Russell Called Up by Scotland

Sporting Kansas City had another player called up for this upcoming set of international matches. Johnny Russell this morning was named to the Scottish national team for their upcoming games against Belgium and Albania, he’ll join fellow winger, Daniel Salloi on international duty. Scotland’s pair of internationals, take place on September 7th and 10th, meaning Russell would miss Sporting’s game on September 8th against Orlando City and his availability for the game the next weekend on the 15th in San Jose may be in question as well.

The game against Belgium is a friendly while the game against Albania is their opener of League C, Group 1 of the UEFA League of Nations. Israel is also in the three team group and will play Albania in the first game of the group on the 7th.

Russell recorded a pair of assists on Saturday night in his last game before the call ups were announced, helping Sporting to their 2-0 win over Minnesota. The pair of assists gave him eight on the season to go along with the eight goals that he has scored. He’s now second on the team in assists this season behind Roger Espinoza’s nine, and still leads the club in goals.

Sporting will now have some lineup decisions on their hands with those two players presumably out for two games coming up as Russell has started 19 games and Salloi has started 21. One replacement is Gerso Fernandes, who has started the last seven as Russell has recovered from injury and rested and Salloi has been rested. The other wing Peter Vermes has a few options to go with, he could insert Yohan Croizet on the wing, a position he’s played at different times this season. He could also look to put Krisztian Nemeth on the wing, where he’d spent the majority of his time during his last stint in Kansas City in 2015.