#TBT A Look Back at Another Late Season Collapse

Sporting Kansas City is on the verge of missing the playoffs this year after last night's 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids. Since beating the Vancouver Whitecaps 4-3 in mid-August KC has picked up just eight of an available 33 points. That stretch has seen Kansas City go from contenders for the Supporters' Shield to fighting for their playoff lives. It's not the first time that KC has seen a late season collapse, in fact the last big collapse came on another year that KC switched conferences, back in 2005 when the KC Wizards moved from the Western Conference to the East.

Back in mid-August of 2005 KC picked up a 3-0 win over the Chicago Fire at Arrowhead Stadium, their fourth win in a row. The Wizards moved to 11-5-8 with 41 points and moved into third place in the East, two points ahead of the Fire and 9 points clear of fifth place New York. With eight games left KC looked like they were at least going to make the playoffs.

For KC though that 3-0 win was Kansas City's last win of the season. KC would go 0-4-4 over the final eight games of the regular season, finishing on 45 points, two behind fourth place New York. Five of those eight games were at home as well, but KC lost 1-0 to the Columbus Crew, New York, and Chicago at home in that stretch. In the other two home games KC tied 2-2 with the LA Galaxy and New England Revolution having to come back late against the Galaxy and blowing a two goal lead against New England.

In the three road games KC picked up as many points as they did in their five home games getting a 2-2 draw in New York and in Dallas, but falling 2-1 to the Galaxy. The Dallas game was on the next to last day of the season, KC's first trip to Pizza Hut Park (now Toyota Stadium). KC once again fell behind 2-0, and again had to fight back. Davy Arnaud scored in the 77th minute before Preki with virtually his last touch of the ball as a player tied the game in the 90th. KC had another chance after Preki equalized, but Jimmy Conrad couldn't finish with his head.

Even with those results KC still had a chance to make the playoffs. KC needed the expansion Chivas USA to defeat the New York Red Bulls at the Home Depot Center and KC would still have gotten in. Unfortunately for KC, former goalkeeper, Tony Meola stuck it to his old club, standing on his head as Chivas attacked throughout the game. The Red Bulls hung on though and were able to score twice to win 2-0 and knock the Wizards out of the playoffs.

This year all the games in the West kick off at the same time and the team that can knock KC out of the playoffs, the San Jose Earthquakes, are on the road in Dallas. If KC gives up an early goal to the Galaxy Sunday there could be a lot of scoreboard watching, hoping Dallas can help KC out this year.

#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.

#TBT The US Open Cup 1997

With the US Open Cup final later this month, and Sporting KC doing a count down with posts each day this month heading into the US Open Cup final, I thought I'd do a Throw Back Thursday today on an old US Open Cup video I found the other day while doing some other work.

I'm going way back into the vault with this one, most die hard fans and 96ers probably haven't even seen this game. I'm going all the way back to 1997 with this one. While over the last five years KC has won at least one game in the US Open Cup each year it wasn't always that way. For the first five years of the club's existence the club didn't win a single game in the Open Cup. They went 0-3-1 and didn't compete in the 1999 version of the tournament. Of those four games, three of them were against lower division teams.

On July 24th, 1997, the Wizards traveled to Negoesco Field in San Francisco, to take on the San Francisco Bay Seals. The Wizards were one of the better teams in MLS at the time with a record of 13-7 (no draws, ties were settled by the shootout).

KC put out a strong lineup on the field against the Seals, with the likes of Preki, Frank Klopas, Mo Johnston, and Mark Chung all in the lineup for KC. For the Seals, the most noteworthy name was future Chicago Fire great, CJ Brown.

The Seals grabbed an early lead when Marquis White beat the offside line and raced onto a through ball, slotting it under goalkeeper Chris Snitko to make it 1-0. Klopas would score a goal for KC to tie things up in the 40th minute as both teams would go into half time tied at 1-1.

In the second half, KC didn't learn from their high line in the first half and White made them pay again. On another through ball White beat the offside trap. This time Snitko was quick off his line but White took a touch around him. Then from a tight angle White fired a shot into the net right in front of a sliding Sean Bowers who was trying to clear the ball away. The goal was all the Seals needed to advance on to the quarterfinals to take on the San Jose Clash.

For KC, they would have to deal with a loss to another lower division side, the Nashville Metros and a penalty kick loss to the Chicago Sockers of the PDL before getting their first win in the US Open Cup in 2001 against the Seattle Sounders.

Here's KC's lineup for that game against the Seals:
Chris Snitko, Ryan Tinsley, Matt McKeon, Sean Bowers, Steve Pittman, Uche Okafor (Brian Johnson 75), Mark Chung, Preki, Frank Klopas, Mo Johnston, Paul Wright.

Here are the two goals that the Seals scored, unfortunately they didn't include the Klopas goal.

#TBT Ron Newman

A quick throw back Thursday this week, since Sporting KC was in Columbus this past weekend I thought I'd share this video of the team's first head coach, Ron Newman from back in 1997 when the then Wizards played the Columbus Crew. The game took place on July 4th and saw Kansas City pull out a 2-1 at The Horseshoe even though Newman was thrown out of the game as he tried to help KC kill time after a pair of Digital Takawira goals in the 37th and 70th helped KC to get in front before Mike Lapper pulled a goal back in the 75th.

Newman had come to Kansas City after an extensive, and successful coaching career in indoor soccer. In fact he was the first manager named in MLS ahead of the league's first season in 1996.

#TBT Things Could be Worse

Last night's game was bad, it was extremely poor by Sporting KC as they fell 5-0 to the San Jose Earthquakes, but it wasn't the worst loss in KC history, it wasn't even the worst loss at home in KC's history.

