Sporting Kansas City

[Unknown JimmyD]

skc with a dominating 4-0 win over montreal saturday night. great stuff. with columbus only getting a draw, it means we're up in first place (well, tied on points with cbus). we're going to need to pile up as many points as we can before we lose our wc guys at the back end of may.

[KCMax]

Who all are we losing to WC action?

[kboish]

I think just Zusi and Besler (though that is a pretty big loss for us).

Soony plays for Lebanon's national team, but I'm not sure if they made it to the world cup.

[kboish]

Although if Benny keeps playing well there is always a chance he gets called up...and he has been our best player to date. Still, it is highly unlikely he gets the call.

I suspect we might see Bieler as an attacking mid once zusi is called up and Dwyer secures the starting forward position. They tested it out in the preseason. Could be a great replacement while Zues is gone.

[AllThingsKC]

Sporting KC is pretty solid team....until we get to stoppage time, then they really suck.

[chaglang]

Sporting KC is pretty solid team....until we get to stoppage time, then they really suck.

They're also much better when playing with all 11 guys.

But yeah, stoppage time and on the break are when they seem to lose games. They tend to boss possession and give up goals on the occasional break.

[Unknown JimmyD]

two games against montreal over the last 3 weeks or so, one home and one away, and we win both by a total score of 7-0. wish we could play them every week.

montreal had a man sent off early on for a blatant handball in front of his own goal, so that certainly helped skc. i think we were always going to win this game anyway, but them being down a man for most of the game and being forced to play everyone behind the ball allowed us pass them to death.

here's some interesting stats from this game: http://www.sportingkc.com/news/2014/05/ ... ay-10-2014

Oriol Rosell completed 160 of 166 passes. His passes completed and passes attempted are the highest by a player in an MLS match since Opta began recording MLS stats in 2011.
Sporting Kansas City recorded 803 passes on Saturday, highest ever since Opta began recording MLS stats in 2011. Sporting KC also set the record for passes completed with 739 on Saturday.
The team's 92.03 percent passing accuracy is second best in an MLS match since 2011, only trailing the Houston Dynamo on July 16, 2012 (92.96%).
Possession on Saturday was in favor of Sporting KC, by a 78.18 percent to 21.82 percent margin.
The 78.18 percent possession mark is the best in an MLS match since Opta began keeping track of MLS stats in 2011.

[swid]

MLS and US Soccer announce an 8-year deal with ESPN, Fox Sports, and Univision

A Friday night MLS game of the week will be on Univision and two Sunday afternoon/evening games on ESPN and Fox Sports 1. I suspect we'll see a number of Friday and Sunday games for SKC starting next year...

[KCMax]

Not to be greedy, but how the hell does Sinovic miss a wide open net five feet out at point blank range? I'm always amazed how often pro soccer players miss wide open nets.

[pash]

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[KCMax]

Watching the EPL's season recaps yesterday, I was reminded how poor the goal-scoring talent is in MLS. In some regards, the league's level of play is quite decent, but when it comes to putting the ball in the net, it's really pretty dismal.

I had the exact same thought. The difference in talent is pretty amazing. Just seems like the great bulk of MLS scoring is off set pieces.

Week 38 EPL Goals of the Week.

[KCMax]

Besler and Zusi called up to Team USA World Cup team.

[Unknown JimmyD]

Not to be greedy, but how the hell does Sinovic miss a wide open net five feet out at point blank range? I'm always amazed how often pro soccer players miss wide open nets.

soccer is definitely one of those sports where it looks so much easier than it really is. anyone who's played knows what i'm talking about. when you strike the ball, it always wants to go up. the real skill is striking the ball with power and keeping it level or on the ground. the miniscule difference of where your foot strikes the ball can mean the difference between a worm-burner and the ball landing 20 rows above/beyond the goal.

now, of course, that isn't to say that sinovic shouldn't have scored there. that was hilariously awful. it was harder to miss than it was to put it in. at least it didn't matter.

zusi also missed a very easy opportunity. the game, by rights, should've been a 5-0 win for the good guys.

[Unknown JimmyD]

Watching the EPL's season recaps yesterday, I was reminded how poor the goal-scoring talent is in MLS. In some regards, the league's level of play is quite decent, but when it comes to putting the ball in the net, it's really pretty dismal.

I had the exact same thought. The difference in talent is pretty amazing. Just seems like the great bulk of MLS scoring is off set pieces.

Week 38 EPL Goals of the Week.

no doubt there's a significant difference. it's not surprising, though, when you consider that most of those goalscorers in england make a higher salary individually than an entire mls team, save for two or three. the bottom team in the epl likely has a payroll at least 10x the average mls team.

[KCMax]

Sure, these are the best players in the world, and we've got a minor league. I get that. Its just striking that's all. EPL soccer is really a treat to watch whereas MLS can be a bit of a chore at times. Before SKC got good it was definitely a hard game to watch.

[bobbyhawks]

Sure, these are the best players in the world, and we've got a minor league. I get that. Its just striking that's all. EPL soccer is really a treat to watch whereas MLS can be a bit of a chore at times. Before SKC got good it was definitely a hard game to watch.

The entire offense used to be for a guy to kick the ball as far as he could kick it and let another fast guy run under it. A bunch of the best teams in the league, even 5 years ago, pretty much just sent blind cross after blind cross into the middle hoping for a random header or a whiff/mistake from the defense. The MLS has improved so much in that short span of time. There are a lot more possession-based or defend-and-counter teams than before.

The 30 man roster for this World Cup has 15 MLS players on it. That number was 10 in 2010, and only 4 made it on the final 23 man roster. Either the league is getting better, or US Soccer is getting worse internationally after a brief spike. It will be interesting to see if the reliance on MLS players will pay off. Unfortunately, we could not win a game this World Cup and still be a better team than 2010, so it will be difficult to measure.

The MLS player ratio was 16/23 in 1998 (bad showing), 11/23 in 2002 (statement year for the USA), 11/23 in 2006 (one step forward, two steps back), and 4/23 in 2010 (decent showing, but not great). I'm hoping the return to more MLS players this year signals an improvement in the MLS rather than a lack of young guys of international quality. We will probably have around 10 or 11 MLS players on the 23 man roster, though a number of those players have EPL or other international experience. I'm not sure how the age of Dempsey and Donavan will weigh on things. This does not on paper look to be a favorable year for the USA in the World Cup, but it would be pretty magical if they could make it out of the group.

[AllThingsKC]

When not playing Montreal, Sporting KC continues to look sloppy in the final minutes of their games.

[pash]

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[Unknown JimmyD]

utter garbage tonight. and collin picked up an injury, so we go into sunday's game against chicago with our centerback situation looking like this: besler gone with the national team, opara out for the year injured, olum with the kenyan national team, collin injured for what looks like a couple weeks ... which leaves us with ... maybe slotting rosell back as a cb alongside 17-year old erik palmer-brown? could be a long 90 minutes on sunday.

[bobbyhawks]

The MLS player ratio for the past few World Cups is as follows:

16/23 in 1998 (bad showing)
11/23 in 2002 (statement year for the USA)
11/23 in 2006 (one step forward, two steps back
4/23 in 2010 (decent showing, but not great)
10/23 in 2014 (?)

Everyone seems to be giving the US zero chance to escape the group. This will be an extremely interesting test for the quality of the MLS players. Some people think Jurgen is already throwing in the towel to prepare for Russia, but I think he is legitimately trying to put the most dangerous players on the field in hopes of a freak upset vs. Germany or Portugal. Donovan was fat (for soccer; I wish I was his kind of fat) and unmotivated.