Thursday, May 16, 2013

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.

1 comment:

Nathan Martin said...

The Convey trade has me more excited than Kei's (temporary) return because it reaffirms that management knows what it's doing.

I've been suggesting Convey being traded even if the team has to pay some of his salary for months now.

He was worth a shot but never made it.

I'd like to have Claudio Lopez's first year as a Wizard back. He'd have been more of a terror as the left winger than any player in SKC's short history.