A Good and Bad Day for the Missouri Comets

It's been a mixed bag for the Missouri Comets this afternoon as the team got good news regarding some of the league's year end awards, but that was combined with the bad news of the league handing down suspensions from the past weekend's Eastern Conference Finals against the Baltimore Blast.

First the good news as the league announced the year end awards, and of the five major awards, Kansas City walked away with two of them. Leo Gibson was the overwhelming winner of the league's MVP award this year, setting lead records for points (93), goals (48), assists (45), and points in a game (12). The other winner for the Comets, was the team's head coach, Vlatko Andonovski, who helped coach the team to the 20-0 regular season for the Comets. Neither of those two were a surprise really, it would have only been a surprise if neither one of those two players had won the award.

The same lack of surprise could fit two of the other awards as goalkeeper of the year went to Baltimore's William Vanzela, who beat out Danny Waltman for the award. While Waltman had more wins (17), Vanzela's goals against average of 2.83 and four shutouts were both league records that were definitely worthy of the award. The other was rookie of the year which unsurprisingly went to Gordy Gurson, who scored 46 goals while splitting time with the Seattle Impact and St. Louis Ambush.

One award that was a bit of a surprise though was the defender of the year award. Two Comets players, John Sosa and Brian Harris were up for the award against Baltimore's Pat Healey. In what the Comets described as a close race, Healey won the award. It certainly could be argued that Harris and Sosa cannibalized votes for the other, leaving Healey as the favorite, but I thought the award would be going to Harris for his defensive and offensive performance for Missouri.

As for the bad news, the suspensions from the Eastern Conference Finals for the two players, Harris and Sosa, who received red cards in the final minute of the game, and Andre Braithwaite for his post game activities. Braithwaite, who headbutted Baltimore defender, Healey received the harshest punishment, an indefinite suspension from the MASL. Braithwaite can re-apply for entrance back into the league after the 2015/2016 season. The Comets have already parted ways with the defender, releasing him within hours of the incident.

The next harshest punishment went to Harris who got himself a three game suspension for his late slide tackle with 12 seconds left in the game. The final suspension was given to Sosa who got just the one game for the foul and abusive language. Overall, I think the punishment for three is perfectly just and not one any of the players, or the team really should argue with or appeal.

The announcement from the league also makes mention of Andonovski's comments about Ed Hale and referee Ryan Cigich, which the league found no merit in. Finally the league says that the behavior or others is still being investigated at this time. It would surprise me to see a fine for Andonovski at some point for his comments.

De Jong and Espinoza Called Up

Sporting Kansas City's first trip to Yankee Stadium will be with a bit of an undermanned roster. Today Canada and Honduras named their rosters for the upcoming FIFA International window and Kansas City had players from both countries named to the rosters.

Canada has called up KC left back, Marcel de Jong for their friendlies on March 27th against Guatemala and March 30th against Puerto Rico. The game against Guatemala will take place in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, while the Puerto Rico game will be played in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. De Jong would become the first Kansas City player to represent Canada while a member of Sporting KC and the third overall (Alex Bunbury and Pat Harrington the other two).

Honduras called up Roger Espinoza for their Gold Cup playoff against French Guiana. After finishing fifth in this past year's Copa Centroamericana, this is used as Central America's qualifying for the Gold Cup. Having finished fifth, Honduras has to play a home and away qualifier against French Guiana, who finished fifth in this past year's Caribbean Cup. The two sides will meet in French Guiana on March 25th with the return leg four days later in Honduras. The winner will advance to the Gold Cup where they will join the US, Panama, and Haiti in Group A. It's Espinoza's first call up to the national team since the World Cup last summer where he played in all three games for Honduras.

Both will miss Kansas City's game on March 28th in New York against NYCFC. There's also the potential for another few players to be called up and miss the game as well because both Haiti (Soni Mustivar) and the US (Matt Besler and less likely Graham Zusi) also have friendlies during the upcoming window.

Chhetri Brace Leads India in World Cup Qualifying - Former SKC Wizards Update

It seems crazy, but qualifying or the 2018 World Cup in Russia has kicked off. The Asian Federation got the process started with their lowest ranked teams playing in the first round of qualifying. This included Sunil Chhetri and the 171st ranked India. They were matched up with 186th seeded Nepal. In the first leg in India, Chhetri scored a pair of second half goals to lead India to a 2-0 win. In the second leg, India again held Nepal scoreless and advanced 2-0 on aggregate. They will now move on to the second round of qualifying.

Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Federico Bessone
Bobby Convey
Mechack Jerome
Will John
Michael Kafari
Neal Kitson
Jonathan Leathers
Nelson Pizarro
Ivan Trujillo
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - No game this week.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Out injured.
Aurelien Collin - Orlando City - Suspended for Orlando's 1-0 win over Houston.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 70 minutes in RSL's 3-3 draw with Philadelphia.
Michael Harrington - Colorado - No game this week.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 2-2 draw with LA.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Out on leave.
Kei Kamara - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Columbus' 2-0 win over Toronto.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Dressed but did not play in Toronto's 2-0 loss to Columbus.
Eric Kronberg - Montreal - No game this week.
CJ Sapong - Philadelphia - Out injured.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Did not dress in San Jose's 3-2 win over Seattle.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Dressed but did not play in Columbus' 2-0 win over Toronto.
Sal Zizzo - New York - No game this week.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Tampa Bay - No game until 4-4.
James Marcelin - Fort Lauderdale - No game until 4-4
Rauwshan McKenzie - Atlanta - No game until 4-4.
Kyle Miller - Atlanta - No game until 4-4.

USL
Christian Duke - Oklahoma City - No game utnil 3-28
Brian Fekete - Austin - No game until 3-28
Adnan Gabeljic - Sacramento - No game until 3-21
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - No game until 3-28
Alex Martinez - Charlotte- No game until 3-27
Victor Munoz - Arizona - No game until 3-28
Tony Rocha - Austin - No game until 3-28
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - No game until 3-28
Yomby William - Richmond - No game until 3-28
John Wilson - Charleston - No game until 3-21

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Ontario - Offseason.
Josh Gardner - Missouri - Had a goal and an assist in Missouri's 8-2 win over Milwaukee. Did not play in Missouri's 6-4 loss to Baltimore. Had two goals in Missouri's 10-7 loss to Baltimore.
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Scored a goal in Baltimore's 6-4 win over Rocheser. Had an assist in Baltimore's 6-4 win over Missouri. Had an assist in Baltimore's 10-7 win over Missouri.
Mike Jones - Dallas - Offseason.
Michal Mravec - Tacoma - Offseason.
Boris Pardo - Wichita - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Auerbach - Germany - Did not dress in Auerbach's 3-0 loss to Wacker Nordhausen.
Scott Angevine - Vasa - Finland - No games until 4/12
Vicente Arze - Blooming - Bolivia - Did not dress in Blooming's 1-0 loss to Nacional Potosi.
Claudio Bieler - Quilmes - Argentina - Started and played 84 minutes in Quilmes' 2-1 win over Velez Sarsfield.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Started and played 82 minutes in Chivas' 2-1 win over Puebla.
Reinaldo Brenes - Saprissa - Costa Rica - Did not dress in Saprssa's 1-1 draw with Puma Generalena. Dressed but did not play in Saprissa's 2-1 win over Limon.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Lost 1-0 to Toros Neza UTN.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in India's 2-0 win over Nepal. Started and played 90 minutes in India's 0-0 draw with Nepal. Did not dress in Bengaluru's 1-0 win over Warriors.
Jorge Claros - Qingdao Jonoon - China - Started and played 90 minutes in Qingdao Jonoon's 4-1 loss to Harbin Yiteng.
Eloy Colombano - AD Berazategui - Defeated Central Cordoba 3-1.
Daneil Cyrus - Ha Noi T&T (W Connection) - Vietnam (Trinidad) - No game until 4/3
Toni Dovale - CD Lugo - Spain - Started and played 69 minutes in Lugo's 0-0 draw with Real Zaragoza.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - Did not dress in either of Cucuta's games.
Herculez Gomez - Puebla - Mexico - Started and played 90 minutes in Puebla's 2-1 loss to Chivas.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - No game this week.
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Did not dress in either of Boavista's games.
Peterson Joseph - Azam FC - Tanzania - No game this week.
Igor Juliao - Fluminense - Brazil - Did not dress in either of Fluminense's games.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Did not dress in San Martin's 3-2 loss to Melgar.
Igor Kostrov - FK Kyzyl-Zhar - Kazakhstan - No game until 4-4.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Did not dress in Servette's 2-2 draw with Le Mont.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Came off the bench and played 27 minutes in Spartak's 1-0 win over Dinamo Moscow.
Lawrence Olum - Kedah FA - Malaysia - Tied Pulau Pinang 3-3. Lost 1-0 to Johor Darul Ta'zim II.
Akeem Priestley - Sheikh Russel KC - Bangladesh - Offseason.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - No game this week.
Oriol Rosell - Sporting Club de Portugal - Portugal - Started and played 90 minutes in Sporting's 1-0 win over Maritimo.
Soony Saad - BCC Tero (loaned fromBEC Tero Sasana FC) - Thailand - Lost 3-1 to Rayong United.
Peter Schmetz - Wuppertaler SV - Germany - Defeated Jahn Dinslaken-Hiesfeld 5-0.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Dressed but did not play in Blackburn's 3-1 win over Charlton. Dressed but did not play in Blackburn' 3-2 loss to Brentford.
Martin Steuble - Ceres-La Salle - Philippines - Defeated Kaya 2-1.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia - Started and played 58 minutes in Sarajevo's 2-1 loss to Borac Banja Luka. Started and played 65 minutes in Sarajevo's 0-0 draw with Borac Banja Luka.
Matt Taylor - Saarbrücken - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Saarbrucken's 1-0 win over Zweibrucken.

