In the second preseason game of the season, KC once again took care of business, this time against their First Kick opponent DC United. What would be assumed to be the first team started the game again for Kansas City. It was the same lineup as KC put out against San Jose last weekend, with one exception.

With the first preseason game of the season under their belts, KC is one step closer to the start of the season. We are only 33 days from the first game of the season at DC United on March 10th. With plenty of people seeming to be fairly in unison on who the majority of the starting 11 is, let's take a look at the depth chart.

Sporting KC got their first preseason game under their belts today when they took on the San Jose Earthquakes today down in Arizona. The two teams started the game with what would likely be considered their first team lineup. Both teams got things started quickly in the game. The Quakes grabbed the lead inside the first 5 minutes, as Chris Wondolowski finished off a cross from Marvin Chavez.

Algunos empiezan a considerar un clásico este partido de alto voltaje, aunque otros como Hector Reinoso dicen lo contrario,que solo es una rivalidad. Aquí puedes leer mas acerca de esta rivalidad que cada día crece mas, ¿Recuerdan el Gatito ni madres?

¿Como se jugara este partido?

No major news out today, but here are some quick hits news wise for you on your Friday.
Sporting KC vs LA game time changed
Sporting KC's match up with LA on April 7th at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park has changed times and stations. Yesterday the team announced that the game would now kick off 1 hour earlier at 3pm Central time.

More stats updates for you on Sporting KC. This time it's the most starts for KC in league play and in all competitions.
League
Kerry Zavagnin - 228
Nick Garcia - 224
Davy Arnaud - 213
Jimmy Conrad - 203
Preki - 199
Chris Klein - 183
Jack Jewsbury - 142
Mo Johnston - 142
Josh Wolff - 128
Matt McKeon - 126
Tony Meola - 125
Michael Harrington - 119
Jose Burciaga - 110
Diego Gutierrez - 108
Uche Okafor - 107
Sean Bowers - 104
Matt Besler - 68
Roger Espinoza - 67
Jimmy Nielsen - 60
Kei Kamara - 55
Chance Myers - 37
Graham Zusi - 34
Teal Bunbury - 33
Julio Cesar - 25
CJ Sapong - 22
Aurelien Collin - 21
Seth Sinovic - 20
Birahim Diop - 15
Luke Sassano - 5
Eric Kronberg - 4
Korede Aiyegbusi - 3
Daneil Cyrus - 1
Matt Besler and Roger Espinoza have a chance to make it to the 100 starts club next season, but they need to start almost every single game for Sporting this coming season.

More updating of stats for you, here is an updated list of players with over 100 appearances for Kansas City in league play and in all competitions. Also included in on this list is where the rest of the current roster stands in terms of appearances.
League
Davy Arnaud - 240
Kerry Zavagnin - 237
Nick Garcia - 224
Preki - 218
Jimmy Conrad - 204
Chris Klein - 200
Jack Jewsbury - 195
Mo Johnston - 149
Josh Wolff - 144
Matt McKeon - 144
Michael Harrington - 138
Tony Meola - 125
Chris Brown - 123
Diego Gutierrez - 119
Uche Okafor - 119
Jose Burciaga - 115
Francisco Gomez - 114
Sean Bowers - 111
Sasha Victorine - 106
Digital Takawira - 103
Roger Espinoza - 87
Matt Besler - 72
Kei Kamara - 65
Graham Zusi - 64
Jimmy Nielsen - 60
Chance Myers - 59
Teal Bunbury - 55
CJ Sapong - 34
Birahim Diop - 33
Julio Cesar - 27
Aurelien Collin - 23
Seth Sinovic - 20
Luke Sassano - 9
Korede Aiyegbusi - 8
Eric Kronberg - 5
Soony Saad - 4
Daneil Cyrus - 2
Lawrence Olum - 1
Peterson Joseph - 1
Davy Arnaud took over the number one spot on the list this season, but with his departure, Michael Harrington is the only player on the roster to appear in 100 games for KC.

