2013 MLS All-Star Game to Be Held at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park

It's time to shine those soccer cleats, Kansas City.In a press conference at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park (LSP) on Thursday afternoon, MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced the 2013 All-Star Game will be held in Kansas City. The game will be played at 7:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, July 31.Sporting KC manager Peter Vermes will coach the MLS squad against an opponent to be announced at a later date.It wasn't exactly a surprise, though. It's not that anyone from the league or the team said anything. Ticketmaster, on the other hand, went live with a page listing tickets for sale on Wednesday. I can't imagine Garber was very happy about it.This game is a big deal for the team and the city. As with the MLB All-Star Game last year, MLS is helping shine a spotlight on Kansas City. While the television viewership won't be as big, there is still a significant audience for the game and an equally significant opportunity to further prove, as Kansas City, KS mayor Joe Reardon said during the press conference, that Kansas City is a soccer town.Ask anyone who has attended a game at LSP and they will all tell you the same thing. The atmosphere ...

Improving Officiating Needs to Be Among MLS’s New Year’s Resolutions

Now that it is New Year's Eve, people around the world are making resolutions to improve their behavior for 2013. Losing weight, quitting smoking or reading more books, people take this opportunity to set some goals for the next 12 months.Like individuals, leagues need to set goals for their organizations for their upcoming season. Major League Soccer should be no exception.In the spirit of cooperation and giving that this time of year seems to foster in people, I would like to offer the following suggestions for things MLS needs to work on in 2013. 1. Improve OfficiatingIf there is one thing that hacks me off more than anything else, it s the quality of the officiating in MLS. I often ask myself, "What game is this guy watching?"Do not get me wrong, I ask that question about calls going both for and against Sporting Kansas City. Sometimes, I will look at some of the other people up in the press box at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park the same way your dog looks at you when you say something stupid.If MLS truly wants to be taken seriously as a good league around the world, they cannot continue to use the same substandard officials ...

Todd Dunivant’s Goal for the Galaxy Defined MLS for 2012

Todd Dunivant's goal from a header in the 61st minute of the Los Angeles Galaxy's June 17 match with the Portland Timbers was a defining moment for the MLS in 2012.You're probably wondering why I would pick a goal that wasn't in a playoff game or that wasn't a long-distance bomb (which I'm a big fan of).Coming into the match, the Galaxy were 3-8-2 and in ninth place in the Western Conference. They hadn't won a match since April 14th, a seven-match span in which they went 0-5-2.How hot did the Galaxy get after this match? Including this match, they went 13-4-4 the rest of the season, 43 of their 54 points coming during that stretch.It's not a stretch to say the Galaxy needed something to kick-start their season. They had already gotten knocked out of the U.S. Open Cup and wouldn't start in the CONCACAF Champions League until late August.Now, Scott French wrote on MLSsoccer.com that the Galaxy's "best moment of the year" was probably Omar Gonzalez's equalizer in the MLS Cup. The thing is, not that I'm totally disagreeing with Scott, but if Dunivant's goal doesn't happen, it's that much harder for the Galaxy to make the playoffs, ...

Sporting Kansas City Defeats Houston 1-0, Still Knocked out of Playoffs

Sporting Kansas City absolutely dominated the possession in the second leg of their Eastern Conference semifinal against Houston on Wednesday night, but it wasn't enough. Seth Sinovic's first MLS goal in the 64th minute was all the offense Sporting KC could muster and they won the match 1-0, but lost the series 2-1 on aggregate.How dominant was Sporting KC? They held the ball for 71 percent of the match. Houston had only one corner kick and one shot on goal for 90 minutes. In open-play crosses, Sporting KC held a 31-1 advantage for the match.Yet, Sporting KC just couldn't finish. They had plenty of chances, but they just couldn't find the back of the net.This is a team that wasn't ready for the offseason. Team captain Jimmy Nielsen dictated a message to fellow goalkeeper Jon Kempin to put on the team message board before training on Tuesday. It said, "I'M NOT READY FOR A VACATION, SO LET'S SHOW SOME [expletive] BALLS, ATTITUDE AND HUNGER TOMORROW!"They definitely did that. The guys left everything they had out on the field. They increased the pressure on Houston, if that was possible, after they scored. This team wanted to win badly.During the postgame press ...

Sporting Kansas City Defeats Philadelphia, Clinches Conference Title

Sporting Kansas City, on the strength of goals from Jacob Peterson and C.J. Sapong, defeated the Philadelphia Union 2-1 Wednesday in front of a sellout crowd of 19,428 at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.With the win, Sporting KC captured the Eastern Conference regular season title for the second consecutive year. It is the fifth division/conference crown overall, but it's the first time in franchise history the team has won consecutive titles.In the locker room after the game, Sporting KC captain Jimmy Nielsen told us it wasn't a typical game. Nielsen said:It was a weird game to play, with all the respect for Philadelphia, but they were all over the place. I don’t want to say they were unorganized, but you could feel they didn’t have anything to play for they risked it a little bit more and were maybe a little more lousy on their defending. It was a very, very weird game to play.Philadelphia's Amobi Okugo seemed to be the main villain for the evening, getting booked in the third minute for a foul on defender Seth Sinovic.I may be biased, but that may have been one of the few calls the ref got right. That and a good no-call on ...

