#TBT 15 Years Ago Today

Fifteen years ago today, Sporting Kansas City won their first MLS Cup. Then known as the Kansas City Wizards, KC rode one of the best defenses in league history to the title. Behind league MVP Tony Meola in goal, defender of the year Peter Vermes in the center of defense, and rookie of the year finalist, Nick Garica along the back line, KC's defense was a strong one.

At MLS Cup the Wizards took on the league's highest scoring team, the Chicago Fire. In the 11th minute though it was KC that struck first as Chris Klein picked up the ball off Diego Gutierrez and dribbled down the wing. Klein eventually played the ball into the middle for Danish forward, Miklos Molnar. Molnar flubbed his first chance, but the ball hit off Jesse Marsch right back into the path of Molnar who made no mistake the second time putting the ball away and giving KC the lead.

Chicago were the real aggressors throughout the game and really tested Kansas City's Meola in goal. Meola though held up, making some fantastic saves to claim the finals MVP away.

You can see highlights here.



And the full game here.

Besler, the US Senate, and Me Not Ready to Let Go

Just some quick news today about Sporting KC.

The big news on the net today was this Tweet from Sporting defender, Matt Besler.

Just found out that #SKCNation got a hold of my wedding registry and completely cleaned it out. That's incredible. Wow. Thank you!
— Matt Besler (@mbesler) December 12, 2013

Besler gets married this weekend and Sporting fans found their registry online. And Sporting KC fans picked up 95% of the things on the registry. It's not a huge story, but it shows the growth and fever of the support for the team. Also, congrats to Besler and his fiancé, Amanda.

Senator Moran's Resolution

Kansas senator, Jerry Moran has put Sporting KC, the Cauldron, and the rest of KC's supporter's groups into a resolution on the floor of the Senate. Moran, with Pat Roberts introduced a resolution extending the Senate's congratulations to Sporting KC for their MLS Cup victory.

And because I'm not ready to let go yet.

Because I want to continue enjoying the MLS Cup win, here are some videos from MLS and Kick TV that I really enjoy. The Matchday 360 from last year's US Open Cup final is still one of my favorite videos and we got a similar one this year.

Sporting Returning to Orlando and MLS Cup Ratings

The participants in the Disney Pro Soccer Classic have been announced. For the third straight year Sporting KC will be in the tournament. KC is one of five teams already announced for the eight team tournament, joining Philadelphia, Columbus, Montreal, and USL-Pro affiliate, Orlando City. The team will arrive in Orlando on February 15th and stay through March 1st. This will be their second leg of preseason, which begins in Tucson, Arizona on January 23rd.

MLS Cup ratings

Also released a little earlier this week were the ratings for MLS Cup on Saturday. Nationally, the numbers were not too great, with only 505,000 watching the game, a rating of .5 on ESPN. for the first time ever, the Spanish broadcast of the game, this year on Unimas, outdrew ESPN. The Spanish channel drew 514,000 viewers.

Locally, things were better, especially considering the game was going head to head with the SEC Championship, featuring Mizzou. Locally, the Mizzou game drew 18.5 ( per this, that means the game drew about 171,000). Sporting drew  4.3, just about 40,000. Not a bad number as a whole. In fact, Sporting actually out drew another local team that played a little earlier. KU drew a 1.8 rating, for almost 17,000. a decent drew for KC.

MLS Cup Dreams Come True in Sporting Blue

Sporting KC are once again MLS Cup champions after a 10 round penalty kick shoot out against Real Salt Lake at Sporting Park 1-1 (7-6).

A few weeks ago, Sporting Park hosted the coldest game in MLS history (since they started tracking), that record fell yesterday with the temperature at 20 degrees. It fell over the course of the game, especially once the sun went down. With the cold temperatures, the play on the field suffered, especially in the first half as it seemed like both of teams were trying to adjust to the cold while also getting the early nerves out. KC suffered a big blow just the 8th minute when they had to sub out midfielder, Oriol Rosell after he hurt his ankle in a challenge. The games first good opportunity came in the 25th minute for KC. Graham Zusi played a ball into the box where CJ Sapong had gotten between two Salt Lake defenders. Sapong got his header on goal, but Nick Rimando got down well and pushed the shot away for a corner kick. RSL really should have grabbed the lead a few minutes later. Off a long ball into the box, Jimmy Nielsen came out to attempt to punch it clear but did not get enough on it. The ball fell to Robbie Findley at the back post for RSL. Unlike when the teams' first met and Findley put away a similar opportunity. This one he put right into the near post from a tough angle and the ball bounced into the grateful arms of Nielsen. In stoppage time in the first half KC had another good opportunity. A free kick by Zusi was only partially cleared to Matt Besler. Besler played a ball back over the top to Dom Dwyer, who chested the ball down but by the time he turned to shoot, Rimando had closed down and the shot was blocked.

Early in the second half, Sporting had another great opportunity to take the lead. Another Zusi free kick was lofted into the box, it landed at the feet of Sapong. His first touch carried him past his defender, but with space to shoot he fired his shot over the bar. RSL though started to get more of the play and pressure the ball further up the field. The pressure paid off as they scored in the 52nd. An errant pass by KC fell to Kyle Beckerman who played a no look pass over the top to Alvaro Saborio. Saborio brought it down with his chest/arm, and fired a shot that beat Nielsen to the near post giving RSL the lead. As KC pushed numbers forward trying to find an equalizer, Salt Lake looked to hit on the counter. In the 62nd they almost got a second. after Findley raced forward at KC's defense. He then laid the ball back and it went to Beckerman. The US national teamer fired a shot that took a slit deflection and bounced past Nielsen but ended up hitting the post and bouncing back into play. Luis Gil collected the rebound and squared the ball towards Saborio, but Gil was offside when Beckerman's shot was taken. KC's pressure continued but it was RSL that continued to get the better chances and in the 73rd the post again came to KC's rescue. Again it was findley leading the break. This time he squared the ball into the middle for Javier Morales. Morales turned and tried to curl a shot towards the net. Nielsen acted like it was going wide of the goal but it hit the post. The ball bounced back into play and curled around the opposite post for a goal kick. Just an incredibly odd bounce of the ball. Shortly after KC finally got their pressure to pay off. Off a corner kick, KC equalized. Zusi's corner found Aurelien Collin who out jumped Chris Schuler and headed the ball past Rimando and into the net. KC continued to pressure looking for a winner and almost got caught on the counter again. With numbers pushed forward for a corner, Salt Lake sprung a break with Ned Grabavoy. The midfielder raced into KC's half of the field with only Nielsen in front of him. Seth Sinovic raced back, recovering and knocking the ball away for a corner, a fantastic recovery from KC's left back.