Suspension and Fines Handed Out From KC's Game in Dallas

Today, the MLS Disciplinary Committee came down with two announcements regarding this past weekend's game between Sporting KC and FC Dallas. Sporting KC's fitness coach Mateus Manoel was suspended for one game and giving a fine for entering the field of play and kicking the ball.

That sounds a lot worse than it actually is. In the 64th minute, a shot by Kansas City went wide of the goal and out of bounds. It bounced off the sign boards and rolled towards the corner flag, eventually rolling back into play. Manoel, who was in the corner working with KC's bench players, jogged quickly onto the field and kicked the ball back to Chris Seitz. While it seems innocent enough, it's something that the league is looking to cut down on this year apparently, as Dallas' fitness coach was hit with the same suspension and fine after the first week of games. Manoel will now miss this weekend's game against the Portland Timbers.



The other incident involved FC Dallas substitute, Kyle Bekker as he was fined for violating the league's policy about hands to the face.. In the 89th minute, Bekker and KC center back, Kevin Ellis tangled in KC's end of the field. A ball was played up the field towards Bekker, but Ellis beat him to the ball with a sliding tackle. As the two game together, Bekker didn't seem to fully try to jump over Ellis. When that happened, Ellis grabbed Bekker's ankle. Bekker took exception to this while Ellis was on the ground, as Ellis tried to get to his feet, still holding Bekker's ankle, Bekker ended up grabbing Ellis by the face and throwing him to the ground.



There was no mention of any of the other incidents in the game mentioned by Simon Borg in his Instant Replay segment on the league's website. But that doesn't necessarily mean that there won't be action, a lot of times the league will get the obvious violation of rules (like entering the field of play and hands to face) early in the week and then get the more debatable stuff later in the week.

As for the referees in the game, PRO does not announce if there are any suspensions for referees, but Jair Maruffo, the center on Saturday, assistant Eric Boria, and the other two referees were given no assignments for this upcoming weekend's games.

US Soccer Training Center Moving Along

A week ago, we got more information about the upcoming US Soccer national training center in Kansas City. At a Neighborhood and Community Development Standing Committee Meeting, more information about the project was presented to the committee (start at 1 hour 15 minutes into the video below). There was lots of information regarding not just the training center but also the long awaited tournament fields that were to be built in conjunction with the construction of Sporting Park in the first place, and the futsal courts that On Goal is building in Wyandotte County.

First let's get the futsal fields, On Goal has already built two fields currently and will be building eight more of those courts. On Goal will now built double courts on tennis courts and the two that they have already built can be expanded if the Unified Government first lays the surface for the expanded courts. Robb Heineman said that they want to be building on multiple sites at one time, starting as soon as possible. If things were finalized now they could start in April and have all eight additional courts finished by the end of 2015.

On one of the big points of the stadium that has yet to be fulfilled was the building of tournament fields at Wyandotte County Park. Originally as part of the plan to use parts of the STAR Bonds that were used to finance the Legends shopping area in the first place, On Goal and the then Wizards had to agree that they would build tournament quality soccer fields in the park. The new deal though will move the tournament fields from Wyandotte County park to a new site from a family (Speer) in Wyandotte County. The site is the far right purple area in the below screen shot.



The site, near the corner of State Ave. and 90th Street would see at least eight fields of the 12 fields built at the Speer Family site. The other four would be at the national training center, although in the presentation they showed that there is space at the site for another four fields to bring the total there up to 12. On Goal would have the rights to bring up projects in those areas, but would not stand in the way if other projects were brought up. Below is a closer picture of that portion of the project. The facility would be run by On Goal as part of their agreement with the county.

Now, for the big part of the project that the majority of people are probably interested in, the US Soccer national training center. According to the slides that were shown, it's a $64 million proposal for the project. The training center would be built on the northern end of the Schlitterbahn along Parallel Parkway, to the north and east of Sporting Park. The training center will have at least one build, but up to 100,000 square feet of space. During the discussion, Heineman also mentioned that US Soccer is looking for 100,000 of office space for 300 workers, and On Goal is wanting to go after that to try and get that deal here as well. You can see a closer break down of the facility below.

The facility would not have a set number of fields, as Heineman mentions, the topography of the area isn't the greatest and what they're going to do is look to maximize flat usage. The facility would be run by US Soccer, On Goal, or a combination of the two, that portion is still to be finalized.The hope according to the presentation is that the facility will be up and running by 2017.

The full presentation to the full board will take place on March 26th. You can watch the full meeting below.

Comets Season Ends on a Very Sour Note

The Missouri Comets season came to an end today at the Independence Events Center today at the hands of the Baltimore Blast in the Eastern Conference Finals. Baltimore will now move on to take on the Monterrey Flash for the MASL title.

Missouri grabbed the only goal of the first quarter as Kiel Williams found the back of the net to give the Comets the lead late in the first quarter. The second quarter belonged to the Blast though as they scored three unanswered over the first 12 minutes of the quarter to take the lead 3-1. Alain Matingou with just over two and a half minutes left to cut the lead to 3-2. The Blast immediately responded though to make it 4-2 before John Sosa scored in the final second of the quarter to make it 4-3 Baltimore as the teams headed into the half time break.

In the third quarter, the Blast extended their lead to 5-3 early in the quarter on the power play. Missouri though finally got the offense going a bit and were able to level the game at 5-5 in the span of a couple minutes thanks to goals by Bryan Perez and Josh Gardner. Before the end of the quarter though the Blast had extended their lead to two again at 7-5 leaving the Comets with a hill to climb in the final quarter.

The fourth quarter saw the Comets try again and again to find the net but unable to as the Blast killed the clock off. In the final five minutes though things got crazy. Baltimore hit the Comets on the counter to make it 8-5. Missouri switched to the sixth attacker and Gardner almost immediately cut it to a two goal game at 8-6. Then a few minutes later, with a minute 15 left, Leo Gibson got a goal off a restart to cut the lead to one at 8-7. Unfortunately that's where the rally stopped. Twelve seconds after the goal, Baltimore made it 9-7 and then 11 seconds later finished off the scoring at 10-7 to the Blast.

Immediately after the goal, the Comets cool was collectively gone. Sosa picked up a red card for foul and abusive language to the referee. Then after believing he'd been fouled and not receiving a call, Brian Harris came in with dangerous tackle and picked himself up a red card with 12 seconds left to end the Comets season on an extremely sour note.

And unfortunately that wasn't the end of it as after the game ended, Andre Braithwaite did this to Pat Healey.

Post by Eddie Trujillo.

If not for how stunned I think most of the players were about it happening Braithwaite likely would have seen himself fighting the entire Blast team. And based on Josh Gardner's reaction (he was talking to Healey at the time) I don't think Braithwaite would have gotten a ton of support.

To the Comets credit they responded to Braithwaite's actions fairly quickly, announcing "The Comets organization announces that Andre Braithwaite has been released from the team effective immediately."

The team waiving him isn't a surprise at all based on the above video, a stupid move by the player. He'll likely also receive some sort of lengthy suspension from the league, if he's not outright banned from it for a while.

In the end though, Braithwaite's and the actions of other players at the end of the game ends a really amazing season very sourly. 

Sunday After Stats

Graham Zusi made his 150th league appearance for Kansas City, he's the 9th player to hit that mark for KC.

It also broke his tie with Mo Johnston and Michael Harrington for 9th place on that list.

Zusi made his 143rd start in all competitions for KC, tying him with Harrington for 13th on that list.

Benny Feilhaber started his 100th league game in MLS.

In the 71st minute, Feilhaber hit 10,000 minutes played in all competitions in his MLS career, he finished the game with 10,019 minutes played.

Feilhaber's assist was his 18th in all competitions for KC, moving him into a tie with Jose Burciaga and Francisco Gomez for 14th on that list.

Roger Espinoza made his 120th appearance in league play for KC, tying him with Jose Burciaga for 20th place on that list.

Sporting KC Fall in Dallas

Sporting Kansas City's first road trip of the year didn't turn out very well for KC in Dallas tonight as a Blas Perez brace helped to lead Dallas to a 3-1 win over KC. While KC didn't look extremely well in the loss, and probably deserved to lose the game, the scoreline did flatter Dallas a little bit considering Perez and about four other Dallas players were offside on Perez's second goal, and without that goal, the question becomes whether KC would have been pushing forward as much leading to Dallas' third goal on the counter.

KC actually had the better of possession in the first half, but in the run of play were really struggling to create chances. KC's best opportunities were coming from set pieces and corners from Benny Feilhaber and Graham Zusi. Fabian Castillo almost scored in the seventh minute as he cut in and around four or five Kansas City defenders before hitting a shot from close range that Luis Marin blocked clear. In the 17th minute though, Dallas were the ones that grabbed the lead on a mistake by right back Amadou Dia. Dia beat Castillo to a ball over the top, but didn't do well with the clearance, just right to Castillo collected it and played it right into the path of Tesho Akindele who cut back on Marcel de Jong and played the ball into the path of Perez who fired it past Marin and into the net giving Dallas the 1-0 lead. Kansas City continued to get some chances from set pieces but couldn't capitalize. On one of those set pieces it looked like KC's center back issues would continue as Ike Opara and Chris Seitz both went up for a ball, collided in the air and hit the ground hard. Opara looked in a lot of pain holding his shoulder, immediately fans flashed back to Feilhaber's dislocated shoulder against Houston last year. Thankfully in the end Opara was able to continue. Late in the half though they did find an equalizer through Roger Espinoza. Espinoza received a simple pass from Feilhaber near midfield. Espinoza dribbled up field into the Dallas final third with no one really shutting him down. Finally once he got to the top of the box he fired a shot on goal before pressure got on him. Dallas goalkeeper, Seitz was either shielded or made a horrible read on Espinoza's shot as he reacted late, diving to his near post but was unable to keep the ball out of the net.

