Sporting Kansas City Archive

0

Impact rests many regulars, then enjoys most impressive 90 minutes of the season

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/06/2012

Felipe: Goal of the Week candidate

If there was ever a no-pressure game for the Montreal Impact, this Saturday’s date against Sporting Kansas City was it.

After all, the news about the Impact this week has dealt with the Amway Canadian Championship semifinal against Toronto FC and the impending arrival of Italian striker Marco Di Vaio, who has got the offer from Montreal and is likely to leave Bologna for MLS.(Stress “likely,” here. Years of covering Toronto FC and hearing management promise surefire DPs or high-profile signings who never materialize has made this writer cautious about reporting MLS deals until pen is put to paper)

A match against SKC? Sure loss, right? Wrong. The Impact won its first ever road game, 2-0 over the hosts and, frankly, put together the most impressive 90 minutes in the club’s short MLS history.

Now, coach Jesse Marsch has a pleasant problem on his hands.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 14% [?]

Share
0

Wondolowski wins Player of the Month honour

By
Steven Sandor
– 05/02/2012

Chris Wondolowski

Chris Wondolowski was the first man in MLS to score on the Vancouver Whitecaps this season — and it’s one of the reasons he was selected the league’s Player of the Month for April.

Earlier this month, Wondolowski ended the Whitecaps’ record shutout streak at the start of a season at 428 minutes, then added another goal as the Quakes beat Vancouver 3-1. The teams meet again this Saturday, and Whitecaps coach Martin Rennie will rest many regulars — including Jay DeMerit, Lee Young-Pyo and Jun Marques Davidson — for Wednesday’s Amway Canadian Championship match against FC Edmonton so he can have a fresh squad to face Wondolowski and the first-in-the-west Quakes.

Wondolowski won the vote (Lee was also nominated) from the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters.

On top of the two-goal performance against the Whitecaps earlier this month, Wondo scored in a draw with New York and had another goal in a win over Real Salt Lake.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Share
0

Undefeated Sporting KC extends Whitecaps winless streak to four

By
Martin MacMahon
– 04/19/2012

Aurelien Collin

After starting unbeaten in four, the Vancouver Whitecaps are now winless in just as many after a 3-1 loss to Sporting KC at BC Place Wednesday evening.

The team’s second loss on the hop started with a fortuitous goal from Aurelien Collin, got worse with an own goal from Martin Bonjour, before Kei Kamara sealed the victory with a coolly taken third.

Substitute Omar Salgado set Sebastien Le Toux up for a consolation goal in the 80th minute, but there was to be no encore performance of last season’s dramatic 3-3 draw between these clubs, which took place across town at Empire Field.

“[Sporting] put on a textbook road performance where they defended well and scored on set plays and on the counterattack, so from an away perspective those are the things you want to do,” Whitecaps head coach Martin Rennie told reporters following the match. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]

Share
0

Chivas keeper Dan Kennedy wins POTW award for his work against Toronto FC

By
Steven Sandor
– 04/16/2012

Dan Kennedy

Toronto FC coach Aron Winter blamed “bad luck” for his team’s 1-0 loss to Chivas USA on Saturday.

Well, that “bad luck” had a name. It was Dan Kennedy. The Goats’ keeper showed why he is one of the best in MLS. After a sluggish first half, the Reds came to life when they got the notorious BMO Field wind at their backs. But Kennedy stood up to several point-blank chances — and TFC striker Danny Koevermans is likely still talking to himself after the Chivas keeper robbed him not once, but twice.

And Kennedy’s outstanding play earned him the MLS Player of the Week award, as he took the most votes from the membership of the North American Soccer Reporters.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Share
0

Gyorio says no to initial offer from Sporting Kansas City

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/26/2012

Mozzi Gyorio at the Canadian U-23 camp last week. PHOTO: CANADA SOCCER

The agent for Canadian midfielder Mozzi Gyorio has confirmed that an initial contract offer from Sporting Kansas City has been turned down — and that the midfielder is still on the market.

After being cut on the final day of camp by Canadian U-23 coach Tony Fonseca, Gyorio has headed to Halifax, rather than back to Kansas City.

Before Gyorio went to the Canadian Olympic camp, he was offered a three-year deal by the MLS club, where he was on trial during the preseason. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 32% [?]