CJ Sapong Nets Dramatic Equalizer, Sporting Kansas City Draws 1-1 with Houston

Despite again dominating the possession battle and setting a new all-time high in shots with 28, Sporting Kansas City needed a dramatic equalizer from C.J. Sapong to rescue a draw with the Houston Dynamo in front of 19,877 fans at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.Sapong's header in the third minute of stoppage time canceled out a strike by Houston captain Brad Davis just short of the hour mark.Houston coach Tim Hanley, who manned the sideline in the absence of Dominic Kinnear, said the late goal made the game feel like a loss. In the postgame press conference I attended, Hanley said:"It feels like a loss when it isn’t, because it was at the very end. I think for Sporting KC it probably feels like a win. I think that they pushed so hard and they are such a good team at home. They are always knocking on the door, but our guys did well."Sporting KC captain Jimmy Nielsen didn't see it that way. In the locker room after the game, Nielsen said:"If [Houston] had left here with all three points, they should have been arrested for robbery. We were lucky to score at the time we did—I ...

Lance Armstrong’s Problems Do Not Affect Sporting Kansas City

When the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) announced that they were charging cycling legend Lance Armstrong with taking performance-enhancing drugs, I honestly wondered if they had found something new.After all, Armstrong has never failed a drug test. Considering how long the rumors have been floating around about him, you know that he was tested. A lot. During his run of seven consecutive wins in the Tour de France, I'm sure he couldn't even look at a bathroom without some guy in a lab coat trying to hand him a plastic cup.That changed when I read the letter the USADA sent to Armstrong, his lawyer, the RadioShack cycling team and the governing body of cycling (reproduced here).The letter starts out by talking about the agency wanting to talk to cyclists about doping in the sport. They indicated they had wanted to speak with them face-to-face and have them be truthful about their experience with doping in cycling.The key, for me, was the fourth paragraph of the letter. It says:With the exception of Mr. Armstrong, every other U.S. rider contacted by USADA regarding doping in cycling agreed to meet with USADA and to truthfully and fully describe their involvement in doping and ...

San Jose Earthquakes Top MLS Power Rankings

Every now and again, it's a good idea to take a look at how all the teams in a particular league stack up against each other.With about a third of the season left, I thought it was time to rank all the MLS teams 1-19. I have to say "about a third" because the Philadelphia Union and Chivas USA both have 12 games left, but the Montreal Impact and FC Dallas each have seven remaining.For the purposes of placing the teams on the list, I used points per game (PPG). The teams will not necessarily be ranked where you would think based on the conference standings. PPG is the fairest way to do this, considering not all teams have played the same number of games.In the case of two teams with the same PPG, goal differential will break the tie.Begin Slideshow

Sporting Kansas City Show No Letdown, Defeat DC United 2-1

After playing late into the night on Wednesday for the U.S. Open Cup final, one could have understood if Sporting Kansas City had suffered a letdown in their match on Saturday night with D.C. United.No such letdown occurred as Sporting KC downed their Eastern Conference rivals 2-1 in front of 20,439 fans at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park.Sporting KC opened the scoring in the 13th minute. On a corner kick from the right wing, Graham Zusi put a right-footed outswinger into the penalty area, where he found Teal Bunbury. Bunbury's header hit the lower 90 on the far post past goalkeeper Bill Hamid, his third goal of the season.It was Zusi's 10th assist of 2012, putting him back into a tie for the MLS lead with Brad Davis and Dwayne De Rosario.While Sporting KC continued to dominate the possession, DC United managed to capitalize on one of their few opportunities, albeit in somewhat controversial circumstances.In the 23rd minute, Andy Najar fed a long ball into the penalty area, where Nick Deleon brought the ball down to his feet and put it in the back of the net.Replays appeared to show Deleon contacted with the ball his forearm. It was reminiscent of the ...

Sporting Kansas City Gets Fluke Equalizer, Draws with Stoke City 1-1

When Sporting Kansas City started to schedule international friendlies with teams from the English Premier League, they probably expected they might lose one.Three years in, they have yet to lose to one of their EPL opponents. In the latest installment, Sporting KC got a fluke equalizer from academy product Kyle Miller in the 92nd minute to pull out a 1-1 draw with Stoke City.It was the second-latest goal scored in a match at Livestrong Sporting Park, behind Omar Bravo's 93rd-minute goal against Chivas USA on July 9, 2011.Sporting KC's Teal Bunbury had the first scoring chance of the match when his shot from just outside the penalty area was deflected out for a corner in the fourth minute.Five minutes later, Soony Saad's attempt from about the same distance was just wide of the left post.Stoke City's first dangerous chance came in the 15th minute. Kenwyne Jones struck one from approximately 35 yards out that went just over the crossbar.The Potters also came close in the 25th minute when Jonathan Walters put in a nice cross from the left wing, but Peter Crouch's header from close range went over the crossbar.Saad answered for Sporting KC in the 27th minute when he ...