The first period of extra time started out quickly. Findley thought he'd given RSL an early lead, but was ruled out for being offside. Shortly after at the other end of the field, KC had a penalty shout as Sapong went out after a challenge from Schuler. No foul was called and replays showed that it was a bit of embellishment from Sapong. In the 93rd KC had their best chance of extra time. A long throw from Matt Besler was headed by Schuler into the path of Zusi who one timed a volley on goal but Rimando did very well tipping the ball over the bar. KC continued to get the better of the play in extra time and in the 102nd had another good opportunity. A long ball by Paulo Nagamura was played into the box for Claudio Bieler. Bieler beat Nat Borchers to the ball and headed it into the path of Sapong who shot with Schuler right on his back but his shot went just over the bar. Salt Lake again thought they had the lead in extra time in the 105th minute. Sporting gave the ball away in their end of the field to Ned Grabavoy. He played the ball wide to Findley who crossed the ball to Saborio. The Costa Rican headed the ball in, but was ruled offside. The second period of extra time saw both teams continue to pressure, but neither was able to find a goal and again a cup final with KC was to be decided from the spot.

Sporting shot first and Bieler stepped up and sent Rimando the wrong way.  Saborio came up for RSL's first attempt. He couldn't level things though, putting his effort over the bar. Up second for KC was Nagamura. He too sent Rimando the wrong way and KC was up again. Grabavoy was Salt Lake's second shooter. He fired a shot to Nielsen's right, but the Dane dove down and made the save. After two rounds, KC was up 2-0 and looked good for the cup. Besler stepped up for KC's third PK. He shot to Rimando's left, but the Salt Lake keeper made the save. Beckerman gave Salt Lake a life line with their third attempt, cutting the lead to 2-1. Benny Feilhaber took KC's fourth attempt, going right up the middle, beating Rimando with pace to make it 3-1. Substitute Joao Plata took Salt Lake's fourth, needing to make it to keep their hopes alive, he put his shot high in to the net to make it 3-2. Zusi stepped up to take KC's fifth PK, a goal would win it. Zusi's effort though hit the top of the cross bar and went over. Morales stepped up as RSL's fifth taker, looking to force sudden death PKs. Morales went with the stutter step, sending Nielsen the wrong way and leveling the PKs at 3-3.

Into sudden death PKS we went. Sinovic stepped up first for KC, sending Rimando the wrong way again making it 4-3. Schuler took RSL's sixth attempt, sending it right down the middle as Nielsen dove left. Sapong stepped up for the seventh round, again getting Rimando to lean the wrong way as he went to Rimando's right making it 5-4. Tony Beltran stepped up for RSL. Nielsen guessed right going to his right, but Beltran put the PK off the post and in to level things at 5-5. Lawrence Olum, who subbed on in place of the injured Rosell went eighth. Olum though put his effort wide of the net. Sebastian Velasquez stepped up as the eighth shooter for RSL with the chance to win it. Velasquez though telegraphed where he was going, looking to Nielsen's right, looking down at the ball and again looking up to Nielsen's right. The Dane made the easy save, keeping the scores level at 5-5. Chance Myers stepped up with the ninth attempt for KC going to Rimando's left as he dove the opposite direction making it 6-5. Borchers went next for RSL again going up the middle, but this time Nielsen almost got his leg on it. With the tenth attempt, Collin stepped up for KC. Rimando guessed right going to his left, but Collin's PK was too well placed, going into the side netting to make it 7-6. The tenth shooter for RSL was Lovel Palmer. Palmer put his effort into the cross bar and it bounced back into play giving the title to Kansas City.

A final that may have lacked a bit when it came to style of play, certainly lived up to a final when it came to drama and fight.

Wizards Man of the Match - Aurelien Collin/Jimmy Nielsen - Collin and Nielsen split the award. Collin for the game tying goal and for burying a perfect shot for the winning PK. Nielsen, while he didn't have a great game, came up huge in the PK shootout, saving two, the big one being on Velasquez in sudden death.

Honorable mention - Seth Sinovic

Player Ratings - Nielsen 7, Sinovic 7, Collin 8, Besler 6, Myers 6, Rosell NR, Nagamura 6, Feilhaber 5, Zusi 5, Dwyer 5, Sapong 5. Subs Olum 6, Bieler 6.

It's Game Day

It's game day at Sporting Park.For the second year in a row, Sporting KC's home will be hosting a final. Last year, Sporting prevailed over the Seattle Sounders on penalty kicks to win their first trophy since 2004.

And while that trophy was important to the team and the fans, this afternoon at Sporting Park is a much bigger game. The MLS Cup final, the highest award in the league. People can argue about the Supporters' Shield and it's importance and the championship, but in the records it shows the MLS Cup winner as the league's champion. Today Sporting have a chance to bring home their second, and add another star to their jersey.

It's a big day for Sporting. In the 18 years that this team has played, the coverage of this team has never been greater. The support from not just soccer fans, but much of the general sports community has never been higher. I've had people that usually couldn't give two licks about soccer come up and ask me about the game and how we'll do. It's amazing to see how the support for the team has grown with this run. It may not be permanent, but it's a nice step in the right direction, when every night on the news stations in KC they are talking about the game, talking about the importance, talking about how cold it's going to be. In 2004, the last time KC played in MLS Cup, the team was an after thought. So seeing the coverage of the team is fantastic.

Keeping all of them around after the cup, even a little bit, will require a win. It was said best in the video's from last year's Open Cup final; "you know how starving this town is to see somebody actually life some hardware and win something here."

The Open Cup certainly was a step, but as I said earlier, it's not the league title. That's the thing that is the most important. The Open Cup, other sports fans see as some weird soccer thing.

