**2012 Sporting Kansas City\Soccer Thread**

[|Zach|]

Sporting Kansas City was eliminated from MLS Cup contention after losing to Houston 2-1 aggreagate over the span of two games. They finished the year as US Open Cup Champions and a Kansas City team record of 63 points.

MLS Cup Final | LA Galaxy vs Houston Dynamo | December 1st, 3:30 CT









Final Regular Season Eastern Conference Standings
Full MLS standings here.



2012 US Open Cup Champions.

[|Zach|]

Teal out for the season.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

Teal Bunbury tore his ACL last night. This is badbadbad.

SKC already needed another goal-scoring threat to patch up the team's one weakness. Now they HAVE to find a goal-scorer or their chances of getting another trophy this season look pretty bleak.

I suppose Saad could step up (and Sapong has to turn on beast mode), but that seems unlikely.

Not a huge fan of bringing in someone this late. At least not someone to really be counted on.

I hate that element of sports. You see it in baseball...you are literally expected to change up your team right before the playoffs.

[Demonpenz]

Ride that back line as far as it will take you. Since no one has seen Saad maybe he will carry the load and Sapong can get more touches and find something, that may be good. Just keeping it positive, it has been a great year no matter what.

[Reaper16]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

Ride that back line as far as it will take you.

The Eastern Conference finals?

[Demonpenz]

Originally Posted by Reaper16

The Eastern Conference finals?

I would be ok with that. Team has holes and have bee top of the table this year. They are grinders. I don't know if I can sour on the current team because they win games ugly and tough that my others teams don't.

[|Zach|]

We have by far the best defense in the league. Our offense needs to be better but it really isn't that bad...it has just been a weird adjustment in thinking considering everyone thought this was going to be a really high powered attack.

By our own expectations there have been dissapointments but when you take SKC and judge them against the bell curve of the rest of the teams they play against in this league they are still as good as anyone.

[Demonpenz]

I thought the DC game after the US CUP WIN and the Toronto 1-0 game were good signs that this team can weather storms ups and downs and not fall apart. I think they have a better shot at getting a bounce to go their way and winning an MLS cup than say the 90's Chiefs and that is based on the US OPEN CUP run and win.

[|Zach|]

Espinoza to Wigan rumors are really heavy right now.

"Wigan boss Roberto Martinez has set up a deadline-busting move for Sporting Kansas City midfielder Roger Espinoza."

http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/p...as-city-082712

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

We have by far the best defense in the league. Our offense needs to be better but it really isn't that bad...it has just been a weird adjustment in thinking considering everyone thought this was going to be a really high powered attack.

By our own expectations there have been dissapointments but when you take SKC and judge them against the bell curve of the rest of the teams they play against in this league they are still as good as anyone.

Our defense has been amazing. No one can score on us but us.

Losing Espinoza and Bunbury in the same week might kiss our championships hopes a fatal blow. We just don't have the healthy talent to fill their loss. Convey has been a total bust. I would like to see him gone at the end of the season. Hopefully Peterson will be back soon. Both of them.

[|Zach|]

Robb says he is doing everything he can to keep Roger.

[Demonpenz]

has he tried blackmail

[|Zach|]

It’s difficult to think about Sporting Kansas City and not think about forward Kei Kamara. He's everywhere from ESPN the Magazine to billboards around Kansas City, and with his bubbly personality, his memorable goal celebrations and his trademark “Heart Shaped Hands,” he’s a character hard not to love.

But there’s more to Kei than the superstar status he’s earned in Kansas City over the past four years and on Saturday night, after Sporting KC takes on Toronto FC at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, ticket holders are invited to attend a special screening of “KEI” – a new 30-minute documentary on the Sierra Leone international by Copper Pot Films.

The timing couldn’t be more perfect, as Saturday is Kamara’s 28th birthday.

“They came up to me and told me they were working with the people who produced the movie and they wanted to show it on September 1st,” Kamara said. “I was like, ‘Oh really, did you guys know September 1st was my birthday?’“

He laughed and said he was surprised when they didn’t know, nonetheless, he liked the idea.

“But I think it’s the perfect day for them showing the movie about me,” Kamara said. “It’s just perfect.”

Ticket holders attending the documentary screening have the opportunity to donate to Schools for Salone to support Kamara's charity efforts.

Last year, Kei was named the 2011 Sporting Kansas City Humanitarian of the Year, as voted on by media, coaches and fellow players. While he said being named Humanitarian of the Year is an honor, giving back is just something he loves to do.

“I’m not doing it to get credit for it, I’m just doing it because it’s part of me,” the Sierra Leone native said. “I wished I had seen more of that from other people growing up. I’m honored that people actually watch what you’re doing, I hope it impacts other people to do it too.”

Kamara has traveled a few times outside the country with Right to Play, an organization which “impacts the lives of children in some of the most disadvantaged areas of the world by using the power of sport and play for development, health and peace” according to their website and said one of his favorite trips working with them was in 2007 when, along with a group of Olympic athletes, he traveled to Liberia.

Sporting KC's leading goal scorer also gives back on his own when no one’s looking or watching.

“When I was in Houston I would visit the cancer hospital there once a week,” Kamara said. “It was like, it was part of me, I clicked with the kids so much there. To this day I still talk to a few of them on the phone, we’re still friends. I made sure that, at least once a week, I’d drive by and go over there to say hello. It was one of those things where, maybe no one knows about it, but I loved being a part of.”

