Thursday, April 28, 2011

A little more info...

As you may (or may not) know, there has been a shakeup on the Sporting KC television broadcasts. Starting immediately, Sasha Victorine will no longer be traveling for road games. He will still be working home games after the new stadium opens on June 9th against Chicago, but he just won't travel. This time, the line about wanting to spend more time at home with the family isn't just a line, and anybody who can't understand that needs to get their priorities straightened out.

So, who's taking his place? For this weekend, at least, Fox's Brian Kilmeade will be joining Cal Williams in the broadcast booth. He used to be a sideline reporter for the Metrostars (now the New York Red Bulls) and is currently a co-host on Fox's "Fox & Friends." After that, it's anybody's guess, but the fact that there's another bye week next week gives the team two weeks to figure it out.

Some good news, for once, on the injury front. Forward Omar Bravo is ahead of schedule. He was jogging around the field during practice and when I asked him how he felt, he said he felt pretty good. On his next lap around, he said he'd play in the week after the New York game. That would put him on target to face the Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center on May 14th. When he was asked about it during the weekly press conference, Coach Peter Vermes said that LA would be the soonest, but he may hold Bravo another week to be a little more conservative. In that case, Bravo's return would be May 21st in Seattle against the Sounders.

After the press conference was over, Thad Bell and I had a long conversation with Vermes about Collin's red card (which was rescinded, making him eligible for selection this weekend), among other things. It started when I asked him, knowing how superstitious some guys in sports are if he'd thought it was odd that, during last week's press conference, he mention's Zoltan's red card in his debut and Collin gets sent off during his. He said the difference was that Zoltan's red came from a combination of a couple of things. Zoltan was trying to commit a tactical foul, but was just a little overzealous in the way he went about it. The ref, having had a league initiative about protecting the guy on the ball drilled into his head too much, gave the red. Vermes said that these officials are thinking so much about the league initiatives (such as protecting the man with the ball, penalizing blows to the head) that they're forgetting to officiate the basic game that underlies that. As a sports official myself, I understand that. If you're told over and over to look for a certain thing, you're trying to make sure you don't miss that one thing, but you may end up missing something else.

With regards to Collin's red, Vermes said that if the ref had said in his report that he had given the red for the challenge with Reis, the red would not have been able to be appealed. What he did say in the report was that he gave him the red for striking another player. First, as was obvious from the replays, Collin didn't touch anybody. Secondly, the player who did make contact, Birahim Diop, didn't make contact that hard. Thirdly, the player Collin supposedly "struck" fell over like he'd been either hit with a truck or you should be on the lookout for the sniper. The team was able to pull up video of the play, an angle MLS hadn't seen, and send it to them and the USSF. That led to the card being overturned (I'm skipping over a few steps, but it's basically the same idea).

Anyway, that's all for now. See you soon.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Finally...

I'm now watching Saturday's game... I didn't have a chance to watch on Saturday because I was doing my real job... I thought I'd reserve judgment on the match, especially the ejection until I could see it. I don't like to watch a game if I already know what the score is (unless it was a big game and I liked the result).

3rd minute: I'd heard how wet the surface was, but this is ridiculous. I'm sure Steve Nicol would love to have a stadium of their own that had proper drainage, but that would involve Robert Kraft giving a damn.

6th minute: That wasn't a foul by CJ Sapong... that was a foul ON CJ Sapong...

12th minute: Poor clearance leads to a goal... Defense has to be better than that...

13th minute: Kei Kamara with a nice strike to beat Reis on the near post... Reis must not have seen it that well.

16th minute: Teal Bunbury gets away with a foul. Ref's not looking good so far.

18th minute: Kamara with a nice ball into the box and it would have been a goal if not for Stojcev's mistiming the header.

20th minute: McCarthy's yellow is well deserved... dangerous tackle from behind.

23rd minute: Lekic gets away with what looks like a handball, but puts the shot wide enough it's out for a throw...

33rd minute: Sasha has a good point about the communication between the backline and the forwards has to improve...

36th minute: Michael Harrington's tackle is a bit clumsy, but rightly judged not to be a penalty...

40th minute: Bunbury's moon shot may have been begging to be hit, but not like that...

41st minute: Perovic's yellow for dissent may come back to haunt them later (in the season, not the game)...

44th minute: Only a terrible shot from Boggs kept this game even. Joseph may have been offside, but it didn't end up mattering that much...

Halftime: Now I've finally figured out why I don't really respect this referee... well, besides his questionable foul calls... He looks like Zipper Harris, the Doonesbury character, who is (I think) Zonker Harris's nephew.

