FC Kansas City Top Boston Move Into Third

FC Kansas City earned three points and moved up the National Women’s Soccer League table by defeating the Boston Breakers 2-0 tonight.  Nicole Barnhart earns her third ‘clean sheet’ with another shutout while Renae Cuellar and Lauren Cheney scored their fourth and second goals respectively in front of 4,362 fans at Verizon Wireless Field.

Coming into tonight’s match, the Boston Breakers were the last remaining undefeated team in the NWSL, while FC Kansas City was recovering from their first loss last week.  While still early in the season, this game had the feel of a ‘must-win’ situation for both sides.  To make matters more complicated for Kansas City, center-back and U.S. National Team allocation, Becky Sauerbrunn, was unavailable due to an injury suffered against Western New York last week.  Taking her place on the back line tonight was Jen Buczkowski, while Casey Loyd stepped in to fill her role in the midfield.

Both players played admirably and held Boston to only five shots on goal.  Nicole Barnhart easily earned her third win, all by shut-out.  Renae Cuellar returned to her goal scoring ways when she slotted home a breakaway attempt against her teammate on the Mexican National Team, Cecilia Santiago, in the 17th minute.  Lauren Cheney was credited with the assist on Cuellar’s goal and then notched a score of her own in the 64^th minute when she guided in a cross from Casey Loyd on the left side then using her upper body to deflect the ball inside the near post.

The win bumps FC Kansas City into third place in the NWSL standings with 10 points.  The team will be at home again next week to face Sky Blue FC on Saturday May 25^th at 7:35pm.  Tickets are available by calling 855.4KC.GOAL or emailing tickets@kcprosoccer.com.

It's a Trap

Tomorrow's game against DC United at RFK Stadium is a classic trap game for Sporting Kansas City.  Sporting comes into the game coming off a big win over Houston on the road last week.  DC on the other hand comes in on the backs of a 7 game winless run and lost their last home game 4-0 to Houston. So DC is at a point of extreme pressure to get a result.

United's last game home game was a 4-0 loss to Houston at RFK.  The pressure is mounting on DC coach Ben Olsen to begin to get results.  DC has scored the fewest goals in the league heading into the game, having only scored 5 times through 10 games.  They've struggled with some injuries as well, with Chris Pontius and Nick DeLeon missing time for the club during this stretch.  They still have former MVP Dwayne DeRosario (and Carlos Ruiz although he is injured) on the roster and he seems to always cause KC some problems.

Kansas City comes in with a few issues of their own, specifically in defense.  In the 1-0 win over Houston last week, both Aurelien Collin and Oriol Rosell picked up their 5th yellow cards of the season.  That will see them both suspended for tomorrow's game.  The two suspensions raise enough questions for Sporting's starting 11 on their own, but there are other questions for Sporting as well.  Specifically the health of Matt Besler.  Besler has missed the last few games with a knee injury.  With Collin out Ike Opara is expected to get another start at center back.  If Besler can't go, then Lawrence Olum looks set to get his first start of the season alongside Opara.  The midfield could be a product of whether Besler can or cannot go.  If Besler can go, Olum could slot directly into Rosell's spot in front of the back four.  The other option is to have Paulo Nagamura play in the more withdrawn role and play the likes of Benny Feilhaber and Peterson Joseph in front of him. The other possibility is to drop Graham Zusi back into midfield, but I think that'd do more harm to the attack than good.  The other question is whether Kei Kamara has been with the team long enough to get reinserted into the starting lineup.

Nielsen

Myers - Opara - Besler - Sinovic

Nagamura - Joseph

Feilhaber

Kamara - Bieler - Zusi

Number to Remember - 5 - Kansas City has won 5 straight games in the series against DC United. They've won the two meetings each of the last two years as well as the one match up so far this year.  In those 5 games, KC has shut out DC in four of them, all by a 1-0 score line.  The only one that wasn't 1-0 was a 2-1 win at Sporting Park last year.

Key Match Up - Claudio Bieler vs Dejan Jakovic - Bieler so far this year has been as good as advertised, he's currently still second in the league in scoring and has been a handful for teams.  He scored the winner when these two teams met at Sporting Park earlier this year and will be counted on again to find net.

