Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Sporting Waive Okugo

Sporting Kansas City made more room on their roster today when they announced that the club had waived midfielder/defender Amobi Okugo. Okugo was acquired by Kansas City in the 2015 season that saw Sporting trade midfielder Servando Carrasco to Orlando. The 24 year old made just three appearances for Kansas City in the 2015 season, coming on as a substitute in KC's 3-1 win over Toronto and their 1-0 loss in San Jose. He started KC's 5-0 loss to San Jose before being substituted at half time.

When Okugo was acquired, most KC fans hoped that he would spend some time at center back for the club where KC was struggling with injuries at the time, but both of Okugo's appearances came playing in the midfield. In that position he just didn't fit into KC's system, there was too much space for him to cover in the midfield. The hope was that he'd have been able to adjust with a preseason to work in, but that doesn't appear to have happened. Add in the fact that Okugo made $275,000 last year, of which Orlando covered a portion of the salary, and it would be hard to justify keeping him. Okugo had not been with the team for preseason since they returned to Tucson for the second phase of preseason, so an exit was expected sooner than later, was just a question of how he'd leave. The move puts KC currently with 26 players on the roster, two under the max.

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