Since the season ended (and actually probably before that) I'd been working on a project to find the youngest and oldest players to appear for Sporting KC throughout their history. I finished that project up earlier this past week. And to start off my updating of all the stats that I do, I figured I'd start with a new one.

Some quick bits of news on four Kansas City players from this past season. First, with regards to the re-entry draft (more on the draft as a whole later). Kansas City has two players that have been played into the draft, Luke Sassano and Shavar Thomas. Neither one is incredibly surprising. Thomas was 100% expected after he wasn't waived, the Jamaican international made only 3 substitute appearances in MLS play this past season.

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson
Sporting KC was busy today, making one trade, another player announcement, and talk of a second trade taking place. It started during the weekend with a Tweet by Robb Heineman stating that there would be an announcement today. At 1:30 we got the first of the announcements, a surprising trade.

That's about the best way I think I can describe my feelings about last night. I'd even tried to prepare myself for it, telling myself it wouldn't happen. Still didn't make me feel any better when the final whistle blew. KC bowed out of the playoffs at home for the first time since 1997 last night to the Houston Dynamo 2-0.

The game against Colorado was KC's 40th in all competitions this year, tying a team record set by in 2000 and 2002.
Matt Besler's minutes total for the season is now 3,367, good for 11th most in all competitions in team history.
Davy Arnaud made his 14th playoff appearance for KC, breaking his tie with Peter Vermes for 9th place on that list.

Sporting KC's +10 goal difference is only the second time in team history their goal difference has been in double digits positively.
Matt Besler ended the season playing 2,880 minutes in league play, tied for the 3rd most in team history for a single season with Preki in 1996 and Bo Oshoniyi in 2005.

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson
Here are some stats from last night's game.
Soony Saad made his first MLS appearance for KC, he's the 11th player to make their first MLS appearance with KC this season. He's the 12th in all competitions.
Saad's goal was his first for Sporting KC, he becomes the youngest goal scorer in Sporting KC history, topping Yura Movsisyan, who was 19 and 266 days when he scored.

Jimmy Nielsen is so awesome he even makes saves on Omar Bravo's little bobble head... Okay, I am sure most Sporting KC fans will have seen already that Jimmy Nielsen was hit in the face during the Portland game. The Kansas City keeper was hit in Kansas City by an object thrown from the stands. Not an away game, a home game.

Y'all see that BS that went down in KC last night? Not Graham Zusi's missile, that was fantastic. I'm talking about that whole episode where a couple of jacktards tried to take out Jimmy Nielsen by using an Omar Bravo bobblehead as a missle. Not cool bros, not cool.*
*Let's be honest here: these are the kind of things bros like to do.

Games like last night are the main reason why I don't do write ups the night of the game and why I'd struggle to make this a real job for myself. So many things to be frustrated and disappointed about from that game. And that's even before getting to the end result as well with the 2-1 loss to Seattle.

Sporting KC extended their team record unbeaten run to 14 games last night as for once KC came out of the gates fast and took the game to Real Salt Lake immediately. Directly from the kickoff KC was attacking and almost found net as Michael Harrington played a great cross in to Omar Bravo who headed wide of the goal.

Vote for Jimmy Nielsen for save of the week Jimmy Nielsen celebrating his team mate scoring...

Omar Bravo's and Kei Kamara's 2 goals tie them with Eddie Johnson and Davy Arnaud for the most goals against TFC. Funny note, only Johnson has scored in multiple games against them, the other 3 got their 2 goals in single games.
Kamara's goal was also his 30th in MLS play of his career.
Kamara's two goals moves him past Jack Jewsbury and Chris Brown into 11th place for the most league goals for KC.

The Colorado Rapids have now perfected the art of the draw: The team can make a 1-1 tie look thrilling.

For the ninth time in 19 games, the Colorado Rapids came away with a share of the points. This time, it was Sporting Kansas City playing at home in Kansas City, Kan., on Wednesday night.

It was a fair result for a team that took a first-half lead and then played with fire in the final third of the match.

Rumor out of Portland after the last game was that after Collin scored he and Julio Cesar borrowed a couple drinks from fans next to the field. I had to ask him about that (and the game). Last year Jimmy Nielsen took a bite out of a hot dog (or brat) that someone threw at him and then tossed it back.

Some stats from last night's game.
Kei Kamara made his 50th appearance in all competitions for Kansas City. He's the 46th player to hit that mark for KC.
Michael Harrington made his 126th league appearance for KC, breaking his tie with Tony Meola for 11th place on that list.
The win was Jimmy Nielsen's 13th in league play for KC, breaking his tie wtih Garth Lagerwey for 5th on that list for KC.

The offense didn't really show up, but the defense did what it's been doing lately, even without Aurelien Collin, and was able to shut down the Philadelphia offense to earn KC a 0-0 draw. Philadelphia had 26 chances on goal compared to Sporting KC's 8. Of those 26, 7 were on target, KC put 0 on target last night.