PREDICTION - As I mentioned in the opening, this is a trap game for KC.  KC is coming off a huge win against a rival in Houston now get to travel to play a team who is desperate.  And KC gets to do it without two key defensive parts.  The good news for KC is that the DC offense still don't strike me with a ton of fear. DeRosario is a threat, but the rest of the team offensively has struggled. Casey Townsend has done well early on in the lower division this year, he's not proven himself at the MLS level.  The other option is Lionard Pajoy who doesn't strike a ton of free in teams.

SKC - 2 (Bieler, Kamara)
DC - 1 (DeRosario)

Kamara and Saad Called Up for National Team Duty

Sporting KC have two more internationals for the upcoming international window.  Joining Matt Besler and Graham Zusi on national team duty will be Kei Kamara and Soony Saad. 

Kamara will be rejoining the Sierra Leone national team for their 2 upcoming qualifiers for the 2014 World Cup.  Currently Sierra Leone sit in 2nd place in their 4 team qualifying group on 4 points with a 1-1-1 record at the half way point.  The first game is on June 8th when Kamara and Sierra Leone will host group leaders, Tunisia.  Tunisia is currently on 9 points, so a loss by Sierra Leone would see them eliminated from qualification and almost assure Tunisia passage to the next round.  The second match sees the Leone Stars travel to Cape Verde, who are currently winless in this round of qualifying, but the African Cup of Nations quarter-finalists will be a tough opponent for Sierra Leone.  During the stretch, Kamara will not miss any league games as he'll not leave until after KC's game against Montreal on the first and return before KC's match in Dallas on the 22nd.  He would miss a potential US Open Cup game should KC win their first match.

Saad is a new addition to the list of Sporting KC internationals.  After representing the US at the U17 and U20 level, Saad has filed his one time switch with FIFA to represent Lebanon. Saad will be gone from May 25th through the 31st for a friendly against Oman.  Saad will miss Sporting KC's match up against Houston on the 26th as well as KC's first US Open Cup game.  The later of those two games is probably the bigger blow for KC because Saad was likely to be a starter for that game for KC. 

Good luck to both players as they represent their country.

Besler and Zusi Called Up, Convey Traded

Jurgen Klinsmann today announced his camp roster ahead of a 5 game stretch for the US Men's national team that includes 3 World Cup qualifiers.  Sporting KC will be represented in camp by two players, defender Matt Besler and midfielder/forward Graham Zusi.  The camp kicks off on Sunday the 26th, but both Besler and Zusi will be a day late.  The two will leave for camp after Sporting KC's game against Houston that day in Kansas City. 

As part of the camp, the US have two friendlies scheduled.  They'll take on Belgium in Cleveland on May 29th and then Germany in Washington DC on June 2nd.  From there the US will jump back into World Cup qualifying with a match in Jamaica on June 7th.  The US will then return home for 2 more qualifiers.  They'll take on Panama on June 11th in Seattle and then play Honduras on the 18th in Salt Lake City.  A busy stretch for the US.  Last year they did a similar 5 game stretch although only 2 were World Cup qualifiers in that cycle.  Unfortunately for the US by the last game the players were exhausted and certainly looked it in a loss to Jamaica.  Hopefully a better performance over the 5 game stretch this year.

The good news for Sporting KC is that during this stretch they are in a light cycle in their schedule.  Besler and Zusi will only miss one game over the stretch, a June 1st match against the Montreal Impact.  They could also miss 2 US Open Cup games.  They will definitely miss the 3rd round match up against either Minnesota United or the Des Moines Menace.  And should KC win, they'll also miss the June 12th 4th round match up.

Convey Traded

Before the announcement by US Soccer, KC made an announcement of their own.  The team announced today that they had traded midfielder Bobby Convey to Toronto FC for a 3rd round SuperDraft pick (will be 1st round Supplemental draft pick as SuperDraft has been only 2 rounds the last few years) in 2014. 
Convey started the first two games of the season for KC but lost his starting spot after that and only played 112 minutes for KC so far this season.  The former US international has struggled to stay healthy after the team's stellar start to the 2012 season that saw them start 7-0. He'd fallen further down the depth chart for Kansas City with the healthy return of Jacob Peterson and the return of Kei Kamara.  With young forward Soony Saad also competing for time moving Convey makes a lot of sense for KC.

