Peterson Joseph and Mechack Jerome to miss match against Columbus

As expected, Sporting Kansas City players have been called up to represent their national teams for the FIFA international dates in early September. The first round of call ups belonged to Mechack Jerome and Peterson Joseph, both called up for the Haitian national team.

Haiti will be traveling to Incheon to take on a South Korean team who has already qualified for the 2014 World Cup. The game will be on September 6th, which means that Joseph and Jerome will miss Sporting KC's match with the Columbus Crew on the 7th.

This will be the second match in a row that Joseph misses since he is suspended for Saturday's  match against the Colorado Rapids due to yellow card accumulation. Paulo Nagamura's return last night against Olimpia makes Joseph's absence easier on the midfield, but the Haitians' absence means that Sporting will be missing two good subs for the Columbus match.

I don't expect for Joseph and Jerome to be the last players from Sporting KC called up for the FIFA international dates. Graham Zusi and Matt Besler will probably be called up for the United States' World Cup qualifying matches. Sierra Leone has their final World Cup qualifying match, despite them being unable to qualify. Kei Kamara could be called up for that match.  Lebanon also has two friendlies on the 6th and the 9th, where Soony Saad may see some action based on his performance in the World Cup qualifiers in May.

Whoever gets called up for those dates will leave Sporting KC more and more shorthanded for the Crew match, which will significantly alter the way both of the teams come into the game.