Honduras in Talks with Sporting to Bring Espinoza to Olympics

Reports out of Honduras are that Roger Espinoza is on the short list of candidates to be one of Honduras' three overage players for this summer's Olympics in Brazil. Honduras, who qualified for the tournament by taking second place at the Olympic qualifying tournament last year are in talks to bring two MLS players, Espinoza, along with Maynor Figueroa from FC Dallas and Romell Quioto of Olimpis as their three allowed overage players for the tournament.

If agreed upon, Espinoza would be going to his second Olympic games, having previously played in the 2012 Olympics in the United Kingdom. Espinoza at the time had used that tournament as the big show for him and is probably a big reason for why he was able to land an contract in England with Wigan Athletic after his contract expired after the 2012 season.

This year's tournament for the men runs from August 4th through the 20th in sites all around Brazil. During the tournament, Kansas City has just three league games (August 7 at Portland, August 13 at Dallas, August 20 vs Vancouver), but has a game five days before tournament at home against Portland on the 31st. KC will likely have other games during that stretch as the CONCACAF Champions League kicks off in August, and they could have a US Open Cup semifinal on August 10th if they were to advance that far. So the four league games plus at least one more in the CCL, so KC would likely be missing Espinoza for at least five games in that stretch.

I can't write about Espinoza's potentially going to the Olympics without sharing his final moment from the 2012 Olympics after his fantastic performance against Brazil, getting sent off and then getting a standing ovation from the neutral fans at Newcastle, a magnificent moment.