Share
6

Canadian U-23 coach Fonseca cuts older players, goes with youth for Olympic qualifiers

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/20/2012

Keeper Adam Janssen made the cut. PHOTO: CANADA SOCCER

Canadian U-23 coach Tony Fonseca has made four cuts — and is going with a very young lineup for the CONCACAF Olympic qualifying tournament, which begins Thursday night in Nashville.

The Canadian roster features only four of 20 players who were born in 1989, the earliest birth year for eligible players. Seven of the 20 were born in 1992 or later. And, it was the younger charges who stayed, while the older players were cut. Huddersfield Town keeper Simon Thomas, who turns 22 next month, isn’t on the squad. FC Edmonton forward Kyle Porter, 22, was not on the final roster. The same fate befell Mozzi Gyorio, the midfielder who turns 23 this year. Gyorio was on trial at Sporting Kansas City and reportedly mulling over an offer before coming to the Canadian camp. Defender Tristan Grant, at 20, was the youngest of the cuts.

Meanwhile, two members of the team that went to the U-17 World Cup in 2011 are on the side, Vancouver Whitecaps Bryce Alderson and FC Metz midfielder Samuel Piette.

“One thing I am very positive and comfortable about, is their will to go out and play,” said Fonseca.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 29% [?]

Share
1

TFC signs Logan Emory: NASL alumni fill the MLS ranks

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/13/2012

Toronto FC announced that it has signed former Puerto Rico Islanders defender Logan Emory to a contract.

Emory impressed technical director and coach Aron Winter during a recent trial at the preseason Walt Disney World Classic.

“Logan is a strong young defender and he has many qualities we like to see in a player,” Winter in a release issued by the club. “We were impressed with his work ethic during his trial period in Orlando and I felt he performed well against Vancouver in our final preseason match. Logan gives us another option in defence and fits in well with our team’s style of play.”

Emory’s signing is another indication of just how important the development of NASL as what should be a stable second-division body in North American will mean to MLS. NASL is going into just its second season as the sole second-division body in North American, and it has already shipped more than an entire starting XI to MLS.

NASL had just eight teams in 2011. Last week, NASL confirmed that 14 of its 2011 alumni were on MLS rosters heading into opening weekend. Now, Emory is added to that list. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 17% [?]

Share
0

The 11′s super-duper MLS 2012 season preview

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/07/2012

The 11’s Steven Sandor, Mark Polishuk and Aman Dhanoa held a virtual round table, discussing how they foresaw the 2012 MLS season.

Will the Galaxy repeat? Will any of the three Canadian teams make the playoffs? Who will be the MVP?

We tallied up our votes, and came up with our list of how the teams will finish, who will win MLS Cup and who will be the league’s MVP. No need to play the season, now. We have it all figured out.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 15% [?]

Share
0

Whitecaps score three times in 17 minutes against Sporting Kansas City

By
Steven Sandor
– 03/01/2012

Russell Teibert scored goal No. 2

You would have been forgiven for clicking away from the Vancouver Whitecaps’ final group-stage match of the preseason Walt Disney World Soccer Classic at halftime.

After 45 minutes of excruciatingly dull, uninventive soccer from both the Whitecaps and Sporting Kansas City, you’d have thought that this looks like two teams each playing their third preseason game in less than a week. Passes went awry. There was little sustained possession. The one decent scoring chance, off the foot of Davide Chiumiento, was deflected onto the woodwork.

But the game came to life in the second half — and the Whitecaps got goals from Sebastien Le Toux, Canadian youngster Russell Teibert and defender Carlyle Mitchell, as they went on to swamp SKC 3-0 thanks to a 17-minute spell of inspired play.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

Share
0

Hungarian connections help Canadian midfielder Gyorio get SKC trial

By
Steven Sandor
– 02/27/2012

Mozzi Gyorio

Canadian midfielder Mozzi Gyorio’s Hungarian roots may have helped him connect with a trial at Sporting Kansas City.

Gyorio, who was born in a Hungarian-speaking part of Serbia, then moved to Hungary with his parents before the family settled in Prince Edward Island, played part of the second half during SKC’s 1-1 draw with the Montreal Impact Sunday at the Disney World Soccer Classic.

Agent Laszlo Keresi, who represents Gyorio along with John Horvath, said that Keresi lobbied SKC coach Peter Vermes to get the Canadian the trial. Vermes, like Gyorio and the agents, has Hungarian roots, and, back in the late ‘80s, was the first American to ever play in the Hungarian league.
Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 19% [?]

Share
Older Entries