Blue Links: Musa not in AZ, Final Preseason Match, eMLS and Jimmy Nielsen

It’s really hard to keep up with all things Sporting Kansas City. We’ll try to help. First, there are some things you may have missed around these parts.

• Bob’s fantastic interviews with Shelton and Vermes
• Soony Saad finding a new team in the USL after his MLS release.
• SKC President Jake Reid’s Twitter Q&A
• The first two parts of my FIFA 18 Simulated Season (Part I — Part II)

James Musa’s Future Could be in Doubt

This is how rumors get started. First, since you don’t all read my Twitter (though you should):

Now it could be that he’s just hurt or had to return home for some other reason, but as I stated after that Tweet, my gut tells me he’s getting cut. I have absolutely zero evidence of that but with Brad Evans signing and his ability to play defensive midfielder (not to mention Felipe can play there too), Musa taking up an international spot just seems silly. He only made one appearance for SKC in 2017 to boot.

It’s the curse of getting a first team contract too soon. Of the guys called up (Tyler Pasher, Adrian Zendejas, Amer Didic, Kevin Oliveira, Kharlton Belmar and James Musa) if Musa leaves, that means half are gone. And Didic and Zendejas have yet to log a MLS minute.

Alright, enough wild speculation.

Sporting KC play Portland on Saturday

After I fumbled and stumbled yesterday trying to make the case for SKC to play the Portland Timbers, the team went and announced it just hours later. The game will be for 3rd place in the Mobile Mini Sun Cup, but the real prize is seeing the likely starters get extended minutes. Whoever starts the game is likely going to play for a good portion of it and could very well be the Day 1 starters a week from Sunday against NYCFC.

The team has a preview of the game which starts at 5:00 PM CT on Saturday. It will be streamed live on SportingKC.com, likely YouTube and definitely the SKC Facebook page. I’ll be in Tucson to cover the final game and hopefully I’ll get time with Vermes and some players afterwards (be sure to Tweet me questions or put them in the comments).

Some slickly edited video of Croizet, Shelton, Russell and Felipe

It’s only 34 seconds, but I’m sure you could all use some more of SKC’s most recent offensive signings Yohan Croizet, Khiry Shelton, Johnny Russell and Felipe.

eMLS?

Sporting KC will apparently announce their own eMLS signing. First, I’ll confirm it’s not me. I play a ton of FIFA, but I’m still not that good at it. As a very long time gamer, this is interesting but since FIFA has the teams inherently unbalanced, it’ll be questionable to see the team SKC’s e-athlete (?) will be working with. Assuming he/she is forced to use Sporting in the game.

Around the Soccer World

• Apparently Jurgen Klinsmann made over $3.2 million in 2017 and he was fired in 2016. How do I get that gig?

• I found this amusing. Grant Wahl is reporting former FIFA head Sepp Blatter won’t/can’t travel out of fear of being extradited to the United States. Good. He seems like a real crook.

• FC Dallas midfielder Kellyn Acosta is out 6-8 weeks. That doesn’t do Sporting any good because they don’t meet Dallas until July 28th. And you never want to see an up-and-coming United States National Team player injured.
• And on a very random note, a Redditor posted a real estate video of former Sporting KC goaltender Jimmy Nielsen’s home that is for sale in Oklahoma since he is no longer the coach of the Energy FC.