Johnny Russell Called up by Scotland

The hits just keep coming for Sporting Kansas City’s run to the MLS Cup Playoffs. What was already a long shot just became a bit longer. Sporting KC will be without at least three players for their game against the Portland Timbers in Oregon on Saturday, September 7th. That comes with the territory when MLS doesn’t observe the FIFA windows.

Johnny Russell will join Krisztian Nemeth and Botond Barath as players called up by their national teams. Russell will join Scotland for a pair of UEFA Euro Qualifiers. The Scottish National Team will face off with Russia on Friday the 6th and with Belgium on Monday the 9th.

That should allow Russell to still play this Saturday against the Houston Dynamo and should also allow him enough time to return to play the game against the LA Galaxy on Sunday the 15th.

Of the three players called up so far, only Russell has been starting consistently with Barath recovering from an injury (he did play 90 minutes for the Swope Park Rangers last weekend) and Nemeth finding himself on the bench. That will mean players like Daniel Salloi and Gerso Fernandes will have to step up without Russell in the lineup.

Russell has made 12 appearances for his country and has been getting called into the team pretty consistently since regaining his form after joining SKC. Lifetime he has one goal and one assist for Scotland.