On the other hand it is a little disappointing considering how well Convey had looked in preseason this year.
At it's base, this looks to just be a salary dump and a move to create an open roster spot with the trade from KC's perspective.  Convey was making $200,000 this year.  And while I can't see Toronto taking on all of his salary, that should still create some wiggle room for KC if they wanted to try to add talent come the summer window.  With his salary currently I have no complaints about "only" getting a 1st round Supplemental Draft pick, unless Sporting is cover the majority of Convey's salary while he's in Toronto.

Bitter Sweet Week for Espinoza - Former SKC Wizards Update

A bitter sweet week for Roger Espinoza and Wigan Athletic.  On Saturday, Wigan pulled off a huge upset of Manchester City and won the FA Cup for the club's first silverware. Espinoza became only the second player to win the US Open Cup and FA Cup after Freddie Ljunberg.  Unfortunately 3 days later Wigan hit a low as they were relegated from the Premier League and will be playing in the Championship next season.  Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Jose Burciaga
Julio Cesar
Doug DeMartin
Birahim Diop
Edson Elcock
Mauro Fuzetti
Willy Guadarrama
Aaron Hohlbein
Mike Jones
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Scott Lorenz
Amir Lowery
Neven Markovic
Rauwshan McKenzie
Akeem Priestly
Scott Sealy

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Did not dress in Montreal's 3-2 win over Salt Lake. Did not dress in Montreal's 0-0 draw with Vancouver.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Dressed but did not play in Salt Lake's 3-2 loss to Montreal.
Michael Harrington - Portland - Started and played 83 minutes in Portland's 3-0 win over Chivas.
Kevin Hartman - New York - Did not dress in New York's 1-1 draw with New England.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 74 minutes in Portland's 3-0 win over Chivas.
Eddie Johnson - Seattle - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Seattle's 4-0 win over San Jose.
Chris Konopka - Philadelphia - Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 1-0 win over Chicago. Dressed but did not play in Philadelphia's 4-1 loss to LA.
Khari Stephenson - Salt Lake - Came off the bench and played 21 minutes in Salt Lake's 3-2 loss to Montreal.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Started and played 70 minutes in Columbus' 2-0 loss to Colorado.
Konrad Warzycha - Columbus - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Columbus' 2-0 loss to Colorado.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Fort Lauderdale - Did not play in Fort Lauderdale's 2-1 win over Minnesota.
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Did not play in Minnesota's 2-1 loss to Fort Lauderdale.
Shavar Thomas - Fort Lauderdale - Started and played 90 minutes in Fort Lauderdale's 2-1 win over Minnesota.

USL
Christian Duke - Orlando (Loan) - Started and played 76 minutes in Orlando's 2-0 win over Seattle's reserves.
Dom Dwyer - Orlando (Loan) -Started and played 90 minutes, scoring 2 goals in Orlando's 2-0 win over Seattle's reserves.
Brian Fekete - Orlando - Did not dress in Orlando's 2-0 win over Orlando.
Cyprian Hedrick - Phoenix - Started and played 90 minutes in Phoenix's 2-1 loss to Pittsburgh. Dressed but did not play in Phoenix's 4-3 loss to Dayton. Started and played 90 minutes in Phoenix's 2-1 loss to Tucson in the US Open Cup.
Jon Kempin - Orlando (Loan) - Did not dress in Orlando's 2-0 win over Seattle.
Nelson Pizarro - Los Angeles -
Mike Reidy - Rochester - Started and played 79 minutes in Rochester's 1-0 win over Wilmington.
Yann Songo'o - Orlando (Loan) - started and played 90 minutes in Orlando's 2-0 win over Seattle's reserves.
Yomby William - Richmond - Started and played 90 minutes in Richmond's 4-1 win over Antigua.
John Wilson - Charleston - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Charleston's 4-2 win over Wilmington. Started and played 87 minutes in Charleston's 1-0 loss to Charlotte.

PDL
Scott Angevine - Des Moines - Started and played 90 minutes in Des Moines' 1-1 draw with Springfield. Started and played 90 minutes in Des Moines' 1-0 win over Madison in the US Open Cup.
Michael Kraus - Tucson - Did not dress in Tucson's 1-1 draw with LA.

