Monday, March 30, 2015

RVDV Deal Unlikely, de Jong Injured, Espinoza Sits, and More

Catching up on some news from the past day or so that I've brought up on Twitter, but I'll mention further here.

RVDV Deal Unlikely

Sports Illustrated writer Grant Wahl was present at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night for Sporting KC's game against New York City FC. Around half time, Wahl provided an update on the rumored move by KC to acquire Rafael van der Vaart, who has been told he won't be offered a new contract at Hamburg. For those that were excited about the potential signing, it looks like they're going to be disappointed. Wahl is reporting now that a deal for the Dutchman is looking unlikely and that Kansas City is going in a different direction.

Wahl reports that KC is still looking at additions for this summer, and has two players in mind, one of which is a South American.

De Jong Injured

Sporting has already lost Graham Zusi for this weekend (most likely) after picking up a hamstring injury in the win over NYCFC. They also could be without Jimmy Medranda, who also left the game with an injury. And now they have a third player who has picked up a knock. Tonight in Canada's 3-0 win in an international friendly against Puerto Rico, KC left back, Marcel de Jong started for Canada but only played 34 minutes before being subbed out. De Jong picked up an injury in the 33rd minute and tried to continue playing, but was quickly taken out and replaced by Karl Ouimette in the 34th.

Of all the positions that KC could suffer an injury, left back might be the easiest position for KC to recover from. With Seth Sinovic also available, KC should be fine should de Jong not be able to play this weekend. Still it'd be a blow for KC, while Sinovic may be a bit better defensively in KC's system, de Jong offers KC much more going forward with his crossing and also with the set pieces as he showed against Portland.

Espinoza Sits as Honduras Qualify

The Honduran national team filled out the final team in this summer's Gold Cup and will play the United States in each team's first game in Group A. After suffering an embarrassing 3-1 loss in the first leg in French Guiana, Honduras came out and scored three goals in the first half in the return leg in San Pedro Sula on Sunday with former DC United midfielder Andy Najar scoring two.

For Roger Espinoza though, he had no place in the team and was on the bench for the game after being subbed out in the 65th minute of the first leg in French Guiana. Still, Espinoza will likely have a role to play this summer for Honduras and could be missing more time for KC with Honduras qualified now.

Copa America Centenario Submitted




While KC was already on the short list to be a potential host for the 2016 Copa America Centenario which will feature teams from CONMEBOL and CONCACAF, today it became official. The above tweet from Dave Ficklin confirms that KC has officially submitted their bid to host games in next summer's tournament. A tournament that could bring some of the best players in the world like Lionel Messi and Argentina or Neymar and Brazil to Kansas City. Certainly something that would be quite exciting as a fan of soccer to watch.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

if nemeth isn't ready and it comes down to peterson vs rogers for a starting spot saturday, i kinda hope they give the kid rogers a look after his solid preseason. pretty thin on the wings all of the sudden, you didn't mention it, but de jong was a backup option on the left wing too.

Mike said...

Based on bench appearances, Hallisey would get the nod ahead or Rogers. Also that's assuming Medranda can't go either and you've already got Anor set on one wing

Unknown said...

I would like to see Hallisey or Rogers get some time on Sunday. Encouraged with Catrasco and Mustivar getting time and squad getting bigger.