Now don't think I'm trying to bad mouth our Open Cup last year, I'm not. But the Open Cup has a different meaning. Sporting can try to convey it's importance to the greater community in KC, but again it doesn't have the same meaning as winning the championship. Now, today, Sporting has a chance to do that. And they get that chance in front of their home crowd at Sporting Park.

It's funny, last year for the Open Cup final I was full of "The Terror." Worried about what would happen, and expecting in the end to be disappointed. This year for the Open Cup final is oddly different. That's not to say that "The Terror" is not there this year. Anyone that knows me, knows for a fact that it is there, I'll be worried sick and at times today will be the last person in the world that someone will want to talk to.

But this year, I have a level of confidence that I didn't have last year. And I think last year's Open Cup did that. Despite comments from some people about KC's lack of experience, I think that final was immense when it comes to experience, especially at home.

I've made a point to state my displeasure in the disappointing home form during the regular season for KC. But I feel the team has learned how they need to perform in knock out games at home, and the key is the Open Cup game. This team is ready for it.

I absolutely have doubts about today, but unlike last year, there is more confidence than doubt. Whether that confidence is misplaced or not, we'll find out today around 5:30-6 o'clock.

Last year I took creative licenses with a quote from the movie Troy, and the team won it's first trophy under the OnGoal regime. I'm going to do that again. OnGoal has done a fantastic job of turning this team around from a team on the cusp of being moved or contracted, to one of the envies of Major League Soccer, now in the words of Jake Taylor, there's only one thing left to do.

MLS Cup is Finally Here

After two weeks of wait, tomorrow, MLS Cup is finally here. Sporting KC will take the field at Sporting Park against Real Salt Lake with the chance to win their first MLS Cup since 2000.The match up is going to take place freezing temperatures, with a wind chill as low as the single digits during the game.

It'll be the second time that these two teams have met this season. Sporting KC won the first match up 2-1. Not a lot can be taken from that game though because both teams were playing without a number of their first team players. Salt Lake was without Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando, while Matt Besler and Paulo Nagamura. Other changes have taken place as well, with Chris Schuler starting in centerback now for Salt Lake, while Kei Kamara is no longer with Kansas City.

Salt Lake comes into the game with arguably the more impressive run in the playoffs. They first eliminated the defending champions, LA Galaxy 2-1 on aggregate. Then they looked really impressive taking out the West's top seed, Portland 5-2 on aggregate.  Salt Lake will have Alvaro Saborio and Chris Wingert back available for them after they've missed time with injury. They could be down Devon Sandoval, the rookie picked up an injury in training that could keep him out of the game. While Saborio being back is a big boost for Salt Lake, Sandoval's absence will hurt as he'd started to develop a good partnership with Robbie Findley up top.

Sporting's in the final after finally overcoming the Houston Dynamo in the Eastern Conference finals. It's KC's first trip to the finals as a member of the Eastern Conference, their prior trips coming when they were in the West. After the way the team has performed over the course of the last two home games, I don't see any reason for the lineup to change. Dom Dwyer will be at the top of KC's forward line with CJ Sapong and Graham Zusi on the wings. The midfield is going to have Benny Feilhaber in front of Oriol Rosell and Paulo Nagamura. While the back line and goalkeeper will be the same that has racked up a number of shutouts all year. That lineup has carried KC against New England and Houston and I see no reason for Peter Vermes to change it up.

Nielsen

Myers - Collin - Besler - Sinovic

Rosell - Nagamura

Feilhaber

Zusi - Dwyer - Sapong

Number to Remember - 3,310 - That's the number of days since Sporting KC last played in the MLS Cup final, back in 2004. KC lost that game to DC 3-2. If you're looking for the last time KC won, it's been 4,801 days since MLS Cup 2000.

Key Match Up - KC's 3 man midfield vs RSL's diamond - This is where the game will be won and loss. Can KC's three man midfield win out against RSL's diamond? Benny Feilhaber has been superb in the playoffs, as has Paulo Nagamura since his return from injury. KC will need another big game out of those two to deal with the likes of Kyle Beckerman, Luis Gil, and Jaiver Morales in the RSL midfield.

PREDICTION - While KC's at home, they're not getting a ton of love from a lot of the media, including MLS's own editors. RSL is a good team, no doubt about that, it's not going to be an easy game. Like their previous meeting this year, I expect this to be another tight, physical game. I expect a lot of fouls and I expect cards. Like Houston has forced KC to change their style against them, KC has done the same to RSL over the last few years. Their match ups have turned into more physical games and tomorrow won't be different. While RSL is going to make it tough, in the end I think KC just pulls it out.

SKC - 2 (Zusi, Dwyer)
RSL - 1 (Findley)

Weather, SKC vs MU, and Other MLS Cup News

We're less than 48 hours away from MLS Cup. And with the game so close, there's lots of news coming out as soccer journalists around the US have descended on Kansas City for the final. Here's some news from today as MLS Cup gets closer.

Weather

This has been one of the big talking points for the last few weeks or so. After last weekend and earlier this week, that had temperatures in the 60's, the bottom has fallen out and temperatures for Saturday are now expected to only be in the 20's for Saturday. It gets even better, with the wind chill, it'll feel like it's in the single digits or below zero. Two weeks ago, KC played in the coldest game since MLS started keeping track in 2003. And Saturday it looks like a new record low could be hit. The expected snow this weekend looks like it'll hold off until Saturday night after the game, which is a good thing, but definitely dress in layers on Saturday.

SKC vs Mizzou

This has been a topic of discussion since last week when Mizzou defeated Texas A&M and clinched a spot in the SEC title game. That game kicks off in Atlanta at the same time that MLS Cup is set to kick off. With the two games starting at the same time, the conversation has turned to the coverage of both teams. So much so that the Wall Street Journal has made mention of it (albeit poorly in my opinion).

But let's be serious, Sporting KC is extremely unlikely to get top billing ahead of Mizzou, no matter how the SEC title game ends. Despite the MU/KU (and K-State) split in this city, MU is the larger fan base in the city. And while Sporting KC and soccer in general has made great strides in it's coverage in the media (print, TV, radio) over the past few years, football is still king in this city and country.

