for full game for OKC. Ellis and Christian Duke both started for the Energy as well. Ellis played 86 minutes before subbing out of the game, while Duke played 75 in the loss.

Meanwhile, Mikey Lopez and Orlando continued their good run. Lopez though hasn't been playing a huge role. He's still just got the one start for the Lions. This past week in OCSC's 1-0 win over Arizona United, Lopez again came off the bench and played 15 minutes for the Lions.

This coming week Orlando has a game on Wednesday when they'll host the Charlotte Eagles. Meanwhile OKC doesn't play until Sunday when they'll make another trip out to LA to take on the Galaxy II.

Major Arena Soccer League Announced

Today at a press conference, the new indoor soccer league made up of teams from the PASL and MISL was announced. The new Major Arena Soccer League (MASL) will consist of 24 teams in the US and Mexico. The league will begin play this fall, with the league's first game occurring on October 25th, when the Missouri Comets travel to Dallas to take on the side kicks.

The league will divide the 24 teams into four six team divisions based on geography. According to Sam McDowell with the KC Star, the Comets will fall into a division that will include the last PASL champions, the Chicago Mustangs, former MISL rivals, Milwaukee Wave and St. Louis Ambush, the Wichita B-52's and Tulsa Revolution. That seems the obvious set up based on the layout of the teams.

Each team will play 20 games, 10 home and 10 away, and three teams from each division will make the playoffs for a total of 12, half the league.

The league's release said that the official announcement of the divisions will come in June along with the league logo and rules. But based on the map that was included in the release, but again, it's easy to break up the four geographic divisions. The rules will be the interesting announcement, as one of the big questions is whether the new league will utilize the MISL's multi-point system or the PASL's where each goal is just worth one point. Each side of that debate has it's supporters, although the single point system fans seem to be the majority from conversations I see.

Since it is a new league, new contracts are needed for all the players, but the Comets are looking to bring back their MISL championship team to the new league.

FCKC Draw with Expansion Dash

FC Kansas City draws 2-2 with Houston Dash at Verizon Wireless Field in front of 1,483 fans.  The Blues credit two beautiful goals to Lauren Holiday and Erika Tymrak. Jordan Jackson and Tiffany McCarty scored Houston's goals for the night. Each team takes a point away from tonight's match bringing Kansas City to 11 points and Houston to 4.

The match started with a bang when Tymrak played a through ball to Holiday who easily found the back of the net in the second minute. Houston answered the early goal when Jackson netted one with an assist from Nina Burger. Erika Tymrak played a ball through her defender's legs to hit the upper 90 and score Kansas City's second goal. Houston would try to retaliate, but the first half would end.

Both teams played with even more intensity in the second half. Goalkeepers Nicole Barnhart and Erin McLeod were put to the test with shots fired from all angles. In the 78th minute, Tiffany McCarty netted the equalizer on a play from Ella Masar. Two Dash players received yellow cards in the match. Burger received her's the 65th minute for fouling Tymrak. Osinachi Ohale was shown the other in the 90th minute.  Kansas City's Nikki Phillips received a yellow card in the 79th for a rough foul.

S.A.S. Monday After Stats

Some big milestones hit yesterday for KC.

At 17 years, 24 days, Erik Palmer-Brown became the youngest player to appear in and start a game for KC. He knocked Nino Da Silva at 18 years 158 days out of the top spot in appearances, and Yura Movsisyan at 18 years 357 days for starts.

Dom Dwyer's goal was the 800th league goal in KC's history.

In the 3rd minute, Seth Sinovic moved past Sean Bowers and into 20th place for minutes played in all competitions, Sinovic finished the game with 10,076 minutes played.

In the 14th minute, Sinovic became the 20th player to play 10,000 minutes in all competitions for KC.

Sinovic made his 113th start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Sean Bowers for 20th on that list.

Chance Myers made his 97th league start for KC, tying him with Kei Kamara for 20th on that list.

Early PKs Doom KC

A makeshift back line, including a 17 year old making his MLS debut made a number of early mistakes and it ended up costing Sporting Kansas City as they fell 2-1 to the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park.