That honor goes to the game in this week's Throw Back Thursday. Back in 2001, the Kansas City Wizards were coming off their MLS Cup winning season of the year prior and on July 4th of that year welcomed the team they defeated in MLS Cup, the Chicago Fire, to Arrowhead Stadium. A crowd of over 19,000 had turned out for the game and post game fireworks, which at the time was a very good crowd for a KC Wizards game.

The fans got to see fireworks during the game as well, but none of it was from the Wizards as they got played off the field by a Fire team that looked like they were taking all their frustrations from the 2000 MLS Cup final out in the one game.

Jamar Beasley got things started in the very first minute after a long ball by Zach Thornton was flicked into the path of Beasley by Eric Wynalda, who beat Bo Oshoniyi to make it 1-0. In the seventh minute Sergi Daniv made it 2-0 with a nice run and finish holding off Peter Vermes. Just before half time the Fire made it 3-0 as Jamar Beasley combined with his brother DaMarcus Beasley to set up Wynalda to put the game away before the half.

The second half didn't get any better for KC, but they did keep Chicago off the board until the 72nd when Peter Nowak scored with a shot from outside the box to make it 4-0. Over the last 10 minutes of the game though the Fire scored three more goals. In the 81st, Nowak was played in behind the KC defense and scored to make it 5-0. Two minutes later Nowak turned creator and set up Hristo Stoitchkov, then in the 88th Stoitchkov finished up the scoring as KC's defense really looked to be no where to be found in that game.

And it's not like that defense was a slouch of a defense, yes it had someone like Michael Green, who only played three games for the club, but it also had Sporting Legend and head coach, Peter Vermes as well as Nick Garcia, the team just didn't show up. On the plus side of that result, the Wizards came back three days later and picked up a 2-1 win over the New England Revolution on the road.

Years later Fire fans still enjoy bringing that game up, in fact, when Sporting traveled 300 people to Toyota Park back in 2011, Fire fans gave KC fans a DVD with the MLS Cup logo on it that ended up having that game on DVD for all the fans that traveled. Certainly a tip of the cap has to be offered for that nice troll job, although I do enjoy my MLS Cup 2000 coaster I now have.

Here's the lineup on that day:
Bo Oshoniyi, Nick Garcia, Peter Vermes, Michael Green (Mark Santel  46), Mike Burns, Chris Klein, Kerry Zavagnin, Francisco Gomez (Roy Lassiter  46), Chris Brown (Gary Glasgow  63), Matt McKeon, Onandi Lowe.

Watch the low lights below.

#TBT KC All Star MVP Performance

With the all star game on Wednesday this past week, I thought I'd take a look at the last time a Kansas City player scored in the all star game and the only time a KC player has been named the all star game MVP.

In 1999, KC was suffering through their worst season in club history, but KC still had two players named to the all star team for the Western Conference as Alexi Lalas and Preki were named to the team in San Diego.

The game started quick with the East grabbing the lead in the first minute after a give away with Brian McBride feeding Roy Lassiter. Preki got himself on the board in the 13th as he leveled the game after being played through on the counter. Preki chipped his shot over Tom Presthus to tie the game at 1-1. The West was able to take the lead in the 32nd as the West pushed forward, Peter Nowak slid a ball through to Roman Kosecki who slid his shot under Presthus to give the West the lead. Four minutes later, Preki was involved again as he picked up the ball near midfield, dribbled through a couple East defenders, holding off challenges before playing a ball to Cobi Jones who fired a shot into the corner to make it 3-1 in the 36th. Two minutes later, Preki was back on the board again. After a number of passes the ball made it wide to Kosecki who crossed it into the middle for Preki to knock home.

Preki came off at half time, and as the second half went on the East made their come back. In the 62nd minute Marcelo Balboa brought down McBride in the box. Joe-Max Moore stepped up and beat Matt Jordan to make it 4-2. The next two East goals came due to some poor defense by the West as they failed to get the ball out of their own end. First in the 73rd Carlos Valderrama received a ball in the box, danced around Jordan before sliding the ball into the corner. Then after a poor back pass in the 83rd, Moore tried to beat Jordan to the ball. Jordan won the ball, but only knocked the ball into the path of Columbus' Stern John who scored to tie the game at 4-4. The tied score only lasted for a minute though as Mauricio Wright picked the ball up at midfield dribbled at the East defense before playing it wide to Ronald Cerritos who crossed it back to Wright who beat Walter Zenga to give the West the lead again. The West added to their lead in the 89th as Mauricio Cienfuegos cross into the box was turned in Cerritos to finish off the scoring at 6-4.

Preki was named the MVP of the game for his two goals and assist performance. 

You can check out the full match below.

#TBT The Rochester Wizards

I read a really good article this week over on Empire of Soccer called The Rise and Fall of the Rochester Rhinos. It's a history of the only non-MLS team to win the US Open Cup, and their ascension to being an MLS expansion favor to almost going out of existence. The club is now appears to be back on their feet in the USL.

The reason I bring the article up is because Kansas City's MLS history almost became Rochester's MLS history. As I've previously mentioned, after the 2004 season, Lamar Hunt put the Kansas City Wizards up for sale. Throughout the coming 2005 season, many rumors surfaced about potential locations the Wizards were set to be moved to. From Tulsa, to San Antonio, to New York, to yes, Rochester. In fact, Rochester was arguably the favorite to land the Wizards. As the article mentions, after Rochester had failed in their bid to get an expansion team in 2005 when the league added Chivas USA and Real Sale Lake, they turned their attention to purchasing the for sale Wizards. At the time, Rochester was drawing pretty much the same if not more than KC was at Arrowhead, even though Rochester was in the minor leagues. According to one of the team's original owners, Steve Donner the deal to move the Wizards to Rochester was pretty much a done deal, "we had an agreement pretty much done in principle with Kansas City to move the Wizards here."

