A blog devoted to covering all aspects of the KC Wizards.
From FC Kansas City.
FC Kansas City and Chicago Red Stars faced off once again after a Kansas City win in Chicago on Thursday. The rematch was played on Verizon Wireless Field in front of 3,421 people and ended with a 3-1 score in favor of Chicago. FC Kansas City players Lauren Cheney, Kristie Mewis, Becky Sauerbrunn and Nicole Barnhart were away on international duty for the United States Women's National Team.
From FC Kansas City
The old saying that a team is only as good as its bench was proven tonight. With six regular starters attending to their national team duties and one nursing an injury, Kansas City Head Coach Vlatko Andonovski went deep into his bench for tonight's match against the surging Chicago Red Stars.
It's World Cup qualifier time, that means a number of former Wizards are representing their national team. The highlight for former Wizards was Eddie Johnson scoring the second goal for the United States in their 2-0 win over Panama and Yura Movsisyan scoring a brace in Armenia's 4-0 win over Denmark.
Sporting KC has won just 2 of their last 7 home games. One against a bunch of college kids, the other vs the dysfunctional team known as Chivas USA. But Sporting Park is a fortress...
Eric Kronberg and CJ Sapong made their 10th appearance in all US Open Cup competitions, tying them with Jimmy Conrad, Chris Klein, and Matt Besler for 7th on that list.
Those are probably some of the best words to describe the mood of Sporting KC fans after tonight's 1-0 loss to Orlando City that knocks Sporting Kansas City out of the US Open Cup. A second minute goal from Long Tan was all that Orlando City needed to take down the defending US Open Cup champs as Sporting KC looked again to lack creativity in the final third.
It's been a week and a half since Sporting KC last took the field against the Montreal Impact at Sporting Park. That's a week and a half that they've had to stew over the 2-1 loss to the Impact that gave them their third home loss of the season in only their 8th home game. Now they get to take on their USL affiliate club, Orlando City in the US Open Cup.
Today voting for the MLS All Star Game opened for fans to vote in their picks for the First XI for the July 31st match up against AS Roma. Each team has six players that have been picked by media to be available for selection.
Sporting KC's six players are Matt Besler, Claudio Bieler, Aurelien Collin, Jimmy Nielsen, Oriol Rosell, and Graham Zusi.
From FC Kansas City
FC Kansas City concludes its Pacific Northwest tour with a 1-0 victory over the Seattle Reign. Erika Tymrak scored the game's only goal in the 63rd minute, her second goal in as many games. Nicole Barnhart records her fourth win of the season, all of them by shutout, in front of 1,377 fans at Seattle's Starfire Stadium.
Sporting KC has recently had 7 of their players on international duty, representing their country, and this past weekend was busy for all of them.
On Friday it was announced that Sporting KC's first round pick in the super draft this year, Mikey Lopez had been selected to the roster for this summer's U20 World Cup in Turkey.
Tab Ramos announced the US U20 team that will represent the US in the U20 World Cup coming up in Turkey. Sporting KC's Mikey Lopez has been named to the roster for the tournament that starts June 21st. Lopez, who had been playing in the Toulan Tournament with the team has moved with the team to Portugal for their final preparations.
A high scoring offensive battle between FC Kansas City and the Portland Thorns saw the Blues come up just a goal short after falling behind 2-0 early as they lost 4-3 in Portland. The game is the first of 3 on the road, and the first of two this weekend as the Blues now travel for a game in Seattle on Sunday.
We're just about half way through the MLS season for Sporting KC, and just about half way through their slate of 17 home games. Unfortunately for Kansas City it hasn't been the home season that many were expecting. Sporting KC has a 3-3-2 (W-L-D) record at home this season and have won just one of their last 4 home games.
This week two former SKC Wizards are on their way moving to new clubs. Just yesterday the announcement came out that Omar Bravo will be returning to Chivas Guadalajara. And today it's announced that Herculez Gomez is officially moving to Club Tijuana. That means that Gomez will continue to play in the CONCACAF Champions League and potentially continue to score goals for fun against MLS sides.
US Soccer today announced the potential quarterfinal pairings of this year's US Open Cup. Should Sporting KC beat their USL affiliate, Orlando City, Sporting will head on the road for their quarterfinal match up. The winner of Sporting KC and Orlando will meet the winner of the Chicago Fire vs Columbus Crew on June 26th.
CONCACAF held the draw tonight for this year's CONCACAF Champions' League. The draw as a held was filled with the unintentional humor that we've come to expect from CONCACAF. According to the rules, USA and Mexican teams could not be grouped together. But when the draw was done there were two US teams, Houston and LA grouped with Mexican teams, Tijuana and Cruz Azul.
