Disappointing Season In Prospective

Sporting Kansas City's title defense season came to an end on Thursday night in the knockout round of the MLS playoffs. I think many fans, players, coaches and staff in the front office will call this season a disappointment. For people to consider this season a disappointment is a huge accomplishment for this franchise.

Attendance at Sporting Park was not hurt by Sporting KC's season. They broke their average attendance record for a season at Sporting Park averaging 19,714 (+5 from 2013) in a stadium that has a seating capacity of 18,467. Every game was a sellout and the team now stands at 53 straight sellouts for MLS games.

Sporting Kansas City MLS Playoff Knockout Round Game Review

In a win or go home game Kansas City came out and played with the urgency needed to start the game on the road in New York (actually New Jersey). Sporting looked as good as they had in the last 10 games to start. The changes to the lineup did help, especially having Benny back out on the field.

As the first half went on New York started to open up a few chances, but luckily for Sporting none of of them went in. The first half ended in a 0-0 tie and I think Sporting was happy about they. They were playing a more defensive game making sure that they had as many bodies behind the ball as possible. This showed in the first have possession numbers as Sporting only had the ball 38.7% of the time, the only 5 minute interval that they had the majority of the possession in the first half was the first five minutes. In the majority of the games this year Sporting would dominate the possession numbers, so they weren't playing their normal game, and that was not a bad thing.

Royals Loss May Hurt, But....

Losing Game 7 of a World Series will always hurt, losing a close game will hurt a little more, being 90 feet away from keeping the game going is painful. While this loss hurts, at least the Royals fans have a feeling at the end of the season. This is a huge deal for a fan base that has not seen the postseason for 29 years. I am sure there were some seasons along the way where fans had feelings at the end of the season, but I think there were many more where the fans had just moved on to another sport by the end of the year.

Over the 29 years between playoff appearances the Royals had some really bad times. In the 29 year span they had 8 winning seasons. Of the 21 losing seasons with 13 of those seasons losing 90 games or more and 4 of those seasons they lost over 100 games! From 2004 to 2006 they lost 100+ games each year going 176-310 winning just 36% of their games. Between 2004 and 2012 they did not have one winning season.

Royals World Series Game 7 Review

Hats off to both the Royals and Giants on a great series and a drama packed Game 7. The Giants and one in particular one player played better for 4 games and won their third title in five years. However the Royals have nothing to be ashamed of, they had a great season and an amazing post season, it is hard right now because they were so close.

Thanks to the FOX broadcast I will not be using a certain players name in this post, I will just call him The Player. This is no disrespect to this player or the Giants, however from the 6th inning on last night FOX forgot that there were other players on the field and even as other players for the Giants were getting hits, or defensive players were made by the Royals this player sitting on the bench is all that was talked about. Yes this pitcher is a very good pitcher and had an amazing and record setting World Series, but the gushing by FOX was comical by the end of the game. 

Sports Today 10/30/2014

Today kicks off week 9 of the NFL season and week 10 of the college football season, both have important games. Also the second knockout round game of the MLS playoffs is tonight.

College Football
#2 Florida State at #25 Louisville - 6:30 PM Central - ESPN
This is likely Florida States toughest remaining game this season. A win here should guarantee them a spot in the four teams college football playoff in January. How many times have we seen a team that should win a game go on the road for a Thursday or Friday night game on national television and lose? I don't know the exact number but it has happened many times. Louisville is a very good team with their only losses coming on the road at Virginia and Clemson. I am glad this game start early because I think it will still be a game in the fourth quarter. Florida State will pull this game out late with a 38 - 31 win. 

NFL Week 9 Picks

Picks for Week 9 of the NFL season:

Thursday October 30th
Saints at Panthers - Saints

Sunday November 2nd
Jets at Chiefs - Chiefs
Buccaneers at Browns - Browns
Cardinals at Cowboys - Cardinals
Eagles at Texans - Eagles
Jaguars at Bengals - Bengals
Chargers at Dolphins - Chargers
Redskins at Vikings - Redskins
Rams at 49ers - 49ers
Broncos at Patriots - Patriots
Raiders at Seahawks - Seahawks
Ravens at Steelers - Ravens

Monday November 3rd
Colts at Giants - Colts

College Football Week 10 Picks

Here are my picks for the Top 25 and Big 12 games for week 10 of the college football season:

Thursday 10/30
#2 Florida State at #25 Louisville - Florida State

Saturday 11/1
#1 Mississippi State hosts Arkansas - Mississippi State
#3 Auburn at #4 Ole Miss - Ole Miss
#5 Oregon hosts Stanford - Oregon
#7 TCU at #20 West Virginia - TCU
#9 Kansas State hosts Oklahoma State - Kansas State
#10 Notre Dame at Navy - Notre Dame
#11 Georgia hosts Florida - Georgia
#12 Arizona at #22 UCLA - UCLA
#13 Baylor host Kansas - Baylor
#14 Arizona State hosts #17 Utah - Arizona Sates
#15 Nebraska hosts Purdue - Nebraska
#16 Ohio State hosts Illinois - Ohio State
#18 Oklahoma at Iowa State - Oklahoma
#23 East Carolina at Temple - East Carolina
#24 Duke at Pittsburgh - Pittsburgh

Remaining Big 12 Game
Texas at Texas Tech - Texas Tech

Sports Today 10/29/2014

Today kicks off the MLS playoffs with the first knockout round game. There is also a rather huge game in baseball; Game 7 of the World Series.

MLS Playoffs
The Western Conference knockout round game is tonight with Vancouver going to FC Dallas. Don't look for this game on television outside the Dallas and Canada, if you want to watch this game MLSLive is the only option. Vancouver got in the playoffs on the last day of the season. FC Dallas has been sitting in a playoff sport for most of the season. This year in three games each team won one game and drew the other. I expect a close game, but think FC Dallas as the home team will pull it out.

World Series Game 7

Royals World Series Game 6 Review

What a game by the Royals last did. The exactly what they needed to, did not let the Giants get the lead early and then had a huge second inning scoring 7 runs and knocking Peavy out of the game after pitching on one and a third innings. Then Ventrura did exactly as he needed to, just keep pitching to save the bullpen.

In the first inning the Royals had a chance to get on the board with a two out rally when Cain drew two out walk and then Hosmer crushed a base hit. I thought Cain was going to try and go and he stopped at third (even though the base coach waved him home late). Butler came up and hit a easy ground ball to short to end the inning (Billy would make up for it in the second). The bottom of the second almost ended the ball game; Gordon lead off with a bloop hit to center followed by Perez with a line drive to right field just getting over the second baseman's head which got Gordon to third. With runners on first and third Moustakas came through with a double to right field scoring Gordon and getting Perez to third. Infante had a poor at bat striking out and not looking good while doing it. Escobar followed that up with a weak ground ball between the pitching and first base, but due to confusion he beat out the tag to load the bases. Aoki followed that up with a bloop hit to score another run, giving the Royals a 2-0 lead with the bases still loaded and knock Peavy out of the game. In came Petit who had been unhitable all postseason, all the Royals did was got three hits, two doubles and scored five more runs.

MLS Playoff Preview / Projections

For 9 of the teams the MLS season is over while the other 10 teams move in to the playoffs. If you are not familiar with the MLS playoff format here is a brief over view.

Five teams from each conference make the playoffs with the #4 and #5 seeds playing in a one game winner take all game at the higher seeds stadium midweek in what is called the Knockout Round. If tied at the end of the game they will play two 15 minute overtime periods and if still tied will go to penalty kicks to decide the winner. Then the Conference Semifinals start a couple days later, the semifinals are a home-and-home series in which each team hosts one game. The score is cumulative between the two games and the team winning at the end of both games moves on. If they are tied on cumulative goals then whichever team scored the most in their road game wins, after looking at road goals they are still tied they will go right in to two 15 minute overtime periods. If they are still tied then they will go to penalty kicks. The two winning teams move on to the Conference Championships which will follow the exact same format as the semifinals. The two conference champions will move on to play in the MLS Cup with the team having the most points in the regular season hosting the MLS Cup. The MLS Cup is a one game winner take all game. If tied at the end of the game they will play two 15 minute overtime periods and if still tied will go to penalty kicks to decide the winner. View the final MLS standings

Sports Today 10/28/2014

Just like last Friday there is only one game that matters today, Game 6 of the World Series.

Well there Royals are there for only the second time in 29 years, a must win game. The last must game was 4 weeks ago today. I don't think the Royals can expect a repeat of 4 weeks ago, if they fall behind the Giants like they did the A's I don't think the outcome will be the same. That being said I think this game is winnable for the Royals and I fully expect them to win this game and force a game 7.

NFL Week 8 - 5 Thoughts / Top 5

Five thoughts on Week 8 of the NFL season:

1 - Congratulations to Payton Manning on breaking the NFL passing touchdown record. What is even more impressive is that Manning broke Farve's record is far less games. At this point Manning is showing no signs of slowing down which means he will keep adding to this record. This is not good since he plays for the Bronco's now. For now I can respectfully dislike Manning, but once he retirees I can going back to liking him. Here is hoping once the season is over we will see him on SNL again.

College Football Playoff Power Rankings - Week 9

Below are my thoughts on where the college football teams stand at the end of the games on 10/25 and what I think the season will play out and what teams will actually make the four team playoff.