I remember being told later that it was far enough along that the Hunts were counting parking spots in Rochester for the upcoming move of the Wizards to Rochester. According to Donner in the article, one of the things that apparently held up the deal was that while the Hunts were going to pay the annual league expenses, in exchange they wanted equity in the stadium. The lack of their own deep pocketed partner seemed to be a main sticking point.

On the opposite side I still remember being told about Lamar Hunt's want to keep the team in Kansas City. In the end though we all know that Hunt didn't sell the Wizards to the Rochester ownership group in 2005, and with their financial issues over the next few years, it was probably for the best for the league. Instead in 2006, Hunt sold the team to OnGoal LLC, and a little less than five years after the sale,Sporting Park opened to a sell out crowd.

#TBT Gold Cup in KC

With the Gold Cup returning to Kansas City this coming Monday when Haiti plays Honduras and the US plays Panama I thought this week's Throw Back Thursday I'd go back to the 2011 Gold Cup which was also in KC. The games came a week after the opener at Sporting Park when KC drew with the Chicago Fire. The opener on that day in 2011 saw Canada face Panama. Panama was in control of the group needing just a draw to clinch the top spot after they'd handed the United States their first group stage loss in the tournament's history 2-1 in Tampa. Canada at the time was fighting for a chance to get into the knock out phase needing a win or a draw and some help to qualify. Canada came out and was really the more dominate team throughout the game, but couldn't finish their chances. It wasn't until after the hour mark when Dwayne DeRosario was fouled in the box that Canada finally put the ball in the net. The first goal in the stadium's history went to the Canadian DeRosario. Canada attempted to hold on for the win as the stadium filled with US fans hoping for a win that would leave the door open for them to win the group. It looked like they would hold on for the win as the game entered stoppage time, but Luis Tejada tied the game as Milan Borjan couldn't hold onto the shot as it trickled into the net leading to a 1-1 draw and Panama winning the group.



In the night cap, the US national team faced off against Guadeloupe. Like the first game, one team completely dominated play. This time it was the United States controlling the game for the most part and creating a number of chances. Unlike Canada, the US capitalized on their early chances as Jozy Altidore scored in the 9th minute to make it 1-0 to the US. Unfortunately from there the finishing just didn't for the US. Clint Dempsey especially had a number of chances that he just couldn't put away. The US would hold on for the 1-0 win and advance as the second place team to play Jamaica, who they defeated before getting revenge on Panama before losing in the Gold Cup final to Mexico.

#TBT Hattricks for KC.

For Throw Back Thursday this week I thought I'd go through all the hattricks in KC's history before last night's four goal performance by Dom Dwyer against FC Dallas.

The first hattrick in KC history actually didn't come until the team's third season, when Digital Takawira hit a second half hattrick for KC in their 3-1 win over New England on May 16th of 1998. Takawira scored three goals in the span of nine minutes to help KC to the 3-1 win. His first goal came in the 76th, with the second coming three minutes later in the 79th. In the 83rd, New England pulled one back from the penalty spot before Takawira finished off his hattrick two minutes later in the 85th.

The team's second hattrick came later in the same year as Preki scored his only hattrick in his KC career on September 5th of 1998 in a 5-1 win over San Jose. After going down 1-0 in just the 7th minute, Mo Johnston scored in the 12th to tie the game off an assist from Preki. In the 18th minute, Preki got his first goal of the game. He added his second just three minutes after the half time break. After a Paul Wright goal in the 59th, Preki finished off his hattrick in the 80th minute.

KC had to wait almost six full years for their next hattrick, which came almost 11 years ago tomorrow, July 3rd 2004 against the same Dallas team, back when they were still the Dallas Burn. Davy Arnaud scored that hattrick in his break out season in a 5-1 win. Arnaud opened the scoring in the 22nd before Jason Kreis equalized less than 10 minutes later. A Kreis red card though just before half time changed the game. Chris Klein made it 2-1 in the 72nd in the second half, Josh Wolff added one three minutes later before Arnaud added his second in the 79th. Arnaud finished his hattrick in stoppage time of the rout.

Up to this point there has been an inability to find highlights, but from here we now have highlights of the goals.

The next hattricks for KC came in back to back games in the 2007 season, both for Eddie Johnson. The first came against the New England Revolution on the road again. After falling behind 2-0 early in the first half, Davy Arnaud scored in the 25th to pull KC within one and a minute later in the 26th, Johnson got his first goal of the game. Johnson got his second goal of the game in the 38th minute as he beat Jay Heaps for a second time and beat Matt Reis at the near post to make it 3-2 KC.  New England pulled it back level in the 69th on a Sharlie Joseph penalty kick before Johnson finished off his hattrick in the 82nd on a through ball from Carlos Marinelli. Johnson rounded Reis and put the ball in the net for his hattrick and the 4-3 win.



The very next week at Arrowhead, Eddie Johnson hit a second hattrick, the first natural hattrick in KC history. New York had an 8th minute goal by Juan Pablo Angel hold up through the first half, even with a Clint Mathis red card in the 36th minute. KC struck early in the second half though to level the score on a long ball over the top by Michael Harrington for Johnson who chipped Jon Conway in the New York net to level the game. Johnson added his second just before the hour on a cross by Jose Burciaga that found Johnson unmarked at the back post. Johnson finished his hattrick in the 85th after being played in by Sasha Victorine he slotted the ball into the corner past Conway. A late Dema Kovalenko goal made it 3-2 but KC won the game.



