Blue Link: Cameron Duke, Cliff Illig, Alphonso Davies, Origin of Soccer in KC

All the best, coolest, most amazing Sporting Kansas City and other soccer related links you need in your life.

Kansas City

(Bavarian Football Works) In news that happened a bit ago but never made it on the site, SKC Academy member Cameron Duke is training with Bayern Munich. You may have heard of them. Duke’s brother Christian played for Sporting KC and the Swope Park Rangers (and the Academy) before moving on to Orange County (USL).

(Soccer Nation) Speaking of Duke, he gets interview by Soccer Nation. He talks about wanting to play for Sporting KC (don’t go to Germany just yet young man), committing to Duke University and the 2026 World Cup. Vermes dreams of a Starting XI filled with Academy kids, he better hurry up and sign Duke before Bayern do. Something tells me he won’t need to go play college soccer.

(810 WHB) Cliff Illig drops by Sports Radio 810 to talk to Soren Petro.

(KCUR - NPR) The local KC NPR affiliate has the story of how soccer came to Kansas City. Definitely worth a listen.

(US Soccer YouTube) If you listen to the Shades of Blue Soccer Show you may have heard Aly Trost’s plea to watch Peter Vermes 2013 National Soccer Hall of Fame induction. Well I took that advice and tracked it down for all of you. If you haven’t already, watch it (side note: it’s weird to see Vermes get so emotional, but it’s cool to watch).

(The Blue Testament) Shameless self plug. Come join the discussion on who should play center forward for Sporting KC. I’m a Rubio man myself but I make the case for others to get minutes too.

(SKC Twitter) This isn’t news, but damn this looks delish!

(SKC Twitter) With the Tournament of Nations starting Thursday, Sporting KC caught up with former FC Kansas City stars Amy Rodriguez and Becky Sauerbrunn over at Pinnacle.

MLS Transaction Round-Up

There have been lots of moves made during the summer transfer window in Major League Soccer (by all the teams but Sporting KC). We’ve covered a bunch, but here are some we’ve missed.

• The Vancouver Whitecaps have sold Alphoso Davies to Bayern Munich for a deal worth up to 20 million.
• The New England Revolution signed Bolivian midfielder/defender Cristhian Machado.
• Justin Meram may be on the way back to the Columbus Crew or potentially to 2019 expansion club, FC Cincinnati.
• The rich get richer as the New York Red Bulls add another attacking option in winger Andreas Ivan from Romania
• The Chicago Fire acquired Nick Hasler from Toronto FC for Jon Bakero and GAM.
• The Fire also added Nicolas Del Grecco at center back.

Around the World

(Midfield Press) I’m not for all this, but there are some interesting ideas in here to evolve the US Open Cup (and to add a Women’s version).

(Twitter) Interesting chart on MLS. I see their point, but at the same time kudos to MLS for building (and filling) bigger stadiums and expanding to the right markets.