Early in the second half, Dallas regained the lead with Perez again scoring the goal. After a Michel corner was cleared right back to the Dallas player, Michel cut back inside moving back up field before playing the ball back into the box. While Michel was doing this, the KC line had pushed back up field. The ball fell to Perez who brought it down with just chest and fired it past Marin and in. Unfortunately for KC Perez was offside when Michel's ball was played along with three to four teammates, but assistant referee, Eric Boria kept his flag down and the goal stood.  Shortly after the goal, Perez almost finished off his hattrick after a poor giveaway by de Jong in KC's defensive end of the field. Thankfully Perez's header from about the six was right at Marin, who had to hurry to get back into goal after the giveaway. Down a goal again, KC had to push numbers forward, and in the 73rd got hit on the counter, for Dallas' third goal. After Zusi had the ball tackled away in the Dallas half of the field, Michel played a great ball over the top to Ryan Hollingshead who ran straight by de Jong into KC's half of the field. As Opara came over to cover, Hollingshead played a ball back into the middle for Castillo who had burned past Dia, touched the ball past an on rushing Marin and calmly put the ball into the net to make it 3-1. A couple minutes later though KC thought they had a life line. Off a Zusi free kick, substitute, Bernardo Anor was fouled in the box by Matt Hedges leading to a penalty kick for Kansas City. Dom Dwyer stepped up to take the kick, but hit the PK poorly. It was right in that range to the keepers side where they can easily reach it with a dive. Seitz pushed the shot away and the rebound was cleared. KC pushed forward the rest of the way trying to find themselves a goal to close the gap but were unable to test Seitz and KC sank to the bottom of the West two games into the season thanks to other results around the league.

Wizards Man of the Match - Roger Espinoza - Really I don't think anyone looked that good overall tonight, the defense had a lot of issues, the outside backs especially, the midfield continued to be a bit disjointed in its style, even with the insertion of another defensive minded midfielder in Paulo Nagamura, and the attackers didn't test Seitz enough. Espinoza gets it for showing a willingness to attack on the dribble and scoring a goal tonight.

Player Ratings - Marin 4, Dia 3, Opara 4, Ellis 4, De Jong 3, Feilhaber 4, Espinoza 5, Nagamura 4, Nemeth 4, Dwyer 3, Zusi 4. Subs Anor 5, Peterson NR.

Match Day 2: Sporting KC at FC Dallas

Sporting KC head on the road for the first time in the 2015 season as they've traveled to Dallas for their first match against a Western Conference opponent since their move back to the West this season. It'll be a familiar opponent for Kansas City though as the two MLS originals have met 49 times in the past, with KC leading the overall series 20-19-10.

Dallas comes into the game on the back of a late game winner in their season opener at home against the San Jose Earthquakes. Blas Perez scored in second half stoppage time to lead Dallas to the 1-0 win, redirecting a shot with his head into the net. Dallas had an impressive end to the 2014 season, playing well under Oscar Pareja in his first season as coach of Dallas. With the likes of Fabian Castillo running at defenders, the Dallas attack poses a number of problems for KC's back line, especially with Matt Besler out. Defensively, Dallas has recent national teamer, Matt Hedges anchoring the center of defense. Behind him will be either Chris Seitz, who started Dallas' opener, or Dan Kennedy, who the team acquired in the Chivas USA dispersal draft.

For KC the big question is who is going to replace Besler in the center of KC's defense next to Ike Opara. The options range from Erik Palmer-Brown, to the recently acquired Jalil Anibaba, to Kevin Ellis, who has returned from his concussion and will apparently be available for selection. Based on tweets by KC Star beat writer, Sam McDowell, it would seem that KC's teenage U20 international, Palmer-Brown looks set to start his first game of the season. After the center back position the question is whether Peter Vermes will do something to try to stabilize the midfield a bit more. There seemed to be issues last week for Benny Feilhaber and Roger Espinoza in regards to one staying home and one attacking more depending on the situation. Does Vermes try to work things out between the two of them and have them start again Saturday, or does he look to insert someone like Paulo Nagamura to bring some more stability in the midfield while sacrificing Bernardo Anor (who Nagamura subbed in for against New York) or possibly Krisztian Nemeth. In the end I think Vermes sticks with Espinoza and Feilhaber for consistency, but has them play a little deeper this game than they did at home against New York.

Marin

Dia - Opara - EPB - Sinovic

Feilhaber - Espinoza

Nemeth

Zusi - Dwyer - Anor

Number to Remember - 1 - From Sporting's By the Numbers, the home team in this series since 2010 has just 1 win in 6 in this series(1-3-2). That win was by Dallas in July of 2010. One is also the number of losses that Dallas has at home in their last 14 home games (11-1-2), that's home form that Kansas City only wishes that they had right now.

Key Match Up - Ike Opara vs Blas Perez - After going up against the MLS Golden Boot winner last weekend, Opara will now have to deal with another consistent goal scorer. Perez though is a different type of striker than Bradley Wright-Phillips, Perez will be much more physical with Opara than BWP was and will be a different challenge for Opara to deal with. At the same time, Opara's match up with Perez will be with Castillo being a pest running at KC's defense, which will cause its own problems.

PREDICTION - This should be a good test of where this Sporting team is at in this early part of the season.Dallas is a good young team that is well coached. KC's road form under Vermes the last few years has been quite good, compared to the rest of the league. Dallas though is extremely good at home under Pareja and will be ready for the game. I'd love to see a KC win for the 800 or so traveling Cauldron who will help turn Toyota Park into Sporting Park South, but I question whether that'll be enough. Dallas is a good team with plenty of attacking options, this will be a much sterner test than New York was. I'm not sure KC gets out of Dallas with anything tomorrow.

SKC 1 - (Dwyer)
FCD 2 - (Perez, Diaz)

Comets Fall for the First Time in Baltimore

The Missouri Comets lost their first game of the season in Baltimore tonight 6-4 to the Baltimore Blast in the first game of the Eastern Conference finals. Missouri traveled across the state after their game last night against the Milwaukee Wave and caught an early flight this morning to Baltimore for tonight's game.

Tonight's game ended up being a defensive battle from both teams. Alain Matingou got the Comets on the board late in the first quarter off a restart with Bryan Perez providing the assist to put the Comets up 2-0. The second quarter saw both teams defense and goalkeeper continue to put on a show, but late in the quarter the Blast tied the game up Adriano Dos Santos.

The defensive show continued in the third quarter, with Pat Healey picking out Tony Donatelli who beat Danny Waltman to give Baltimore a 4-2 lead. Baltimore extended their lead early in the fourth quarter through Lucas Roque to make it 6-2. The Comets pressured down the stretch, insert John Sosa as the team's sixth attacker. They were able to cut the lead to 6-4 with just over three and a half minutes to play as Vahid Assadpour picked out Leo Gibson who headed the ball home. Unfortunately Missouri couldn't find an equalizer and will now return to Missouri needing to win not just the main game on Sunday, but also the mini game as well to advance to the MASL finals.

#TBT The Worst Road Trip Ever

With the big trip to Dallas this weekend, when there will be over 750 people traveling down the Toyota Park to watch Sporting KC take on FC Dallas I figured I'd use this Throw Back Thursday to look back at probably the worst road trip I've ever been on, and hard to think many others have been on worse.

First, let's set the stage, the year was 2009, the then Kansas City Wizards were headed down to Dallas to take on FC Dallas. The Wizards at the time were 5-6-6 having draw their last two games on the road 0-0 with New England and 1-1 at home against the LA Galaxy (the game Claudio Lopez scored from midfield). At this point KC's chances of making the playoffs, weren't hanging in the balance, but getting some sort of result was needed for Curt Onalfo's men. Adam Cristman got one of his three starts for KC in the game while Rauwshan McKenzie made one of his five league starts in that game. KC's current captain, Matt Besler was at right back.

From the start KC struggled to deal with Dallas as they came forward, the Wizards faced a lot of one way traffic, with Jack Jewsbury struggling to deal with Brek Shea and Jair Benitez on Dallas' left side. KC's defense held though for much of the first half either from saves by Kevin Hartman or from the offside flag. Finally in the 38th minute Jeff Cunningham opened the scoring as Atiba Harris was played in behind Besler and played a cross to the back post where Cunningham was unmarked to tap home. Only minutes later it was 2-0. Again Dallas broke down KC's right side way too easily and Shea played a ball into the middle where David Ferreira ran in front of McKenzie to flick on the cross and put it past Hartman to make it 2-0 before the teams headed into half time.

At half time, Onalfo tried to stop the bleeding, subbing out Herculez Gomez for Lance Watson, sliding him to right back and pushing Jewsbury into the midfield after all the trouble he had dealing with Shea. The move didn't hurt KC early on at least, Davy Arnaud forced a good save out of Dario Sala just after the half started and KC showed a little bit of life. It didn't last long though and in the 65th minute, after Hartman had come out of his box and muffed a clearance, Cunningham won the ball off McKenzie outside the box and proceeded to get fouled inside the box as the Dallas attacker carried forward. Cunningham stepped up and buried the PK for his second of the night. As if things couldn't get worse, a minute later Claudio Lopez got sent off for an elbow to the throat of Dax McCarty as KC's designated player tried to hold off the Dallas midfielder. Up a man, Dallas made it 4-0 in the 76th as a long Shea cross into the box caused Hartman to start to come out, then back pedal back towards goal. The hesitation led to the ball falling to the fee of Cunningham who finished off his hattrick. Two minutes later, a poor turnover in KC's defensive half of the field by Santiago Hirsig led to Ferreira going right at Hartman in a 1v1 situation. Hartman came off his line and tried to make a slide tackle just outside the box, but missed badly as Ferreira basically walked the ball into the net to make it 5-0. Cunningham officially finished the game off in the 89th as Hirsig hesitated in cutting out a through ball that made it to Cunningham. The striker hit a shot on goal that wasn't extremely hard, and hit right at Hartman, but the ball went under the KC goal keeper and rolled slowly into the net to finish off the second worst loss in KC history.