The final hattrick before last night's Dom Dwyer four goal performance came from the most unlikely of sources, Birahim Diop. The "Diop Game" had occurred earlier in the year when Diop scored twice in his first start for KC. This game, the finale of the 2010 saw KC already eliminated from playoff contention against the San Jose Earthquakes. Diop opened the scoring for KC in the 36th minute as he headed a long ball by Jonathan Leathers past an onrushing Jon Busch to put KC up 1-0. Diop added a second on the hour mark, after he missed a Roger Espinoza cross, the ball came back to Diop who headed the ball past push and into the net. 10 minutes later, San Jose pulled one back through Chris Wondolowski. Diop though finished off his hattrick in the 76th off a long ball from Craig Rocastle, Diop brought the ball down and fired a curling shot into the net to give KC a 3-1 lead. KC added a fourth on an own goal in second half stoppage time to make it 4-1 KC.

#TBT The Gold Cup

With the Gold Cup rosters being announced this week, I thought it'd be a good Throw Back Thursday to take a look at some past Gold Cup highlights that involve people currently with Sporting Kansas City.

First, we'll go back to the very first Gold Cup, after it had previously been the CONCACAF Championship, in 1991, the federations championship was officially played as the Gold Cup. Sporting KC's head coach, Peter Vermes was on the team that won the competition on penalty kicks over Honduras. The highlights below though are from the semifinals against Mexico, which the US won 2-0 thanks to second half goals by John Doyle and Vermes.



 We're going to now jump ahead 16 years to a point where current players were involved in the tournament. The 2007 tournament saw the US advance to the finals against Mexico in a bit of controversial fashion in the semifinals against Canada. But in the final, with the game tied 1-1, a 22 year old Benny Feilhaber hit one of the sweetest goals you'll ever see. The goal, 8 years ago yesterday stood up as the winner and the US qualified for the 2009 Confederations Cup (which also saw a historic win that occurred this week in history.



The 2011 Gold Cup really became the coming out party for Roger Espinoza at central midfield. Before that in his career with KC and Honduras he had mainly played as an outside midfielder or outside back. But during that Gold Cup, he performed so well, included in the semifinal against Mexico that when he returned, Vermes really had no other choice than to move him to central midfield for KC as well.



The 2013 US Open Cup saw the United States again grab the championship. Sporting KC's Matt Besler had been called in as a knockout stage replacement for the team. Besler started all three of the USA's knock out games, including the final, which the US won 1-0 over Panama to claim the Gold Cup and at least clinch them a playoff against the winner of this year's Gold Cup for a chance to qualify for the 2015 Confederations Cup.

#TBT The Renderings on the Way to Sporting Park

On Tuesday of this past week was the anniversary of the first game played at Sporting Park between Sporting KC and the Chicago Fire. In honor of that for this week's Throw Back Thursday I'm going to share some renderings of KC's stadium history that I either have gotten over the years, or that can be found online.

We'll start way back in 2006 and the attempts to get a stadium built down near 69 Highway and 159th Street in Overland Park. The stadium didn't get built because of the failure of Question 1 that November. The sunken stadium bowl had one roof that curved and wrapped around half the stadium.

From there came the Bannister site and the 3 Trails development that went on for a couple years getting as far as tearing down the old Bannister Mall and plenty of renderings of the stadium. The first kept a form of the curved roof, but on both sides of the stadium in this sky view of the stadium.

From there, the Bannister site changed as plans changed, and the new updated look of the stadium got rid of the curved roof and instead went with a more square look with what would best be described as an English stand .

 Along with the square look, we eventually got some more close up views of this design of the stadium, including the walk into the stadium and a much more neighborhood feel to the stadium, where you could walk right up to it. Almost like if the stadium had been built now at one end of the Legends, where you could walk through the Legends shopping area right up to the stadium. In the photos you also see the beginnings of the idea of a "Cauldron bar" for supporters to hang out in before and after the game.

Without the backing of the TIF money, bonds, and recession, the Bannister stadium plan ended up getting shelved as did the entire redevelopment there. Sporting worked out a deal with the Unified Government of Wyandotte County to utilize STAR Bonds that were used to build the Legends in the first place. With that came a permanent move to the Kansas side as the club had been playing at Community America Ballpark after leaving Arrowhead.

One of the first looks fans got of the new stadium designs was at a season ticket holder gathering in September of 2009 ahead of a friendly between Chivas Guadalajara and Club America at Arrowhead. Fans got to ask questions of KC staff at the gathering and a number of questions about the move away from Bannister. We also got some renderings and in them you can see the basic shape of the stadium really starting to come into place, although thankfully we didn't get the wavy roof.

That basic design would continue to evolve as the process continued to move forward. The next rendering really was close to the final result except for a few big things like the roof, and the absence of the Victory Suite in the northwest corner of the stadium.

The final design for the stadium except for minor changes came out in 2010. And it looks like the stadium we've come to love, minus the buildings in the Sprint Plaza.

There it is, one of the "crown jewels of American soccer."

Thankfully, the stadium itself helped us forget a rather forgetful game against the Chicago Fire, and this moment when Michael Kennedy introduced himself to a whole new set of KC fans after the performance in 2004.

#TBT KC's Lone Win Vs Seattle

Sporting KC on Saturday will play Seattle for the 11th time in regular season play and 13th time in all competitions. KC though has not won once in the last nine MLS games, and last 11 in all competitions against the Sounders (the US Open Cup in 2012 technically is a draw that was then won on penalty kicks). The only win that KC has all time against the Sounders was in the very first meeting on April 11th, 2009 at Century Link Field.

