Last night's win was Sporting's 17th, setting a team record for wins in a non-shootout season. It also ties the 1996 season for the second most wins in team history.
It was the 21st win in all competitions for Sporting this year, tying the 1997 season for the most wins in team history.
The second goal last night was Graham Zusi's 8th home goal in league play, tying him with Claudio Lopez, Jose Burciaga, and Teal Bunbury for 15th on that list.
Sporting KC has gone 325 minutes without a goal at home, the second longest streak in team history
behind 367 from the end of the 1998 season through the start of the 1999 season.
Peter Vermes coached his 110th game in all competitions for KC, tying Ron Newman for the second
most games coached for KC.
Graham Zusi's winner was his 3rd in league play for KC, tying him with Frank Klopas, Francisco
Gomez, Diego Gutierrez, Chris Henderson, and Aurelien Collin for 19th on that list.
Zusi also made his 50th league start for KC tonight. He's the 39th player to hit that mark for
KC.
Kei Kamara scored his 7th away league goal for Sporting KC, tying him with Eddie Johnson, Matt
McKeon, and Mark Chung for 10th on that list.
photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson
The third largest crowd at Livestrong Sporting Park saw KC fall to Montreal 2-0 last night in the
team's 5th home game of the season. The 2012 season continues to lead the way for average
attendance so far this season, ahead of the 2011 season, which is the best attended season in team
history.
The United States road woes in CONCACAF 2014 World Cup Qualifying continued on Friday night as
they fell 2-1 in Jamaica.
Clint Dempsey put the U.S. in the lead just 36 seconds into the match, but Rodolph Austin
knotted the score directly off a free kick in the 23rd minute and then Luton Shelton scored the
winner for Jamaica on another set piece in the 62nd minute.
Last night, the US Men's National Team played the first of five games in eighteen days,
culminating in the first two games of World Cup Qualifying, against Antigua & Barbuda and
Guatemala. The US were coming off three straight 1-0 victories, including an historic win against
Italy, in Italy, back in February, and the defense was expected to be solid.
Caught in the midst of angst and anxiety of Arsenal getting on board with scoring, comes the
news of Pia Sundhage's stepping down as US Women's national team coach over the weekend. She joined
in 2007 in one the lowest points in team history, the 4-0 loss to Brazil in the World Cup
semi-finals following a huge conflagration between Greg Ryan and Hope Solo which resulted in the US
goalie's dismissal.
If the recent Sounders match again Montreal has you down, you could clear your palate with a
nice afternoon Sounders Women match. The national team players are still away in Sweden warming up
for the World Cup, and just beat the Swedish team 3-1 thanks in part to an Alex Morgan goal. Morgan
is now on a long-term goals per game pace that is rivaled in team history only by Mia Hamm.
As we all know, the Houston Dynamo defeated Toronto FC 2-0 Saturday night at BMO Field, to notch
the Orange's fourth win in a row and pull them within a point of New York Red Bulls in the Eastern
Conference. The highlights above tell the tale, but also put on display both good and point points
to take from the win.
The Philadelphia Union's first run into the later rounds of the U.S. Open Cup in team history
came to an end Wednesday night, but manager John Hackworth thinks the 2-0 semifinal loss to
Sporting Kansas City is a great opportunity for his team to grow.
Coaches are lightning rods for criticism whether teams win or not. Charlie Manuel's competence
is called into question frequently despite marching his Phillies through
back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back National League East titles, a franchise record 102-win
season, two National League Championships, and a World Series ring.
FC Dallas announced a multi-year, multi-million-dollar jersey sponsorship deal with AdvoCare, a
Plano, Texas-based health and wellness company. Financial terms of the deal, the first jersey
sponsorship deal in team history, were not disclosed, but it will last for three and a half
years.
There's no rest for the Philadelphia Union as the top team in the west, the San Jose
Earthquakes, come to town this Saturday. And the KYW Philly Soccer Show previews it.
In Part 1, KYW's Greg Orlandini and PSP's Eli Pearlman-Storch sit down with Earthquakes coach
Frank Yallop.
Real Salt Lake and San Jose, 1 and 2 in the West respectively, met in San Jose last night to
duke it out for top spot in the West. Coming into the match the Quakes had been unbeaten in 4 games
and Real Salt Lake had won 5 of 7. The previous 2 meetings between these two teams in San Jose went
Real Salt's way, with a 3-0 drumming in 2010 and a rain soaked 1-0 win in 2011.
KC had the week off after their 7 game winning streak to start the season ended at the hands of the
Portland Timbers. The break can lead to the game going one of two ways, either KC comes out a
little flat and deflated from the week off and the loss in Portland, or the loss to Portland has
been stewing for 2 weeks now and they come and totally destroy Montreal tomorrow at Livestrong
Sporting Park.
This blog is mainly a place for news regarding Sporting Kansas City, but from time to time I like
to throw in a little historical perspective in there as well. With Toronto FC going to 0-7 over the
weekend, matching the record of the Kansas City Wizards in 1999 for futility.
So let's take a trip back through KC's history to compare Toronto's 0-7 start to Kansas City's 0-7
start in the 1999 season.
KC had another standing room only crowd for last night's game against Real Salt Lake, the 4th SRO
crowd of the season. The 19,422 actually puts Sporting KC ahead of last seasons attendance rate
which was the highest attended game ever. Here's a look at the rest of the 4th home game
attendances in team history.
Tomorrow at Livestrong Sporting Park, Sporting KC compete in what is being called the biggest game
of the early season MLS schedule, when they take on the LA Galaxy in their 5th league game of the
season. KC will look to continue their best start in team history against the Galaxy who are
currently 1-2 after their 3-1 loss to New England last week.
Longtime Milwaukee Wave goalkeeper Nick Vorberg is getting further involved in
Milwaukee-area soccer.
Marquette men's coach Louis Bennett named Vorberg a volunteer assistant on
Thursday, with his primary duties to train and mentor the Golden Eagles' goalkeepers and instruct
at the program's camps.
In today's installment of our midseason grades series I'm going to take a look at the strikers
and forwards, breaking down how Jay Heaps plan to attack has fared thus far in 2012.
With expectations entering the 2012 campaign bordering on the optimistic, last year's 16th
ranked scoring side (out of 18, mind you) had really nowhere to go but up.
Congrats to Ryder Hesjedal, a member of the Boulder-based Garmin-Barracuda pro cycling team as
moments ago he became the first Canadian to win a Grand Tour as he won the Giro d' Italia by 16
seconds! Its Garmin's first major stage race win in team history!
Hopefully we'll see Ryder here in Colorado in August for the USA Pro Cycling Challenge.
Thiago celebrates goal in 0-7 victory over Rayo Vallecano (Photo: Angel Martinez/Getty
Images)
Barcelona rebounded from perhaps the most devastating week in team history to trounce Rayo
Vallecano 7-0 in Madrid on Sunday night. Amidst all the heartbreak of the last few days: losing
to Real Madrid in the Camp Nou, being eliminated from the Champions League, seeing their league
hegemony as three-time defending champions come to an end and bidding goodbye to Josep Guardiola,
the greatest coach in team history, the Catalans responded with a dominant performance to return to
winning ways.