Continuing on with the caps trend, here's the updated stats for caps as a member of the SKC Wizards. First is the caps that a player got while with KC, the second number is goals scored in those caps.
Josh Wolff - USA - 38 - 6
Jimmy Conrad - USA - 28 - 1
Preki - USA - 26 - 4
Roger Espinoza - Honduras - 21 - 3
Kerry Zavagnin - USA - 21 - 0
Eddie Johnson - USA - 20 - 3
Shavar Thomas - Jamaica - 19 - 0
Chris Klein - USA - 17 - 3
Gary Glasgow - Trinidad & Tobago - 16 - 1
Khari Stephenson - Jamaica - 15 - 3
Scott Sealy - Trinidad & Tobago - 14 - 1
Tony Meola - USA - 12 - 0
Craig Rocastle - Grenada - 9 - 0
Sunil Chhetri - India - 9 - 5
Stephane Auvray - Guadeloupe - 8 - 1
Davy Arnaud - USA - 7 - 1
Kei Kamara - Sierra Leone - 6 - 0
Nick Garcia - USA - 6 - 0
Uche Okafor - Nigeria - 6 - 0
Onandi Lowe - Jamaica - 3 - 2
Mike Sorber - USA - 3 - 0
Miklos Molnar - Denmark - 3 - 0
Teal Bunbury - USA - 2 - 1
Mark Chung - USA - 2 - 0
Jermaine Hue - Jamaica - 2 - 0
Peterson Joseph - Haiti - 1 - 0
Chris Henderson - USA - 1 - 0
Steve Pittman - USA - 1 - 0
Digital Takawira - Zimbabwe - Unknown
Unfortunately I've still been unable to find a source for Digital Takawira's caps for Zimbabwe while with Kansas City, I've tried contacting the FA and the CAF, but have struck out in both instances.

Continuing the stat updating for you tonight, it's time to update the 10,000 minute club.
In league play one new player joined the 10,000 minute club, as Michael Harrington became the 12th player for Kansas City, Davy Arnaud also jumped up 1 spot on the list moving ahead of Jimmy Conrad.

The post from yesterday regarding the youngest and oldest players to ever appear for Sporting KC was spawned by the fact that earlier this year, Soony Saad, on his debut became the youngest goal scorer in the Wizards history when he scored against the Portland Timbers on his 19th birthday. With that in mind, here are the youngest and oldest goal scorers in KC's history.

Took a little while for me to get this post out due to all the stuff that's been going on since Sporting KC's season ended. But here's a look at my post season grades.
Korede Aiyegbusi - INC - Only played 94 minutes for KC in league play this year, not enough to warrent a grade.
Davy Arnaud - C+ - Missed quite a bit of time after having hernia surgery, and once back found himself as a back up to the midfield trio of Cesar, Espinoza, and Zusi.

Photo by ISIPhotos.com

The Montreal Impact have continued to wheel and deal as Jesse Marsch shapes his roster, with the latest blockbuster coming Monday with Montreal dealing Seth Sinovic and an allocation to Sporting Kansas City for veteran midfielder Davy Arnaud.

The deal is a smart one for Kansas City, which gets back starting left back and hometown product Sinovic, while also parting with Arnaud, a captain who had lost his place in Sporting's central midfield.

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson
Sporting KC made 4 more roster moves today, waiving four players before today's waiver draft. KC waived Jeferson, Craig Rocastle, Milos Stojcev, and Scott Lorenz. Jeferson Rocastle, and Stojcev all three take up international spots that are now open to be used next year.

During today's expansion draft I just about thought that Sporting KC would get out of the draft without losing a player. Montreal made 9 picks and a Sporting KC player had not been selected. Then with the 10th and final pick the Impact ripped the hearts out of many Sporting KC fans by selecting Seth Sinovic.