In the aftermath of the game, the Wizards fired head coach Onalfo on August 6th. KC was off until the 16th of August so the team had time to integrate under interim head coach, Peter Vermes, but KC proceeded to lose the next three games as well, 2-0 at home to Chicago, 1-0 on the road to San Jose, and 1-0 at home to Salt Lake. Only one player on the field for that game really suffered in terms of playing time for that game, and that was McKenzie, who would make only one more appearance for KC over the final 12 games as the Wizards limped to an 8-13-9 record. You can see the low lights of the match below.




Now I'm going to share my personal experience on this trip, those that know me have probably heard this story, for those that haven't, you'll be shaking your head by the end.

Yes I was at that game, you can see me and the rest of the traveling Cauldron in the far right corner in the highlights, a far cry from the nearly 1,000 that went in 2013 and the 750 plus headed there this weekend. At the time the Cauldron stayed in a hotel that was literally right across the parking lot from the stadium, so tailgating with the Dallas supporters was very easy. And like always on the trips to Dallas, they've treated us well. At the time I was actually doing my fair share of drumming in the Cauldron, a surprise simply because of my lack of musical talent. This was actually one of my last games doing it, because about five to seven minutes into the game I had ripped the skin on my thumb, not a pretty picture.

So by then I had drunk my share of beer, had my thumb torn open, and KC was playing like shit, needless to say I wasn't in a good mood. By half time I was sitting down in the section and I didn't get up for the second half, I figured if the players weren't going to put in the effort, I wasn't going to. Well as I explained above, things got even worse and the Wizards lost badly. As the group of us headed back out to the Dallas tailgate after the game to drink with them more before heading to a nearby bar to watch an LA Galaxy friendly (I believe it was against Real Madrid but it's been a while). Well to do that we had to walk by the bus where the team was getting on to head back to the hotel. I saw Onalfo walk out to the bus and proceeded to give him a piece of my mind, saying that we played like shit, that I was embarrassed to be a fan, and embarrassed that I'd traveled to that game. Onalfo walked straight onto the bus and sat in the front row. Unfortunately for him I could still see him and continued to give him a piece of my mind until I grew tired and walked back over to the tailgate. Not one of my prouder moments of supporting this team, course it wasn't one of the team's prouder moments either.

Enjoy this weekend traveling Sporting fans, hopefully your weekend is better than this one was.

Comets Roll Past Milwaukee, Now Head to Baltimore

The Missouri Comets used a big second quarter to help them top the Milwaukee Wave and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals where they'll play Baltimore in a home and away series starting tomorrow in Baltimore. Missouri scored four unanswered goals in the quarter and added two more in the third as Missouri won the game 8-2 to advance to play the Blast.

The two teams traded goals in the first quarter, with Vahid Assadpour's goal just over three minutes in being canceled out by Tony Walls only a minute later.  The second quarter is where the Comets really jumped on Milwaukee. Just 13 seconds in, Kiel Williams scored to put the Comets back on top. Bryan Perez made it 3-1 right before the half way point after some great work by Alain Matingou. Later in the half, the Comets had their first of three power plays after the Wave were penalized a second time for a substitution violation. Josh Gardner ended up scoring the goal with just under five remaining in the half as his shot went off Victor Quiroz and into the net. Assadpour finished off the scoring in the first half off an assist from Leo Gibson with just 10 seconds left in the half.

The third quarter saw Missouri again jump out early and score another early goal as Brian Harris got on the board with a shot from distance just three and a half minutes in. The Comets extended their lead to 7-1 on another power play goal, this time with Gardner playing provider and setting up Gibson for his first goal of the night. The fourth quarter saw the Wave almost immediately switch to the sixth attacker, pulling Nick Vorberg as soon as the Wave won possession back. The extra attacker paid off with more possession for the Wave and they found an early goal through former Comet, Stefan St Louis who did a good job dancing around two defenders at the top of the box before firing past Danny Waltman to make it 7-2. That's as close as the Wave would get though. They weren't able to take advantage of the extra attacker any more, and around the half way point picked up another blue card. While the Comets pushed to attack, looking for another goal, the Comets also were able to kill two more minutes keeping the Wave pinned in their own end for much of it. Finally with under a minute left the Comets were able to break the Wave's sixth attacker pressure and find a goal as Assadpour finished off his hattrick burying a shot in the far corner.

With the win the Comets will now play two games this weekend against the Baltimore Blast, Friday in Baltimore and Sunday at the Independence Events Center. After 18 days off, the Comets will now play three games in a four day span with two trips halfway across the country in between; it'll certainly put their legs to the test.

Sporting Park to Host US vs Panama in the Gold Cup

CONCACAF today announced the groupings for this summer's Gold Cup, including the USA and their fourth trip to Sporting Park since the stadium opened. The United States, already grouped in Group A will play in Dallas, Foxborough and Kansas City for their three group games. Joining them will be Panama, Haiti, and Honduras or French Guiana (those two meet in a home and away playoff in late March to decide the final team in the tournament).

The United States will open the group in Dallas against the winner of the Honduras/French Guiana playoff on July 7th before taking on Haiti in Foxborough on the 10th. The Yanks will close out group play on July 13th at Sporting Park against Panama. Certainly not an easy group for the United States, especially if Honduras, as expected, takes care of French Guiana in the playoff matchup. You'll have Honduras who has qualified for the last two World Cups, Haiti, who while having not qualified for the World Cup since 1974, have given the US trouble in the past in the Gold Cup, including a 2-2 draw that the US had to salvage at the death in the 2009 version of the competition. Then you have Panama, the USA's opponent in KC, the team they beat in the 2013 version of the tournament in the final 1-0 (beating Mexico twice in that tournament), the team that was a late Graham Zusi goal from heading to the World Cup themselves, and the only team to beat the US in the group stages of the Gold Cup since the tournament was founded in 1991. So there really won't be any easy games for the US in this competition.

Group B will also see its share of tight games with Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica, and Canada making up the group. In Costa Rica you have arguably the best team in CONCACAF right now as the seeded team. You then add in regional rival El Salvador, 2014 Caribbean Cup winners, Jamaica, and co-hosts, Canada, who automatically qualified. While Costa Rica should win the group, playing Canada in Toronto in their final group game could be a strong test.

Of the three groups, Mexico in Group C got the easiest as they'll go up against Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and Cuba. While you have Guatemala and TnT both runner's up in their regional competitions, neither made The Hex in the last round of World Cup qualifying. Meanwhile Cuba qualified as the fourth place finisher out of the Caribbean.

The winner of the 2015 Gold Cup will meet the winner of the 2013 Gold Cup (the USA) in a home and home series for the right to go to the 2017 Confederations Cup in Russia. If the US wins the Gold Cup this year, the US will automatically advance to the Confederations Cup.

Rough Week 1 for Former SKC Players - Former SKC Wizards Update

The 2015 MLS season has kicked off, but it wasn't exactly a smooth kick off for a number of former players. Teal Bunbury, Aurelien Collin, and CJ Sapong all had disappointing ends to their first games of the season. Collin's game ended in the 83rd minute when he was sent off for a sliding challenge on NYCFC's David  Villa. While Collin pleaded his innocence the way that KC fans have seen previously, there was really no arguing that Collin's red card was justified as he got none of the ball and all of Villa.

Bunbury's and Sapong's poor weekends were due to injuries. Bunbury picked up a shoulder injury late in his team's 3-0 loss in Seattle. New England at the time had used all three of their substitutions and had to finish the game with 10 men. Meanwhile, Sapong suffered a concussion and a facial fracture late in the first half of Philadelphia's 0-0 draw with Colorado. Sapong was replaced at half time of the game.

Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Federico Bessone
Bobby Convey
Mechack Jerome
Will John
Michael Kafari
Neal Kitson
Rauwshan McKenzie
Nelson Pizarro
Tony Rocha
Ivan Trujillo
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - Started and played 73 minutes in DC's 2-1 win over Alajuelense. Started and played 90 minutes in DC's 1-0 win over Montreal.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Started and played 90 minutes in New England's 3-0 loss to Seattle.
Aurelien Collin - Orlando City - Started and played 83 minutes before being red carded in Orlando's 1-1 draw wtih NYC.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Started and played 88 minutes in RSL's 0-0 draw with Portland.
Michael Harrington - Colorado - Started and played 90 minutes in Colorado's 0-0 draw with Philadelphia.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Started and played 90 minutes in Portland's 0-0 draw with RSL.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Out on injured reserve for DC.
Kei Kamara - Columbus - Started and played 90 minutes in Columbus' 1-0 loss to Houston.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Dressed but did not play in Toronto's 3-1 win over Vancouver.
Eric Kronberg - Montreal - Dressed but did not play in Montreal's 1-0 loss to DC.
CJ Sapong - Philadelphia - Started and played 45 minutes in Philadelphia's 0-0 draw with Colorado.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Did not dress in San Jose's 1-0 loss to Dallas.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Dressed but did not play in Columbus' 1-0 loss to Houston.
Sal Zizzo - New York - Came off the bench and played 22 minutes in New York's 1-1 draw with KC.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Tampa Bay - Offseason.
James Marcelin - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason.
Kyle Miller - Atlanta - Offseason.

