Yesterday, Nani revealed that he might not be leaving Manchester United this summer, as most people had expected. This news was met with disappointment from plenty of reds, with his poor form last season leading people to believe he'd had enough chances at the club.
He didn't play well in 2012/2013, although he suffered from injuries and wasn't given a regular run in the team even when fit.
This season has been a disappointing one for our wingers with Nani, Antonio Valencia and Ashley Young all struggling for fitness and good form. Last season Valencia was voted player of the season by his team mates and the fans, whilst Nani was voted player of the season by his team mates the year before, yet neither have set the world alight this season.
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.
A few days ago on Twitter I asked Kansas City fans to list their top three rivals in order for a post I did ahead of MLS' rivalry week and whether tomorrow's opponent, the Chicago Fire, really was Kansas City's rival in the eyes of the fans (at least those that responded to me).
The full results of the responses I got are below.
Here's the appearance and minutes for Sporting KC against the now defunct Tampa Bay. Kansas City only played the Mutiny in league play so I'll avoid the all competitions, cause it is the same.
Here's appearances against Tampa.
1. Mo Johnston - 14 2. Matt McKeon - 11 Uche Okafor - 11 Preki - 11 Sean Bowers - 11 6.
Another set of stats for you, this one for the Red Bulls. The Red Bulls are the only team of the original MLS teams still around that Kansas City has never met in a competition outside of league play. They've never met in the playoffs, Open Cup, or any other competition, so the league and all competitions will be the same.
In what turned out to be his final season as a manager, Sir Alex Ferguson guided Manchester United to their 20th top flight English title.
Summer signing Robin van Persie turned out be a big part of United's success – top scoring in the Premier League with 26 goals. Notable winners at Southampton, Liverpool and Manchester City in the first half of the season helped pull the Red Devils ahead of the competition.
- Van Persie was our top scorer with 26 goals and Rooney had the most assists with 10. - Hernandez had the best minutes per goal rate of any of our players (one per every 95 minutes), followed by Van Persie (one per 120 minutes) and Rooney (one per 168 minutes). - Hernandez had the best minutes per goal/assist of any of our players (one per every 73 minutes), followed by Van Persie and Rooney (one per 92 minutes).
In the 67th minute, Jimmy Nielsen moved past Diego Gutierrez and into 14th place for minutes played in league play. He finished the game with 9,787 minutes played.
In the 88th minute, Nielsen moved past Jose Burciaga and into 15th place for minutes played in all competitions. Nielsen finished the game with 10,627 minutes played.
Aurelien Collin's goal was his 10th in all competitions, he's the 27th player to hit that mark for KC.
It was Collin's 5th game winner in league play, tying him with Jimmy Conrad, Jack Jewsbury, Igor Simutenkov, Teal Bunbury, and Graham Zusi for 14th on that list.
It was Collin's 6th game winner in all competitions, tying him with Eddie Johnson, Jose Burciaga, Francisco Gomez, and Mo Johnston for 13th on that list.
In the 3rd minute, Jimmy Nielsen hit 10,000 minutes in all competitions for KC.
In the 22nd minute, Nielsen passed Sean Bowers and into 17th place for minutes played in league play for KC, he finished the game with 9,247 minutes played.
In the 73rd minute, Matt Besler moved past Uche Okafor and into 14th place for minutes played in league play, Besler finished the game with 9,531 minutes played.
It was Besler's 105th league start, breaking his tie with Sean Bowers for 16th on that list.
In the 82nd minute, Jimmy Nielsen moved past Bowers and into 17th place for minutes played in all competitions.
Benny Feilhaber started his 50th MLS league game of his career.
In the 56th minute, Jimmy Neilsen moved past Roger Espinoza and into 19th place for minutes played in all competitions. Nielsen finished the game with 9,637 minutes played.
Nielsen made his 107th start in all competitions, breaking his tie with Espinoza for 18th place on that list.
In the 4th minute, Jimmy Nielsen moved past Sasha Victorine and into 18th place for minutes played in league play. Nielsen finished the game with 8,707 minutes played.
In the 1st minute Nielsen broke his tie with Chris Brown and took sole possession of 20th place on the list in all competitions, finishing the game with 9,547 minutes played.
Here's a look today at Sporting's appearances and minutes against the newest club in the league, Montreal. Obviously not many changes here because the teams have only played 3 times.
1. Jimmy Nielsen - 3 Chance Myers - 3 Matt Besler - 3 Paulo Nagamura - 3 Graham Zusi - 3 Kei Kamara - 3 CJ Sapong - 3 8.
Here's a look at the appearances and minutes played against the Houston Dynamo. This list will have a lot more current players on it due to Houston's recent move to the East.
First, league appearances.
1. Michael Harrington - 11 2. Davy Arnaud - 10 Jack Jewsbury - 10 4.
Starts: 12 Goals: 5 Assists: 2 Minutes per goal/assist: 129 Passing completion: 512/566. 90.5% (only Scholes with 92.4% has a better passing completion rate at United. Silva 85.4%, Mata 85.2%, Hazard 84.9%) Final third passing completion: 174/202. 86.1%. (Hazard 82%, Scholes 81%, Silva 80%, Mata 78%, Oscar 75%)
Games where he's played 15+ minutes vs Everton 68/75 passes (91%).
This season, only Patrice Evra has started more games (27) than Michael Carrick, whilst Evra and Van Persie have both had more minutes on the pitch. Carrick has made 1843 accurate passes this season with an accuracy of 88%. Of those passes, 37% of them have gone forwards and just 8% backwards. In the opposition half, he has completed 1035 passes, with an accuracy of 82%.
It's been just over a month since I wrote about the strange statistical totals coming out of the Major Indoor Soccer League's teams in Chicago and Syracuse, where their goalkeepers particularly Chicago's Jeff Richey were being credited with record-breaking (and near-historic) numbers of saves.