Top 4 teams as of this week:        Remaining games against contenders:
1. Mississippi State 7-0                Alabama and @ Ole Miss
2. Florida State 7-0                       None
3. Alabama 7-1                             Mississippi State and Auburn
4. Oregon 7-1                                None

Sports Today 10/27/2014

While it is a quiet day for Kansas City sports, after a very busy Sunday, there is at least one game of interest today, while it might not be a good game.

NFL - Washington at Dallas
Washington and Dallas, once a game that would decide the division, a game where you could throw out the records, now like many rivalries doesn't mean as much anymore than another division game. I can remember a season where Dallas won only one game and it was against Washington while they were headed to the playoffs and the Cowboy fans felt like they had won the Super Bowl. The reason I have gone on so long about this is because I don't think Washington is good (their two wins are against Jacksonville 1-7 and Tennessee 2-6) and I still don't feel that Dallas is as good as their 6-1 record (only beating one team with a winning record). That being said Dallas will get more people on the bandwagon tonight as they will easily beat Washington. Dallas 31 Washington 13 

Royals World Series Game 5 Review

Well going in to Game 5 I thought the Royals would have to play a perfect game to win and I was not sure if that would even do it. They would have to pitch, field, bat (move runners and scratch across a couple runs) and manage almost perfectly to have a chance. Shield's pitched well, made a couple mistakes, but the best he had all post season. The defense did not play their best and that had a direct impact on the first two runs scoring. The reliable bullpen (once the game was already out of reach) allowed San Francisco to close the door. Ned made some choices that seemed to be mid-season form allowing Yosted to start trending again in KC. As it turned out even if the Royals did not make half of these mistakes it was not going to be enough to beat Bumgarner and the Giants in Game 5.

Sporting vs Red Bulls 10/26/2014 Review

This was the first time since the Conference Final against Houston that I was able to make it back to Sporting Park for game. I have to say being away from the stadium has even more made me appreciate and realize how great of a sporting environment this is. Even with a team that had struggled (especially at home) this year the game day environment is amazing. I am not trying to take anything away from Arrowhead Stadium or Kauffman Stadium as these both can have great environments as well. With the stadium set-up, sold out games with standing room only, the sound system and video screens and boards I don't know how the crowd can not be worked up before a game.

Chiefs vs Rams Review

While the game may not have started great for the Chiefs, the outcome was definitely a great one. Anytime you can win by 10 points in the NFL it is a solid win, if you win my 20 that is a blowout, so a 27 point win is a great and easy win.

Let's start with the defense. Maybe they weren't awake, maybe they under estimated the Rams or maybe the Rams threw some new looks to them for the first drive, but the Chiefs let them march down the field 65 yards in 6 plays for an easy touchdown on the first drive. Whatever the reason the Chiefs D quickly figured it out, fixed the issue and dominated the Rams for the rest of the game not allowing another point. Including pushing them back far enough after a Charles fumble leaving the Rams in the red zone that they missed the field goal. On the first drive of the game the Chiefs gave up 10.8 yards per play, the remainder of the game the Chiefs only gave up 135 yards on 45 plays making that 3.0 yards per play. The defense was lead by Justin Houston with 3 sacks, putting him up to 10 on the season.

Royals World Series Game 4 Review

Well that sucked! I could stop here, but I won't. The part that sucked was that the Royals had a 4-2 lead going to the bottom of the 5th and they could not make that stand. The Giants tied it up in the 5th and blew it open in the 6th scoring 3 and put it away in the 7th scoring 4.

Good news - this loss only tied up the series up at 2-2 and 2 of the 3 games are in KC. Bad news - Bumgarner is pitching game 5 for the Giants and is 3-0 in World Series starts and Perez's late home run in Game 1 is the only run he has given up. Good news - By starting Game 5 Bumgarner will not start again. Good news - HDR is rested and ready to go for Game 5 if/when needed.

The Royals were beat last night in a Royals way. In the 5th, 6th and 7th innings the Giants had a bunch of bloop, broken bat and well placed singles to score 9 runs. Both Hosmer and Perez had good nights at the plate going 6 for 9 scoring a run and 2 RBI's.

A loss by a run or 7 runs all count the same so no need to dwell on last night. Time to move forward and make history by giving Bumgarner his first World Series loss.

Sports Today 10/26/2014

In what could be a huge day for Kansas City sports here we go...