Sporting came out with a different look, going away from their traditional 4-3-3 and instead coming out in a 3-5-2 with Chance Myers, Seth Sinovic and teenager, Erik Palmer-Brown in defense. KC struggled greatly early on as they settled into the new formation. In the sixth minute a through ball was played by Harry Shipp in to Quincy Amarikwa who was just held onside by Sinovic. Eric Kronberg came off his line and went towards the ball, missing the ball and appearing to catch Amarikwa. Referee Jose Carlos Rivera pointed to the spot. Replays didn't show much contact between Kronberg and Amarikwa, but it didn't matter as Mike Magee stepped up and sent Kronberg the wrong way giving the Fire a 1-0 lead. Things got worst for Sporting in the 15th minute. After receiving a flicked on throw in down the line, Benji Joya raced down the line towards the box. Palmer-Brown raced over to cut off the attack, knocking Joya off the ball. The ball though knocked off Palmer-Brown back to Joya. As the Fire midfielder was getting around Palmer-Brown, the center back pushed Joya to the ground. Unlike the first PK call, there was no room for debate and again Magee stepped up and put the PK past Kronberg making it 2-0. Down 2-0, KC finally started to come out and play and almost pulled one back immediately. A nice ball over the top by Igor Juliao found Dom Dwyer, but his effort beat Sean Johnson but not the post as KC stayed down 2-0. Sporting settled into the new formation and the game started to settle down as KC looked to find a ay back in.

The second half saw KC continue to have the better of possession as they pushed for a way into the game. In the 51st Claudio Bieler had a good opportunity as Paulo Nagamura played him in on goal, but he ended up firing his effort into the side netting as Johnson had the near post covered. The 64th minute KC's defensive issues got worse, as Palmer-Brown picked up a second yellow fouling Amarikwa after a poor giveaway by Toni Dovale. That leaves KC heading into Friday's game with Toronto with all five of their center backs out. The red card left Sporting inserting Kevin Ellis into the game as a center back alongside Myers as Sporting switched to a 4-4-1. Down a man though it was Sporting that responded better. In the 68th KC found a lifeline as Benny Feilhaber connected with Dwyer on a nice free kick. Dwyer headed the ball past Johnson and made it 2-1. Then just like against Philadelphia, KC almost conceded immediately after the goal as the Fire came down and Dilly Duka fired a shot on goal that Kronberg had to beat away to keep the score 2-1. KC continued to push numbers forward looking for an equalizer but ended up leaving themselves exposed in the back which almost allowed the Fire to seal the game. Some confusion between Myers and Ellis in the 76th allowed Magee in on goal with a chance for the hattrick. Kronberg though was quick off his line getting an initial touch as Magee tried to round him. Kronberg then knocked the rebound off Magee's foot for a corner. The Fire continued to attempt to hit on the counter as KC tried to find an equalizer. Meanwhile KC was trying to get their own PK at the other end. Ellis went down after a small shove on a cross and Alex Martinez went down under a challenge from Jeff Larentowicz. Neither one drew a call and on replay appeared that it would have been dubious calls. Late in the game, Duka had a great opportunity on a break away. Duka's attempt to chip Kronberg went right into the keeper's hands. Late on Shipp had a chance to seal it, turning Myers before firing a shot that Kronberg got down well to save. In the end KC ran out of time to find an equalizer on the road as the Fire won their second game in a row.

Wizards Man of the Match - Eric Kronberg - I'm still not sure the first PK was really a PK and throughout the game Kronberg came up with some big saves to keep KC alive in the game.

Player Ratings - Kronberg 6, Myers 5, Palmer-Brown 4, Sinovic 5, Juliao 5, Nagamura 5, Feilhaber 5, Dovale 4, Peterson 5, Bieler 3, Dwyer 5. Subs Ellis 5, Martinez 5, Saad NR.

Match Day 11: Who Needs Center Backs?

Sporting Kansas City continue their busy stretch of games tomorrow when they'll take on the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park. KC will be playing their third game in a little over the week, and will be doing so short handed with injuries and call ups playing their role in leaving KC short handed.

The Chicago Fire come into tomorrow's game having picked up their first win of the season last week in New York as they defeated the Red Bulls 5-4 thanks to a hattrick from Harry Shipp. The Fire used a 15 minute time frame in the second half to score four of those five goals. They'll now return home looking to pick up their first home win of the season. Their forwards, Quincy Amarikwa and Mike Magee have to be licking their chops a little bit ahead of tomorrow's game. Amarikwa leads the Fire in scoring at this time with five goals, while Magee led them in scoring last season and has two goals this year.

