Tag: Sporting Kansas City

Sporting KC to play Manchester City in KCK this summer

Sporting KC will hold a Summer in the Soccer Capital series of events this summer, featuring an international friendly against Manchester City of the English Premier League on July 23 at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.

“It is a pleasure to host a world-class club like Manchester City. It will be a great event not only for our fans, but our players as well to measure ourselves against one of the best teams in all of soccer,” said Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes.

“The team is excited and will be ready to face another Premier League team,” said Sporting KC captain Matt Besler. “We have so many memories from the last time we played a team from Manchester and now playing at Sporting Park will make this even better.”

It will be Manchester’s first international friendly against an MLS club since it on the English Premier League and also the first match on its tour of the United States this summer.

Manchester’s forward Sergio Aguero ranks third in the Premier League with 15 goals this season, while Yaya Toure’s 13 goals are tied for fourth most among Premier League players. Fellow attackers Alvaro Negredo, Jesus Navas and David Silva all feature for the world’s No. 1 ranked national team, Spain, and the club’s defense is anchored by England goalkeeper Joe Hart along with a backline of Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta, Gael Clichy and Martin Demichelis.

Ticket information for the July 23 match will be announced later.

The Summer in the Soccer Capital event will begin with FIFA World Cup watch parties to be held in the Power and Light District of Kansas City, Mo., according to an announcement from the soccer club.

Admission will be free to the outdoor area at the Power and Light District.

Beginning with the opening match on June 12 and continuing through the World Cup final on July 13, all 64 matches will be shown on a large outdoor video screen in the center at the Power and Light District.

Sporting KC takes on FC Dallas tonight

Sporting Kansas City will play host to FC Dallas in the club’s MLS regular season home opener on Saturday at Sporting Park, Kansas City, Kan.

The match is set to kick off at 7:30 p.m. and will air locally on 38 The Spot and the Sporting KC television network across the Midwest.

Sporting Kansas City lost its regular season opener to the Seattle Sounders 1-0 last weekend, but followed that up with a 1-0 win over Liga MX leaders Cruz Azul in the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday. Homegrown defender Kevin Ellis scored the game’s lone goal and goalkeeper Eric Kronberg recorded his first shutout of 2014 in the victory.

Saturday’s game will be the third in eight days for Peter Vermes’ club. Sporting Kansas City will travel to Mexico City for the second leg of the CCL quarterfinal series on Wednesday and return home to take on the San Jose Earthquakes next Saturday to conclude a stretch of five games in 15 days.

FC Dallas opened the 2014 MLS season with a 3-2 come-from-behind victory over the Montreal Impact on Saturday at Toyota Stadium. Dallas failed to qualify for the MLS Cup Playoffs in 2013 despite earning 20 points through the first two months of last season. During the offseason, FC Dallas acquired two young Designated Players in Andres Escobar and David Texeira. Argentine midfielder Mauro Diaz rounds out the trio of young DP’s on Oscar Pareja’s roster and had a goal and an assist in last weekend’s victory.

Pareja secured his first victory as coach of FC Dallas on Saturday after spending the previous two seasons coaching the Colorado Rapids. The Colombian head coach began his playing career with the New England Revolution before spending 10 seasons with Dallas.

Among the players listed as questionable on FC Dallas’ injury report are Peruvian national team goalkeeper Raul Fernandez (sports hernia) and defenders George John (right knee) and Zach Loyd (right hip strain). All three players missed the club’s regular season opener versus Montreal.

Sporting KC is 11-2-5 in MLS home openers all-time and have not lost a match at home to open the season since April 21, 2009 against Toronto FC.

Fans are encouraged to arrive early on Saturday. The first 10,000 fans to enter Sporting Park will receive a schedule magnet.

For more information, see www.sportingkc.com.

Sporting KC wins over Cruz Azul, 1-0

Fans cheered as Sporting KC won its home opener, 1-0, March 12 at Sporting Park, Kansas City, Kan. (Photo by William Crum)

by William Crum
With only 17 minutes into the game, Sporting Kansas City scored the first goal in CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals action Wednesday at Sporting Park in Kansas City, Kan.

The goal was made by Kevin Ellis (No. 4), and at halftime the score was Sporting Kansas City 1, Cruz Azul 0.
This is truly a game that you would not believe, with a sellout crowd of 18,467.
After halftime the battle raged on to the bitter end, and the final score was 1-0.
The second of this two-leg match will be played March 19 in Mexico City, and the team with the most points at the end of the two games will advance to the semifinals.
This was the home opener this season for Sporting Kansas City. If this is how they play the home opener, one can only imagine how they will do the rest of the season.