I have to say that I was probably a little more optimistic about this game after seeing the pounding SKC gave FC Dallas. But, I was also a little worried that Vermes was going to go back to his beloved 4-3-3 formation that hasn't worked well. But, when I saw that Omar Bravo was going to replace Stojcev (who was suspended) I was again excited.

Here are some stats from last night's game.
CJ Sapong's goal was the first MLS goal at LiveStrong Park.
Jimmy Nielsen's shutout was his 11th in all competitions and league play, giving him sole possession on both lists, breaking his tie with Mike Ammann both times.

In the 19th minute, Michael Harrington hit the 10,000 minute mark for Sporting KC. He finished the game with 10,071 minutes played. He's the 12th player to hit that mark.
Harrington also made his 141st appearance in all competitions for KC tying him with Francisco Gomez for 14th place on that list.

Sporting Kansas City has endured a tortuously long road stretch in anticipation of their home opener. Livestrong Sporting Park opened up to a sold out crowd of 19, 925 as Sporting Kansas City took on the Chicago Fire.
These fans enjoyed a first class facility, the best in the country most likely, to watch a soccer game.

PARKE 93´ (1-0). Se repitió la historia de hace una temporada. Empate a cero con el mismo rival, tiempo de descuento, Qwest Field, pelota detenida desde la banda derecha. Tyson WAHL envió un tiro de esquina hacie el centro del area grande, cerca del punto de penal. Ahi estaba Jeff PARKE el central que recuperaba [.

The first month and a half or so of the season is over for KC and it's time to look at who should be the player of the month for the March/April time frame.
During the stretch, KC went 1-4-1, the one win coming on opening day against Chivas USA. A draw in Vancouver was KC's only other point so far this season.

Last night against New York, Sporting Kansas City stepped up against the stronger Red Bulls side and shut down the Red Bulls attack. Unfortunately the offense struggled, only recording 2 shots on goal all game after controlling much of the play in the second half.
Things started out going the way many KC fans thought, as in the 12th minute, Dwayne DeRosario went down from a tug from Stephane Auvray earning the Red Bulls a penalty.

Another away game, another 3 goals given up, and another red card. These are things that are becoming way to common when talking about the Wizards games. The only difference with this game from the previous is the fact Sporting KC played solid for most of the game. For the first time I don't feel like SKC beat themselves in this game.

The weather might not have been the best for a game, but it would be hard to blame the poor play from both teams solely on that. The Crew showed why they have only scored 4 goals the entire season. And the Wizards showed why they have given up more goals than any other team.

Formation

Vermes decided after the embarrassment in Vancouver that he would go with the exact same line up for this game.

For the first time this season, Sporting KC's high powered offense was completely shut down in Columbus as the Crew pulled out a 1-0 win last night at Crew Stadium. Disappointing is one way to describe the game, boring might be another. Neither team really went about creating many great chances, Sporting KC had one or two good looks at goal while Columbus had about the same.

A 10 game road trip is not an ideal way to start a season! But, the Wizards scheduled this on their own. They knew they would have to travel to some hostile environments and need to get points pick up points in order to avoid falling too far back in the standings. After picking up 3 points against Chivas and almost stealing a point against Chicago while playing down a man I expected a positive result from the trip to Vancouver.

I thought given 12-14 hours after the game I would have calmed down about the result of the game, but I'm still frustrated with the result. Sporting KC pissed away two points yesterday, surrendering a 3 goal lead in the final 20 minutes, 2 in second half stoppage time to go from a 3-0 lead to a 3-3 draw.

Somehow players started interviewing players which made for some fun interviews.Kei Kamara interviewing CJ SapongCJ interviewing Jimmy NielsenDon't forget to follow CJ on twitter. He is @BigAfrika88.Make sure to follow @TheBackpost on twitter as well.

I am still trying to catch up from a hectic week. Here are some of the interviews from media day last Monday. Was using a different camera so the videos are a little smaller than usual. I will have to experiment to figure out the best settings and sizes.Davy ArnaudJimmy NielsenTeal BunburyPeter VermesRobb Heineman

Talked with Adda Djeziri after practice. Seems he knows the White Puma pretty well and is staying with him while he is in Kansas City.Adda Djeziri running the beep test. Prior to losing his lunch (breakfast)...

So the first day of preseason is in the books, and unfortunately I was unable to make it. This blog doesn't pay the bills so I was at work while preseason was going on. But the rest of the KC soccer blogosphere was there today and there is plenty of information that you can look at. I doubt I'll be able to make it out to a practice before the team heads down to Arizona, but there is certainly plenty to look over.

Brief chat with Jimmy Nielsen...Jimmy did not stop this shot in a scrimmage on the first day of practice...

Sporting Kansas City Technical Director and Head Coach Peter Vermes leaves town today. First stop is the US U-20 camp and then on to the MLS Combine to watch and make final evaluations on players that will be eligible in next week's MLS draft. Draft eligible players Perry Kitchen, Zarek Valentin, Zak MacMath and Omar Salgado are in the U.