KC's current center back issues have been well documented. Matt Besler and Lawrence Olum are away on national team duty while Aurelien Collin and Ike Opara are both out with injury. Even KC's lone "healthy" center back, Erik Palmer-Brown is still listed as being questionable for tomorrow. And one of the other players likely to fill in, Oriol Rosell is also questionable. Peter Vermes said that Rosell would be a game time decision tomorrow. But I expect that Rosell will be able to go tomorrow and his likely partner won't be Palmer-Brown, but instead is likely to be Chance Myers. At the other end of the field, KC needs to replace Graham Zusi. On the road I think that Jacob Peterson is the likely replacement. Part of that is his defensive abilities, which will help out with a patch work defense.

Kronberg

Juliao - Myers - Rosell - Sinovic

Nagamura - Feilhaber

Martinez

Peterson - Dwyer - Zizzo

Number to Remember - 5 and 6 - Who at the beginning of the season thought that we'd be seeing KC's 5th and 6th string center backs starting the same game for Kansas City?

Key Match Up - KC's CBs vs Amarikwa and Magee - This whole situation is a little scary for KC. Without their top four central defenders the match up to watch will be how KC's center backs cope with the Chicago forward line.

PREDICTION - This game is quite scary, KC has some tired legs with their third game in a little over a week. Things don't get easier with games against Toronto and New York coming up, so getting a result here is important, especially after the points lost against Philadelphia on Wednesday. But with a make shift back line, it's going to be hard for KC to pull it off. In a place that KC doesn't normally play well, like Chicago, I'm just not sure that KC gets the job down tomorrow.

SKC - 1 (Dwyer)
CHI - 2 (Magee, Shipp)

Sporting to Host Des Moines or Minnesota in the US Open Cup

US Soccer today announced the draw for the fourth round of the US Open Cup, when MLS teams will enter the tournament. For the fourth straight year, Sporting KC will be hosting a home game in the tournament proper. This year Kansas City will take on the winner of the Des Moines Menace who qualified through the USASA and the NASL's Minnesota United.

While the Menace didn't qualify through the PDL, they beat one, Real Colorado to get to the third round. If they are able to pull the upset of Minnesota again this year they'd earn a rematch with Sporting, who beat them 2-0 last year. It'd also be the fourth time KC and Des Moines will have met in the Open Cup, KC has won all three of the prior match ups with a goal difference of 10-2.

Minnesota enters the tournament in the third round and will be looking for revenge themselves against the Menace, who knocked them out last year. While this would be the first time Sporting would play United, it'd be the third time they'd play a team from Minnesota. KC has twice played the Minnesota Thunder in the tournament, losing to them 3-1 at Park University in 2005 and then beating them on penalty kicks 4-2 after a 3-3 draw.

The two teams meet up at Valley Stadium in West Des Moines, Iowa on Wednesday May 28th. The winner will travel to Kansas City sometime between June 10th and 18th for their game against KC. The Menace have games on Friday June 13th and Saturday June 14th, which would rule out a potential weekend match up for the Open Cup in KC. Meanwhile, Minnesota doesn't have a league game at all during that stretch, which could open the door for a Saturday game if United were to advance.

Who Starts at Center Back Sunday?

Sporting Kansas City came into the 2014 season with five center backs on their roster, Matt Besler, Aurelien Collin, Lawrence Olum, Ike Opara, and Erik Palmer-Brown. With Besler set to miss about a month in May for the World Cup, it seemed that the four other central defenders on KC's roster would be able to shoulder the load through May and June until Besler's return. Now fans are not so sure.

It started in Colorado about a month ago where KC lost Opara to an injury. The injury ended up requiring surgery and the big central defender, KC's primary back up, was done for the season. 

While that was a blow, KC could survive, Sporting still had Olum there, who while mainly playing in the midfield lately had performed well in previous years when starting there. Then yesterday morning articles from Kenya were stating that Olum had been called up for Kenya's African Cup of Nations qualifier this weekend and would miss Sunday's game against the Fire. 