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

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - FC Haka - Finland - Started and played 90 minutes in Haka's 3-1 win over OPS. Started and played 90 minutes in Haka's 1-0 loss to KooTeePee.
Stephane Auvray - DPMM FC - Brunei (Singapore League) - Did not play in DPMM's 3-2 win over Homes United. Did not play in DPMM's 2-1 loss to Hougang United.
Vicente Arze - Esteghlal - Iran - Did not play in either of Esteghlal's games.
Omar Bravo - Atlas - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 28 minutes in Atlas' 0-0 draw with Santos. Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Atlas' 3-1 loss to Santos.
Sunil Chhetri - Churchill Brothers - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Churchill's 3-0 win over Air India.
Eloy Colombano - UAI Urquiza - Argentina - Beat CSyD Liniers
Daneil Cyrus - W Connection - Trinidad - No game this week.
Pablo Escobar - Atletico Huila - Colombia - Did not play in Huila's 6-1 win over over Deportivo Pasto.
Roger Espinoza - Wigan - England - Started and played 90 minutes in Wigan's 1-0 win over Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Started and played 90 minutes in Wigan's 4-1 loss to Arsenal.
Gary Glasgow - North East Stars - Trinidad - No game this week.
Herculez Gomez - Santos Laguna - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 8 minutes in Santos' 0-0 draw with Atlas. Started and played 90 minutes in Santos' 3-1 win over Atlas.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Portmore United 0-0.
Jeferson - Bahia - Brazil - Did not play in either of Bahia's games.
Will John - AZAL - Azerbaijan - Did not play in AZAL's 5-3 win over Revan.
Igor Kostrov - Dacia - Moldova - Beat Iskra-Stal 3-0.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 70 minutes in San Martino's 1-0 loss to Real Garcilaso.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Did not dress in Spartak's 1-1 draw with Krylya Sovetov.
Michal Mravec - Zilina - Slovakia - Lost 2-1 to Slate Moravce.
Pablo Punyed - Fylkir - Iceland - Started and played 67 minutes in Fylkir's 2-1 loss to Valur. Started and played 90 minutes in Fylkir's 1-1 draw with Fram.
Ryan Smith - Skoda Xanthi - Greece - Came off the bench and played 26 minutes in Xanthi's 3-0 loss to Panathinaikos.
Milos Stojcev - FK Leotar Trebinje - Bosnia - Started and played 90 minutes scoring a goal in Leotar's 1-1 draw with Zvijezda.
Matt Taylor - Preußen Münster - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Munster's 3-0 loss to Unterhaching.
Ivan Trujillo - Llaneros - Colombia - Started and played 64 minutes in Llaneros' 0-0 draw with Deportivo Pereira.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - Did not play in TOT's games.

Sporting Third Round US Open Cup Potential Draw Reveiled

US Soccer today announced the potential draw for the 3rd round of this year's US Open Cup.  The third round is when all 16 US based MLS teams enter the competition.  The defending US Open Cup champions, Sporting Kansas City learned who their potential opponents could be today.  Sporting KC's draw will see them playing at Sporting Park in the 3rd round this year and will be playing a regional team after winning a coin flip with the Chicago Fire.  Sporting could play one of three teams as the first round match takes place tonight.  The match tonight sees the Des Moines Menace of the PDL taking on the Madison 56ers of the NPSL in Des Moines.  The winner of that match will travel to Minnesota next Tuesday to take on Minnesota United in the 2nd round.  The winner of that second round match up will travel to KC to play in Sporting Park on Tuesday the 28th

Of the potential opponents, KC has previously played one of those teams, the Menace.  Kansas City played the Menace in the Open Cup in 2 straight years in 2005 and 2006.  KC won both of those two games, winning 6-1 in 05 and 2-1 in 06.  Minnesota United, Kansas City has never officially played, but they have played the Minnesota Thunder, the previous team in Minnesota, losing in 2005 3-1 and winning on penalty kicks in 2009 after drawing 3-3 over 120 minutes. 