The game and the conditions are both a bit sloppy. Poor clearance leads to the first goal, but Kamara's shot finds its way through to equalize.

48th minute: Matt Besler's yellow card was a bit harsh... may have been a foul, but I don't think it was worth a booking...

52nd minute: Harrington's yellow was a bit harsh, if only because Benny Feilhaber sold it to the referee... He's good at exaggerating the fouls against him and getting more than he probably deserves...

64th minute: Not really a whole lot to say right now... but both teams are giving the ball away too cheaply...

68th minute: Bunbury does go down in the penalty area, but the ball was probably already out of bounds by the time Teal hit the turf... Kei Kamara strikes the penalty well and puts it out of the reach of Reis.

71st minute: The ref's consistency (or lack thereof) is not helping things... and that was a cheap-ass goal... defense needs to be better on set pieces...

75th minute: Good ball in from Zusi...

76th minute: Well, the red card happened, and I still haven't really seen it. The local tv cameras didn't really get a good angle on the scrum after the rough, yet legal, challenge by Collin.

79th minute: Definitely a case of mistaken identity. If the red card isn't rescinded by MLS, the appeal process has absolutely no meaning. Diop is the person who pushes Feilhaber and Feilhaber makes a meal out of it and gets Sporting KC down to 10 men.

83rd minute: Lekic with a nice header for the 3-2 lead... How there wasn't more pressure on the man with the ball before he puts the cross in for Lekic is beyond me... Yes, I know the team was down to 10 men, but damn...

90th minute: Good shot from Roger Espinoza. Any curl on that shot at all and it's probably in the back of the net, but the balls are just too wet to move that well...

Stoppage time: The team's doing a decent job of applying pressure to New England, especially being down to 10 men... The Revs are bunkering quite well...

There's the whistle... I could have gone longer without watching that game, but I suppose if I'm going to tell you what I think, I should actually watch it...

Overall impressions: Defense needs to improve on set pieces... MLS officiating is a joke... It would help, though, if guys didn't put themselves in positions where a bad decision can affect the game that way...

That's all for now... See you soon...

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Been a bit...

Been a bit quiet over the last couple of weeks, and for that I'd like to apologize. Real life seems to have a way of creeping into places it's not wanted.

I didn't really say anything about the game against Columbus if only because what could you really say about that game that didn't involve the words "horrible", "dreadful", "crap" and other words of the four-letter variety? The play was horrific, the officiating was dreadful and the conditions were crap. If you want to get someone to watch MLS games, that game would be the absolute last one you'd want to show them. The Dallas-KC game from 2009 (which turned out to be the last of Curt Onalfo's tenure as head coach in Kansas City) would be a better one to show if only because there were six goals involved, not just one (which was offside, anyway).

Next up for Sporting KC is the New England Revolution on Saturday at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA. Coach Peter Vermes said during the team's weekly press conference today that with the additions of forward Rajko Lekic and US international Benny Feilhaber that he isn't exactly sure what to expect from the Revolution on Saturday.Vermes also said that he did try to acquire Feilhaber for Sporting KC, but did not really say how close he came to getting him. He said it was just a matter of trying to get a deal done and just not being able to. Vermes said that from what information he has, Feilhaber is fit and Vermes expects him to be thrown right into the starting lineup. As for Sporting KC, Vermes said that Ryan Smith will probably see minutes this weekend in his first action since the end of last season. Smith is coming back from an injury and will not start but may see time off the bench. New signing (although he'd been training with the team for months) French defender Aurélien Collin's international transfer card has arrived and he is also eligible for selection this weekend.

On a lighter note, many of you may have seen or heard about what happened when Real Madrid won the Copa del Rey. Defender Sergio Ramos dropped the trophy off the front of the bus the team was riding in to celebrate ending the 18-year drought for winning the cup. The trophy was then crushed by the team's bus. Thad (The Backpost) and I (mostly Thad) asked some Sporting KC players and coaches who would be most likely to drop the MLS Cup if Sporting KC were to win it this season. A couple of people said midfielder/defender Roger Espinoza, a couple more said rookie Kevin Ellis, but most people we asked said rookie forward CJ Sapong, including (surprisingly enough) CJ. He said he'd probably be really excited and just drop it. The only sad note was goalkeepers coach John Pascarella told Thad that it would probably be one of the goalkeepers that dropped it. It's sad because the keepers get to use their hands during a game.

