MLS' disciplinary committee came out today with suspensions and fines from this past weekend's game ahead of tomorrow's slate of games. Unfortunately for Sporting KC, they'll be without Paulo Nagamura now for tomorrow's game against the Seattle Sounders. Nagamura was retroactively suspended for stepping on Edgar Mejia's fingers in the 52nd minute of Sporting's 4-0 win on Sunday.
Sporting Kansas City defeated Chivas USA 4-0 on Sunday afternoon in front of a sold-out crowd at Sporting Park.
Claudio Bieler opened the scoring in the 41st minute with Graham Zusi claiming the assist.Bieler doubled Sporting KC's lead in the 57th minute after converting a penalty kick drawn by Paulo Nagamura.
There are no injuries reported for the Dynamo. Sporting will be without Teal Bunbury, Cyprian Hedrick, and Paulo Nagamura. Julio Cesar and Roger Espionza are probable.
Brad Davis and Tally Hall are both one yellow card away from a one-match ban.
Winning isn't always pretty, good teams find a way to take care of business. Yesterday at
Livestrong Sporting Park, KC didn't have the greatest game, but were able to over come that and
beat Toronto FC 2-1. The blue print for shutting down KC almost played out to perfection for TFC,
without Torsten Frings and Eric Hassli in the lineup, TFC was able to hold their own, but in the
end KC had just too much possession and too many chances and finally found the net.
Roger Espinoza's Olympic performance for Honduras is still lingering in the front offices of
clubs in England, and it appears as if one is eager to pry him away from Sporting Kansas City prior
to the close of the European summer transfer window.
According to reports from England, Premier League side Wigan Athletic is looking to make a move
for Espinoza, who is in the final year of his contract with Sporting KC and MLS.
Sporting KC didn't allow New York to get a shot on goal, the 3rd time this season that Kansas City
has kept a team from getting a shot on goal, but KC still couldn't get all 3 points as an own goal
allowed New York to escape with a 1-1 draw in the first of 3 match ups between the two teams.
KC came out strong and in the 4th minute grabbed an early lead.
Yesterday was the 7th game between Sporting Kansas City and Toronto FC at BMO Field and yesterday's
game was extremely similar to the previous 6 match ups. Games that were for the most part dull and
lacking good finishing chances. For only the 4th time in the 7 games one of the two teams scored.
Not once have both teams scored in the same game, and there have been only 5 goals in the 7 games.
Three days after the US Open Cup final there were plenty of fans that were worried about a
potential let down last night at Livestrong Sporting Park when Kansas City took on DC United. It
was anything but though as KC controlled the game and could have won by quite a bit more than the
2-1 score line.
It's been eight years since KC last lifted the trophy. That drought ended last night on penalty
kicks as KC won 1-1(3-2) on penalty kicks against the defending champion Seattle Sounders FC. The
game had plenty of talking points and a little bit of controversy especially late in the PK
shootout as Michael Gspurning saved Paulo Nagamura's PK but was called for being off his line too
early and Nagamura buried his second attempt before Eddie Johnson skied his effort to give the US
the title.
Sporting Kansas City did something Wednesday night that no team across any level of U.S. Soccer
had been able to do in the last four years: Defeat the Seattle Sounders in the U.S. Open Cup.
Sporting Kansas City captured its second U.S. Open Cup in franchise history, outlasting the
Sounders in penalties 3-2 after a 1-1 draw through regulation and extra time and ending the
Sounders' hopes of becoming the first team to win four straight tournament titles.
It wasn't pretty, but it was effective, Sporting KC ended their run without a win with a 1-0 win
over the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium. With the US Open Cup final on Wednesday,
Sporting never seemed to really get going, coasting through the game, doing just enough to get the
result on the road.
After winning the first 2 games of their 3 game road trip, Sporting KC had to be pretty confident
heading into their first game of the road trip in Houston against the Dynamo, even though the
Dynamo were unbeaten at their new stadium. The long trip, the tired/injured legs, and some
stupidity though all conspired against Sporting as they fell 2-1 to the Dynamo to close out the
road trip.
Wednesday, Sporting KC advanced to their first final since 2004, now tomorrow, Sporting KC will be
back on the field again taking on the Columbus Crew in Columbus. With the team having qualified for
the final, this game appears ripe for a let down by the team. Mainly because they have the high of
the cup final still in their minds.
Sporting KC punched their ticket to their first cup final since the 2004 season when they made both
the US Open Cup and MLS Cup final. KC topped the Philadelphia Union 2-0, on the road to advance to
the final in the 99th running of the competition. Goals by Jacob Peterson and Graham Zusi helped
Sporting KC grab the win over the Union in a bit of "revenge" from the last time the two clubs met
and Philadelphia won 4-0.
Sporting KC are back to league action tomorrow night when they host a rematch of the 2011 Eastern
Conference Finals against the Houston Dynamo. KC continues their busy schedule of this coming
Wednesday's US Open Cup semifinal in Philadelphia. And while KC likely has one eye on that game,
they can't completely overlook the Dynamo tomorrow night at LSP.