The game will come two days after Sporting takes on Houston at Sporting Park.  Last year Kansas City played Orlando City in the 3rd round after only two days rest.  In that game, only 3 players who started the previous league game started against Orlando (Chance Myers, Aurelien Collin, and Seth Sinovic).  Three starters entered that game as subs, Matt Besler, Graham Zusi, and CJ Sapong.

When Do You Consider Recalling Dwyer?

To say that Dom Dwyer has had a stellar start to his loan time at Orlando City may be an understatement.  Sporting KC's first round draft pick in the 2012 SuperDraft is off to a flying start in Orlando.  Through 8 games for Orlando, Dwyer has scored 10 goals already.  That's double the amount of goals as the next highest scorer Joseph Ngwenya (although he's played half as many games as Dwyer has). 

His two latest goals came in Orlando's 2-0 win over the Seattle Sounders reserves on Sunday in Seattle.  Plenty of comments can be made regarding the level of competition in the USL-Pro league, the third division of US Soccer, but you can't deny an output of over a goal a game for Dwyer with Orlando.  And in the last game against Seattle the lineup included players that have regularly appeared in league play for the Sounders, including Patrick Ianni, Jhon Kennedy Hurtado, Steve Zakuani, including others.  And he looked pretty good doing it as well with a few other chances that were blocked or well saved.

With this success you have to begin to wonder if and when Peter Vermes will look to recall the Englishman to Kansas City. You can't coach form and right now, Dwyer is in a very good run of form at the moment.  Other than the win over Chivas, KC has struggled at times to find the net.  And with the US Open Cup starting in a few weeks and Champions League starting later this summer, KC could use a guy that is putting the ball in the back of the net.

Vermes has said in the past that if he does call up one of his players that is on loan with Orlando he'd try to send a replacement to Orlando, with there being only four players currently in Orlando, per the terms of the deal, Vermes would need to send a player down to replace Dwyer.  The logical choice for KC to send should they recall Dwyer would be Soony Saad who since the healthy return of Jacob Peterson and return of Kei Kamara has found his chances limited. A chance for Saad to get game time and get his confidence up the way that Dwyer is currently would be a big boost for Sporting KC as the season progresses. But on the other hand Dwyer would likely be behind Claudio Bieler and CJ Sapong should he return with Dwyer being more of a center forward.  And with Teal Bunbury looking like he could return in June, that'd put Dwyer further down the depth chart at the center forward position.  But again with KC potentially competing in 3 competitions later this summer depth will be tested and needed for those games.

The odd thing is that with KC's current issues on the back line it could be another loanee that could get an emergency return to KC, at least for this weekend's game against DC.  With Aurelien Collin suspended and Matt Besler still recovering from a knee injury KC's only has 2 players likely to play center back, Ike Opara and Lawrence Olum.  That could potentially see Vermes recall Yann Songo'o, who has played every minute for Orlando so far this season, at least to have center back coverage on the bench.  If Vermes decides not to recall Songo'o the likely center back coverage would seem to be Michael Thomas who has played there in games against college teams during the season so far.

S.A.S. Monday After Stats

Aurelien Collin's goal was his 10th in all competitions, he's the 27th player to hit that mark for KC.

It was Collin's 5th game winner in league play, tying him with Jimmy Conrad, Jack Jewsbury, Igor Simutenkov, Teal Bunbury, and Graham Zusi for 14th on that list.

It was Collin's 6th game winner in all competitions, tying him with Eddie Johnson, Jose Burciaga, Francisco Gomez, and Mo Johnston for 13th on that list.

The win was Peter Vermes' 51st league win, breaking his tie with Ron Newman for second on KC's list for coaches.

In the 87th minute, Jimmy Nielsen passed Uche Okafor and moved into 15th place for minute played in league play, Nielsen finished the game with 9,517 minutes played.

In the 15th minute, Nielsen moved past Okafor and into 16th place in minutes played in all competitions.  Nielsen finished the game with 10,357 minute played.

Nielsen made his 106th league starting, tying him with Matt Besler for 16th on that list.

Kei Kamara made his 100th league appearance for KC, he's the 25th player to hit that mark.

Graham Zusi made his 121st appearance in all competitions for KC, breaking his tie with Sean Bowers for 20th on that list.