**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|]

As far as the game goes...they did a lot of things well but their composure in the final 1\3'rd...hell more so the final 1\8th or something just was not there.

It was very unlike them. Every time they got the ball near the goal they all acted like they had a girl in the backseat for the very first time. The frustration level with that was raised because there was some *really* good service into the box all night.

That's only the second time (and first in the regular season) that the defensive group of Myers/Collin/Besler/Sinovic have lost a match. Collin was really strong out there...he is just dominant.

I sort of got a sinking feeling about this game the night before I watched the Royals with a buddy of mine from the team. Even though there was a big injury listed and illness was even listed for Besler he was saying a lot of time was feeling sickly. I was surprised the lineup wasn't more different when it got announced.

Not worried with this result though...a KC Star beat writer put it best...

"There's the recipe for beating SKC: Catch them on 3 days rest, get them to spot you an own goal and then play better for all 90 minutes"

[Demonpenz]

Wiz

[|Zach|]

Reaper,

According to Kei's Twitter stream it seems like he could be feeling blowback from some of the things you have issue with.

[|Zach|]

Header updated begrudgingly.

Sporting Reserve team has a game tomorrow out at Swope at 6 or 630 or something. Should be a nice day out there.

[|Zach|]

Via the New York Times.

http://goal.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/0...ty-these-days/

Sporting Kansas City Is Sitting Pretty These Days

Greg Cotton and Robb Heineman sat behind an outdoor stage in downtown Kansas City, still unsure about the announcement they were about to make.

It was November 2010, and Heineman, the president and a co-owner of Sporting Kansas City, was about to unveil the rebranding of the team that had been known as the Wizards since 1996. The problem was, although the team had tried to keep the announcement secret for months, someone had leaked the new name and shield on the Internet earlier that day, and fans were not happy. Hundreds said they would cancel their season tickets over the name change. Cotton, the team’s chief operating officer, had helped write a speech for Heineman earlier that day, trying to explain the vision behind the change.

“I remember going back in the green room,” Cotton said. “And it was just me and Robb sitting in a room looking at each other going, ‘I’m still not convinced this is a great idea, man.’”

Both had been planning this day since 2006, when Cotton helped negotiate the sale of the Wizards to Heineman and four other Kansas City businessmen. Back then, the owners had been hailed as saviors for buying a team that had never been truly embraced by its community, and preventing its move to another city. Other teams had not been so lucky.

Now, however, the owners felt more like villains. Cotton, a season ticket holder since the team’s inaugural year, understood the apprehension but also knew from the beginning that the franchise needed a makeover. The Wizards ranked last in the league in almost every popularity category, from average attendance to merchandise revenue.

“We had nowhere to go but up, really,” Cotton said.

How high the team would go in the next two years, however, no one could have imagined. After a disastrous 10-game road trip to start the 2011 season, Sporting opened its new stadium in June and began a run that took it within one game of M.L.S. Cup. This year, the team won its first seven games, the best start for an M.L.S. team since the Los Angeles Galaxy won their first 12 in 1996. Sporting’s unbeaten start came to an end Saturday night, with a 1-0 loss at Portland.

But the team’s record is not the only improvement. Season ticket sales have increased from 600 to over 10,000 in the past five years. Merchandise sales in 2012 have already topped $1 million – a far cry from 2006, when the Wizards earned only $30,000 in merchandise sales for the whole year, according to Cotton.

“I think it’s night and day,” said Matt Besler, a Sporting defender who grew up in Kansas City, “just the buzz we’ve created among the city. You can’t drive down the highway without seeing an SKC magnet on a car and SKC hats all around town.”

“Anyone that says they could predict this, they’re lying.”

As a midfielder for the Wizards from 2000 to 2008, Kerry Zavagnin was part of the team’s highest moment – the 2000 M.L.S. Cup title – and its lowest – the 2005 season, when Lamar Hunt announced he was selling the team. The Wizards missed the playoffs that season for the first time in six years.

For most of that decade, the team had been an afterthought in Kansas City, playing in mostly empty football or baseball stadiums. Commissioner Don Garber visited in 2005 to discuss the possibility of moving the team with the players. Even the team’s own training facility for the first part of the decade didn’t feel like a home.

“The showers were clogged up, so if you weren’t one of the first five guys, you’d be standing in a half a foot of water because the drainage system was so bad,” said Zavagnin, now an assistant coach with the team. “We had rats, mice, and every other kind of visitor you could imagine.”

The training center was one of the first things the new ownership group renovated after taking over. They wanted to send a message that they were serious about changing the atmosphere and perception of the team. “We may not be brilliant sports guys, but we’re pretty good at our jobs in different niches, and we all like to think a little bit differently,” Cotton said. “So if we’re going to do this, and if we’re going to risk our fledgling young careers here, let’s go try and do something really big.”