USL
Christian Duke - Oklahoma City - Offseason.
Brian Fekete - Austin - Offseason.
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - Offseason.
Jonathan Leathers - Charlotte - Offseason.
Alex Martinez - Orange County - Offseason.
Victor Munoz - Arizona - Offseason.
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Ontario - Offseason.
Adnan Gabeljic - St. Louis - Offseason.
Josh Gardner - Missouri - No game this week.
Pat Healey - Baltimore - No game this week.
Mike Jones - Dallas - Played in Dallas' 11-1 loss to Monterrey.
Michal Mravec - Tacoma - Offseason.
Boris Pardo - Wichita - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Auerbach - Germany - Did not dress in Auerbach's 2-0 win over Hertha BSC II.
Scott Angevine - Vasa - Finland - No games until 4/12
Vicente Arze - Blooming - Bolivia - Did not play in Blooming's 0-0 draw with Wilstermann.
Claudio Bieler - Quilmes - Argentina - Started and played 45 minutes in Quilmes' 1-1 draw wtih Aldosivi.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 70 minutes in Chivas' 1-0 loss to Queretaro. Came off the bench and played 18 minutes in Chivas' 0-0 (4-3) PK win over Queretaro.
Reinaldo Brenes - Saprissa - Costa Rica - Dressed but did not play in Saprissa's 2-0 loss to America. Came off the bench and played 1 minute in Saprissa's 4-0 win over Carmelita.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Lost 3-0 to Orizaba.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Lost 3-1 to Persipura in the AFC Cup.
Jorge Claros - Qingdao Jonoon - China - No game this week.
Eloy Colombano - AD Berazategui - Tied Midland 0-0.
Daneil Cyrus - Ha Noi T&T (W Connection) - Vietnam (Trinidad) - No game until 4/3
Toni Dovale - CD Lugo - Spain - Started and played 63 minutes in Lugo's 3-2 win over Barcelona II.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - Did not play in Cucuta's 0-0 draw with Alianza Petrolera. Did not dress in Cucuta's 4-2 loss to Deportivo Cali.
Herculez Gomez - Puebla - Mexico - Came off the bench and played 20 minutes in Puebla's 2-2 draw with Chiapas. Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Puebla's 2-1 win over Merida.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - No game this week.
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Did not dress in Boavista's 4-2 loss to Bangu.
Peterson Joseph - Azam FC - Tanzania - Defeated Ruvu Stars 1-0.
Igor Juliao - Fluminense - Brazil - Did not dress in Fluminense's 3-1 win over Botafogo.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Did not dress in San Martin's 3-0 win over Sporting Cristal.
Igor Kostrov - FK Kyzyl-Zhar - Kazakhstan - No game until 4-4.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Dressed but did not play in Servette's 1-0 win over Lausanne Sport. Dressed but did not play in Servette's 2-1 win over Winterthur.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - Started and played 68 minutes in Spartak's 3-1 loss to Krasnodar.
Lawrence Olum - Kedah FA - Malaysia - Lost to PKNS 2-1.
Akeem Priestley - Sheikh Russel KC - Bangladesh - No game this week.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - Defeated Fjardabyggd 6-1.
Oriol Rosell - Sporting Club de Portugal - Portugal - Dressed but did not play in Sporting's 2-2 draw with Nacional. Came off the bench and played 5 minutes in Sporting's 3-2 win over Penafiel.
Soony Saad - BCC Tero (loaned fromBEC Tero Sasana FC) - Thailand - Defeated 1-0 by Kasetsart.
Peter Schmetz - Wuppertaler SV - Germany - Tied Kapellen-Erft 1-1.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Did not dress in either of Blackburn's games.
Martin Steuble - Ceres-La Salle - Philippines - Started and played 90 minutes, recording an assist in Ceres' 7-0 win over the Philippine Army.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia - No game this week.
Matt Taylor - Saarbrücken - Germany - Started and played 73 minutes in Saarbrucken's 4-0 win over Baunatal. Lost 2-1 to Hertha Wiesbach 2-1 in the Regional Cup.

S.A.S Monday After Stats

Jacob Peterson made his 200th league appearance in his MLS career.

Ike Opara made his 50th start in all competitions in his MLS career.

Benny Feilhaber recorded his 17th assist in all competitions for KC, tying him with Claudio Lopez for 16th all time on that list.

Matt Besler picked up his second red card of his MLS career, which ties him with 7 others for 7th on the list in KC's history.

Seth Sinovic made his 143rd appearance in all competitions for KC, breaking his tie with Jimmy Nielsen and CJ Sapong for 18th on that list.

Graham Zusi made his 149th league appearance for KC, tying him with Mo Johnston and Michael Harrington for 9th all time on that list.

Sinovic and Zusi both started their 142nd game in all competitions for KC, tying them with Nielsen for 14th all time on that list.

Same Old Issues Arise in Sporting Draw with New York

It's a new year for Sporting KC, but it's the same old problems that came up again in their 1-1 draw with the New York Red Bulls Sunday at Sporting Park. Kansas City had 18 shots yesterday, just four of those 18 ended up being on goal, just 22%, and just one goal as KC played to a 1-1 draw, closing the game with just 10 men after Matt Besler was sent off for two cautionable offenses.

KC had some good early pressure in the first half forcing an early corner that almost led to the first regular season goal in Seth Sinovic's career. Graham Zusi played the corner short to Sinovic who was near the top of the box, he faced up and fired a low shot towards the far corner, but New York goalkeeper, Luis Robles got down well and pushed the shot away denying Sinovic the goal. Overall though other than that chance, both teams really struggled to create clear chances in the first half an hour or so with a lot of the play taking place around the middle of the field. New York really lacked for chances in the first half, their best coming on a break when Bradley Wright-Phillips received a ball over the top and touched it into the path of Felipe. The ball was too far in front of him though and Luis Marin was able to get quickly off his line and block Felipe's effort without it posing a ton of danger. Neither team really offered much in the first half as both teams still appeared to be in preseason mode feeling each other out.

The second half saw both teams pick up their level of play, and just five minutes into the half KC had jumped on top. After a corner by KC was partially cleared, KC kept the Red Bulls pinned in their own end. The ball eventually made it back wide to Benny Feilhaber who played a nice cross into the middle where Ike Opara came running in unmarked and headed the ball past Robles and into the net. The lead didn't last long though as minutes later, New York was level through Lloyd Sam. KC's midfield of Roger Espinoza, Benny Feilhaber, and Krisztian Nemeth had done well in preseason in covering for each other and limiting space, but last night there were all kinds of openings there as neither Espinoza nor Feilhaber really sat back to help defensively. This allowed a through ball by Felipe to pick out Sam in that space between the midfield and center backs. With the gap, Besler stepped up to challenge Sam, who attacked at Besler as the defender was already on a yellow card at that time. Besler pushed back, trying to shadow Sam away from getting a shot away. Sam though cut back on Besler and curled a nice shot into the far corner out of reach of Marin and into the net to tie the game.

Besler wasn't able to avoid the second yellow forever though, and in the 71st minute as New York started to counter, Besler went for a ball that was played in to Wright-Phillips at midfield. Wright-Phillips got to the ball first knocking it ahead up field, Besler went through Wright-Phillips as the ball went away. Certainly a foul, but referee Baldomero Toledo felt it was a tactical foul, giving Besler his second yellow and his marching orders for his second foul of the game.

While New York had the man advantage and the possession after the red card they didn't seriously threaten Marin's goal that much. In fact, it was Kansas City that ended up looking to break more on the counter. In the 88th minute, Dwyer could have won it for KC as Sporting attacked down the right, Feilhaber played a great low cross into the middle for Dwyer, but he couldn't turn his sliding shot on target, pushing it wide of the post keeping the game tied at 1-1. In stoppage time, Dwyer had another great opportunity to score the winner. This time on a long ball over the top, Dwyer got behind his defender and into the box. He shrugged off a challenge from a defender and stayed on his feet before trying to put a shot between Robles' legs. The New York keeper though made the kick save and the rebound was eventually cleaned up by the New York defense as both teams settled for a point.

Overall last night the game looked like two teams playing their first real game, neither team looked like they were firing on all cylinders at any point during the night. In fact that seemed to be true of pretty much every MLS team this past week with one to two exceptions. Dwyer struggled greatly last night, and admitted his failings post game, specifically when it came to his finishing, taking the blame with his two late misses. As I mentioned previously, the midfield wasn't together last night either, without a true defensive midfielder in there, there are big gaps created between the midfield and defense. Maybe it's because over the years I've grown used to seeing the likes of Julio Cesar, Oriol Rosell, and even Lawrence Olum sitting in that hole to help clean up anything that comes through the middle. Last night without it, New York overran KC's midfield until the introduction of Paulo Nagamura helped to settle things down for KC. While Matt Besler's form still doesn't look like it's really picked up, Ike Opara looks like he came in with a chip on his shoulder, last night was a dominate performance from the center back, he read the game well and after Besler went out did a good job of organizing the back line with Feilhaber filling in at center back until Erik Palmer-Brown was subbed on late.

Wizards Man of the Match - Ike Opara - A great run to get into the box to get on the end of Feilhaber's cross to give KC the lead. Did a good job of denying service to Wright-Phillips throughout the night and shut down New York's attack when they were a man up.

Player Ratings: Marin 6, Dia 6, Opara 7, Besler 4, Sinovic 5, Espinoza 4, Feilhaber 6, Nemeth 5, Anor 4, Dwyer 4, Zusi 4. Subs Nagamura 6, Peterson 4, Palmer-Brown NR.

Match Day 1: Sporting KC vs New York Red Bulls

Compared to the offseason ahead of the 2014 MLS season, this past offseason seems like it has dragged on forever for Kansas City. The early playoff exit last season has made for a long offseason, but tomorrow it finally ends when Sporting KC take the field against the New York Red Bulls at Sporting Park. The game is the league's first back on the Fox network after the new deal the league agreed to with Fox and ESPN.