There really shouldn't be debate, unless you're a fan of both teams and not planning to attend one or the other. Then it becomes a debate of which one you watch live (or which one gets the big TV). Other than that, there is no debate here (especially in media coverage).

Retirement Questions

This shouldn't be a surprising conversation given the hunt by journalists around the city to find a story, but questions have been asked about Jimmy Nielsen's future. In the Guardian, as well as in today's press conference, Nielsen talked about potential retirement after Saturday's game.

The Guardian got the more in depth answer from Sporting's captain, and Nielsen was very diplomatic in his answer. Nielsen though didn't rule out the possibility of retiring, saying he'll make the decision after the game "If we win, then the first thing I'm going to do is go on a little vacation with my family. Then I will follow my gut feeling after that."

Going out on top would certainly have it's advantages, but plenty of fans would be disappointed if the White Puma chose to hang them up after the season.

Heineman Letter

Last year before the US Open Cup final against Seattle, Robb Heineman penned a letter to fans that was posted on the team's site, thanking the fans for their support and getting people excited for the final against the Sounders. This year he's done it again with another letter to the fans, and like last year, it has the desired effect. It gets more excitement for the fans and while it does have the general "rah-rah" you'd expect, it does speak to the great efforts that Sporting KC have made to endear themselves to the city and fans.

Clashing Styles?

Over the past week or so, other than Ticket gate, one of the main talking points of this weekend's MLS Cup final has been the difference in style of play between Sporting KC and Real Salt Lake. A lot of talk has been made of Sporting's "thugish" style against Salt Lake's more beautiful style of play.

The comments come mainly from the fact that KC led the league in fouls with 511, 46 more than the next closest team. And from the fact that KC finished the season with the top two players in terms of yellow card accumulation (Aurelien Collin 13, Oriol Rosell 10). Meanwhile, people praise RSL and the way that they play. Fans make mention of the fact that they led the league in possession (although KC finished second). And today in the Central Winger it was shown just how many passes they average in possession that lead to shots. They kill the league in this stat.

And while it's hard to argue the numbers, they're against the entire league. When the two teams meet does the style of play change? KC's earned some of the thug comments that they get for their style of play, but when SKC and RSL meet, it's KC's style that becomes prevalent.

To get an idea of how the two teams play against each other, I think you have to go back to the 2011 preseason, when a game between KC and Salt Lake ended early after a tackle by Roger Espinoza on Javier Morales led to a confrontation between the teams. Since then, a rivalry on the field has developed between the two teams.

In those match ups, the games have been more physical as the teams have generally felt more physical than their other games they've played.. Back in 2011 in the two games they played, each team committed 30 total fouls (15 per game average), KC picked up two yellows and a red card, while Salt Lake picked up four yellows. Compared to the rest of the season, that was almost three fouls more per game for KC (12.3 average in the other 33 games) and just over 2 less per game for RSL. The red card in that game went to Roger Espinoza for a poor challenge from behind on Kyle Beckerman.

This year, the match up again featured deviations from the norms in their match up. RSL picked up 4 yellow cards, including two to Chris Wingert, doubling their average over the course of the rest of the season. Basically, what I'm saying is that while RSL may play a "prettier game" than Sporting during the season, their style changes, and I expect it to happen on Saturday.

More Ticket Fun

It's the week of MLS Cup. With the issues from last week with the season ticket holder pre-sale, I'd hoped that this week would be about the game itself. Today the sale to the general public begins, but that's apparently come with it's own issues. On the page for ticket sales for the game there is this notice under the "Please Note" section: "(venue name) is located in (city, state/province). Sales to this event will be restricted to residents of (geo-limited states/provinces or selected area). Residency will be based on credit card billing address. Orders by residents outside (geo-limited states/provinces or selected area) will be canceled without notice and refunds given. Delivery of all tickets will be delayed until 12/4/13 to allow for enforcement of 8 ticket limit."

Based on that, it looks like Real Salt Lake fans could again be left out of this sale, because apparently this is being restricted to Kansas and Missouri. Of the ticket issues so far, this is probably the one that annoys me the most. I understand canceling all the orders that came in from the leaked code, that I don't have an issue with. But with tickets going on sale to the "general public" the assumption is that those tickets would be available for anyone to choose from.

Some RSL fans have apparently gotten so frustrated with not being able to get tickets, even after scheduling flights to KC that some are wanting to file a class action lawsuit against MLS, SKC, and TicketMaster. The issue with that is it looks like Ticket Master may have this covered in their purchasing policy that I linked in a previous write up. The section on "Pricing and Other Errors" in the link states "If the amount you pay for a ticket is incorrect regardless of whether because of an error in a price posted on this Site or otherwise communicated to you, or you are able to order a ticket before its scheduled on-sale or presale date or you are able to order a ticket that was not supposed to have been released for sale, then we will have the right to cancel that ticket (or the order for that ticket) and refund to you the amount that you paid. This will apply regardless of whether because of human error or a transactional malfunction of this website or other Ticketmaster operated system."

That would seem to cover the pre-sale issue and other than that I don't think any of the other sales would cause issue enough to bring a lawsuit. The RSL fans could ask more questions of their front office about the distribution of their 1,000 ticket allocation, which rumors continue to fly that most of those tickets went to family, staff, and partners.

Another Look at Ticket Gate

The ticket cancelation emails that Real Salt Lake mentioned last night did go out from Ticket Master today. Anyone that utilized the leaked code, 13STMCUP did not have their tickets go through.

Today though as the dust has cleared there's been a lot of misunderstandings and miscommunications of the process. First season ticket holders who purchased playoff packages had the chance to do a preorder for their tickets for MLS Cup starting an hour after Sporting's Eastern Conference final ended (this is when I purchased my ticket, shortly after I got home from the game).

After that came a Visa pre-sale and then the pre-sale to season ticket holders, specifically those who had not purchased the playoff package. And this is where the issue started to occur. During the presale, season ticket holders were sent an email with a link to get into their Account Manager. When they logged in their tickets for MLS Cup were there for them to purchase. Where the issue occurred was the code, 13STMCUP. According to the team's chief revenue officer Jake Reid, the code was only there for ticket holders who had trouble logging into the account manager.