So this week for Throw Back Thursday, I'm looking back on KC's lone win over the Sounders. Unfortunately I've been searching all over the net the past few days trying to find the full highlights of the game, but have been unable to find full highlights of the game.

While KC had some good early play (according to my write up on the game at the time), they struggled to create opportunities, but the game changed in the 29th minute when Herculez Gomez was played in on goal against Kasey Keller. Keller came out to challenge Gomez and went to ground as Gomez tried to chip it over him. The chip struck Keller's arm as the Sounders' goalkeeper was outside the box. Keller was given his marching orders and KC was up a man for 60 minutes. KC though didn't test Keller's back up, Ben Dragavon in the remaining 15 minutes of the first half.

The second half saw the Sounders control the game for long stretches. KC much of the time looked like the team that was down a man during that time. The Sounders though couldn't break through KC's defense. Then in the 80th minute as KC got forward, the ball came to Davy Arnaud who was about 30 yards from goal, he took a touch and fired a long range shot that Dragavon seemed to get a late jump on as he only got a touch on it as it went into the side netting to give KC the 1-0 lead. KC's defense was able to hold up down the stretch and were the first team to take points off the Sounders in their expansion season.

The lineup for the game features two players that are in the KC team now, Matt Besler, and Roger Espinoza.

Kevin Hartman, Lance Watson, Aaron Hohlbein, Jimmy Conrad, Matt Besler, Herculez Gomez (Michael Harrington  77), Santiago Hirsig (Michael Kraus  64), Jack Jewsbury, Josh Wolff, Davy Arnaud, Claudio Lopez (Roger Espinoza  82).

#TBT KC Goes to the Movies (Commercials)

This week's throw back Thursday, I'm going back to 2008, the KC Wizards first season at Community America Ballpark. And just for fun, the club's commercials that they made involving three members of the then Starting Eleven Girls talking about dreams that they had about movies from the 80's that involved KC Wizards players, from Kevin Hartman in 16 Candles to Kerry Zavagnin in Say Anything, to Jimmy Conrad and Sasha Victorine as Maverick and Goose singing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling" from Top Gun.

There's certainly a corniness and cringe factor involving these videos.





Kansas City Wizards: Top Gun from The Offside Rules on Vimeo.

#TBT Vermes First Win

While yesterday's game didn't turn out to be Sporting KC's Peter Vermes' 100th win in all competitions like I'd originally said, I thought this would be a good thing to look at in this week's Throw Back Thursday. With Vermes just one win away I thought we'd take a look at Vermes' first win as head coach of the then KC Wizards.

It's funny and would have been amazingly poetic if last night had been Vermes' 100th win as Sporting played the exact same opponent, the New England Revolution, that Vermes got his first win against back in 2009. Not only was it the same opponent, but the game finished with the same score as last night's game, 4-2 in favor of KC.

Vermes had been in charge of the Wizards for three games heading into a game at Gillette Stadium to take on the New England Revolution on September 5th, 2009, having taken over as the head coach after firing Curt Onalfo after the 6-0 thrashing in Dallas on August 1st of that year. In the three games he'd been in charge KC was 0-3 and had yet to score a goal. In fact, KC had not won in seven league games since a 3-1 win at home against the same Revolution on June 13th. Add in three SuperLiga games where KC went 0-1-2 and two US Open Cup games where KC went 0-1-1 (advancing on PKs over Minnesota) KC was actually 12 games without a win. KC had scored just one goal since that win over the Revolution, a midfield blast from Claudio Lopez in a 1-1 draw with the Galaxy. Heading into the game against the Revolution, KC had gone 424 minutes without scoring a goal. The team record for a single season was 427 set in 2000, so if KC didn't score in the first three minutes they'd set a new team record. (You can read more of the stats from that horrible winless run in my old entry.)

Two players that started that game in 2009 actually started the game last night in KC, as Matt Besler started at center back with Jimmy Conrad and Brad Knighton started in goal for New England during his first stint with the Revs. Vermes' counterpart last night, Jay Heaps also played a role in the game, starting in the Revolution defense.

I'd mentioned that KC needed to score in the first three minutes to avoid setting a new single season scoreless record, well in the third minute, Josh Wolff muscled Darius Barnes off the ball as KC raced towards goal, Wolff tried to touch the ball away but it deflected into the middle for Lopez who made no mistake scoring to put KC on top in just the third minute and see the team only tie the record for longest single season goalless streak. KC caused plenty of early problems for New England, but the Revs withstood the early push and were able to create chances of their own. KC though caught a break in the 23rd minute when a heavy touch by Sharlie Joseph saw the ball get away from him and Jack Jewsbury step in to try to win it. Joseph came into the challenge with his studs showing and was sent off for his effort as KC was going to get to finish the game with a man advantage. It didn't take long for KC to take advantage of the man advantage, in the 29th, Wolff did a great job of dribbling through two Revolution defenders and before the ball crossed the end line played the ball back into the middle towards Davy Arnaud, but the ball was knocked into the Revolution's own net by their current coach, Heaps. KC went into the break up 2-0.

In the second half it was the Revolution who were able to cut into the lead first, with Edgaras Jankauskas hitting a fantastic volley from outside the box, over Kevin Hartman and into the net to make it 2-1 in the 64th minute. KC almost had the quick response as Lopez got in behind the Revolution defense, but Knighton came off his line well and blocked Lopez's effort. KC made it 3-2 in the 73rd, with Wolff again being involved and this time getting the goal that he deserved for his work on the night as Lopez played him into the box. Knighton was off his line well, but couldn't hold onto the ball and Wolff turned and fired the ball into the net to make it 3-1. The Revolution refused to go away though and in the 81st again brought the game within a goal as Sanna Nyassi played a good cross into the box where Kheli Dube beat Conrad to the ball and headed it past Hartman to make it 3-2. While New England pushed for the equalizer, it was KC that struck again to close the game off as Chance Myers received the ball out wide and played a curling ball to the back post that Wolff fired into the net to make it 4-2 in second half stoppage time as Vermes finally got his first win for KC.