That fear though looked like it went away before the game when Andrew Weibe tweeted that it appeared that Olum would not be joining Kenya for the game. That lasted for less than 24 hours before Weibe tweeted again that he wasn't sure if Olum actually would be available on Sunday now and that we wouldn't know for sure until Friday.

Then in the 60th minute of last night's game against things got even worse when fans didn't think it could. Collin went down holding his hamstring and had to be substituted for the previously mentioned Olum. After the game, Collin said he'd probably be out for two weeks. No comment on the length of time came from Peter Vermes, but I would expect him to be more cautious with his estimate than Collin was. 

On top of all that, Plamer-Brown, KC's youngest player has been listed as questionable the last few weeks on the injury report because of sesamoiditis in his right foot. 

All this ends up doing is potentially putting Sporting KC in a huge bind in Chicago on Sunday. Sporting could very well come into the game with none of their center backs on their roster available. With that as a possibility, who would partner in front of Eric Kronberg against the Fire?

There are a few options for KC that give you a little bit of confidence, both Oriol Rosell and Chance Myers have previously played the center back position and if all five of KC's center backs are out, would seem to be the logical replacements at CB. 

Rosell, while a midfielder his entire time in MLS, played as a center back for Barcalona's B team in Spain. It's certainly a different game in MLS vs the Spanish second division, but he at least has some experience there.

Myers is a bit more questionable though. KC's regular right back played some center back in college at UCLA. He's never played the position in a professional game for KC, but could very well be forced there Sunday. 

Either player moving to center back would lead to a drop in their other position on the field. Rosell dropping into the middle of defense would cause a domino affect in midfield, with Paulo Nagamura dropping to the holding position, Benny Feilhaber going to the more box-to-box role, and Alex Martinez or Jimmy Medranda going into the more attacking position. Myers moving into the middle would mean that Igor Juliao would likely get his second straight start. Defensively last night he didn't look out of place, but some of his passing was off. Another option for KC would be to recall Kevin Ellis from his Oklahoma City loan for the game.

Other than those two, I'm not sure there's anyone else on the roster that I'd put at center back. Seth Sinovic and Paulo Nagamura I feel are both a little too short to play in the middle of defense.

This wouldn't be the first time that KC travels to Chicago with a makeshift central defense, back in 2011 in the second game of the season, Vermes paired Besler and Roger Espinoza in the middle of defense after injuries and other issues left KC without much defensive coverage. So it looks again like KC will travel to Chicago with a makeshift back line.

The best thing for KC heading into the weekend is for Olum to not travel to Kenya and be available for the game. That would allow one of Myers or Rosell to partner him in the middle and allow the other to play their natural position. It's certainly not an ideal situation, especially with KC looking to put the poor performance against Philadelphia behind them. The back line will have their hands full with Quincy Amarikwa, Mike Magee, and Harry Shipp on top of their back line issues.

Johnson Left Off US Roster - Former SKC Wizards Update

While two current Sporting KC players joined the US national team today ahead of this summer's World Cup, one former Wizard though was a surprising snub from the list. While Eddie Johnson has not scored a goal yet this year for DC United most still expected him to be named to Jurgen Klinsmann's 30 man roster. Johnson now though will  stay with DC instead of heading to California to join up with the US team.

Active without a club or unknown
Jamar Beasley
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Edson Elcock
Josh Gardner
Aaron Hohlbein
Mechack Jerome
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Nelson Pizarro
Akeem Priestly
Peter Schmetz
Scott Sealy
Shavar Thomas
Diego Walsh
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - Started and played 90 minutes in DC's 1-0 win over Philadelphia.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal and getting an assist in New England's 5-0 win over Seattle.
Bobby Convey - New York - Did not dress in New York's 5-4 loss to Chicago.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Dressed but did not play in Salt Lake's 5-2 win over Houston.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 5 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw with LA.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 1-1 draw with LA.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Started and played 84 minutes in DC's 1-0 win over Philadelphia.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Dressed but did not play in Toronto's 2-1 loss to Vancouver in the Canadian Cup that Toronto won on penalties 5-3.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Portland - Loaned to Orange County.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Started and played 60 minutes in San Jose's 2-1 win over Dallas.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Dressed but did not play in Columbus' 1-0 loss to Vancouver.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 90 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 4-0 win over Atlanta.