The big story in this game is the turnover from both sides from the end of last season when these teams met twice in a row in the regular season finale and in the playoffs. New York's big departures come in the form of two designated players as both Thierry Henry and Tim Cahill have departed for retirement and China respectively. Meanwhile they've replaced them by bringing in US international, Sacha Kljestan and making Bradley Wright-Phillips a designated player. That's not the only change as the team has replaced head coach, Mike Petke with former Montreal head coach Jesse Marsch.

Kansas City has had plenty of turnover themselves from the team that took the field against these same Red Bulls in the regular season finale last year, and KC's lone playoff game of 2014. The biggest of which is probably the return of Roger Espinoza in the midfield for Kansas City. He'll give KC a more consistent bite than they had last season with Paulo Nagamura who really just struggled to stay healthy again. Meanwhile, KC will have to deal with their center back pairing after the departure of Aurelien Collin to Orlando. So both teams are still working through issues as they head into the season having to adjust after losing key components.

With KC's lineup, the biggest questions have to do with the outside backs. Who plays on the left, is it the veteran Seth Sinovic, or the recently signed Canadian international, Marcel de Jong. And whichever one starts on the left will the other slide right and play the right back spot with Chance Myers still recovering from injury, or will it be Jalil Anibaba or rookie Amadou Dia. A minor follow up question on the line up has to be if Peter Vermes starts Krisztian Nemeth, the Hungarian had a great preseason, spending time in the midfield behind Dom Dwyer. But similar was said about Claudio Bieler last year in the midfield. I think Nemeth playing there is more likely than Bieler was, but will he actually play there? I think at home it's certainly more likely than if KC was opening the season away.

Marin

Dia - Opara - Besler - Sinovic

Espinoza - Feilhaber

Zusi - Nemeth - Anor

Dwyer

Number to Remember - 5 - KC is winless in their last four games against the New York Red Bulls, going 0-4-1 in those games. The team hasn't won against New York since a 1-0 win early in the 2013 MLS season. In those five games, they've gone 0-2-1 at home in that stretch, including the home finale last year when they fell 2-0.

Key Match Up - Opara and Besler vs Bradley Wright-Phillips - On his way to 27 goals last year in league play for the Red Bulls, Wright-Phillips scored six goals in the three match ups against Sporting KC. That's the most goals that KC has allowed by one player in a single season in the team's history. Shutting down the New York DP will be an important part for KC in the new season in their only meeting against the Red Bulls.

PREDICTION - I think KC is going to be a decent team this year, they have improved in the midfield this year with the acquisition of Espinoza while improving their wing play with Anor this year. I think they'll be much more cohesive than the Red Bulls will in the first game of the season. KC should be able to take care of the Red Bulls in the opener, the back line is there to be exposed by Anor, Zusi, and Dwyer with some pace. It'll all come down to whether the defense will be able to hold off Wright-Phillips enough to get the win.

SKC - 2 (Dwyer, Zusi)
NYRB - 1 (Wright-Phillips)

Sporting's Move West Brings Plenty of Questions

The 2015 MLS season has kicked off in LA, which means in less than two days Sporting Kansas City will start their season against the New York Red Bulls at Sporting Park. With Sporting’s season so close to starting I figured it was time to take one last preview at the team and how they’ll do in the 2015 season.

First the roster, starting in goal, where Sporting return just one of their three goalkeepers from last year, homegrown goalkeeper Jon Kempin, as Eric Kronberg and Andy Gruenebaum both moved on. In their place come Luis Marin and Tim Melia. While depth wise the team may not be as good as they were last year, overall, the quality has improved. While Marin has not played outside of Chile in his career, his pedigree is better than either Kronberg or Gruenebaum and should give KC much more in goal this year. Behind him, Kempin has earned more experience but seems like a strong candidate to go to Oklahoma City to be a starter consistently. Melia came to the team last year as a pool goalkeeper and would be Marin’s everyday back up should Kempin go out on loan. Again, depth wise Kansas City may be a little weaker, but Marin should be a step up as a starter.

Defensively KC still has plenty of questions. In central defense the absence of Aurelien Collin leaves a big hole to fill. The returning Ike Opara will get every chance to be his replacement next to captain, Matt Besler. The question on Opara is can he stay healthy. In 2013, predominately as a backup he played the most games of his MLS career, 18. The rest of his career has been marred by injuries. If he can stay healthy, he may not give the intensity of Collin, but if he’s healthy, he can be just as strong defensively. Behind those two is Jalil Anibaba, who was acquired as part of the Collin trade. He’ll try to rebuild his career after he slumped through his last season in Seattle after a few years in Chicago. Behind him come two of KC’s homegrown players, Kevin Ellis, who proved to be a capable utility player all along the back line last year for KC, and Erik Palmer-Brown, who could be sold to Juventus and loaned back before the end of the year.

Out wide, Kansas City has certainly addressed some of their depth issues. While Chance Myers continues to recover from his Achilles tear, KC still has a number of players that can play out wide. The biggest move may actually be on the left though where Seth Sinovic has a big challenge for his starting job with the recently signed Marcel de Jong. The Bundesliga veteran has spent much of his time in preseason playing with Sporting’s first team. KC also has a pair of rookies that can play wide defensive positions, Saad Abdul-Salaam and Amadou Dia; two of KC’s three first round picks are both expected to get time out wide. Dia has been getting much of the time in preseason in the right back position with the first team. The team also has the versatile Ellis and veteran Jacob Peterson who spent time out wide last season. The defense as a whole is deeper than it was in 2014, but with Myers’ ability upon his return still in question, and Opara’s health questions, the starting defense is not as good as the 2014 version.

The midfield for Kansas City has gotten an overhaul in the offseason as KC has brought in a number of midfielders, so many that the team signed and waived James Marcelin in the offseason. The biggest news of the offseason for KC was bring back midfielder Roger Espinoza from Wigan Athletic. His return immediately gave KC more bite in the midfield while adding experience. Espinoza’s countryman, Jorge Claros was another one of the casualties though, coming into camp unfit and was eventually released from his contract. Along with Espinoza, the team also added two more defensive minded midfielders, bringing in “Mr. Alex Morgan,” Servando Carrasco from the Houston Dynamo in exchange for the teams second round draft pick this year. More recently the team added Haitian, Soni Mustivar, who has experience playing in both France and Haiti. The team does return two defensive midfielders from last season, Paulo Nagamura who was extremely important to KC in 2014, but missed half the season with a reoccurring ankle injury that kept him from being involved enough. The other is Mikey Lopez; the Generation Adidas midfielder hasn’t been able to stake a place in the lineup. So far in preseason, the two deep midfield positions have been taken by Espinoza, and Benny Feilhaber. Feilhaber had spent some time in the deep midfield last season, especially after Oriol Rosell left the team as Peter Vermes’ system relies on a deep midfielder being able to play the distributor role. Unfortunately for KC, the departed Lawrence Olum really couldn’t do that.

In the attacking midfield position, KC has the previously mentioned Feilhaber, although as I mentioned, his distribution skills are probably going to help KC deeper on the field. That currently leaves Jimmy Medranda and forward Krisztian Nemeth as two candidates to play there. Nemeth has been getting the time there in preseason, but the same was true of Claudio Bieler, who played in the midfield in preseason last year, but never did in the game. Defensively in the midfield for KC, I think the team is set, Feilhaber seems set to play the deep lying role in a similar, but different way than Rosell played it, which will allow KC the ability to play out of the back once again. Espinoza will be there to clean things up. While Nemeth’s inclusion in the midfield causes other problems for KC on the field, the way he’s played this preseason, you have to find a way to get him on the field.

When it comes to the wide players for KC, they looked good in preseason, but it becomes a question on whether the level is going to be enough to help KC in the goal scoring numbers. There has to be more support for Dom Dwyer up top this season. And whether that’s from the wide players, or from Nemeth, it needs to come from somewhere. The wide players like other positions were gutted by Vermes over the offseason. Graham Zusi remains as a consistent starter out wide for KC, the opposite wing looks set to go to Bernardo Anor, the former Columbus Crew midfielder who had a strong preseason. Vermes has to be hoping for a break out season from the 26 year old. The team also has new depth up top with two rookies, Connor Hallisey and James Ansu Rogers able to provide depth along with Nemeth who can play any of the front three in KC’s 4-3-3. Peterson is the only forward depth to remain from the 2014 season.

The center forward position for Kansas City may be one of the thinnest for KC, they really only have two center forwards, Dwyer and Nemeth. After those two the team is really playing more of a 4-6-0 with Peterson playing a false 9 position like the Spanish made famous. Dwyer is the undisputed starter and will be relied upon to carry the majority of the scoring load again. While I’m not sure the team needs another go to forward at the center forward position, the team is the thinnest it has ever been at this position under Vermes without the likes of CJ Sapong, Claudio Bieler, Omar Bravo, Soony Saad, Teal Bunbury, and others that could play other positions along with center forward.

Overall I think this team is deeper than the team Kansas City had last year and has more talent in specific areas of the field, but the question is whether this team can handle the move to the Western Conference that KC is doing. With the additions of Orlando City and New York City FC, Kansas City is back in the Western Conference for the first time since 2004. Like their original move to the East in 2005, KC moves to the strong of the two conferences. They move to the West, stacked with teams like LA, which has won three of the last four MLS Cups, Seattle, last year’s Supporters’ Shield winners, FC Dallas who has shown strong gains the last year or so, and Real Salt Lake who KC beat for MLS Cup in 2013. Last year, KC wouldn’t have even made the playoffs if they had been in the West.