It wouldn't be a pretty end to the season after that win though. KC would win just two of their remaining eight games and finish with just 33 points and ahead of only New York in the conference standings.

Here's how the lineup looked for the team that date and the highlights are below that.
Kevin Hartman, Matt Besler, Lance Watson, Michael Harrington, Jimmy Conrad, Herculez Gomez (Chance Myers  63), Santiago Hirsig, Jack Jewsbury, Claudio Lopez (Graham Zusi  89), Davy Arnaud, Josh Wolff (Zoltan Hercegfalvi  93+).

#TBT The US Trip to KC in 2001

With the announcement today that the US U23 team will be coming to Kansas City as part of Olympic qualifying ahead of the 2016 Olympics in Brazil, I thought I'd take a look bad at the second time the US team has played in KC. Back in 2001, the USA made their first trip to Kansas City in almost 33 years on April 25th of that year. The last time the US had been in KC had been for a World Cup qualifier against Bermuda that saw the US win 6-2.

In 2001 it was again a World Cup qualifier, but this time against Costa Rica at Arrowhead Stadium. A crowd of 37,219, the largest soccer crowd in Kansas City history (a record that would last until the KC Wizards played Manchester United in 2010) was on hand to watch the US play. At the time it was the largest midweek qualifier crowd in US Soccer history, and looking back on it now a look into what type of soccer community there could really be in KC.

The US had the better of the possession in the early going of the game, but couldn't really capitalize on it with an early goal. The best early chance for the US came in the 16th minute when Claudio Renya played a nice ball over the top to Josh Wolff who brought the ball down nicely and chipped it over the Costa Rican goalkeeper only to have it cleared off the line by the defense before it could fully cross the line. Wolff was proving to be a menace for the Costa Rican defense throughout the half with his pace. Still the US went into the break level at 0-0.

The second half saw the US continue to be the better side, creating the better opportunities, but Costa Rica started to find some space of their own. Kasey Keller in the US net was called on to make some decent saves. Finally in the 70th minute the US broke through. A corner by Jeff Agoos was only partially cleared back to Agoos who played the ball immediately back into the box towards Clint Mathis. Mathis won the ball off his defender, but as the two were coming down the ball hit off the arm of Mathis right into the path of Wolff, who with an open goal, poked it into the net to give the US the lead. The Costa Ricans were shouting for a hand ball, but no call came. Now chasing the game, Costa Rica were the ones that pushed the game over the final 20 minutes, but the US defense held firm and were able to secure all three points in the third straight game to kick off the Hex as the US would go on to qualify for the 2002 World Cup. The loss would actually be Costa Rica's only loss of the Hex as they would win it with 23 points compared to the 17 points that the US and Mexico both finished with.

Here's the USA's lineup for the game, and highlights are further down.

Keller
Regis
Agoos
Llamosa
Cherundolo
Armas
Stewart
Reyna (c) (Berhalter)
Sanneh
Mathis (Lewis)
Wolff-1 (Razov)

#TBT Highest Scoring Game in KC History

On May 2nd, 1996, the then KC Wiz played at the time, the highest scoring MLS game in the league's short history. Against the Columbus Crew at Arrowhead Stadium, KC came from behind to top the Crew 6-4.

Played in front of 8,848, KC jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to a rocket of a shot by Mark Chung after a patented cut back by Preki drew three defenders to him in the fifth minute. Columbus was ale to find the equalizer in the 20th minute when Brian McBride headed home a corner from Billy Thompson, deflecting off of defender Tommy Reasoner who tried to keep the ball out with his knee. The score would stay at 1-1 headed into the half time break.

The second half started with a bang as KC jumped back out in front in just the 47th minute. Preki received the ball out wide and tried to curl a shot into the net. He succeeded in beating goalkeeper, Bo Oshoniyi, but didn't beat the cross bar. The rebound though fell to Mo Johnston who knocked the rebound home for a goal in his debut for KC. This time the lead lasted only a minute as a long throw in from McBride found Todd Yeagley in the box, he was able to bring the ball down and bury it. Columbus would take the lead for the first time a little after the hour mark as Mike Clark beat Reasoner to a cross by Thompson and headed the ball into the net to make it 3-2.

Only a minute after making it 3-2, Columbus made it 4-2 as McBride crossed the ball into the box looking for Adrian Paz, but Reasoner in an attempt to cleared the ball, fired the ball into his own net. The two goal lead would only last a couple minutes though as KC won a penalty kick as Digtal Takawira tried to dribble around a Crew defender on the ground who hit the ball with his hand. Preki stepped up to take the penalty, pulling a Panenka, softly chipping the ball past Oshoniyi and into the net to make it 4-3. Only a couple minutes after the penalty kick, KC was level with Johnston again the scorer. After a partial clearance out wide, Takawira headed the ball back into the middle where Johnston knocked it home to make it 4-4. KC wasn't done and in the 77th minute, Mike Sorber got in on the act firing a shot from long range that beat Oshoniyi and put KC in front 5-4. With Columbus chasing the game late, KC found a sixth to seal the game on the counter in the 88th minute. Takawira led the counter dribbling against two Crew defenders. At the top of the box, Takawira took a bit of a big touch and Preki pounced on the ball, one timing it into the corner right in front of Takawira.