The code leaked onto the net with reports stating the first location was in the comments section of a KC Star article. Once on the net, as things tend to do, it spread like wildfire and according to reports, close to 1,000 tickets were purchased using that code. The code even got retweeted by the RSL twitter account (later deleted). How the code originally was leaked was not known, but the code itself isn't hard so it's not a stretch to think someone guessed it.

However it leaked, a number of RSL fans jumped on the chance to purchase the tickets and once it was realized what was going on, the code was made invalid and the shit storm started. The issue became so big that MLS felt the need to put out a statement regarding what went down with the ticket process. The announcement by the league though puts a lot of blame on RSL fans, which is probably not entirely fair. Yes the code was not for them, which is why they deserve some of the blame, it was known to most of the people I read about that the code was a KC STH code, but many used it anyway. On the other hand blame lies with MLS, Ticket Master and KC in the situation because of how the situation went down. The code should have likely not been valid yet, and probably should have been a little harder to guess. The other issue with the code is that it did not put any sort of limit on purchases, I know of a KC fan that was able to purchase 16 South Stand tickets that he was in turn trying to sell.

So the RSL fans were back to square one with either going through their team for ticket allocation. They were allocated 1,000 tickets, but apparently a number of those tickets went to sponsors, families, and other groups that were not necessarily the die hards.

Obviously many are still not happy, but Ticket Master is well within their rights according to their purchase policy, which states: If the amount you pay for a ticket is incorrect regardless of whether because of an error in a price posted on this Site or otherwise communicated to you, or you are able to order a ticket before its scheduled on-sale or presale date or you are able to order a ticket that was not supposed to have been released for sale, then we will have the right to cancel that ticket (or the order for that ticket) and refund to you the amount that you paid. This will apply regardless of whether because of human error or a transactional malfunction of this website or other Ticketmaster operated system.

That seems a pretty cut and dry reason for the tickets being invalidated.

Other blame can be put on MLS as well, according to their media guide for MLS Cup, "the match will be operated by League Office staff and its designees.”

The way I read that, the league is controlling the game and the preparations for it.

So there's plenty of blame to go around to all parties involved in this.

The whole ticket situation has brought up the question of whether the game should be moved to the 76,000 seat Arrowhead Stadium, giving more RSL fans the chance to purchase tickets. There are issues with that though. First by December, the field is a mess from a number of football games on it, with both KC and RSL likely to play a lot of balls on the deck; it'd cause problems for both teams. Second, Peter Vermes has designed his team to be able to take advantage of the field size at Sporting Park. A move to Arrowhead would see a much narrower and shorter field that would not work as well with the way Vermes likes to play, and with KC earning home field advantage they should be able to play at their home field. This brings me to the third point, which is that Sporting KC wants to show off their stadium, not Arrowhead. Sporting KC want their stadium to get the exposure of being on national TV, they don't want to forfeit that chance for the game to be played at Arrowhead. And that's all without discussing how many people would show up to the game at Arrowhead. Even a crowd of 30,000 to 40,000 would leave 30,000 to 40,000 empty seats in the stadium for the league's marquee match up.

It's a sucky situation, especially for RSL fans that after purchasing tickets through the invalid code went out and bought airline tickets and booked a hotel. But there is blame for each group involved in this.

Ticket "Fun"

With Sporting Park hosting MLS Cup on December 7th the process for purchasing tickets started fairly early. Just an hour after the game ended, season ticket holders who had purchased the three game playoff package could purchase their ticket for the final using their credit for the play-in game that was not used. Other season ticket holders had to wait until today to begin the purchasing process. And today is where the fun started.

First, the KC Cauldron put up their allotment of tickets for the Members' Stand up for sale at 10am. Just before 10am, their site started to move slower. Right at 10am, according to the Cauldron, 3,000 carts were initiated with tickets, well over the 500 that they'd been allocated. From reports that I read from friends on Twitter, it took minutes to navigate a single page. By 10:30 all the tickets were gone, although it seemed like if you hadn't been on right at 10am you were not getting tickets.

This lead to a loud gnashing of teeth from many members of the Cauldron, some who had tickets in their cart for check out, only to be told that the tickets were all gone as they attempted to check out from the site. So much so that the Cauldron felt that they needed to put out a statement regarding the issues today (linked above).

Then at noon today, the season ticket holder pre-sale started. This was for all season ticket holders that had not purchased the playoff package, giving them a chance to purchase their ticket(s) for the final. That code, given to Season Ticket Holders was unique for each ticket account. As the day went on, another code was posted on the net that allowed a number of fans to go in and get tickets. Fans were apparently able to use that code to make purchases, even if they didn't have season tickets and allowed them to purchase anywhere in the stadium. This included a number of Real Salt Lake fans that were able to buy tickets using the code.

Since then, the code has been declared invalid and ALL tickets purchased using the code have been canceled with refunds being distributed.

#RSL fans :: if you bought @MLS Cup today via Ticketmaster, the leaked code was declared invalid by SKC/TM & your tix will be cancelled
— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) November 27, 2013

To be clear, ALL tix bought today with that code are invalid, regardless of where/how/who bought them
— Real Salt Lake (@RealSaltLake) November 27, 2013

This announcement throws a giant wrench into a number of people's plans, including RSL fans who had already gone and purchased these tickets. It could also cause a number of problems with the secondary market, where a number of the tickets purchased today using that code are already up for purchase. The question remains though where originally the code came from and how it was valid. As I mentioned earlier, the sale today was only for Sporting KC STH.

So with under two weeks to go, the ticket situation has turned into a giant, confusing, cluster f*ck, not just for Cauldron members, but for season ticket holders, RSL fans, and other KC fans as well.

Sporting KC to Face Real Salt Lake at MLS Cup

With a 1-0 win tonight and a 5-2 win on aggregate, Real Salt Lake booked themselves a trip to Kansas City for the MLS Cup final on December 7th. Salt Lake had a dominating effort over two legs and took out the Western Conference's top seeded Portland Timbers.

The two teams will meet for the second time this season.  KC won the first meeting at Rio Tinto Stadium earlier this year, 2-1. Soony Saad and Ike Opara got the goals for KC in that game, Opara's coming in the 97th minute to win the game.

