Bieler Scores Late, Sporting Kansas City Defeats DC United

Forward Claudio Bieler scored in the 89th minute and Sporting Kansas City defeated D.C. United 1-0 on Friday night in front of a sellout crowd of 18,988 at Sporting Park.The clean sheet was Jimmy Nielsen's league-leading fourth straight, and the club's shutout streak now stands at 429 minutes. It's the team's second-longest such streak since 2000.During the postgame press conference I attended, Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes said there's only one really good thing about shutout streaks.Vermes said, "It's only good that we don't give up goals. That's the great thing. I care less about the streaks. It's great when you don't give up goals. I say it all the time, if you don't give up goals, you not only get results but I think you set yourself up as time goes on to be able to win the important games because you're not giving the easy chances away."If you were to describe the match in one word, disjointed would be a good choice. Neither team seemed to be linking up all that well from the back and there were very few chances to speak of for either team. The best line of the night from the press box came ...

Benny Feilhaber Sets Up Both Goals in Sporting Kansas City’s Win over Montreal

Benny Feilhaber had a pair of assists as Sporting Kansas City snapped the Montreal Impact's four-game winning streak with a 2-0 victory in front of 18,609 fans at Sporting Park on Saturday night. Feilhaber had only two assists all season in 2012 with the New England Revolution.During the postgame press conference, Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes told us it was Feilhaber's best performance with the team so far this season and exactly what Vermes was looking for when Feilhaber was acquired in the offseason. Vermes added:I've seen him play for a long time and his defensive work and the bite he has in the midfield and today he was all over the place. Then what happens when he gets the ball and he breaks the lines and he goes at defenses he has all solutions-he can play, he can dribble at a guy, he can shoot from distance. He has all those qualities. When he does that it changes the game for us as a team. When you have (Graham) Zusi running off the ball, you have CJ (Sapong) with the qualities that he has, and then Claudio (Bieler) just needs daylight and he's ...

Gus Johnson: 4 Reasons Why He Should Call MLS Games

Gus Johnson. It's a name more closely associated with the NFL and March Madness, but Fox Sports wants Johnson to be the lead announcer for the 2018 World Cup.The idea came from Fox Sports president Eric Shanks in October 2011. FIFA had just awarded the 2018 and 2022 broadcast rights to Fox, and as Richard Dietsch of SI.com wrote, "Shanks wanted to do something bold with his soccer coverage."We're now almost 18 months into this process and Johnson has already had some pretty high-profile matches to call, including Real Madrid vs. Manchester United in the Champions League. Johnson is also scheduled to call the FA Cup final on May 11, as well as the Champions League final on May 25. He will be on site for both.With all that in mind, here are four reasons why Johnson should be calling MLS games.Begin Slideshow

Matchups to Keep an Eye on in MLS This Weekend

After an opening weekend with some good and not-so-good performances, MLS has a slate of eight matches for your enjoyment this weekend. The Sounders, Dynamo and Galaxy have the week off, presumably because they're participating in the knockout stages of the CONCACAF Champions League.Let's roll through the schedule and look at the key matchup from each game.Begin Slideshow

Sporting KC Are Odds-on Favorites to Win 2013 MLS Cup

Sporting Kansas City has made a number of changes to their roster over the offseason. One thing that hasn't changed: This team is incredibly talented and, honestly, the best team in MLS—in my opinion, they are the favorites to win the 2013 MLS Cup.You're probably thinking that I'm biased toward my hometown club. Let's look at the facts, shall we?Sporting KC has won the regular season title in the Eastern Conference each of the last two seasons. If not for a poor performance in their first playoff match last season, they may have made the MLS Cup final last season, all other things being equal.The club is also the reigning U.S. Open Cup champion, having won the title in a thriller over the Seattle Sounders last August.Their league-leading defense remains intact. Goalkeeper of the Year Jimmy Nielsen and Defender of the Year Matt Besler return to lock down opposing forwards.Besler, who signed a new contract over the break, has been getting some national team attention. He played all 90 minutes of the scoreless draw against Canada in January.Honduran international Roger Espinoza may have left for Wigan Athletic on a free transfer, but the club has his replacement in Benny Feilhaber. ...