So, it should come as no surprise when the documentary made about Kamara and his life is used to help better the lives of others.

Kamara said his birthday wish, along with getting three points and a birthday goal, is that his fans come out and enjoy the evening with him.

“It’s going to be a good birthday,” Kamara said. “I hope at the end of the movie, for people to realize what these people are actually trying to raise some funds for so we can build schools for kids in villages in Africa and Sierra Leone. It’s something Kansas City can be a part of.”

[|Zach|]

Espinoza "in no rush" to move abroad
"I'm here and I'm happy," says Sporting KC midfielder



http://www.sportingkc.com/news/2012/...sh-move-abroad

If Roger Espinoza is headed to the English Premier League before the end of the MLS season, it’s news to both him and his club.

Then again, it’s the last few days of Europe’s “silly season” and anything can happen.

The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid, reported earlier this week that Wigan Athletic were in pursuit of the Honduran midfielder, who has been a mainstay for his club over the last two seasons and starred for his country at the London Olympics this summer.

And then on Tuesday, Espinoza's agent confirmed to MLSsoccer.com that the English Premier League club is interested in Espinoza.

"At this point, he's in no rush," Mike Gartlan told MLSsoccer.com. "There's definite interest and talks going on. But as of now, Roger is with KC and is happy to play for them until that changes."

On Wednesday, Espinoza and Manager Peter Vermes each said there had been no formal offer for Espinoza’s services.

“What I can tell you,” Vermes said at Wednesday’s weekly news conference, “is that nobody has contacted Sporting Kansas City and nobody has contacted the League. So I don’t know what to tell you.”

After the morning training session, Espinoza said his focus is on Saturday’s home match against Toronto FC and on helping Sporting KC contend for their first Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup trophy since 2000.

“I’m practicing right now,” he said with a laugh. “Obviously, if I’d gotten a call, I’d be home right now. I’d be drinking wine with my family. Anything can happen, but I’m here and I’m happy.”

Espinoza also stressed that while he’d love to play in one of the world’s top leagues, he isn’t actively looking to make a move away from LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.

“I know everything that guy wants,” he said, pointing at Vermes across the practice pitch. “On the field, I know everything he wants. I know everybody here. I know everything about the city. I like the city.”

That hasn’t stopped Sporting’s supporters from worrying that Wigan will buy Espinoza before England’s transfer window closes on Friday – fears that Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman tried to allay via social media.

“U have my word we will do everything we can to keep Roger here and happy,” Heineman tweeted late Tuesday night.

So what will it take to retain Espinoza, whose contract runs out at the end of the year?

A raise, for one thing.

“Money’s important,” he said. “It’s not the most important thing in life, but it does help.”

That’s not the only factor Espinoza would have to consider, though.

“My family’s close here,” he said. “I live with my girlfriend here. I grew up in the United States. But it’s the English Premier League. If you could be a newspaper writer covering the English Premier League, I’m sure you’d want to go there, too.”

Sporting have all three of their Designated Player slots open, which could be one way of hanging on to Espinoza beyond this season.

“I believe I deserve that, just like many guys on the team,” he said. “It’s too bad that that’s the way it goes in the league, that three guys should be the ones making all the money. We have a lot of great players. But I’ve been working very hard. So if you tell me that I deserve DP money? Yeah, I’d take it.”

[|Zach|]

Bunbury staying positive ahead of ACL surgery

Before the MRI, before the official diagnosis, before he even reached the sideline while being helped off the LIVESTRONG Sporting Park pitch, Teal Bunbury knew.

His left ACL was torn, his season over.

But when Sporting Kansas City’s injured center forward made an appearance at training on Wednesday, two days before his scheduled surgery, he smiled easily and often – and promised to return stronger than ever in 2013.

“My faith has helped me through a lot,” he said. “I’ve been getting a lot of texts, calls, people on Twitter, e-mails – it’s been great. All the support has really been keeping my spirits up. It’s nothing I can get down about. It’s not going to help my knee heal faster. So I’m already over that. I’m just looking forward to next season and watching these guys win the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup this season.”

Bunbury, who ends the 2012 season with five goals in MLS play and six across all competitions, will be out six to eight months following surgery.

He tried to continue after being hurt as he assisted on Kei Kamara’s fourth-minute goal in Saturday’s 1-1 home draw against the New York Red Bulls.

“I wanted to stay out there,” he said. “I thought, ‘It’s only been five minutes. I don’t want our team to have to use a sub already. I’m going to try to make it to halftime.' But it felt too loose, and I had to come off.”

Taking a worst-case approach to the injury when he came out meant there was no blow from the diagnosis, Bunbury said.

“If I’d told myself, ‘Oh, it’s just a hyperextension,’ or something like that, and then I would have gotten the news that it was the ACL, then I probably would have been more down,” he said.

Bunbury even found himself reassuring Red Bulls goalkeeper Bill Gaudette that he hadn’t caused the injury when the two made contact at the edge of the penalty area. Bunbury was already hurt by then, landing awkwardly from a collision with center back Markus Holgersson just seconds before.

“He’s a classy guy,” Bunbury said of Gaudette. “I told him, ‘Hey, it’s not your fault.’”

[|Zach|]

ITS JUSTTTTT A LITTLEEEE RAAAAAAINNNNNNNN