Tuesday's not normally a big news day for MLS teams, but today's not necessarily normal.
First, the team announced that Chad Ochocinco has been named an honorary member of the team. What does that mean, exactly? It means that he can train with the team as long as he wants. As Ochocinco tweeted, "This is so awesome I'm an honorary member of #SportingKC and can train with the reserve team as long as I want. Totally awesome #ILuvKC." The media circus has left town, but according to head coach Peter Vermes, it wasn't a distraction to the team. In fact, the only part he didn't particularly care for was having to be ready for ESPN to come in. Other than that, he was fine with it.
As was reported yesterday in some other media outlets, Sporting KC will play Newcastle United of the English Premier League in a friendly on July 20th at @LIVESTRONGPark. Newcastle will train at the Sporting Club Training Center in Swope Park for three days, starting July 17th and will also conduct a coaches clinic. The money quote from the press release was from Newcastle manager Alan Pardew who said, "I know Manchester United were in Kansas City last year and went home beaten, so we know full well what a tough game it will be for us, but that is exactly the sort of challenge we will be looking for." It makes Sporting KC look good while taking a shot at Manchester United, something I'm always up for, being a Liverpool FC supporter. ;)
It's not necessarily news, but Sporting KC will be hosting a media tour of @LIVESTRONGPark tomorrow afternoon. I'm looking forward to getting an inside look at the state-of-the-art facility that opens June 9th with a match against the Chicago Fire. They started rolling out the sod this morning and will hopefully be finished by the end of the day tomorrow, so they will be almost done by the time the tour starts. One way you can tell they're not quite finished is the fact that we're going to have to sign waivers before we start and probably have to wear hard hats. Probably look goofy in it, but when do I not? Don't answer that. ;)
And finally, just a little tidbit of information about the match in Chicago on Saturday. If you haven't seen it on my Twitter feed this afternoon (@fntncitysoccer), I mentioned that defender Matt Besler was wearing a short sleeve jersey, even though the actual air temperature was only 36 with a strong wind. He wasn't necessarily trying to be a badass. The team, specifically the equipment manager, forgot to pack his long sleeve jersey. Besler responded to my tweet saying, "even if the team would have packed my long sleeve I still would have gone short. Short sleeves no care #badass". True enough. The fact that he didn't freeze to death makes Matt a badass. :)
I'm still hoping to get photos up today, but I don't know if I will or not. In any event, we'll have more soon.
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