Blue Links: Tons of Sporting KC, Salloi, Ronaldo, Fernando Torres, NWSL

Let’s get down to business.

Kansas City

(Sporting KC) Daniel Salloi answers some questions in “Anything But.” He talks Hungary, his family, his Dad’s career and play style, KC, BBQ, video games (FIFA & Fortnite) and more.

(810 WHB) The Blue Testament’s very own Aly Trost was on the Sports Sunday’s second hour (for the whole hour) with Brad Porter. Way to go Aly!

(TBT YouTube) Our underused YouTube page has Aly interviewing a somewhat surprisingly happy Peter Vermes after the Toronto FC game (side note: I love this freeze frame).

(MLS) The #InstantReplay crew don’t think Kuzain going down was a foul and despite my initial screams at the TV, they are probably right.

(810 WHB) The Sporting KC Show went without Nate Bukaty but has good information and interviews from Diego Rubio, Tim Melia and Peter Vermes.

(SKC Academy) Cameron Duke, little brother of former Sporting Kansas City and SPR midfielder Christian Duke, earned Central Conference Player of the Year for the SKC Academy. It’s surprising Duke isn’t one of the Academy players on contract with SPR.

(USL) Felipe Hernandez made the USL Team of the Week after his goal and performance against Seattle Sounders 2.

(Swope Park Rangers) Coach Paulo Nagamura and Graham Smith talk the Rangers 3-1 loss to Sacramento Republic. It’s the clubs first home loss in nearly a year and it drops them to fifth.

“I think we were second best the entire game tonight. I give credit to Sacramento and their team. I think they did well, but we were not on our game. We were slow with the ball and we gave the ball away. It was definitely a performance to look into and forget,” said Nagamura.

(MLS) Matthew Doyle speaks fairly highly of Sporting KC despite the rough week they just went through (particularly of Jaylin Lindsey).

(The Guardian) Sporting are pretty dang high on the “watchability” rankings. Which I guess is better than being unwatchable (Colorado).

(MLS) SKC are pretty firmly in the middle on the strength of schedule for the rest of the year. Unfortunately they are behind almost every team they are around in both the standings (LAFC, Dallas, Portland, RSL) and in the Supporter’s Shield race (NYCFC, Atlanta and RBNY).

(Twitter) Mike McGrew put out an updated spreadsheet of what SKC’s money situation might look like. There is plenty of guessing going on but it’s still really useful to look at.

(SKC Twitter) Check out what Felipe Gutierrez is doing in soccer tennis. Can’t wait to have this dude back!

(MLS) Sporting KC need a #9 (stop me if you’ve heard this before) but they also have Sporting maybe looking for a center back (couldn’t disagree more). Ike Opara is important (and per Thad he appears OK) but I don’t think the world ends if he misses a few games. Emiliano Amor has been shaky but subbing in for Ike seems more natural than subbing in for Matt Besler.

(La Liga News UK) That Alvaro Negredo to SKC rumor just won’t die but my gut tells me they are citing old, outdated sources.

(PRO) Kevin Stott will ref Saturday’s SKC game.

(MLS) Sporting KC plummet to 6th place (deservedly so) after being in 1st in the Power Rankings two weeks ago.

Around the World

(BBC) Some guy named Ronaldo was sold from Real Madrid to Juventus for a mere £99.2 million ($131.5 million). Seems like a steal after Neymar Jr went for £198m and Kylian Mbappe went for £160m. Sure he’s older, but for my money he’s still the best in the world for now. Salloi was pretty happy.

(MNUFC) Minnesota United signed their second every Designated Player. Ángelo Rodríguez joins the team from Club Deportes Tolima of Colombia’s Categoría Primera A. He is primarily a center forward so it’ll be interesting to see where he first with Christian Ramirez. If he’s anything like their other DP, it should work out (go watch this Darwin Quintero hat-trick... it’s amazing).

(BBC) Fernando Torres, after being heavily linked to the Chicago Fire and somewhat lighter to Sporting KC, is heading to Sagan Tosu in Japan’s J-League.

(Twitter) Not sure if this is true but the rumor is the NWSL might be absorbed into the USL. NWSL hasn’t had a Commissioner in well over a year and their relationship with US Soccer is tenuous at best.