USL
Brian Fekete - Pittsburgh - Dressed but did not play in Pittsburgh's 1-0 loss to Orlando. Dressed but did not play in Pittsburgh's 3-1 win over the New York Red Bulls U23 team in the US Open Cup.
Adnan Gablejic - Oklahoma City - Came off the bench and played 21 minutes in OKC's 1-0 loss to Orange County. Did not play in OKC's 2-0 win over Tulsa in the US Open Cup.
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - Came off the bench and played 19 minutes in OKC's 1-0 loss to Orange County. Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 2-0 win over Tulsa in the US Open Cup.
Jonathan Leathers - Charlotte - Started and played 90 minutes in Charlotte's 2-0 win over Orange County. Started and played 90 minutes in Charlotte's 3-1 win over the Carolina Dynamo in the US Open Cup.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Orange County - Did not dress in Orange County's 2-0 loss to Charlotte. Did not dress in Orange County's 1-0 win over Oklahoma City. Did not dress in Orange County's 2-0 USOC loss to Fresno.
Kyle Miller - Oklahoma City - Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 1-0 loss to Orange County. Started and played 58 minutes in OKC's 2-0 win over Tulsa.
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Did not dress in Rochester's 1-1 draw with Orlando. Did not dress in Rochester's 2-1 extra time win over Western Mass.
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - Started and played 90 minutes in OKC's 1-0 loss to Orange County. Started and played 73 minutes in OKC's 2-0 win over Tulsa.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 4-0 win over Arizona. Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 6-1 win over RVA FC in the US Open Cup.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 loss to Wilmington. Did not dress in Charleston's 4-0 win over Panama City.

Indoor
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Servette FC - Switzerland - Started and played 90 minutes in Servette's 2-1 win over Winterthur. Started and played 90 minutes in Servette's 1-0 win over Lugano. Started and played 90 minutes in Servette's 2-1 win over Wil.
Scott Angevine - Sporting Kristina - Finland - Started and played 90 minutes in Kristina's 3- loss to P-Iirot.
Vicente Arze - FK Hoverla Uzhhorod - Ukraine - Did not dress in Hoverla's 1-1 draw wtih Chornomorets.
Federico Bessone - Millwall - England - Offseason.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Offseason.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Beat Club Union de Curtidores 3-0 and 1-0.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Offseason.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Did not play in either of UAI's games.
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - Started and played 90 minutes in W Connection's 1-1 draw with Caledonia.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - Did not play in Cucuta's 2-2 draw with Bogota
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Dressed but did not play in Wigan's 0-0 draw with QPR.  Came off the bench and played 54 minutes in Wigan's 2-1 extra time loss to QPR.
Herculez Gomez - Tijuana - Mexico - Offseason.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Suspended
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Offseason.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Started and played 90 minutes in Azal's 1-0 loss to Baki.
Kei Kamara - Middlesbrough - England - Offseason.
Igor Kostrov - FC Costuleni - Moldova - Started and played 68 minutes in Costuleni's 2-1 loss to Dinamo-Auto.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 82 minutes in San Martin's 4-1 win over Lo Caimanes.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Did not play in any of Servette's games.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 83 minutes, scoring a goal in Spartak's 1-0 win over Amkar Perm.
Michal Mravec - Podbeskidzie - Poland - Did not dress in Podbeskidzie's 3-2 loss to Korona Kielce.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - Dressed but did not play in Stjarnan's 2-1 win over IBV. Came off the bench and played 36 minutes in Stjarnan's 0-0 draw wtih Wikingur Reykjavik.
Yann Songo'o - Ross County (Blackburn) - Scotland (England) - Started and played 90 minutes in Ross County's 3-2 win over Patrick Thistle.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia -  Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Sarajevo's 2-0 win over Celik. Started and played 81 minutes in Sarajevo's 3-2 win over Radnik Bijeljina.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Came off the bench and played 8 minutes in Munster's 1-0 win over MSV Duisburg.
Ivan Trujillo - Deportivo Lara - Venezuela -  Started and played 72 minutes in Lara's 1-0 loss to Mineros de Guayana.