The match up on December 7th though will be completely different. When the two teams met on 7/20 both teams were missing first team contributors. KC was missing the likes of Matt Besler and Paulo Nagamura. Salt Lake was suffering the bigger loss, playing without Kyle Beckerman and Nick Rimando.

Despite the different players being available, a cup final is going to be completely. Different. Like it 2000 though, the final is going to be one of the best offensive teams facing off against one of the best defensive ones with RSL scoring 57 goals in the regular season while KC allowed an MLS low 30 goals. It's going to be a long wait over the next 2 weeks for this one.

Some Best Ofs for 2012

I don't normally do any Best Ofs here at the end of the year, but here are a few today.  Some moments of the year, enjoy.

Game of the Year

8/8/12 vs Seattle Sounders

Really was their any other choice?  The game itself lacked a little bit, but the atmosphere and the result combine to make this the game of the year.  A goal from the spot by Kei Kamara led to the loudest cheer I've heard at any Sporting game.  The equalizer from Zach Scott a minute later.  A scoreless extra time period that saw Patrick Ianni sent off led to penalty kicks.  Kei Kamara made the first to put KC up.  Brad Evans equalized.  Roger Espinoza had his attempted saved and Marc Burch gave Seattle the lead.  Matt Besler leveled things and Osvaldo Alonso sent his shot over the bar.  Graham Zusi tried to be cheeky but put his attempt over the bar while Christian Tiffert had his shot saved by Jimmy Nielsen.  Paulo Nagamura stepped up to be the 5th shooter and his shot stopped by Michael Gspurning.  The PK was forced to be retaken though as Gspurning was off his line.  Nagamura buried his second attempt.  Eddie Johnson skied his attempt over the bar and the celebration was on.



Goal of the Year

Julio Cesar vs Toronto FC 6/16

I'm not sure you can strike a ball better than Cesar did here, it's absolutely fantastically struck.



Assist of the year

Peterson Joseph to Jacob Peterson vs Columbus 7/14

I just love the way Joseph goes completely against the movement of the movement of the ball using the outside of his foot to play the ball through to Peterson, a fantastic ball.



Goosebump moment of the year

Roger Espinoza's standing ovation after being red carded at the Olympics

The summer Olympics in London were a coming out party of sorts for Roger Espinoza, he was a known commodity the past two years for Sporting KC in the midfield, but in the Olympics many others found out.  Espinoza had played a fantastic tournament and it was highlighted by his man of the match performance against Brazil in the quarterfinals.  Espinoza set up one and scored another in Honduras' 3-2 loss to the eventual silver medalists.  But it was his play and passion overall that won over the crowd at St. James' Park that day.  He ended the day early picking up a red card, but walked off the field to many congratulations from players and a standing ovation from the St. James' Park crowd.  Many fans expected Espinoza to be leaving KC after this season, the Olympics just confirmed that and Espinoza will be plying his trade in England starting in January.




Off field moment of the year

Lance Armstrong/Livestrong Saga

With Lance Armstrong being stripped of his Tour de France titles for doping and the on going discussion over that, talk eventually turned to Livestrong Sporting Park.  KC's home stadium that has the name of the foundation that Armstrong founded to help people during their fight with cancer.  The debate on whether to keep the name or change it has been one that has been discussed not just by soccer fans, but by sports fans as well as casual fans, especially locally.  So far, publicly Sporting Club has made statements about the separation between the Livestrong organization and Armstrong.  Whether Sporting will end up keeping the name, or eventually switch to another name is something that will still have to be watched.

Low moment of the year

4-0 loss to Philadelphia 6/23

While season ending loss in the series to Houston is a downer, the low point of the year was Sporting's 4-0 dismantling that they took at the hands of the Philadelphia Union.  Sporting conceded in the first minute on a Jack McInerney goal and conceded again in the 42nd.  Goals in the 81st by Lionard Pajoy from the spot and from Antoine Hoppenot in the 87th sealed the rout.  KC never looked into the game and desperately missed Matt Besler who was out recovering from his appendectomy.  What made the loss all that much wosre was that while KC was 9-2-2 heading into that game, Philadelphia was 1-8-2 sitting on 5 points, 24 behind KC when the teams took the field.

Moment of anger that was quickly forgotten

MLS Cup 2000 trophy

As one of my wants/wishes for 2012 I wanted to get the 2000 MLS Cup trophy back from Hunt Sports' Group.  James from Sporting Times started a grass roots movement to attempt to get the trophy back.  Turns out the trophy was in storage and had been put there during the renovations of Arrowhead Stadium.  During the process, it came out that one of the requirements for selling the team was that HSG got to keep the 2000 MLS Cup trophy.  Clark Hunt was going to have the trophy put into a portion of the Hall of Fame at Arrowhead.  But first, it would spend the 2012 season with Sporting KC and then the team would receive a replica to keep.  I saw the MLS Cup trophy twice I believe at the stadium, both times in the Members' Club shortly after the announcement was made.  The trophy was supposed to "tour" the stadium throughout the season, but I never heard anything else about it's travels.  The good news is that winning the Open Cup helped people to forget the 2000 trophy a bit.

MLS Cup Trophy Coming to LiveSTRONG (If Only for a Year)

Strike one up to the power of social media. The Wizards MLS Cup 2000 trophy has been found. After Sporting Times article a few weeks ago regarding the fate of the 2000 trophy, the question on where the trophy was has circled through not only the KC soccer community but had started to go through the MLS community as well.

Today the Star broke the news that the trophy is not in Dallas as I had though when I wrote my 2012 wishes, wanting the trophy to return to KC. In the end, the trophy never left Kansas City. The trophy has been in storage at Arrowhead since the renovations of the facility in 2007.

Clark Hunt, after hearing of the campaign to get the trophy back to Kansas City contacted Cliff Illig and Robb Heineman offering to display the trophy at LiveSTRONG Sporting Park next year. The trophy will only stay at LSP for one year before going on display permanently in the Lamar Hunt Gallery at Arrow Stadium's Chief's Hall of Honor. In return, Sporting KC will get a replica of the trophy that will then be put on permanent display.

