Month: October 2016

Sporting KC on road Thursday to face Seattle in conference knockout round

Sporting Kansas City begins its journey in the Audi 2016 MLS Cup Playoffs on Thursday, visiting Seattle Sounders FC in the Western Conference Knockout Round at CenturyLink Field in Seattle.

FS1 and UniMas will televise the match nationally with kickoff slated for 9 p.m., while local radio broadcasts will air on Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM. Additional in-game updates will be available on the SportingKC.com MatchCenter and through the club’s official mobile app Sporting KC Uphoria.

For the third straight year, Sporting Kansas City (13-13-8, 47 points) opens its postseason campaign away from home in the single-elimination knockout round.

Manager Peter Vermes’ men enter the contest on the heels of consecutive shutouts, drawing Real Salt Lake 0-0 on Oct. 16 before sinking the San Jose Earthquakes 2-0 on decision day to secure a club-record sixth straight playoff berth. The club also posted its sixth straight 13-win regular season, joining Seattle and LA Galaxy as the only MLS sides to accomplish the feat.

The Sounders have reached the MLS Cup Playoffs in all eight years of their existence – an impressive accomplishment considering Seattle’s grim position just three months ago.

A 3-0 defeat to Sporting Kansas City on July 24 left Sounders FC languishing in ninth place in the West, but a twofold transformation saved their season. Interim head coach Brian Schmetzer replaced longtime boss Sigi Schmid and Uruguayan international midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro joined the club. Seattle would finish 8-2-4, roaring up to fourth in the West to clinch home field advantage in the knockout round.

Decision day saw both clubs earn victories on home turf. Midfield talisman Benny Feilhaber led the way for Sporting Kansas City, netting a penalty kick in the 27th minute and setting up Graham Zusi in the 88th minute to tally his team-best 13th assist of the MLS campaign. Feilhaber has nine assists in his last 11 league appearances, the most in MLS since the All-Star Game on July 28.

Dom Dwyer has provided another source of firepower for Vermes’ side, netting 16 goals to become the first player in club history to notch 12 goals in three straight regular seasons.

Seattle sunk Real Salt Lake 2-1 on Sunday, ensuring a fourth-place finish above Sporting KC and sixth-place RSL. Alvaro Fernandez and Cristian Roldan struck in the first half as the Sounders extended their home unbeaten run to eight games.

Lodeiro has played an integral role in Seattle’s renaissance, tallying four goals and eight assists since debuting on July 31. His target man in the attacking half is forward Jordan Morris, who has set an MLS record among American rookies with 12 goals in 2016. The U.S. international leads the team in scoring and has appeared in all 34 league games this year, starting 32.

The Sounders’ spine includes Osvaldo Alonso – a dogged midfielder who tops MLS in passes, duels won and tackles won – and veteran center backs Chad Marshall and Brad Evans.

Sporting Kansas City swept Seattle during the 2016 regular season with a pair of shutout wins, including a 1-0 opening-day triumph on March 6 at Children’s Mercy Field.

Nuno Coelho decided the contest in his MLS debut with a long-range skipper that beat goalkeeper Stefan Frei in the 73rd minute. Seattle suffered its heaviest defeat of 2016 in the return trip to Children’s Mercy Park on July 24. Dwyer scored twice, Jacob Peterson added a sensational third, and Sporting KC held the Sounders to an MLS record-low one shot attempt.

Dating back to 2015, Sporting Kansas City owns a five-game unbeaten run against Seattle with four clean sheets. Goalkeeper Tim Melia has featured between the posts in each shutout effort, going 3-0-1 versus the Rave Green with zero goals conceded. Prior to this five-game surge, Kansas City had just one win in its first nine league meetings with the Sounders.

Statistics suggest that Sporting Kansas City is fighting and uphill battle Thursday night. In 12 knockout round games since 2011, the road team has prevailed just twice. Furthermore, the club is just 2-15-5 all-time in road playoff matches – including a last-gasp 2-1 defeat at the New York Red Bulls in 2014 and a stunning setback to the Portland Timbers in the longest penalty kick shootout in MLS postseason history one year ago.

Thursday’s hosts have experienced their fair share of playoff anguish, as well. Despite punching a playoff ticket every year since 2009, Seattle has yet to reach an MLS Cup Final. The Sounders are 2-0 in the knockout round but have fallen in the conference semifinals five times, including last season’s exit versus FC Dallas.

Forward Diego Rubio (torn ACL) remains the only certain absentee for Sporting Kansas City, while Brad Davis (calf), Justin Mapp (calf) and Chance Myers (thigh) are questionable. Forward Jacob Peterson (thigh) has regained full fitness and will be available for selection after scoring an MLS career-high six goals in 2016.