S.A.S. Thursday After Stats

At 19 years, 264 days, Igor Juliao became one of the youngest players to play a game for KC. He became the 7th youngest to appear in a league game for KC, the 3rd youngest to start a league game. In all competitions he became the 8th youngest player to appear in a game and the 4th youngest to start a game in all competitions.

Graham Zusi started his 100th league game for KC he's the 19th player to hit that mark for KC.

Zusi made his 156th appearance in all competitions for KC, tying him with Tony Meola for 13th place on that list.

Lawrence Olum made his 50th appearance in league play for KC, he's the 49th player to hit that mark.

FCKC Fall Short in Seattle

From FC Kansas City

FC Kansas City traveled to Seattle to take on the undefeated Reign. The thrilling match continues Seattle’s streak but not without a challenge. Kansas City’s two goals doubled the Reign’s goals allowed this season. Seattle netted two quick goals but could not hold the Blues off for long. At the final whistle, Kansas City would be down 3-2.

The first half started with a bang for the Reign. Kendall Fletcher scored the first while Kim Little scored on a penalty kick minutes later. Even down two goals, the Blues remained calm and kept the traditional possessive game plan. Liz Bogus and Amy Rodriguez made beautiful runs against their former club, but nothing to put on the scoreboard.

FC Kansas City found a chance at scoring when Beverly Goebel fouled Rodriguez in the box. Lauren Holiday took the resulting penalty kick and sent it past Seattle’s Hope Solo in the 44^th minute. The whistle sent the teams to the locker room with the Reign up 2-1.

After the break, Erika Tymrak came on for Kansas City in the 57^th minute for Liz Bogus. Tymrak made her presence known with an equalizing goal from outside the box that sailed right over Solo’s hands. The two goals marked a turning point in the game, both clubs eager for the leading goal. The backlines of both teams were put to the test with play after play. Goalkeepers Solo and Nicole Barnhart showed why they are two of the best in the world with major saves.

Seattle found the game-winning goal in the 76^th minute off a header from team captain Keelin Winters that Barnhart just missed. Kansas City fought hard to try and find one more goal but the match would end.

FC Kansas City returns home on Sunday, May 18, to take on the newest club in the league, the Houston Dash.  This will be the second meeting between the two teams. The Blues go into the match with a game advantage on the series.  Kickoff is scheduled for 5:00p.m. CT. Tickets can be purchased by calling 855.4KC.GOAL.

Sporting Lack Fire in Loss

After arguably their most dominating performance of the season on the weekend against the Montreal Impact, Sporting KC came out and played extremely poorly and fell for the first time at home this season, losing 2-1 to the Philadelphia Union. While Sporting certainly didn't play well enough to win the game, credit to the Union who came in with a good game plan. They disrupted KC's passing out of the back, not allowing Aurelien Collin and Matt Besler to get the ball quickly to Oriol Rosell in the middle, which has been key for KC's offense throughout this season. With Rosell cut off, he was pushing further up field trying to allowing Paulo Nagamura and Benny Feilhaber to be the ones receiving it, but that then left those two too far back on the field. The Union worked the game plan to perfection and then struck twice against a back line that looked nothing like themselves to give the Union only their second win of the season.

Sporting came out and got plenty of possession from the start but really couldn't do much with it. The only good chance early on came when Graham Zusi played a fantastic through ball to Sal Zizzo. Zizzo was in behind Philadelphia's defense, but with a defender closing couldn't get enough on his shot. The Union's pressure on the KC back line almost paid off in the 29th as Vincent Nogueira picked the ball off of Paulo Nagamura and fired a shot on goal, but Eric Kronberg got down well to make the save. Shortly after KC had another good opportunity and again it was Zusi setting up Zizzo. The US international played a fantastic cross into the box for Zizzo who put his header on goal, but it was right at Zac MacMath who made a good reaction save on the shot. Just before half time KC had another good opportunity. After some passing on the left the ball made it into the middle for Zusi who passed up a shot, instead sliding the ball wide to Zizzo who let fly with a shot that MacMath again nicely saved.

