Blue Links: Ellis gets waived, Ref Assignments

Good morning! We’ve got a quick update for all the relevant links to Sporting Kansas City on this Tuesday.

Sporting KC

• Be sure to follow Thad (@TheBackpost) for news from training on Tuesday. He’ll be looking for the status of Khiry Shelton going into opening week.
• Referee assignments have been released and Mark Geiger will be the head referee on Sunday.
• Here is a quick video from Peter Vermes on the roster after the final preseason match.

• The club made a couple of roster changes this morning as they announced defender Kevin Ellis & forward Zach Wright have been waived from the team. This was a move a long time coming for Ellis as he was suspended indefinitely since September for an undisclosed reason.
• SKC announced a new “First Team” partner for this season as Toyota has apparently bumped up their corporate sponsorship to land them in the top tier. The former Sporting Plaza will be known as the Toyota Plaza, among other components as well.
• We’re just a couple days out from Matchday 1 and tomorrow night is the season launch party is on Wednesday night at Children’s Mercy Park. This however is not to be confused with the Sporting KC Block Party which will be held on Saturday at Town Center Plaza.
• The Swope Park Rangers made a solid addition yesterday as they announced the signing of Christian Herrera, a 20 year old keeper who has spent time with both the US and Mexican youth national teams.

Around MLS

• While it looks like Anthony Precourt has put himself in a tight spot with soccer fans in Austin protesting the idea of stealing the Columbus Crew, the city is green lighting a USL side for 2019.
• Seattle Sounders & USMNT hopeful Jordan Morris has suffered a torn ACL and will miss the entire 2018 season.
• Our friends over at The Burgundy Wave are previewing each team in MLS. In THIS article, they previewed Sporting KC as well as Seattle, San Jose, & Vancouver.
• A complete league and season preview for all teams in MLS can be found on MLSSoccer.com. COMPLETE LIST Here is what they have to say about SKC:

If defense wins championships, how come Sporting KC can’t seem to get past the Knockout Round? Another year of playoff disappointment prompted Peter Vermes to break out the TAMand DP slots to replace the traded Benny Feilhaber, augment the league’s best backline and keep pace with the rest of the league. What Vermes hasn’t done (yet) is land the forward #SKCnation yearns for. Are Khiry Shelton and Diego Rubio enough to make KC a top contender? —Andrew Wiebe

assignment 2018 DEPTH CHART
KEY ADDITION(S): Felipe Gutierrez
KEY LOSS: Benny Feilhaber
BEN BAER’S 2018 PREDICTION: 3rd in West

• Here are FIVE headlines around MLS to pay attention to for Week 1.