That's all for now. See you soon.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Win v. Houston and a Birthday "Present"

As you've probably heard by now, Sporting KC beat Houston in their US Open Cup play-in game down in College Station, TX. CJ Sapong scored the game-winner in extra time and Eric Kronberg kept the clean sheet for 120 minutes. Kronberg said after practice today that the defense stayed organized pretty much the entire game and that made it easier on him. Thad @ The Backpost will probably have the interview posted before too long. I'd have more to say about the game if I'd been able to see it. Evidently, people on the east and west coast could see it, but not here in "flyover" country. This kinda sucks.

Most of today's post is going to involve practical joker Kei Kamara's latest victim. You've probably seen the pictures from his April Fool's joke on CJ Sapong (one of these days, the rookies will learn), but today's victim is goalkeeper Jon Kempin, Sporting KC's first Home Grown Player. Today is Kempin's 18th birthday, and Kamara thought he'd mess with the young pro. He had Thad interview him (and Thad had me get pics since he couldn't interview him with one camera and shoot pics with another)... Kempin was caught completely off guard.

So young... so unaware...

Uh, oh... Jon, look out!

Oooooo... too late...

Got him good...

All over...

Least it wasn't shaving cream... Sorry, Jon, I had to do it. Happy birthday anyway, pal. :D

That's all for now. See you soon.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Well, that sucked...

It's taken me this long to be able to write about Saturday's loss (at least, that's what it felt like) in Vancouver against the Whitecaps without using a rather large amount of expletives. I didn't want any children happening upon the blog and learning any new words (or new combinations).

I was feeling pretty good Saturday with about 20 minutes left in the 2nd half. SKC had a 3-0 lead and it seemed that they would cruise to another road win. Does the phrase, "Looks can be deceiving..." mean anything to you? In the 73rd minute, Vancouver pulled one back, but I didn't start to panic. Jimmy Nielsen was playing lights out, as evidenced by his TWO save of the week nominations.

But the team had to make subs for injuries... or at least bad cramping issues... I should have seen something coming when Davy Arnaud, the team's Energizer Bunny, had to go off and hand the armband to Nielsen. If Arnaud had still been on the field when the 2nd goal went in, the 3rd goal wouldn't have happened. How do I know that? Quite simply, Arnaud would have gotten in people's faces and told them to get their stuff together for the last couple minutes of stoppage time. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Nielsen's leadership abilities, but as the team's longest tenured player, Arnaud's earned, I think, some respect for basically having, "been there, done that."

The lesson here, kids, is when you have your foot on the other team's throat, and that's what a 3-0 lead is, you don't let them get back up. Period. If you need any more evidence as to how important closing out games is, just ask the 2005 UEFA Champions League runners-up, AC Milan. At halftime, they had a commanding 3-0 lead. I say it that way because when Liverpool went into the locker room at halftime, they looked like they'd already lost. Milan was dominating possession and it looked like there was no way back into the match. In a period of approximately 7 minutes early in the 2nd half, Liverpool managed to score three times. All of a sudden, Mr. Mo Mentum had shifted which bench he was sitting on. The fat lady stopped warming up and sat down. By the time the match reached PKs, it seemed that it had been Liverpool that had been destined to win all along.

I understand that this team is young and I'm fine with that. Along with some defense, what the team seems to lack is a killer instinct. Close games out and don't let your opponent back up off the mat. I know, a lot of cliches, but again, I'm trying not to swear a lot. Here's hoping that the new player that Robb Heineman referred to yesterday is as good as advertised and the team gets back on track.

I hope to have more tomorrow after the Open Cup game with Houston. That's all for now. See you soon.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Sporting KC v. Vancouver

Just a short note to let you know that I'll be livetweeting the game today... If you're DVR'ing it, you might want to stay away from Twitter... :)

Friday, April 1, 2011

Just a short bit today...

As I expected, Chance Myers didn't make the trip to Vancouver yesterday. Not sure how long he's out, but his groin injury ruled him out versus the Whitecaps on Saturday.

And just one thing about how much has changed since OnGoal purchased the team. I went to the First Friday event outside the team's offices. I just thought I'd hang out and see some people I hadn't seen in a while. After I'd been there a while, Robb Heineman came up to me and said that if I traded in my Wizards jersey (I had on last year's dark blue), he would give me 75% off a new one. I took a while to think about it, if only I was trying to be mindful of what day it is. In the end, not being stupid, I took him up on the offer and picked up an indigo blue jersey, normally $70 for only $17.50. That's right, I paid less than what a t-shirt cost and got a new jersey. Sure, I had to give up the one I was wearing, but I didn't really have any sentimental attachment to it. And when else would a deal like that come along?

That's all for now. See you soon.