After a couple weeks off from league play for an international break, Sporting KC is back to league
play tomorrow when they take on Toronto FC at Livestrong Sporting Park. KC has played two games
since their last league game, both in the US Open Cup, Toronto on the other hand has been off the
entire time without a game.
Tomorrow at Livestrong Sporting Park, Sporting Kansas City will look to continue their run in this
year's US Open Cup in their first attempt at a trophy this year. Sporting KC welcome the Colorado
Rapids to Kansas City for their second match up against the Rapids this year. Only a few weeks ago,
Sporting KC and Colorado played to a 2-2 draw.
Sporting KC had to hold on late, but came away with a 3-2 win over USL-Pro side, Orlando City in
the 3rd round of the US Open Cup last night at Livestrong Sporting Park. Sporting were one of the
lucky MLS sides, as MLS teams struggled against many of the lower level opponents last night, 7 MLS
teams went down to their lower level competition last night in Open Cup play.
Sporting KC has gone from a 7 game winning streak to start the season to a 3 game losing streak.
The streak has seen KC go from having sole possession of first place in the East and MLS to being
tied for second place in the East and a tie for fifth overall. KC will try to break out of that
streak tomorrow when they take on the Colorado Rapids at Dick's Sporting Goods Park in Denver.
It'd been 1,864 days since Sporting KC won a game at home against the Chicago Fire. That ended last night at Livestrong Sporting Park as a brace from Graham Zusi helped lead KC to a 2-0 win in front of the largest crowd in history at Livestrong Sporting Park, 21,010. In the process, Sporting clinched a spot in the playoffs this year and increased their hold on the top spot in the Eastern Conference.
Dwayne De Rosario made history in MLS' Week 26, and he also made his way to SBI's MLS Best
XI.
De Rosario's 100th career goal was the highlight of his week, which included two quality
performances for D.C. United against New York and Real Salt Lake.
The Columbus Crew are making some serious waves as the season reaches its most vital point on
the calendar.
The Crew's second consecutive six-point week not only catapulted them into the Eastern
Conference playoff picture, but also up a couple of spots to eighth in SBI's MLS Power Rankings as
they brace for another match Wednesday night against sputtering New England.
The Columbus Crew put together another two-win week, and the driving force behind the team's
recent surge continues to be Argentine playmaker Federico Higuain.
The newcomer continued to confound MLS defenses last week, recording multiple assists in a pair
of comeback victories for the Crew.
The MLS July 1st guaranteed contract deadline is right around the corner, and teams are making
their moves to clear players off their roster. KC made their move today, waiving midfielder, Luke
Sassano. Sassano had been picked up by KC after the Re-Entry draft in a trade with the LA Galaxy
that sent the rights to Frankie Hejduk to LA.
Paulo Nagamura's goal was his 10th in league play in his MLS career.
At 20 years and 56 days, Oriol Rosell is the 3rd youngest player to score a league goal for KC. He
knocked Chris Brown at 22 years 31 days out of the top 10.
Rosell became the 4th youngest in all competitions to score a goal, knocking Eddie Johnson at 22
years 1 day out of the top 10.
We all knew this was coming after his performance in the Olympics in London, but now rumors are
starting to slowly come out about clubs that are interested in acquiring the services of Sporting
KC midfielder, Roger Espinoza. Today during half time of the Seattle Sounders vs LA Galaxy game on
ESPN2, Alexi Lalas said that he'd spoken with Espinoza's agent and that the Honduran has offers
from 2 EPL side and some La Liga sides as well.
Emilio Renteria's reaction to a hard challenge has cost him a game.
Renteria was suspended one game and fined an undisclosed amount by the MLS Disciplinary
Committee for delivering a headbutt to Sporting Kansas City midfielder Paulo Nagamura in the second
half of the Crew's 2-0 loss Saturday night.
Heading into a very busy part of their schedule, KC is starting to find things a little thin on the
team. Yesterday I mentioned Luke Sassano being out for 2 months due to his surgery, and today we
learned that Matt Besler is going to miss one to three weeks due to appendicitis. Besler joins a
growing list of players on the defensive side of things that are on the injured list.
Joe the Curmudgeon sitting in today, as Dear Leader El Brucio is cruising down I-35 from
Minneapolis to Kansas City for tonight's Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Final between the three-time
consecutive reigning champion Seattle Sounders and Sporting Kansas City.
The MLS disciplinary committee came out with one announcement today regarding a retroactive
suspension from this past weekend's games. The one suspension announced is from KC's game against
Columbus. Columbus Crew forward, Emilio Renteria has gotten himself a 1 game suspension for his
head butt on KC midfielder, Paulo Nagamura.
About two weeks after Robb Heineman announced on Twitter that former Barcelona B defender, Oriol
Rosell, had been signed, the team officially announced the signing of the Spaniard. Unlike at
Barcelona where Rosell was listed as a defender, Sporting KC appears to see Rosell more as a
midfielder here in the US.
Of the two games this weekend, KC couldn't win the bigger of the two, but at least the traveling
fans didn't go home without seeing one win. The Swope Park Rangers took on the Chicago Fire this
morning in Chicago, and came away with a 3-1 win over the Fire. Three first half goals were enough
to see the Rangers to victory.