KC was playing with fire though with their work out of the back and their lack of urgency in their play and they were made to pay in the 49th. Cristian Maidana received a nice ball over the top after a throw in. He played a cross into the middle that Kronberg knocked away into the path of Seth Sinovic. Sinovic though didn't clear the ball quickly enough and Danny Cruz came in beating him to the ball and knocking the ball in to give the Union a 1-0 lead. KC threw numbers forward looking to find an equalizer but the Union continued to be in the game on the counter. In the 59th Andrew Wenger took on both of KC's central defenders, beating them down the field before Kronberg was called to come off his line and make a stop. Shortly after this play KC was dealt a big blow as Collin had to leave the game with a hamstring injury. After the game it sounds like he'll miss a few weeks, not the news that KC want to hear already down Ike Opara and Besler now leaving to join the US team.

KC kept pushing and Claudio Bieler had a good opportunity in the 70th minute, but his header from the penalty spot was tame and right at MacMath as the Union kept KC out of the net. What Bieler couldn't do, his replacement, Dom Dwyer did in the 80th minute. Dwyer picked the ball up at midfield and raced down the field, laying the ball off to Nagamura. The Brazilian immediately returned the ball to Dwyer who fired a fantastic shot into the far corner to level the game at 1-1. The game wasn't level for long though, the Union came immediately back down the field. The ball was played into Wenger who held off both Besler and Lawrence Olum before the ball got played wide to Maidana, who picked out the far corner and beat Kronberg to restore the Union's lead only a minute after it was tied. Again KC had all the work to do to try to get back into the game. Just before stoppage time they were given help by Union midfielder, Corben Bone. Bone had been on the field less than a minute when the ball was played to Jacob Peterson and Bone came in with a sliding challenge that completely missed the ball. Initially it looked like Ricardo Salazar was only going to give a yellow, but in the end went to his back pocket and produced a red card. With a man advantage for about five minutes with stoppage time though KC could not take advantage as they fell for the third time on the season.

Wizards Man of the Match - Dom Dwyer - If only for the goal, which was a thing of beauty. I've personally always considered myself more on the Claudio Bieler wagon. And while I still maintain that overall Bieler is the better striker. In KC's system, Dwyer is the better striker. Bieler is to reliant on chances being created for him to finish. Dywer, as he showed tonight can create more of his own. Dwyer really is this team's number one forward.

Player Ratings -  Kronberg 5, Sinovic 3, Collin 4, Besler 4, Juliao 5, Rosell 4, Nagamura 4, Feilhaber 4, Zusi 4, Bieler 3, Zizzo 6. Subs Peterson 5, Olum 3, Dwyer 6.

Rosell Linked with Move to Portugal

The sound you hear are Sporting KC fans in the fetal position in the corner softly crying. Today on Twitter, CNN's Senior Sports Producer, John Sinnott, posted that Sporting KC midfielder, Oriol Rosell would be leaving the club to join Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. In later responses, Sinnott said that Rosell would move ahead of the 2014/2015 season for Lisbon. This would mean a summer departure for the Spanish midfielder.

Lisbon finished second in the recently completed Portuguese season behind Benfica and has qualified for the group stage of the 2014-2015 UEFA Champions League. It's also the club of former Seattle Sounders designated player, Fredy Montero, who impressed enough on a loan move that the club purchased his contract from MLS and the Sounders.

Losing Rosell would be a big blow for Kansas City's midfield. Since becoming the full time starter at the beginning of last season, Rosell has been very solid sitting deep in KC's midfield. He's shown great vision and good passing skills that are seen in the Opta stats each week (he completed 160 of 166 last week in Montreal). Lawrence Olum, Roseel's primary back up can play the position well enough, but doesn't have the vision or passing that Rosell has. After him, the duty would fall to Paulo Nagamura, who does better when he's further up the field.

Rosell had originally come to the US and Kansas City to continue his education. He's been attending classes at UMKC since signing with the team. But the expectation (or at least mine) was that he would always return to Europe sooner than later. 

Rosell is a great player, which is obvious coming through Barcelona's youth system, and he's definitely able to play at bigger leagues than MLS. The chance to play for a team that is regularly in the Champions League is too much to pass up if there is in fact a deal, in my opinion. It'll be hard to replace him, but Robb Heineman and Peter Vermes have shown that they're not ones to hold a player back from moving on. That fact may be one that will help Vermes to bring in the next Rosell. He can point to the development that Rosell, or Kei Kamara, or Roger Espinoza have made here that have allowed them to move on to other opportunities. Similar things can be said about Matt Besler and Graham Zusi even though they've stayed here. 