Today the league released the list of players that have been exposed by their teams for Wednesday's expansion draft for the Montreal Impact. Plenty of arguments are made about how bad the expansion draft is. Teams do work to develop players than have to lose one of those players to an expansion team.

Roger Espinoza has started the offseason fairly busy. Espinoza played yesterday for the Honduran national team as they took on Serbia in a friendly in Honduras. Espinoza started and went the full 90 minutes in Honduras' 2-0 win over their fellow World Cup 2010 qualifier. Honduras scored their first goal in the 4th minute through Georgie Welcome.

It appears that two Sporting KC players will be playing this weekend. Roger Espinoza was apparently called up by Honduras for their friendly on Monday against Serbia. The call up was made before KC's season ended and I've been unable to find any updates since the initial roster was released on the 2nd of November stating whether Espinoza was still participating or not.

Sporting KC kicks off their playoff campaign tomorrow night in Colorado against the Rapids in the first leg of the Eastern Conference semifinals. KC split the season series with the Rapids, drawing both games 1-1. In the game out in Colorado Conor Casey scored in the 13th minute after a poor back pass.

The Sounders had a pretty amazing come from behind victory this weekend against the lowly San Jose Earthquakes. More important than the 2-1 scoreline was the the righteousness of the send-off of team captain and USMNT legend Kasey Keller. The C-link was rocking with over 64,000 fans and you could hear them every time Keller made a save.

By GARRETT DAVEY

KANSAS CITY, Kansas -- Sporting Kansas City is one of the toughest teams in the league to beat at home, and doing so with ten men and without your top player makes the task all but impossible.

The New York Red Bulls learned that fact after seeing Thierry Henry sent off for violent conduct in the 28th minute.

With a week to spare, Sporting Kansas City clinched a spot in the 2011 MLS Cup playoffs thanks to a 2-0 win over the New York Red Bulls yesterday at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. KC's early pressure nearly paid off inside the first minute off a corner kick. Graham Zusi's corner went through to the back side.

It all went wrong for the New York Red Bulls against Sporting Kansas City in the first half Saturday when Thierry Henry tried to get to the ball and caught already-on-the-ground Roger Espinoza with a knee to the back. Referee ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

A win tomorrow and KC will qualify for the playoffs, to do so they are going to have to go through the New York Red Bulls at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, where a sold out crowd will look to influence the result, giving KC a home advantage. The Red Bulls are on a decent run of form, they've only lost one game since their 3-0 loss to Salt Lake on 8/6.

For those who don't know Roger Espinoza's story well, they may just know him as the Sporting Kansas City midfielder who also plays for the Honduran national team.

While Espinoza does play for Honduras, his career is very much rooted in the American dream, as a fateful move from Honduras to the United States when he was just 11 changed his life forever and has helped him eventually fulfill many of his biggest dreams.

Another day of international duty for Sporting KC players today. Four players had national team duty today, three of them started. The one to not start, didn't even appear for his country, as Teal Bunbury didn't make the bench again for the United States in their 1-0 loss to Ecuador tonight in New York.

Roger Espinoza put in another solid performance for Honduras going 74 minutes, but Honduras fell to the US 1-0 tonight down in Miami on a nice finish by Clint Dempsey. Sporting KC's other player involved in this game, Teal Bunbury, did not make the 18 man US roster for the game tonight. Espinoza played the role that he's made his own for Honduras as of late.

By FRANCO PANIZO

Miami Gardens, Fla. - The U.S. men's national team is full of new faces now a days, but Jurgen Klinsmann can thank the familiar ones for his first victory as U.S. head coach.

The Americans won their first game in the Klinsmann era on Saturday night, beating Honduras 1-0 in front of 21,170 fans at Sun Life Stadium.

To go along with Roger Espinoza's call up for Honduras, four more Wizards players have been called up to represent their respective national teams. Teal Bunbury, Peterson Joseph, Craig Rocastle, and Shavar Thomas have all been called up to the US, Haiti, Grenada, and Jamaica respectively.
The biggest games of the international break are for Joseph and Rocastle whose national teams have two World Cup qualifiers.