So has the team done enough to improve from last year? I think they have done at least just enough to get themselves into the playoff picture in the West in 2015. Part of that has to do with the upgrades that KC has made, adding the likes of Espinoza and Nemeth as well as Marin in goal. This team should be able to do well. The other thing they have going for them, is that while they stumbled down the stretch last year, plenty of that had to do with the level of fatigue and injuries that KC had to deal with in 2014, it was almost an unprecedented level of injuries. KC used the same lineup just two to three times over the course of the entire season due to all the injuries and call ups that they had to deal with. A return to a bit of normalcy when it comes to the lineup will do Kansas City a world of good in 2015.

In the end, KC is still a talented team, but there are two major questions that will need to be answered if KC is going to not just make the playoffs but do well in the post season. The first is whether the team can actually get some support for Dwyer. Much of that is supposed to come from Nemeth, but even the likes of Zusi and Anor are going to have to be more involved in the finishing aspect for KC to be successful, because if Dwyer’s goals dry up, the team is in real trouble. The second question is at the other end of the field and the team’s defense. Has the defense, with a new goalkeeper, and at least three of the starting back five being different than the start of the 2014 season been able to gel enough. Marin has shown in preseason that he likes to come off his line quickly, has Besler and Opara been able to get the timing on that down with Marin so that they know when he’s coming, or he knows when to stay. It bit them in the friendly draw against Colorado in Tucson so we’ll see if the team has learned from that. But even that, the questions of the defense have to be asked regarding Opara’s health, de Jong’s entry into the team displacing Sinovic, and the inexperience of the team’s right backs that will be playing until Myers is ready to step back in.

If KC can answer those questions they should be able to get into the playoffs, which, with an expanded playoff format to six teams in each conference, should be an easy expectation. That said finishing fourth or fifth in the West is about where I expect Sporting to finish up this season.

#TBT - The First Home Opener

Continuing my new Throw Back Thursday thing, I take a look back at the very first home opener for Kansas City, back on April 13th, 1996. The KC Wiz opened the inaugural MLS season at home against the Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead Stadium, in front of 21,141 people (an attendance record for KC that would stand until 2002) KC won the game 3-0 starting a strong tradition of opening the season well, as the team has gone 12-2-5 in their home openers throughout their history.

After a scoreless first half, Kansas City scored three goals in a 12 minute span last in the second half to see themselves past the Rapids. The first goal came in the 71st minute when a low cross by Tommy Reasoner was fired on goal by Mark Chung. The shot was initially saved, but the rebound fell to Digital Takawira who knocked the ball home for the first goal in KC's history and bringing out the first Digital Crawl (funny enough, even though his shot was saved, in the official stats, Chung was given an assist on that goal). Six minutes later a cross by Samuel Ekeme was not handled well by the Rapids defense and fell to US international, Frank Klopas who knocked the ball home to double KC's lead. Takawira capped off the night in the 83rd minute. Eric Eichmann received the ball out wide, dribbling into the box and cut inside his defender before firing a shot on goal that was saved. Once again though Takawira was there to put the rebound home (and like Takawira's first goal, Eichmann was given an assist).

For me personally I don't remember a ton of the details of that night as a kid, but I remember being there, and I remember the buzz of the crowd before and during the game. Unfortunately we don't have the full game highlights, but last year as part of the SKC Vantage Point series, Sporting put the goals from the team's very first game online for our viewing pleasure.



The very first KC Wiz lineup:

Pat Harrington; Samuel Ekeme, Sean Bowers, Tommy Reasoner (Scott Uderitz 83), Uche Okafor; Matt McKeon, Preki, Mark Chung, Eric Eichmann; Frank Klopas (Diego Gutierrez 83), Vitalis Takawira

Palmer-Brown Transfer Almost Done

Buried in the announcement of the new collective bargaining agreement and the announcement of Kansas City's new primary jersey was some news that could turn out to be quite big regarding Sporting KC and their youngest player, Erik Palmer-Brown. During yesterday's media day before the unveiling of the jersey, Robb Heineman said that the long rumored move by Palmer-Brown to Italian giants, Juventus looks like it's going to happen.

Heineman said that there was an 80 percent chance that Palmer-Brown ends up making the move to Turin. It seems that the deal is basically done and it's just a matter of finalizing everything. A deal would be the finalization of over a year's worth of rumors about the Italian club being interested in the US youth international. Most of the rumors have come out of Italy, from what writer, so much so that I'd gotten to the point of ignoring most of his posts on it, waiting for other media to report it with actual quotes from someone on either side of the situation. I'd never doubted that a deal could be done, I just grew tired of the consistent non-news of the guy's reports on the deal, which were basically the same thing over and over.

With the deal though, Heineman said that Juventus would likely loan Palmer-Brown back to Kansas City for a period of time after the permanent transfer was completed. Similar to the situation with DeAndre Yedlin, Tottenham, and the Seattle Sounders, where Yedlin finished out the 2014 season with the Sounders before moving to join Spurs in England. I think that'd be a good move for both Palmer-Brown and the club to get him to stay on. An arrival in Italy would just see him immediately loaned out to a club in the lower divisions of Italy so might as well keep him in a comfortable situation for a while longer.

My assumption is that the move would occur this summer once Palmer-Brown is 18 and the Italian summer window opens.

For me, I'm still a little torn on this move, I think it's a great potential move for Palmer-Brown, a chance to go abroad and be signed by one of the big clubs in Italy. It's also a great feather in the cap of the Sporting academy which will be able to say that they trained a player who went on to be signed by Juventus to a contract. On the other hand I don't want a player with Palmer-Brown's potential to get lost in Juventus' system (just take a look at all their loans out) and have his development stall out while being loaned from team to team. That said good for him on the potential move and fulfilling a dream of playing abroad.

New CBA Agreement

One day after a roller coaster of events in the MLS collective bargaining agreement negotiations, we now have a new CBA in place. Earlier this evening, it was announced that the league and the players union had agreed to a new five year deal that will take the two through the 2019 MLS season.

While it's brought happiness to the fans with the knowledge that there will not be a work stoppage, not everyone is happy with the deal (including apparently Sporting KC's representatives who according to sources voted against the deal). Overall it seems like both sides gave things up to make sure that the season took place, as Nat Borchers put it, "it's not perfect, but it's progress..."

The deal will apparently see players get a measure of free agency, players that are at least 28 years old AND have at least eight years of experience in the league will be eligible for free agency. For Sporting Kansas City what that means that they'll have three players that meet the requirements after the 2015 season; Chance Myers who is entering his eighth season in the league this year, Paulo Nagamura, who is entering his 11th season in the league, and Jacob Peterson who is entering his 10th season in MLS. The deal isn't ideal for some players in the league, specifically homegrown players who sign with the league when they are younger and will have to play 10 or more seasons before they hit the required threshold. Most of those players though won't hit either threshold by the time this CBA expires. It does hurt a few players like Luis Gil and Diego Fagundez who will hit the service limit of eight years but won't be close to the age limit for free agency, but the level of free agency that would have been given was never going to reach a level to help them out in this cycle.

The other big news of the CBA that came out was an increase in the league's minimum salary. The salary will go up from about $37,000 to $61,000 a nice increase for those players near the bottom of the league's roster. For Kansas City, the likes of Kevin Ellis, Jimmy Medranda, and Erik Palmer-Brown will all see a decent bump in their pay check in the 2015 season. It's also good news for the club's four rookies Saad Abdul-Salaam, Amadou Dia, Connor Hallisey, and James Ansu Rogers, who were all likely to be close to or under the new minimum of $61,000.

With the new salary minimum, the salary cap is set to go up. Reports don't appear to be as high as some people expected as it sounds like it may only go up to $4 million a year. It won't give teams a ton of extra cap space to spend in the 2015 season.

With the deal done there will be a lot of dissecting of the new agreement over the next weeks and months as information comes out, but the thing for sure is that the season kicks off Friday, and Sporting start things on Sunday.

Former SKC Wizards Update

Here is this week's former SKC Wizards update.

Active without a club or unknown
Federico Bessone
Bobby Convey
Christian Duke
Mechack Jerome
Will John
Michael Kafari
Neal Kitson
Igor Kostrov
Rauwshan McKenzie
Nelson Pizarro
Tony Rocha
Ivan Trujillo
Konrad Warzycha

MLS
Davy Arnaud - DC - Started and played 80 minutes in DC's 5-2 loss to Alajuelense.
Teal Bunbury - New England - Offseason.
Aurelien Collin - Orlando City - Offseason.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Offseason.
Michael Harrington - Colorado - Offseason.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Offseason.
Eddie Johnson - DC - Out on injured reserve for DC.
Kei Kamara - Columbus - Offseason.
Chris Konopka - Toronto - Offseason.
Eric Kronberg - Montreal - Capped tied to Kansas City, could not play for Montreal vs Pachuca
CJ Sapong - Philadelphia - Offseason.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Offseason.
Tyson Wahl - Columbus - Offseason.
Sal Zizzo - New York - Offseason.

NASL
Stefan Antonijevic - Tampa Bay - Offseason.
James Marcelin - Fort Lauderdale - Offseason.
Kyle Miller - Atlanta - Offseason.

USL
Brian Fekete - Austin - Offseason.
Cyprian Hedrick - Oklahoma City - Offseason.
Jonathan Leathers - Charlotte - Offseason.
Alex Martinez - Orange County - Offseason.
Victor Munoz - Arizona - Offseason.
Michael Thomas - Oklahoma City - Offseason.
Yomby William - Richmond - Offseason.
John Wilson - Charleston - Offseason.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Ontario - Had two goals in Ontario's 6-5 loss to Las Vegas.
Adnan Gabeljic - St. Louis - Offseason.
Josh Gardner - Missouri - No game this week.
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Had an assist in Baltimore's 24-13 win over Harrisburg. Had a goal and three assists in Baltimore's 25-23 win over Rochester.
Mike Jones - Dallas - Played in Dallas' 6-5 win over Texas.
Michal Mravec - Tacoma - Offseason.
Boris Pardo - Wichita - Offseason.