NFL
Chiefs vs Rams
The Chiefs through their first six games are 3-3, and I think at the start of the season if fans were told we can jump to the seventh game with a 3-3 record we would have all taken it. The Rams come in 2-4 playing like a team with nothing to lose. I think if St. Louis was not playing with nothing to lose this would be a fairly easy win for the Chiefs, but with nothing to lose the Rams will do anything to try and win, and if doesn't work they will lose anyway. After an exciting game early and then a blow out that went late by the Royals and a noon kickoff it may take the fans some work to get in to the game. So the Chiefs can not come out flat and let the Rams get an early lead. If the Chiefs play like they have the past few weeks and Andy Reid keeps dialing up the plays that should not be an issue.
I expect this to still be a game in to the 4th quarter, but I think the Chiefs will make the plays when needed to win by double digits. Chiefs 27 Rams 17

Sports Today (Late Games) 10/25/2014

Now for the rest of the games today:

College Football
#10 Northwest Missouri State at Fort Hays State
After last week homecoming thrashing to Pitt State the Bearcats will have to travel all the way across the state of Kansas to Fort Hays to play the one team who has beat Pitt State this year. In a year where no DII team is flawless I felt Northwest may have been the closest before last weekend. The Bearcats need to regroup this week because a second loss now would likely leave them outside of the DII playoffs since Region 3 has so many good teams (there will be several good teams that will not make the playoffs). I think last weeks loss will get this team refocused and look for Northwest to bounce back. Northwest 31 Fort Hays 13

Royals World Series Game 3 Review

You could not have asked for a more typical Royal's game. Scratch out a few runs, get a very good starting pitching performance and the bullpen closes it out for a 3-2 with and a 2-1 lead in the World Series. The Royal's are two wins from winning the World Series. As pointed out last night all the Royal's have to do in the next 4 games is go .500 and they will win.....just let that think in for a moment.

The game started with Escobar driving a ball deep into the left field corner, which looked like it had a chance to get out, but started off with a lead off double. Then as the Royals in two outs they were able to work Escobar around to score and get the Royals off to a 1-0. Guthrie pitched a very good game and gave up 4 hits in 5 innings. Through 5 innings Guthrie had only faced one over the minimum thanks to Salvy catching a runner trying to steal. In the 6th inning Escobar got his second double of the night with 1 out. Then Gordon got going and hit another double scoring Escobar. Then with two outs birthday boy Hosmer came through with what turned out to be the game winning RBI hit and a 3-0 lead. In the bottom of the 6th the Giants finally got to Guthrie with a single and an RBI double (the only extra base hit the Royals would give up in the game). Herrera came in the game in the 6th inning again and walked the first batter, was able to get the next three batters out while letting one more run score, leaving the Royals with a 3-2 lead. Starting off the 7th Herrera was able to get an out and allows a walk which lead to Finnegan coming in to the game, yes the pitcher who in June lead TCU to the College World Series. All he did was got both batters out including a strikeout to end the inning. Davis looked great striking out 2 in the 8th and Holland got all three outs with out a ball getting out of the infield. 

Spots Today (Early Games) 10/25/2014

Since I am running a 5K this morning I wanted to go over a couple early games that I have on my mind. I will be back later to go over a few more big college football games and game 4 of the World Series.

Arsenal at Sunderland
This is a huge game early in the season for Arsenal, while they only have one loss, they only have two wins. Arsenal played a mid-week Champions League game on the road and scored two late goals to win. So they have a little momentum on their side. Sunderland however is coming off a huge 8-0 defeat last weekend in the BPL. While these teams have similar records records and Arsenal are fighting injury problems (like they always seem to do) I feel Arsenal is the better team. However I think Sunderland is going to come out at home and prove they are better than last weeks result. I want to pick Arsenal in this game, but I keep coming back to a draw, so I am not sure which team it will be, but one of them will score a late goal to tie it up. Arsenal 2 / Sunderland 2

Halloween Hustle 5K

It is race morning, doing the Halloween Hustle 5K at Unity Village this is race 6 of 8 in the Holiday Races. The weather is suppose to be beautiful when the race starts with temps in the  upper 50's. I am not be wearing a costume, but my daughter is in her cat costume. Not sure if I will be pushing her in her stroller for the start of the race or if my wife. Either way looking forward to get the race started.

Sports Today 10/24/2014

Well there is really only one game event today and that is Game 3 of the World Series! Kansas City is in a good spot right now tied 1-1 and while a win tonight would be huge they need to win one of the next two games. I don't want to see this team heading in to game 5 down 3-1. I want KC to either come back to town and play some more baseball, or have a little extra luggage on the plane with them.

What I expect tonight:
I expect a close game. Guthrie has pitched well as of late and I expect him to go 5 to 6 innings giving up a run or two. However I expect Hudson to do the same for the Giants. If the Royals can make Hudson work and get him out before the end of the 6th I think the Royals can scratch across enough runs to win. I am going with the Royals leading 4-2 going to the bottom of the 7th. HDH will give up a run but the Royals win 4-3.

It is time to #TakeTheCrown and for KC to light another pillar on Bartle Hall!