They cemented their commitment with something really big, indeed: Livestrong Sporting Park, the $200 million soccer-specific stadium widely hailed as one of the best in North America.

For both fans and players, it transformed the team from the very first practice held on the field. “From that moment, you knew everything was going to change,” said midfielder Roger Espinoza, who joined the team in 2008. “Every player was committed at that point.”

The first game in Livestrong was the first time Cotton had seen a truly rabid, intelligent, engaged soccer crowd in Kansas City.

“I don’t mind telling you that I cried like a little baby when that crowd just erupted and the players were out on the field,” he said. “It’d been such a long journey and it had been so satisfying to see that first game. But we were still in last place.”

They weren’t for long. Sporting went on a 12-game unbeaten streak and ended the season losing only three of its last 24 regular season games. This year, the team hasn’t lost any momentum. Only the Red Bulls (17) and the San Jose Earthquakes (13) have scored more goals than Kansas City (12), but only Sporting went 335 minutes without allowing a shot on goal through a four-game stretch. Through eight games, Sporting is nine points clear of second-place D.C. United in the Eastern Conference.

But while Heineman and the owners have made it clear that winning championships is the club’s goal, Cotton said that continuing its remarkable surge in popularity depends on the leadership being “agnostic” of wins and losses.

“We think we’re in the joy business,” he said. “We deliver communal joy to people who come out to the game. It’s not sports, it’s not entertainment, it’s not even soccer. It’s joy.”

And after years of irrelevance, there’s plenty of joy to go around now. The only question now is whether the team, and its fans, can sustain this momentum. For Zavagnin, however, that isn’t a topic worth considering.

“I only think about winning and what we need to do to win,” he said. “So there’s no real thought of, ‘What if this fairy tale ends?’ or ‘What if this magical moment ends?’ Why does it have to?”

[|Zach|]

They are dropping a little ad campaign it should be in a lot of places...big thing in the KC Star on Thursday that is pretty damn cool.

Using stuff from our photo shoot be sure to check it out.

[verbaljitsu]

Went to the reserves game again. I think it is sort of like minor league hockey - you are guaranteed to see a fight.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by verbaljitsu

Went to the reserves game again. I think it is sort of like minor league hockey - you are guaranteed to see a fight.

Ya know its funny I was asking Luke Sassano after the game what the story was. I hadn't thought about it but it makes perfect sense.

Those reserve games have a mix of older guys that are pissed off they are playing there and younger guys who are really hungry to make their mark in the league and get a spot.


That is a dynamic that creates intensity.

[|Zach|]

Here you go Jayhawks.

Sporting Kansas City to invade Lawrence today for surprise training session
You are cordially invited to watch the best team in Major League Soccer during a special open practice on the KU campus

Training begins at 2pm - Jayhawk Soccer Complex
(Next to Oliver Hall just south of Allen Fieldhouse)

Then at 4:30pm, join hosts Sporting KC and Boulevard Brewing Company for a meet & greet with players at Johnny's in Lawrence (401 N. 2nd Street). You will have the chance to get a free adidas Sporting KC/Boulevard t-shirt!

[Braincase]

Originally Posted by |Zoccer|

Here you go Jayhawks.

Sporting Kansas City to invade Lawrence today for surprise training session
You are cordially invited to watch the best team in Major League Soccer during a special open practice on the KU campus

Training begins at 2pm - Jayhawk Soccer Complex
(Next to Oliver Hall just south of Allen Fieldhouse)

Then at 4:30pm, join hosts Sporting KC and Boulevard Brewing Company for a meet & greet with players at Johnny's in Lawrence (401 N. 2nd Street). You will have the chance to get a free adidas Sporting KC/Boulevard t-shirt!

I'm thinking I might have to stop at Johnny's for a beer on my way home!

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Braincase

I'm thinking I might have to stop at Johnny's for a beer on my way home!

Guys are always real friendly and fun to be around. SKC has a big KU-centric following. There is a supporters group in the Cauldron called the Mass st. mob.

Nice folks.

[Demonpenz]

Maybe there will be a Tie in with oceans of fun this year to rename the lazy river. Teal Bunburry River.

[|Zach|]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

Maybe there will be a Tie in with oceans of fun this year to rename the lazy river. Teal Bunburry River.

[memyselfI]

Cute soccer players. College town girls. Sounds like a recipe for quite an event.

See, this guy needs to join the fun people at SKC.

[memyselfI]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

Maybe there will be a Tie in with oceans of fun this year to rename the lazy river. Teal Bunburry River.

Ouch. Where were you the other day when some SKC fan (who was a moron) was blasting Keitzman for not taking Vermes to task for sitting Bunbury?