When OnGoal bought the team in 2006, part of the deal to sell the team was that Lamar Hunt and Hunt's Sports Group would retain the 2000 MLS Cup. This was because of how important it was to Lamar according to his son, Clark. “That trophy was very, very important to my father...it was his first trophy in MLS and first professional trophy since the Dallas Tornado (won the North American Soccer League) in 1971."

I appreciate the fact that the trophy is "found" and will be making it's way LiveSTRONG Sporting Park, if only for a year, but I still don't agree with everything that was said. Firstly, while I have no doubt of Clark's comments about the trophy being important to his father, I just question how important Clark sees it. It was so important in Clark's eyes that two years after the renovations at Arrowhead were completed the trophy was still in storage collecting dust. As soon as renovations were done the Chiefs Lombardi trophy was out and on display for fans.

I also cannot understate my admiration for Lamar Hunt, for not only bringing Major League Soccer to Kansas City, but helping work to make sure that MLS stayed in Kansas City. Yes he put the team up for sale, but he gave precedent to selling the Wizards to local ownership. He could have easily sold the team to New York businessman, Andrew Murstein (who wanted to move the team to New York and revive the Cosmos), or sold and moved the team to Rochester when the Raging Rhinos were outdrawing MLS teams on a regular basis, Philadelphia, San Antonio, Tulsa, or any number of the other cities that were rumored to be getting the Wizards. Instead he kept the team in Kansas City and along came OnGoal and the rest is history.

All that said, I can't think of a situation where an owner has sold a team and kept the trophy that the team won for a championship. But yet Lamar and HSG kept their trophy when OnGoal bought the team. I mean the Kauffman's didn't keep the Royals 85 World Series trophy, there's a replica of it apparently at the Kauffman Center, but the original is in the Royals Hall of Fame at Kauffman. Why isn't something like that done in this instance? Instead, Sporting is the one that will be getting the "replica" trophy. Yes I understand the trophy will stay local, it'll be at Arrowhead. It just doesn't seem right that a trophy for the team is staying with the former owner. Will the Chiefs Lombardi Trophy go if Hunt ever sells the Chiefs?

New Trialist and Dear Mr Hunt Letter Campaign

Sporting KC has a new trialist in camp according to reports. Sacir Hot, the former New York Red Bulls home grown player, was waived by the Red Bulls last week. Hot was signed by the Red Bulls last January as a home grown and appeared in two US Open Cup games for the Red Bulls, his only 2 first team appearances for the Red Bulls.

The 20 year old Hot was also a part of the US U20 team that traveled to Guatemala for World Cup qualifying. the 6'1" center back looks set to compete with Stefan Antonijevic for a spot on the roster.

Dear Mr. Hunt Campaign

Also today, the campaign to get the 2000 MLS Cup trophy back to Kansas City started getting some attention from some more major media today as Nick Wright discussed the topic today on his show. He took a bit of a different angle than many fans would hope. Wright said that he'd love to have the trophy back in Kansas City, but said that he understands Hunt wanting to keep the trophy as well. Fair enough to Wright he said he'd feel the same way if Hunt sold the Chiefs and kept the Lombardi Trophy.

Although I doubt that very much so. I think if Hunt were to sell the team and keep the trophy, this city (and the media by extension) would be up in arms over the trophy not staying in KC, which is the point that Sporting KC fans are trying to make in regards to the 2000 MLS Cup and wanting it back.

We Want Our Cup Back

Back when I posted about my 2012 Wishes, one of the wishes was wanting to get the 2000 MLS Cup back. For those that missed it, or don't know, the 2000 MLS Cup is not in Kansas City. The cup that teams get to keep after winning MLS Cup is in Dallas at the Hunt Sports Group Headquarters in Dallas.

Since that point, I've not said much about the the trophy or built off of that comment regarding getting the trophy back. James has picked up that slack with this fantastic post regarding the situation. He's picked up my slacking off and started the process of trying to bring the cup back to Kansas City. He's set up a Facebook group, and is working on getting a group together to write cordial letters to Clark Hunt and HSG about getting our trophy back.

I hope all Sporting KC fans get involved in the process of trying to get the trophy back. The thing to remember though is sending letters bashing Hunt or HSG is not going to get the trophy back. I'm not saying to kiss their ass either, but you need to have a fair balance of the two in any letter. Just blasting them and demanding the trophy back is going to likely be met with deaf ears. If you're professional in it then you stand a better chance of getting your point across.

2012 Wishes

Time for another year of wishes for 2012. Here's a look of what I am wanting and wishing to see in 2012.

1. Silverware - Is anything else really that important? I want silverware, as Robb Heineman put it tonight on Twitter, #paintthewall. I want to add more stuff to the wall that shows our accomplishments. Bring home a trophy.

2. A double digit goal scorer - In league play this last year KC had 3 players hit 9 goals, but none reached the double digit mark. Tela Bunbury, Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, or a new designated player, I want a double digit scorer.

3. A designated player who scores double digit goals - KC is going to have to replace the 9 goals that Omar Bravo scored, and is probably going to need to surpass that. Whether it's the mystery Spanish DP, or another DP, KC is going to need a big performance from a designated player to win trophies this year.

4. Equal or better last year's attendance mark - It's a lofty goal, but with a spread out home schedule and the team that Peter Vermes has put together, KC should hopefully be able to top this past year's 17,810.

5. One home loss at most - LIVESTRONG was a virtual fortress for the majority of the season last year. Time to make it one for real. KC making LSP a facility that teams fear coming to is the next step. The Cauldron's growth this past year has helped immensely, the growth on the south stand will help even more. Doing it on the field will be the final step.

6. Lock up Matt Besler, Graham Zusi, and Chance Myers long term - These 3 are likely the young nucleus of the team for the next 5 years or so. All 3 had break out years this past year. Now to avoid a situation similar to Michael Harrington's from this past year where he didn't seem to live up to his new contract I would have all three, especially Myers, who had done little to justify his number one selection until this past year. Still I think signing these 3 before they become free agents is going to be extremely important.

7. A World Cup qualifier at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park - The US's first round of World Cup qualifying starts up this coming year, The USA is grouped with Jamaica, Guatemala, and Antigua and Barbuda. Part of me doesn't want a game this round, instead I want it in the Hex. But getting one this coming year, proving once again that KC is a place that can and will pull a pro-USA crowd is important for me. Prove that KC can be a fortress for the US and the big games will follow.