The team won't be able to just replace Rosell, and that will cause plenty of gnashing of teeth in KC, but if a move does happen I can't fault Rosell and I will cheer him on in Portugal.

Olum Called Up for Kenya

Reports out of Kenya are saying that Sporting KC midfielder/defender Lawrence Olum has been called up by the Harambee Stars for their African Cup of Nations qualifier against Comoros on May 18th.

Olum has never represented his country at the international level but he has previously been called into camp with the team. If Olum accepts the call up, he would miss this weekend's game against the Chicago Fire. Accepting the call up would be great for Olum, but would leave KC very short in the back. Sporting has already lost Ike Opara for the season after having surgery and after tonight's game against Philadelphia will be losing Matt Besler to US national team camp. Losing Olum for this weekend as well would leave KC with just two central defenders on the roster, Aurelien Collin and 17 year old Erik Palmer-Brown.

It'd certainly be a trial by fire for the home grown US youth international if he were to get his first start. But KC does have other options if Peter Vermes didn't want to put Palmer-Brown into the starting 11. Both Chance Myers and Oriol Rosell can play center back in a pinch. And it's not like Vermes is adverse to playing midfielders at center back if need be. He played Roger Espinoza there when KC played at Chicago in 2011.

Still it'll be interesting to see if Olum accepts the call up. Olum seems to have always shown an interest in representing his country and this would be a good opportunity. But it'd certainly leave KC in a dire situation at center back for a match up against the Fire.

Match Day 10: Saying Goodbye to the International Duo

Sporting KC will say goodbye tomorrow to their international duo, Matt Besler and Graham Zusi after KC's game against the Philadelphia Union. The game will be the last one before the two report to the US team ahead of the 2014 World Cup. Assuming the two make the final 23, they will miss six games in May and June, likely returning after KC's game against Portland in late June. Before that though they'll hope to keep KC's current run of form going.

The Union come into the game in a lot of trouble. Philadelphia has not just lost their last three games, but they are now winless in their last nine games. Their only win on the season was back in March when they beat the New England Revolution 1-0 at home. In the last few games they have picked it up defensively, after allowing two goals a game over the course of three games, the last four they've allowed just one, with Zac MacMath stepping up his game in goal, including a PK save in Seattle.

Kansas City meanwhile comes in on a much better run of form. They've lost just one of their last eight league games. And even with the retirement of Jimmy Nielsen, the defense has barely missed a beat. Over the course of the entire season, KC has allowed just two goals from the run of play all year (Chad Barrett for Seattle and Teal Bunbury for New England). The other four goals that KC has allowed this year have come from set pieces or the penalty spot. Eric Kronberg has been playing quite well in KC's net. Even though I've had issues with some of his play you can't argue with results and four shutouts in the last five games speak well for Kronberg and his defense.

Kronberg

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Nagamura - Rosell

Feilhaber

Peterson - Dwyer - Zusi

Number to Remember - 0 - That's the number of wins that the home team had in this series back in 2013. KC won the two matches in Philadelphia 3-1 and 2-1, but lost the one home game 1-0.

Key Match Up - Aurelien Collin vs Conor Casey - A physical match up again for Aurelien Collin in central defense. Casey scored the lone goal in Philly's 1-0 win in KC last year. Collin will get the responsibility of shutting down the forward.

PREDICTION - This is a classic trap game coming up. KC is coming in off of the back of probably their most dominating performance of the season on the road in Montreal. They're playing a Philadelphia team that is getting desperate for a result, with a coach who could be on his way out the door if results don't turn around. There's also an air of expectation for KC to get the win and send Besler and Zusi to the US national team in style. This just has the feel of one of those games that could come back to bite KC.

I'm not sure it will though. The potential is there, but KC has just been playing too well lately. While Dom Dwyer's scoring against teams not named Montreal hasn't been great, the confidence that he's gotten in those games needs to transition to games against other teams. While the game is definitely a trap game, KC's talent should be able to see them past the Union.

SKC - 1 (Zusi)
PHI - 0