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While preseason commenced back on January 6th, Sporting Kansas City took the field for the first time today. The team met the Portland Timbers in two 30-minute closed door scrimmages. Since the games weren’t streamed and social media was all that was available, there wasn’t much to learn from the game. We’ve collected everything in one spot for your reading/viewing pleasure, including some quick video shot by the team.
The Lineups
It’s way too early to read much into these, particularly who was with who, but Sporting KC rolled out two different lineups over the two different 30-minute games/halves. Each of their three rostered goalkeepers (Tim Melia, John Pulskamp and Kendall McIntosh) got 20 minutes each.
Game One
1' Our 2023 preseason slate of scrimmages is underway from Phoenix, Arizona ☀️
— Sporting Matchday (@SKCmatchday) January 21, 2023
Starting XI (First 30'): Tim Melia; Jacob Bartlett, Kortne Ford, Robert Voloder, Mo Abualnadi; Felipe Hernandez, Jake Davis, Cam Duke; Ozzie Cisneros, Yeison Mejia, Marinos Tzionis pic.twitter.com/3w3nbgATQC
It’s too early to know who would potentially be a starter, but I read that lineup as Barlett at RB through Abualnadi at LB. Potentially Felipe Hernandez at defensive midfielder with Ozzie Cisneros, Jeison Mejia and Marinos Tzionis across the forward line. It’s a lineup mostly made up of young guys, with a few guys potentially fighting for starting jobs in there.
By comparison, Portland appeared to be playing primarily their starters.
Today's preseason XI #SportingKC:
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) January 21, 2023
Bingham
Mosquera
Zuparic ©
Tuiloma
Rasmussen
Williamson
Paredes
Loría
Y. Chara
S. Moreno
Niezgoda#RCTID pic.twitter.com/smzykTVYOb
From that lineup (with Melia replaced in the 20th minute by Pulskamp), the team only put out one update.
20' Both sides causing each other some problems as Portland's Yimmi Chara fired narrowly over from the edge of the area before Felipe Hernandez forced a nice save with a powerful free kick.
— Sporting Matchday (@SKCmatchday) January 21, 2023
0-0 // #SKCPreseason // @ChildrensMercy
Game Two
Or as Portland referred to it, the second half. Sporting KC did a full change (minus Pulskamp who played the first 10 of this before ceding to McIntosh).
1' Underway for the second 30-min scrimmage vs. @TimbersFC
— Sporting Matchday (@SKCmatchday) January 21, 2023
Starting XI (Second 30'): John Pulskamp; Kayden Pierre, Chris Rindov, Andreu Fontas, Ben Sweat; Danny Flores, Remi Walter, Roger Espinoza; Johnny Russell, Willy Agada, Daniel Salloi.#SKCPreseason // @ChildrensMercy
While that lineup is loaded with a lot more players who were starters in 2022, it also included unsigned second round pick Chris Rindov and newly acquired Danny Flores, who appeared to be playing d-mid by where he’s listed in the order (but this is speculation based on prior years lineup tweets. It looks to be right to left, back to front).
Portland made changes as well.
How we start the 2nd half:
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) January 21, 2023
Bingham
Bonilla
McGraw
Clegg
J. Bravo
D. Chara (c)
Caliskan
McCartney
Miscic
Gutierrez
Fogaça#RCTID pic.twitter.com/iJkq8MJK6F
The only goal of the day would come from Portland. Nathan would score against McIntosh on a cheeky little bicycle kick.
Nathan opens the scoring
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) January 21, 2023
Timbers lead 1-0 in the 45th ✅ pic.twitter.com/7XzPvAdkI0
Who knows what led to this opportunity or who lost their man based on the vertical video from a cell phone, but at least we caught a few seconds of soccer (with a bit more below).
Who Didn’t Play?
It’s early in preseason, so let’s again stress lineups don’t tend to mean too much. However, some guys weren’t in the lineups at all. Peter Vermes spoke on it after the game.
“The group of guys that didn’t play, just they all have some little nagging things that we don’t want them to turn into something. They’ve actually trained pretty well. We’re just going to make sure we look after them and not turn things that can be over in a couple days into something more long-term.”
As you can see from picking through the roster, the guys that didn’t play include Alan Pulido and Gadi Kinda, which we knew were coming along but not even in full training. Also missing were Graham Zusi, Nemanja Radoja, Logan Ndenbe, Khiry Shelton, Erik Thommy and Tim Leibold.
That’s leaving out guys on trial, from the SKC Academy and the SKC II players.
Pictures and Video
The teams released some pictures and b-roll footage from preseason, so hopefully this will help satiate you as we wait for live Sporting KC action. It’s not much, but it’s something!
It’s all pretty standard stuff and it definitely looked like Flores was playing deeper in the midfield.
First action of 2023 #SKCPreseason // @ChildrensMercy pic.twitter.com/MHZpiC6rYX
— Sporting Matchday (@SKCmatchday) January 21, 2023
First MLS contact of 2023 #SportingKC | @ChildrensMercy Preseason pic.twitter.com/JFs0Tlr01O
— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) January 21, 2023
A week's work is done, let's have some fun ⚽️
— Portland Timbers (@TimbersFC) January 21, 2023
First preseason match coming #RCTID x @OldTrapper pic.twitter.com/sS17sTekPx
I’m sure you, as is the case with us, can’t wait for more!
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