Wilson Palacios was one of the standout players in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying
Luis Fernando Suarez has called in 22 players for Honduras' game against the USA on Oct. 8 at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. Three players from MLS get the call: Marvin Chavez, Roger Espinoza and Carlo Costly.

There is another international break coming up on the weekend of October 10th and the list of players called up for games are starting to come out. One Sporting KC player has already been called up. Roger Espinoza has been called up by the Honduran team for their two friendlies on the 8th and the 11th.

Honduras released their roster for the October 8th friendly against the United States and the October 11th friendly against Jamaica. GK: Donis Escober (Olimpia), Donaldo Morales (Motagua) DEF: Osman Chávez (Wisla Krakow), Bryan Beckeles (Olimpia), Mauricio Sabillón (Marathón), Erick Norales (Marathón), Johnny Leverón (Motagua), Maynor Figueroa (Wigan Athletic) MID: Oscar García (Olimpia), Julio César León (Shandong Luneng), Wilson Palacios (Stoke City), Roger Espinoza (Sporting Kansas City), Alfredo Mejía (Real España), Mario Martínez (Real España), Marvin.

STARTERS
Stuart Holden has suffered an injury setback in his recovery from the badly broken and lacerated knee he incurred last spring. No word on the exact nature of the new injury but it will require surgery and another 6 weeks of rehab. Damn!
dN
Since its 2011/12 season kicked off in all competitions on Aug 1 Bayern Munich has won 11 and lost 1, and only conceded 1 goal!

With the 1-1 draw against Philadelphia on Friday and the way other results went this past weekend for Sporting KC, the Wizards face a game that's become even bigger than Friday's game. The team the Wizards are tied with for second place, the Columbus Crew come to KC for a Wednesday night league game.

In their first away game in about two months, Sporting KC looked strong against one of the strongest home teams in the league, but couldn't capitalize on their possession and ended up falling to RSL 1-0 at Rio Tinto. KC tried to set the tempo for the game early on wiht much of the early play taking place in RSL's half of the field.

I am a little late to this, got distracted at the end of the month and forgot to post my player of the month for August. In August KC went 3-2, scoring 9 while allowing 6 goals in the 5 games, all held at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. The leading scorer in the month was Kei Kamara, who scored 3 goals in the month.

Kansas City gets to step onto the field and get the Dallas game out of their minds tomorrow when they take on the LA Galaxy. The Galaxy come into this week not having played a game since August 25th due to Hurricane Irene. They'll be without their newest designated player, Robbie Keane who returned to Europe for Ireland's Euro qualifiers during this international break.

Kansas City had a great chance last night to get within 1 point of first place in the Eastern Conference after Seattle took apart Columbus earlier in the day. Unfortunately, once again, KC fell apart late and once again allowed two late goals to turn a win into a loss at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. And it's not like this sort of thing hasn't come close on other game days either.

Lots of international team news was announced today, and 4 Sporting KC players were affected. First, Kei Kamara's call up for the Sierra Leone national team was confirmed by the team today, although I think Kamara tweeting last night that he'd been called up was proof enough that he'd been called up for their African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt at home.

According to Kei Kamara on Twitter tonight, he has been called up for the Sierra Leone national team for their upcoming African Cup of Nations qualifier against Egypt. With the call up, Kamara looks set to miss the game against the LA Galaxy two days after Sierra Leone's game on the 3rd. A blow for KC in a game that was moved by Farm Aid.

Sporting KC midfielder, Roger Espinoza looks set to miss the upcoming game against the LA Galaxy over Labor Day weekend. This is because Espinoza has been called up by the Honduran national team for a pair of friendlies against Colombia and Paraguay. Honduras starts this international break with a game in New York at Red Bull Arena against Colombia on the 3rd of September before heading down to Honduras for a friendly against Paraguay on the 6th.