8. Get OUR MLS Cup back from Hunt Sports Group - For those that dont' know, the MLS Cup 2000 trophy is NOT in Kansas City. The trophy is not at the Sporting KC front office, it is not at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The trophy for the Wizards MLS Cup 2000 win is apparently at HSG headquarters in Dallas. I'm wanting to use this year to start a campaign to bring home OUR MLS Cup. The trophy wasn't won by HSG, it was won by the the Wizards. While Lamar Hunt plays a HUGE role in not only the KC Wizards existence, but them currently being STILL being in KC, and not San Antonio, Tulsa, St. Louis, or Rochester, the trophy belongs in KC. BRING OUR TROPHY HOME ROBB.

The Truth About MLS Cup 2004 Comes Out

Yesterday as a bit of a joke on retiring former Kansas City Wizards defender, Jimmy Conrad, there was a roast done on Twitter using the hash tag, #JimmyConradRoast. Plenty of people got in on the roasting, including current and former players like Kei Kamara and Alecko Eskandarian (see some of the highlights here). One of Eskandarian's comments referred back to the 2004 MLS Cup final between KC and Eskandarian's team at the time, DC United. Plenty was made of Eskandarian's second goal as it certainly seemed that the ball played off Eskandarian's arm, allowing him to control the ball and take it past Conrad. No call was made by Michael Kennedy the referee, but Conrad and KC fans would continue to claim for years that Eskandarian's goal should not have counted. During the roast, Eskandarian finally "came clean" saying that it was indeed a handball on his second goal.

It doesn't change the game, or the result, in fact for me it just opens the wound up again. But with a game coming up tomorrow against DC United, watching the highlights certainly gets the blood flowing.



Seven years on from that game, only Davy Arnaud remains playing for the same team, although two players, Ben Olsen and Kerry Zavagnin have moved to coaching positions within their respective clubs.

Half Time MLS Cup Announcement

Tonight at half time of the MLS Cup final between FC Dallas and Colorado, Don Garber announced some things the league is looking into, expanding the playoffs, and the 2011 schedule. Most of the news leaked onto the net after the league held a press conference before the game tonight.

First, leaked before hand was the comment that MLS will begin looking at potentially switching their schedule to the "international calender". Which means moving to a fall to spring schedule with a winter break. They seem no where close to a decision, and part of it just seems like lip service to FIFA with the World Cup bid decision coming up in the next month. We'll see in the future if this is something that MLS will really look to doing or not. Personally I'm not a fan at all, I understand taking breaks for FIFA international dates, but switching to that calender just seems destined for failure.

The bigger news of the announcement was the fact that MLS is set to expand their playoff format. MLS will add two more playoff spots, making it 10 teams that make the playoffs now instead of 8. The final playoff spot will be decided by a play-in game. They haven't fully finalized everything, but did say it will be 10 teams for sure making the playoffs. Garber also said that they will continue to work to address the situation of multiple teams from the opposite conference making the conference final in the other conference. Certainly this is going to polarize a lot of people on seeing it as a bad thing or a good thing. MLS had just recently gotten to a point where 50% of the teams made the playoffs, down from 80% at one time. Still it does seem to devalue the regular season a bit. So it'll be interesting to see what happens when a 10th seed makes MLS Cup.

The final point of the conversation had to do with the 2011 schedule. The schedule had been expanded to 34 games from 30 and most immediately assumed it was to accommodate a balanced schedule again, but Garber in the State of the League said that they weren't sure. Tonight Garber confirmed there will once again be a balanced schedule, probably the last time as 2012 with 19 and potentially 20 in 2013 the league seems unlikely to expand to 36 and then 38 games.

A Look at the Heineman Chat

This Friday, Robb Heineman participated in a chat on the blog for Sporting KC, The Sporting Way. Much of it was spent talking about the rebranding and the new logo. There were a few other points brought up. There are a few topics from that Q&A that I wanted to look into a little bit more.

The first topic has to do with Heineman's talk about members and their benefits. On Wednesday, Heineman said that there would be perks for members, including free tickets for traveling away support, deals on partner products, and free access to the supporters' section. There are other things as well according to Heineman but these are not finalized quite yet. Heineman did say that there would be no cost to be a member as well. He also seemed to hint at some votes for members as well. An interesting idea, one that seems to combine some of the aspects of Seattle's current set up and other organizations as well. It will be interesting to see what actually comes from this and how they go about implementing and executing this members program.

Heineman was also asked about hosting an MLS Cup or All Star game in the near future. Heineman said he'd love to host the game next year but doesn't know if it's possible. He also mentioned hosting the all star game in 2012 or 2013. This goes against a rumor that came out of Toronto this weekend that Kansas City would be hosting next year's all star game. But when you look at the two side by side I'd lean more towards trusting Heineman instead of Steve Davis.

The next topic to address from the chat is the continued work towards getting a jersey sponsor. The Wizards are one of only a few teams that do not currently have a jersey sponsor. Earlier in the week during the State of the League address, Don Garber said that he hoped all teams would have jersey sponsors by next season and that he expected announcements in the next month or so. Heineman said during the chat that they aren't that close but that he hoped that they'd have something to announce in February.

Finally I wanted to touch on the topic of the other teams that the Sporting Club is bringing in under their banner. Currently they don't have any set plans for announcing any other teams but they have plenty of thoughts out there. One worry for fans is that other teams in less revenue friendly sports than soccer currently is would drag down the potential success of the soccer team. Heineman said that soccer is the groups biggest, most important aspect. "We won't do anything that has the potential to detract from our ability to win."

The part that stuck out to me was when he answered a question about what other teams would be named. Heineman said that "Sporting Kansas City will only represent the Major League Soccer team." This point makes me go back to the question of why rename the team in the first place. If the soccer team is going to be the only team called Sporting, then why rename the Wizards to Sporting? Why not just rename OnGoal to Sporting Club and bring in the other teams as well? Heineman says all the teams will also have their own logos with the SC being the only joining of the teams. If Heineman and OnGoal want a true Sporting Club, most would expect all the teams under the banner to have the same name. It almost brings out the old thoughts that the team was only renamed for the European connotation of the name.