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Hello everyone and welcome to the first match week of 2018. Hope you all have a great Monday. Here’s today’s links.
Kansas City
- (The Blue Testament) Sporting KC finished off their preseason with a 3-2 loss to the Portland Timbers. Preseason matches are tough to glean a cohesive analysis from, but I certainly hope this defense is not the one that show up on Sunday.
Check out the postgame press conference here.
- (Sporting KC) All 34 Sporting KC matches will be broadcast on ESPN Deportes, 1480 in the Kansas City area.
- (Swope Park Rangers) The Rangers drew Creighton University in a 1-1 match on Saturday.
- (Talkin’ Touches) The Talking Touches podcast crew discusses the preseason match and looks ahead to the opener.
- (Bovada) The 2018 MLS Cup odds are out and Sporting KC faces a 25/1 shot at winning MLS Cup. Toronto FC faces the best odds at 7/2, while Minnesota United FC face a 66/1 shot. Still not as bad as Leicester City’s 5000/1 odds when they won it all.
Around the League
- (William Geddes) Some concept kits for MLS teams look spectacular, particuarly Sporting KC’s. I’m also partial to Orlando and Chicago’s.
- (Reddit) An interesting look at how MLS teams’ social media pages stack up against on another.
- Some upsetting news for Seattle as Jordan Morris is out for a good chunk of the season.
Terrible start to the weekend for #USMNT and @SoundersFC fans:
— Stuart Holden (@stuholden) February 24, 2018
Hearing Jordan Morris torn right ACL and will miss 6-9 months. Tough run for Morris- hamstring end of 2017 and now ACL.
Really sad to see and hope to see him back on pitch soon.
- (Diario AS) Omar Gonzales reportedly wants to return to MLS.
Around the Network
(Arrowhead Pride) The Chiefs have initiated their second blockbuster trade of the offseason by reportedly sending cornerback Marcus Peters to the Rams, but the return is still under wraps.
(Rock Chalk Talk) Kansas Men’s basketball won their 14th straight Big 12 Conference regular season title this weekend after a season where it seemed the streak might be in doubt.
(Royals Review) The Royals started Spring Training this week. While the on-field product probably won’t amount to much this year, they’ve got some good spring training photos. So that’s something.
(Bring on the Cats) BOTC writes about men’s basketball forward Dean Wade has been one of the best stretch-4s in the Big 12 this year.
(Rock M Nation) Michael Porter Jr. watched from the bench as Mizzou was crushed by Kentucky this weekend.