Wondolowski Will Top the MLS Scoring Charts Again in 2013

As we prepare for MLS to open its 18th season, it's always fun to guess who's going to do what in the new year.Who's going to win the MLS Cup? The Supporter's Shield? MVP?The reigning MVP, Chris Wondolowski, set a league record with 27 goals in 2012. Of San Jose's 72 tallies, Wondolowski accounted for 37.5 percent of them. If you include his seven assists, he was responsible for 47.2 percent of the Earthquakes' offense.Will Wondolowski come back and break his own record in 2013? No, I don't think he will. Will he be atop the league's top scorer again? That depends.Whether or not Wondolowski tops the scoring charts again will depend on how much time he misses for national team duty. As it currently stands, I have him missing three games. I can see him missing home matches against Seattle (Mar. 23) and Vancouver (Sept. 14) and a road match against Colorado (June 15).This, obviously, assumes a couple things. One, that Wondolowski will get called in for all of the matches in the Hex. Two, that he won't get called in for the Gold Cup.Why do I think Wondolowski won't get called in for the Gold Cup, you ask? ...

Sporting Kansas City Agrees to Loan Kei Kamara to Norwich City Through May 6

Sporting Kansas City and forward Kei Kamara have agreed to a loan deal with Norwich City of the Barclays English Premier League through May 6.The club's leading scorer for the last three seasons, Kamara put up 11 goals and added eight assists in the 2012 campaign.Among his many honors, Kamara was named an All-Star last season. He was also an MLS W.O.R.K.S. Humanitarian of the Year finalist for both of the last two years for his community work in Kansas City, as well as in his native Sierra Leone.In a statement released by the team, manager Peter Vermes said: Our club continues to get a lot of attention throughout Europe. As we do with all of our decisions, we always think about the long-term impact on our organization, as well as the short-term. Ultimately, this opportunity allows us to re-invest back into the club and solidify our core group of players. We understand that players are going to be sought after and that players aspire to fulfill personal and professional ambitions. We want to continue to help them achieve those goals and this helps us accomplish that objective, along with extending his contract. We ...

New York Cosmos: Why Stadium Plan Would Be a Mistake for US Soccer

On January 16, the newly reincarnated New York Cosmos announced plans for a $400 million, privately financed stadium project, including retail, restaurants and a hotel. I've seen the artist renditions of what the project would look like, and while it's visually stimulating, it's also something else.A mistake.I'm already on record as saying that MLS shouldn't place a second team in New York. I think they should make sure there's demand for a second team, and I don't think there is. For justification, let's look at the attendance figures.Red Bull Arena seats 25,000, and yet it's rarely full. Of their 17 regular-season home games in 2012, 11 had an announced attendance of under 20,000.In fact, just for giggles, I used the attendance figures available in the match reports on MLSsoccer.com to figure the total attendance for the Red Bulls and Sporting KC, the team I'm most familiar with.I figured a team in New York would outdraw a team in Kansas City, considering the difference in population of the two cities and stadium size. Sporting Park has a seating capacity of 18,467. To be fair, I only counted league games, since Sporting KC hosted all but one of their Open Cup games ...

Sporting Kansas City Is Right to Terminate Agreement with Livestrong Foundation

I was wrong.Back in August, I wrote a piece about Lance Armstrong and Sporting KC and said, at the time, Armstrong's troubles didn't affect the club. Boy, was I wrong.On Tuesday, both the Livestrong Foundation and Sporting Kansas City moved to terminate the naming rights deal announced on March 8, 2011, but their stated reasons were different.According to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com, the foundation claims Sporting KC still owes them $750,000 of the $1 million it was set to donate in 2012 under the terms of the agreement.Livestrong CFO Greg Lee says the team wasn't living up to its end of the deal:While we don't talk about the specifics related to any of our partners, part of my role as the chief financial officer is to ensure compliance by our corporate partners. We strive to be great partners ourselves and expect the same from those we do business with. If a partner is struggling to meet the terms of our agreement, we do everything possible to reach a fair and reasonable compromise. If no compromise can be reached, as good stewards or our brand and mission, we have no choice but to ...

Seth Sinovic Is MLS’s Most Underrated Player: Here’s Why

Sporting Kansas City's league-leading defense features the 2012 MLS Defender of the Year in Matt Besler and Goalkeeper of the Year in Jimmy Nielsen. Defender Aurelien Collin was also voted to the MLS Best XI.While Besler, Collin and Nielsen rightfully garner a lot of the attention surrounding a season where the team allowed a league low 27 goals, a GAA of 0.79, they weren't the only people standing between MLS offenses and the back of the net.Defender Seth Sinovic is part of Sporting KC's homegrown contingent, one of six players on the roster from the Kansas City metropolitan area. The Rockhurst High School graduate signed with the club in May 2011 after spending the 2010 season with the New England Revolution.Sinovic made his club debut on May 25, 2011, in a 5-0 win over the Revolution in a US Open Cup qualifier. With starting left-back Roger Espinoza getting ready to leave for a month for duty with the Honduran national team, the club needed to find someone to hold down the fort, so to speak.Sinovic said at the time he felt comfortable going out there after having played with the Revolution:Obviously losing Roger is a huge deal for us. He's ...