Reserve Heavy Lineup Falls to Montpellier

With the busy schedule that Sporting KC in the middle of currently it's no surprise that the lineup that KC put out tonight was less than the full squad.  It gave rest to a number of players that needed it, and gave game time to those that hadn't been getting a lot.  The starting lineup for KC against Montpellier featured a number of players who have played little part in KC's league season so far this year as they rested the likes of Kei Kamara, Teal Bunbury, Matt Besler, and Seth Sinovic, with Kevin Ellis, Korede Aiyegbusi, Dom Dwyer, and others stepped in to get some action against the French champs.

The first part of the game was surprisingly well matched as KC's reserves did a decent job of working the ball against many of MHSC's first team.  In fact the best early chance fell to KC.  After Peterson Joseph did a good job of getting open, he played a nice cutting pass to Soony Saad.  Saad got by his defender to the end line and played a ball on the ground back across the box, but no KC player could get to the ball and it went through the box.  As the half continued though, Montpellier started to get more of the ball, really starting to show their class.  Forward Gaetan Charbonnier started to really cause some problems for the center back tandem of Lawrence Olum and Konrad Warzycha, he did an excellent job on one cross of bringing it down with his chest and turning on goal, but Eric Kronberg came up with a big save to keep it 0-0.  The goal was coming though and in the 39th it finally came.  Charbonnier was able to get to the ball first on a cross by Marco Estrada and his flick header went past Kronberg and into the net.  A really well worked goal by the French.  Kronberg was called on a few times to make some decent saves to keep the game close and he showed well.

The second half saw Montpellier make 9 changes to their lineup as they have a more important game in New York on Saturday, the French Champions Trophy match against Lyon.  With Montpellier having more reserves out, KC was able to get more of the ball.  Unfortunately KC was able to do very little with much of their possession, continuing to work the ball down the wing and look for crosses even though the forward line of Aiyegbusi, Dwyer, and Soony Saad were all close to a head shorter than some of the Montpellier center backs.  Instead of the crosses, KC should have been looking more for the cutting runs like what led to the chance Saad created in the first half.  In the 72nd minute after some more good build up, Montpellier grabbed a second.  Emanuel Herrera was played into the box behind KC's defense.  Kronberg came off his line and pushed Herrera wide, but Herrera did well to round the keeper and from an acute angle slid the ball into the net for a 2-0 advantage. 

After the goal KC continued to possess and actually had some decent spells with Joseph, Aiyegbusi, and substitute CJ Sapong doing well.  Unfortunately KC still struggled to get shots off and still got no shots on goal.  Finally in second half stoppage time the third goal came.  After sustained possession for KC, Montpellier broke on the counter.  A shot came in from just outside the box that Kronberg did quite well to get down and make a save on.  Unfortunately the first to react to the rebound was Herrera who buried the rebound into the net to give him a brace on the night.

Overall, disappointing to lose 3-0, but Montpellier was just in a completely different class in this game.  They pass the ball extremely well and were quite fun to watch.

Wizards Man of the Match - Neven Markovic - The recent signing, in his first game with the club showed extremely well at left back and center back.  Going forward he still has a few things to learn, but in defense he did a very good job of standing up the attacks on the left side of defense.  He committed a few fouls, probably in a league game would have picked up a yellow, but overall a good performance.

Honorable Mention - Eric Kronberg

Friendly Season

It's that time of the MLS season when foreign clubs are in the US preparing for their seasons in Europe and play a few games against MLS and foreign competition.  Kansas City joins in on that tomorrow when they take on French champions, Montpellier at Livestrong Sporting Park.  Earlier today I posted a bit of a look at Montpellier HSC and some of their players ahead of the game.  Not sure how much we'll see of some of their best players, but one guy I am interested in seeing at least a little of is Younes Belhanda.  The one thing that will dictate quite a bit how much they play tomorrow is the fact that in 5 days, Montpellier has their first chance at silverware on the season when they play Lyon in New York for the French Champions Trophy.

Kansas City will be without 3 of their regular starters as they are in Philadelphia for the All Star game.  Aurelien Collin, Jimmy Nielsen, and Graham Zusi are all preparing to play Chelsea Wednesday at PPL Park and will not be available tomorrow.  Also not in KC tomorrow will be head coach Peter Vermes, he's in Philadelphia for league meetings, leaving assistant coach, Kerry Zavagnin in charge of the friendly.  It'll be interesting to see how much time the starters will get tomorrow, in previous comments Vermes has hinted that the starters would get some time.  But with the busy schedule that KC seems to be playing, it's also possible that Vermes will want Zavagnin to rest them as their busy schedule continues.  In fact Vermes said the following recently regarding the game "We're looking forward to getting a week in of training because we'll have a different team on the field come Tuesday night. Then we'll do the same thing next week and I think it will be a big help to us."