The game would stand as the highest scoring game in league history for just two years before being surpassed by the LA Galaxy's 7-4 win over the Colorado Rapids in 1998. The game is still the highest scoring in KC history and tied for the record for most goals score in a game.

#TBT The Last Home Game I Missed

I'm going to be a little selfish tonight with my Throw Back Thursday. This weekend I'll be coaching my son's soccer team at 5:25pm on Sunday. What that means is that for the first time in almost 10 years I'll be missing a Sporting KC/KC Wizards home game. Come Sunday, it will be 3,600 days since I last missed a KC home game, a 3-0 win over the expansion (and now defunct) Chivas USA on June 25th, 2005.

KC scored all three of their goals in the second half, with Jimmy Conrad starting things off with a goal just after half time. Davy Arnaud doubled the lead in the 70th minute, before Sasha Victorine finished things off in the 85th minute in front of over 13,000 people, many of them Chivas Guadalajara fans who attended Chivas USA games in away cities over the team's first few years. Sadly  there don't appear to be any highlights online that I can find now to share about the game.

I missed that game because at the time I was on my honeymoon after getting married. Since then, my wife has put up with me being gone to Wizards and Sporting games whenever the team is at home, and many times when they were away and I traveled as well.

Over these almost 10 years, I've seen KC go from being on the selling block to seeing the team be one of the envies of the league. I've gone from seeing games played in front of announced crowds four to five thousand at Arrowhead to sold out crowds of over 20,000 at Sporting Park. I've seen the team struggle at the beginning of seasons (2011) and end of seasons (2005). I've seen greats like Preki and Jimmy Nielsen retire from the game, I've seen the beginning of great careers like Roger Espinoza, Matt Besler and Graham Zusi start in KC.

During this string of games I've seen 156 league games, and 186 games in all competitions since the middle of the 2005 season. KC has gone 71-39-46 at home over that time frame in league play, averaging 1.66 points per game, scoring 239 goals while conceding 173. In all competitions I've seen KC play 186 games going 88-46-52 scoring 293 goals and allowing 202.

Well here's to starting another 10 year run, and go Orange Smash on Sunday!

#TBT Best Comeback Ever

A couple weeks ago, Sporting Kansas City scored two goals in stoppage against the Philadelphia Union to turn a 2-1 deficit into a 3-2 win at Sporting Park. At the time the question was asked whether or not that was the greatest comeback for Kansas City all time. At the time I said it wasn't, and I still believe that. Instead, the greatest comeback in the team's history came against this weekend's opponent, the Houston Dynamo back in 2010.

At the time, Kansas City had never defeated the Dynamo in Kansas City since Houston had moved from San Jose ahead of the 2006 season. When the Dynamo came to Kansas City in late September in 2010, KC was trying to get back to the playoffs for the third straight year, having fired head coach Curt Onalfo two months earlier. To keep their hopes alive, KC desperately needed the win over the Dynamo, who were set to miss the playoffs for the first time since moving.

The Dynamo though grabbed the early lead as in the 13th minute, Cam Weaver was able to get in front of Roger Espinoza and slide a shot past Jimmy Nielsen and into the net giving Houston the lead. Shortly after that, Kei Kamara should have equalized as he got played in alone with Pat Onstad in the box, but Kamara hit the post keeping the score at 1-0. That miss came back to haunt KC in the 33rd. On a clearance into the middle of the field, Jimmy Conrad stepped up to challenge Weaver for the ball. Conrad left Dominic Oduro to do that, but Weaver won the header. Conrad's center back partner, Shavar Thomas didn't slide over to cover Oduro who was able to race in on goal and put the ball past Nielsen and into the net to make it 2-0. Kansas City responded immediately to going down 2-0 though as Craig Rocastle picked out Kamara and this time he made no mistake burying his effort past Onstad to make it 2-1. Unfortunately, Houston did the same to KC. After a foul in KC's end that appeared to be actually on Houston was called on KC, the ball was played into the box where Thomas' attempted clearance when right into the path of Adrian Serioux who knocked the ball into the net. The Dynamo went into the half with the 3-1 lead.

At half time, KC brought on rookie Teal Bunbury in place of Birahim Diop, and a new effort saw KC have the better of the start of the second half. In the 60th minute, Bunbury took advantage of a mistake by Onstad. The Dynamo goalkeeper slipped on a goal kick playing it directly toward Bunbury who reacted first and raced in on Onstad and slotted the ball between Onstad's legs to get KC within a goal again. KC continued to pressure, looking for the equalizer and in the 71st minute found it. The ball got played wide to Michael Harrington who beat his man 1v1 before crossing into the box towards Ryan Smith, who one timed it with his right foot. The ball deflected off Serioux and into the net tying the game at 3-3. As the minutes ticked off, it looked like KC would come all the way back, but in second half stoppage time, Nielsen cleared a ball well up field into the path of Harrington who had raced into the offensive end. Harrington one timed a ball into the box where Josh Wolff met it and flicked the header into the far post to give Kansas City the 4-3 lead and the win over the Dynamo.

For me it's the greater comeback because of the situation that KC was in at the time needing a win really to keep their playoff hopes alive (even if they didn't make it). Also because of the futility I felt at half time after watching the team down 3-1. Against the Union, while KC was down, Philadelphia wasn't playing well at all and goals were certainly there for KC, against Houston at the time I just didn't feel it.