Seattle has blossomed into one of the league’s hottest teams despite the absence of U.S. international star Clint Dempsey. The forward has been sidelined since late August with an irregular heartbeat and will not return in 2016. Another notable absence is midfielder Andreas Ivanschitz, who will miss Thursday’s game with a knee sprain. Ivanschitz finished tied for the team lead with eight assists and added three goals in 28 MLS appearances.

The winner of Thursday’s showdown will advance to host the first leg of the Western Conference semifinals on Sunday, facing either No. 1 seed FC Dallas or No. 2 seed Colorado Rapids. Tickets are now on sale for Sporting Kansas City’s potential home playoff match at Children’s Mercy Park via Ticketmaster.com.

– Story from Sporting KC

Opinion column: Yes, there is a right to an education

Window on the West
Opinion column

by Mary Rupert

Is there a right to an education? Yes, there is.

I haven’t heard a lot of comments about the upcoming Kansas City, Kan., Public Schools bond election, and we haven’t received very many comments on the stories about it. One comment, though, was from a person who attended a public meeting on another topic. He said he didn’t agree that there was a right to an education.

That is the sort of viewpoint that would go back to the 1770s and 1780s, when the U.S. Constitution was written. The federal constitution doesn’t include a right to education. The word “education” isn’t mentioned in the bill of rights. Back then, kids, women and minorities were treated like property, and it was up to the parents whether the kids were sent to school. Parents still have a good deal of authority in today’s society, but there has been a shift in beliefs about a right to an education.

Maybe people in Kansas were a little more enlightened when they wrote their state Constitution, in 1859 in what is now downtown Kansas City, Kan.

There is a reference to education in the Kansas Constitution. It says, “Schools and related institutions and activities. The legislature shall provide for intellectual, educational, vocational and scientific improvement by establishing and maintaining public schools, educational institutions and related activities which may be organized and changed in such manner as may be provided by law.”

My guess is that perhaps Clarina Nichols, who advocated for women’s right to vote in school elections and anti-slavery provisions, might have had something to do with getting these other provisions about education and women’s property rights into the Kansas Constitution.

My opinion is that there is more than just a right to an education. There is a duty that our community and society owes to provide an education to children. It’s in our society’s best interests, also, to educate the next generation in order to develop fully informed citizens, who are able to continue the many roles needed in society, some requiring advanced degrees, and perhaps even move society forward in scientific, technological and artistic advances.

The question the courts are considering, of whether the state’s education funding is adequate, should not even have to be asked. The funding should be much more than adequate. Like the early citizens of the nation, I still support parents being able to choose what sort of education their children should receive, be it public school, charter school, private school or home school, but there should be funding provided to public schools that is not just adequate, but excellent.

The writers of the Kansas Constitution, being strong supporters of the separation of church and state, also added this directive: “No religious sect or sects shall control any part of the public educational funds.”

While I certainly understand the arguments of parents who think there should be vouchers allowed to educate children in private schools with public money, I don’t agree with it. My fear is more that the government would reach into the private schools to dictate what is taught there, and that the public funds would have strings attached to them. The private schools are necessary to our society, especially if public schools are one day taken over by political or religious ideologues.

Kansas also has a history of political interests getting hold of educational institutions to dictate what is taught, instead of allowing academic freedom. That is what happened when the Populists took control of a state university in the late 1800s in Kansas. I’m not commenting on their beliefs, but just noting that it could happen again because it happened before.

However, there just isn’t any higher use of tax dollars than to provide a quality education to students. For that reason, I support passage of the school bond on the ballot Nov. 8. The community has a duty to see that its students are educated well. We need to enhance our education spending. The students are the future of the community and the world, and whatever funding that is invested in them is worth it.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].

KCKCC to hold 2016 Innovation Showcase Thursday

by Kelly Rogge, KCKCC

The Kansas City Kansas Community College’s Entrepreneurial Innovation Center is holding the 2016 Innovation Showcase Thursday evening.

The event is from 4 to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 27, at the TMV Visionary Impact Theater, 1017 N. 6th St., Kansas City, Kan. The event is free to attend. Registration can be completed at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/innovation-showcase-tickets-24577857032#tickets. The Showcase Expo will begin at 4 p.m., and the program will begin at 5 p.m.

The Innovation Showcase is an opportunity for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas in from of investors, other entrepreneurs, business leaders and capitalists. Participants submitted their ideas in either the idea generation or revenue generation category. If an entrepreneur has an innovation idea that has not generated revenue, they qualified for the first category. If the idea has generated revenue, they will be in the second category. There are more than 19 entrepreneurs who will showcase their ideas this year. To view some of the entries, visit https://app.reviewr.com/s1/showcase/Innovation-Summit-16-2.

Showcase winners are chosen, in part, from attendees who will have the chance to select their favorite idea or business through live, real-time voting, via their cell phone.

Information is available on the Innovation Showcase by visiting www.InnovationSummitKc.com or by [email protected].

Kelly Rogge is the public information supervisor at KCKCC.