So I'd expect a lot of the reserves to get the majority of the time when the teams come out.  One question that is quite minor but interesting, is who is going to back up Eric Kronberg.  Nielsen is in Philadelphia, and Jon Kempin is out with a broken foot.  League keeper Steve Spangler, who has trained with Sporting is also injured.  According to the CBA, apparently no Sporting Juniors players (like Jacole Turner) can play in the friendly.  As Thad said on Twitter today, that would seem to leave a field player or goalkeeping coach, John Pascarella as Kronberg's back up.  That's a little worrisome as Kronberg probably isn't completely 100% from his back injury earlier this year.  While I don't think Kronberg is going to spend much time on the field this year, that could be a big blow to KC if Kronberg goes down, as Nielsen is still only 2 yellows away from a suspension.

Kronberg

Ellis - Olum - Markovic - Miller

Thomas - Warzycha

Joseph

Aiyegbusi - Saad - Dwyer

PREDICTION - All I want are no injuries for players tomorrow.  Result means nothing, just don't get hurt.

A Look at Montpellier

This comes courtesy of Matt Demlein, who offered to give a bit of a look at Montpellier, ahead of tomorrow's friendly.


On Tuesday night, Sporting Kansas City plays the French Champions, Montpellier.  Montpellier were a surprise this past season, holding off Paris Saint-Germain during the second half of the season despite having a budget that was smaller than the transfer fee PSG paid for Javier Pastore.

Montpellier started the season off strong, losing only two of their first eight. However, where the team truly proved themselves was in the second half of the season.  Montpellier lost only three games between January and the end of the season in May.  They played a thrilling 2-2 in Paris in February, a game in which PSG had to come back in the late stages to pull back a tie. 

Much of that team still remains, minus one big loss, however. Attacker Olivier Giroud left the club shortly after playing for France at EURO 2012, heading to Arsenal. Giroud lead the “Ligue” with 21 goals. 

However, the team does still have John Utaka, who once played at Portsmouth when they were in the Premier league. Utaka scored both goals in Montpellier’s final game of the season at Auxurre that clinched the squad the title. 

Another player to watch is Younes Belhanda. Belhanda has attracted interest as well from English clubs as the team’s primary playmaker. In fact, Belhanda’s loss at the end of the season, due to a red card for fighting in a wild game against Evian, was considered to be a bigger hit to Montpellier’s title chances than losing Giroud would have been.  Montpellier is looking at a long season this year, with the French Champions Trophy game next week in New York, as well as Champions League play. The team is not deep, and will have to determine early on if they want to compete at that level. The last time the team went to Europe, in the Europa League in 2010-2011, they finished 14th.

Montpellier Friendly Official

After days where the friendly between Sporting KC and French Ligue 1 champions Montpellier appeared on both Ticket Master and the schedule on the Sporting KC website, the team officially announced the friendly.  On July 24th, Sporting KC will play the French champs at Livestrong Sporting Park at 7:30.  Season ticket holders will have a season ticket for this game already, Special Game C.

The Tuesday night game falls between two league games, both of which, are at LSP as well.  KC will play New England the Saturday before and play Columbus the Saturday after.  That game is also 1 day before the MLS All Stars take on Chelsea in Philadelphia.  So KC players (not all in all 4) could be playing quite a bit that week.

Montpellier Instead of PSG?

Since Goal.com posted that Paris Saint-Germain would be playing Sporting KC in a friendly on their summer tour, there's been little other word about KC playing PSG.  In fact, the lack of announcement, with the rest of the Herbalife World Football Challenge being announced had me wondering if KC would actually play Paris Saint-Germain. 

Today while discussing the friendly on the Cauldron Facebook page, someone posted a link to the Ticket Master page for Sporting KC tickets.  On the page it didn't list PSG, instead it listed 2011-2012 Ligue 1 champions, Montpellier on Tuesday July 24th at Livestrong Sporting Park..  That came as a bit of a surprise, although they will be in the USA already because of the fact that the Trophee des Champions will be contested this year in the United States at Red Bull Arena.  As the champions of Ligue 1, Montpellier will take on the French Cup champion, Lyon.  The Trophee des Champions occurs four days after the date that KC is supposedly scheduled to take on Montpellier. 

Honestly either one of Montpellier or PSG would be a great friendly.  It's a club that is different than KC would normally get, and as the champion or runner up of the French League, I'd like to see them play over Stoke City.

The Ticket Master site has been updated, but not before I'd gotten a screen shot on my phone.  You can see it below.  See at the very bottom of that list.  Funny enough it lists TBA on the August 1st date which we know is the day KC play Stoke.