International
Korede Aiyegbusi - Auerbach - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Auerbach's 4-0 loss to Zwickau.
Scott Angevine - Vasa - Finland - No games until 4/12
Vicente Arze - Blooming - Bolivia - Did not play in either of Blooming's games.
Claudio Bieler - Quilmes - Argentina - Started and played 90 minutes in Quilmes' 2-1 loss to Independiente.
Omar Bravo - Chivas - Mexico - Did not dress in Chivas' 3-0 win over Monterrey. Came off the bench and played 16 minutes, scoring a goal in Chivas' 1-0 win over Irapuato.
Reinaldo Brenes - Saprissa - Costa Rica - Did not dress in Saprissa's 3-0 loss to America. Dressed but did not play in Saprissa's 2-1 loss to UCR.
Mitchell Cardenas - Atlético Coatzacoalcos - Mexico - Lost 1-0 to Veracruz II.
Sunil Chhetri - Bengaluru - India - Started and played 86 minutes in Bengaluru's 3-1 win over Sporting Goa. Started and played 90 minutes in Bengaluru's 1-1 draw with Mumbai.
Jorge Claros - Qingdao Jonoon - China - No game this week.
Eloy Colombano - AD Berazategui - Defeated Sacachispas 3-1.
Daneil Cyrus - Ha Noi T&T (W Connection) - Vietnam (Trinidad) - No game until 4/3
Toni Dovale - CD Lugo - Spain - Started and played 79 minutes in Lugo's 2-0 win over Osasuna.
Pablo Escobar - Cúcuta Deportivo - Colombia - Started and played 90 minutes in Cucuta's 3-0 loss to Atletico Huila.
Herculez Gomez - Puebla - Mexico - Dressed but did not play in Puebla's 4-1 win over Queretaro.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Played Barbican this week.
Jeferson - Boavista - Brazil - Did not dress in Boavista's 0-0 draw with Volta Redonda
Peterson Joseph - Azam FC - Tanzania - Lost 3-0 to Al Merreikh.
Igor Juliao - Fluminense - Brazil - Dressed but did not play in Fluminense's 1-0 win over Resende.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Did not dress in San Martin's 2-1 loss to Sporting Cristal.
Neven Markovic - Servette FC - Switzerland - Dressed but did not play in Servette's 1-0 win over Chiasso.
Yura Movsisyan - Spartak Moscow - Russia - No game until 3/6.
Lawrence Olum - Kedah FA - Malaysia - Defeated Hanelang 1-0.
Akeem Priestley - Sheikh Russel KC - Bangladesh - Defeated Abahani Chittagong 2-0. Lost 2-1 to Sheikh Jamal.
Pablo Punyed - Stjarnan - Iceland - No game this week.
Oriol Rosell - Sporting Club de Portugal - Portugal - Dressed but did not play in either of Sporting's games.
Soony Saad - BCC Tero (loaned fromBEC Tero Sasana FC) - Thailand - Tied Customs United 2-2.
Peter Schmetz - Wuppertaler SV - Germany - Drew 3-3 with Velbert.
Yann Songo'o - Blackburn - England - Did not dress in Blackburn's 0-0 draw with Bournemouth.
Martin Steuble - Ceres-La Salle - Philippines - Defeated Pachanga 3-0.
Milos Stojcev - FK Sarajevo - Bosnia - Did not dress in Sarajevo's 3-0 win over Zvijezda.
Matt Taylor - Saarbrücken - Germany - Started and played 90 minutes in Saarbrucken's 1-0 loss to Elversberg.

CBA Rollercoaster (and van der Vaart)

One thing this offseason that I've avoided much talk about at least on here is the negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement. The main reason I have has mainly had to do with the fact that it really isn't my area of expertise. I've never been part of a union, nor have I ever been part of labor negotiations so I don't feel comfortable being the one to talk about it much. On Twitter I have been retweeting a number of articles about the on going negotiations. But now, less than 24 hours before the Chicago Fire are set to depart for LA ahead of the 2015 season opener, the talk regarding the CBA has really heated up and been a roller coaster to follow all day.

The big news today really started with reports that a strike was growing more likely, and while the players union didn't have the funds in their coffers to survive an extended work stoppage, reports came out that other players' unions would get help from other sports unions to boost their strike fund. A move like that would certainly signify the union's intent to dig in and stand firm.

That report was followed by more disappointment and worry about the season as more reports came out about the league rejecting the union's compromises and that Clark Hunt is the main hardliner on the owners' side of things. There were even reports of fee agency discussions that were tilted well in the owners' favor. Thirty-two years old with 10 years of experience with that one team was pretty laughable, as only one active player actually would meet that requirement after this season, Brad Davis. Kansas City has never even had a player play 10 years with the club, the closest being Kerry Zavagnin and Eric Kronberg who were both with the club for nine years of their playing career. That report though proved to be some old information and that options had improved since than.

Things took a more positive turn later in the evening with further reports on the CBA. The free agency aspect was still there, and had been improved to 28 years old with 8 years experience, which didn't have to be with the same team. But with the give and take, the increase a player could get over their current contract was only 10% of their contract.

The length of the new CBA is also something that's become a point of contention as the owners want to have an eight year CBA, three years longer than the current one. If a solution is going to come and save the first week of the season, it is going to need to come soon.

I, like many people fall more on the side of the players in this situation. I understand that free agency could bring a challenge to MLS' single entity again, but I feel this may be the time to lose some of that. I don't think the players are going to get full free agency, from the ESPN article, I think they may be able to get a few years of service knocked off the offer, but the owners likely won't want to knock the age down further, but it's something we'll have to wait and see, the doomsday clock has hit 11:58 and things aren't sounding too good right now.

For those curious, Jacob Peterson is the team's union representative, but for the current negotiations, Benny Feilhaber, Chance Myers, and Graham Zusi are also in New York at this time.

Van der Vaart news

Sam McDowell added more information to the discussion of Rafael van der Vaart to Kansas City. McDowell confirmed Sporting's interest, and got new quotes from Robb Heinman regarding the move. Heineman did shoot down the $4.8 million offer KC was reported to make, was untrue, and stated that there has not been a discussion of price.

Sporting are Offering van der Vaart How Much?

Germany media has really picked up on the Rafael van der Vaart to Sporting KC rumors. After Robb Heineman and Mike Illig were at Saturday's Bundesliga match between Frankfurt and van der Vaart's Hamburg, the rumors really picked up with German site Bild jumping all over it.

Now the German tabloid is reporting the price tag that Kansas City is offering the Dutch international. The report is that Sporting would pay van der Vaart $4.8 million per year to play for Kansas City. The entire Sporting KC team last year earned $4.1 million according to the players union. The price alone really jumps out, because it's not something that you would expect Sporting to do. Not that Sporting couldn't afford the salary that's being suggested, it just seems out of character.

Signing van der Vaart for that price would certainly be the largest price paid for a DP that Kansas City has ever paid. But is it too much? Questions about van der Vaart's health and fitness are two things that cause pause for KC fans who know about Peter Vermes and his "Sporting fit" playing style. Would van der Vaart fit in with that style? And if he doesn't, how soon before Vermes puts him on the bench? Another question is van der Vaart's defensive responsibilities, which he isn't exactly known for.

Similar to the Marcel de Jong signing, I feel there are other areas that KC would be better served upgrading than getting a 32 year old attacking midfielder. Van der Vaart would be unlikely to arrive until the summer when he contract with Hamburg expires unless, like with Roger Espinoza, he is let out of his contract to joining Kansas City early.

For me, I am still torn on this, I worry about some of the questions in van der Vaart's game that seem to go against the style of play that Vermes likes to use. On the other, if van der Vaart is still generating interest from teams in Spain, Italy, and Ajax, maybe Vermes can get something out of him.

Sporting KC Sign de Jong

The last field player still in camp with Sporting Kansas City has been signed. Sporting today announced that the team had signed Canadian international defender, Marcel de Jong to a contract. The left sided player has spent the second half of preseason with Sporting, playing in four preseason games, usually with what would be considered the "first team" defense.

De Jong had spent the last four seasons with Augsburg of the German Bundesliga until being released from his contract this past January. He helps to add to the new depth at the outside back position at KC, which has grown since the end of the 2014 season. Along with De Jong, KC has also brought in Saad Abdul-Salaam, Amadou Dia, and is welcoming Chance Myers back from injury as well.

Overall, his signing isn't a huge surprise, it almost seemed expected based on the comments that Peter Vermes has made about de Jong during preseason. It does bring up a question of what this does for the team's current starting left back, Seth Sinovic. While de Jong has been with the first team, Sinovic has been getting his playing time with the reserves. Sinovic has been the team's rock defensively the last two years, playing over 80 games across all competitions over the last two years, more than any other player in KC history over a two season stretch.

It's certainly possible that de Jong will be depth while Sinovic starts, and Vermes just wanted to get more of a look at de Jong with the "first team," but with de Jong's experience in Germany, and the potential salary demands of a defender less than half a year removed from the Bundesliga makes me think that de Jong is right now penciled in as the starter.

In a way that's sad for Sinovic who I felt did nothing to "lose" his starting spot. I also felt that left back was an area that while KC needed to build depth, didn't need to go out and spend money to upgrade that position when there were other areas of the field I felt needed it more. On the other hand though, when you have the chance to bring in a player from one of the big four leagues, it's really hard to pass something like this up, but on the surface, this seems like the start of Sinovic getting a bit of the same treatment that Michael Harrington got after Sinovic came in during the 2011 season.