More Preseason News

Today in the team's weekly press release, we got a little more information on the team's final part of their trip in Arizona. Along with the games Saturday against Portland and Montreal and the games on Thursday and Friday against week against the Arizona Sahuaros and New York Red Bulls, there are now two games on March 9th and 10th. The opponents for those two games are TBA at this time but the games are scheduled to be in Phoenix at Reach 11. There's also still the friendly with Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico that hasn't been officially announced but is still widely rumored.

The team also posted gave out their latest preseason roster. There are a few players that were on the roster that are no longer with the team. Former Tottenham Hotspurs youth player, Calum Butcher is gone. With all the defenders and internationals in camp it doesn't look like the Englishmen made enough of an impression. Mitja Morec a defender from Slovenia is also gone from camp. Gor Kirakosyan from the same school as Yura Movsisyan is also gone. Peppe Carotenuto, the Columbia University graduate, is not listed on the roster either at this point.

That leaves this roster, bolded players are the ones that are still not under contract: Korede Aiyegbusi, Davy Arnaud, Stephane Auvray, Matt Besler, Travis Bowen, Omar Bravo, Julio Cesar, Omar Colley, Daneil Cyrus, Birahim Diop, Adda Djeziri, Kevin Ellis, Roger Espinoza, Michael Harrington, Jack Jewsbury, Mike Jones, Kei Kamara, Jon Kempin, Eric Kronberg, Scott Lorenz, Michal Mravec, Chance Myers, Jimmy Nielsen, Craig Rocastle, C.J. Sapong, Luke Sassano, Milos Stojcev, Shavar Thomas, Graham Zusi.

Not listed is Teal Bunbury and Ryan Smith who are both in KC, and Konrad Warzycha who is out for 6-8 months after surgery.

That would make 21 players under contract currently, leaving up to 9 open roster spots, four of which are international. It looks possible that all 4 American players still unsigned (Bowen, Jones, Lorenz, and Sapong) could make the roster bring the team to 25 players before the 4 internationals are decided on of the other remaining 6 trialists/draft picks. That's if the team wants to fill all 30 roster spots or wants to get some of the allocation money for not filling the 29th and 30th spots.

Bunbury Files FIFA Switch (And Other News)

Some national team news tonight, along with other Sporting KC news. First, Teal Bunbury has apparently filed his one time national team switch with FIFA. What this means is that Bunbury will officially be a US international and will be unable to switch back to Canada, who he represented as a youth international. The switch was necessary for Bunbury to be eligible for the US for the Gold Cup, Olympic qualifiers, and any other "official" matches for the US.

In other news more related to preseason, there's some news on a new trialist set to come in and train with KC. Columbia University senior, Peppe Carotenuto will be training with SKC February 18th through the 26th. Carotenuto is a midfielder who was captain of the Ivy League school for two years.

Finally there's a quick write up over at Soccer By Ives about the team's preseason training today and the team's first 11v11 scrimmage. You can't read too much into it, but it's always fun to speculate with the names that are on each team.