#TBT The Last Time KC and LA Were Conference Rivals

For the first time since 2004, Sporting KC will be playing the LA Galaxy this weekend as a conference rival. With the additions of Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA back in 2005, KC has played the Galaxy in cross conference match ups. KC has played the Galaxy more than any other team in the league, 53 times in league play going 19-23-11 (across all competitions they've played 62 times, four fewer than the 66 KC has played against Colorado).

The last time these two teams met as conference rivals was in the 2004 MLS Cup playoffs. Having won the regular season Western Conference, the Wizards earn the right to host the Conference Finals after turning around a 2-0 deficit in the conference semifinals to win 3-2 on aggregate over the San Jose Earthquakes. Meanwhile, the Galaxy had qualified after a 2-1 aggregate win over the Colorado Rapids, losing the first leg 1-0 in Colorado.

At Arrowhead a day before Pitt State and Northwest Missouri State met at Arrowhead, the Wizards and Galaxy took the field to decide the Western Conference representative at MLS Cup. KC scored the opening goal just 24 minutes into the game as a ball was played up top to Josh Wolff who beat Tyrone Marshall to the ball, touching it inside and played it into the path of Davy Arnaud who was racing into the box. Arnaud put the ball between Kevin Hartman's legs and into the net giving KC a 1-0 lead. Shortly after that, tempers started to boil over after a Peter Vagenas foul on Jimmy Conrad. Arnaud came up and got in the face of Vagenas, who was also on the ground after the foul. Galaxy forward, Carlos Ruiz came up from behind Arnaud and grabbed him by the back of the neck pulling him away. This led to a larger scuffle between the two teams, with Nick Garcia surprisingly enough playing peacemaker trying to pull his players away from Ruiz.

KC continued to dominate the play for most of the game, looking like a team that had already won the US Open Cup and had lost out on the Supporters' Shield on a tiebreaker, the Galaxy were over matched on the night. It wasn't until the 69th minute though when KC doubled their lead, with Arnaud again being the scorer as he continued his break out season that saw him score 14 goals over the course of the season across all competitions. Alex Zotinca played a nice ball into the box that Arnaud ran on to. As Hartman came sliding out to try to grab it, Arnaud touched it past him towards the end line. Arnaud turned and fired a shot from a tight angle that squeezed into the net, possibly with a little help, but either way it doubled KC's lead.

At the time it was one of the best parties I've enjoyed with the Cauldron, or at a game period (probably only topped by the win over LA in the 2000 MLS Cup playoffs). The season ended disappointingly in LA a little over a week later when KC lost 3-2 to DC United in MLS Cup.

Saturday though KC and LA will meet up as conference rivals again.

#TBT - The Worst Signings in KC History

After this past weekend's lost to Kansas City, combined with a number of other issues since his signing, Philadelphia benched goalkeeper Rais M'Bolhi, and his future with the club is now in question. This has led me to think about Sporting's signings throughout their history, and what player has been the worst signing in the team's history. So for this week's throw back Thursday I'm taking a look at some of the worst signings in my opinion in KC history.

First to clear up, I'm going to look at signings, not necessarily draft picks or end of roster signings, guys like Victor Munoz or Scott Lorenz who were signed and didn't do a whole lot for the club may not have been great signings, but they're not horrible signings because they weren't expected to be that much of a contributor either. I also debated it and I'm not going to include trades in this, horrible trades may be something I look at later, so the trade that brought Jeff Baicher here in early 2000 only for him to retire saying KC were 10 years away from winning MLS Cup will not be included. I'm going to focus on guys that were signed to the league for the first time or signed as returning players to the league.

So here are a few of the signings.

Jermaine Hue - Signed late in the 2005 season, Hue was expected to give Kansas City some attacking help in the midfield. In his time in Kansas City though Hue barely got himself onto the field. Over parts of two seasons Hue played in just five games, starting just two. In those two starts he didn't play more than 45 minutes in either of them. Hue was waived in the middle of the 2006 season to make room on the roster for the impending signing of Dave van den Bergh.

Jeferson - The team's third designated player, signed on loan in the middle of the 2011 season, the team's first as Sporting KC. Jeferson was brought in to play the team's attacking midfield position and be the playmaker that KC fans had been wanting since Preki. The problem is that KC already had that playmaker emerging that season in Graham Zusi. His time started well for KC as he picked up an assist in his first appearance for KC as they topped Toronto 4-2. The assist was the only point that he picked up for Kansas City in nine league games and 11 across all competitions. Jeferson lost his spot to Zusi and ended up playing in just three of KC's final seven games, including the playoffs, starting just one of those games.

While Jeferson's loan status saves him a little bit, the fact that he took up a designated player spot definitely finds him on this list.

Vuk Rasovic - The former Serbian international was signed by Kansas City early in the 2004 season after impressing in the team's preseason. The then 31 year old defender was a bit of a surprise signing though as the Wizards defense at the time was quite solid with a back line of Alex Zotinca, Shavar Thomas, Jimmy Conrad, and Nick Garcia making up the back four. And with the likes of Diego Gutierrez and Jose Burciaga in reserve to play defense it seemed like the move didn't make sense.

Rasovic played just one game for Kansas City, starting a home game against Dallas. Rasovic looked slow and off the pace of the game. He was pulled at half time in favor of Thomas and never saw the field again for Kansas City.

Antti Sumiala - Like Hue, Sumiala was signed late in the 2005 season to help Kansas City's push for the playoffs. Sumiala also had a minimal effect, playing just two games for Kansas City, the clubs final two of the 2005 season. He started both games and did end up getting an assist on Josh Wolff's opener as the Wizards blew 2-0 lead at home and ended up drawing 2-2 with New England. He also started KC's season finale against Dallas before being pulled at half time with the game tied and Kansas City needing a win to make the playoffs.