KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Kei Kamara is likely to miss a second straight match with a sprained left ankle, but the player who injured the Sporting Kansas City winger on a red-card foul will be eligible to play once again this weekend.
Sporting manager Peter Vermes doesn't think that's fair, contending that New England's Andy Dorman should have gotten at least one extra match from the Disciplinary Committee for the two-legged blindside tackle that knocked Kamara out late in Kansas City's 3-0 win over the Revolution on Aug. 10.
Kamara scored his sixth and seventh goals of the year in that game but had to come off in the 86th minute after Dorman – a late sub making just his seventh appearance of the year – brought him down from behind in the open field.
“I don't know of any other case where a player's been injured – first in the game where the foul happened and then subsequently he's out for the next game due to that same injury – that the player who caused it and got the red card didn't get extra games,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com after Tuesday's training session. “I think this might be the first time that the player didn't get extra games.”
If Vermes had his way, Dorman – who served his automatic one-match suspension when the Revs beat Chicago 2-0 on Saturday – wouldn't play again until Kamara did.
“I'm one of those guys that – outside of incidental contact in a situation where a guy gets injured, where you're talking about something that's egregious as that was – I'm a big believer that the other player shouldn't be allowed at a minimum to play until the other player returns,” he said. “I truly believe that, because it's always one of those things where the team that loses the player suffers the most.”
Kamara, who said after the incident that he didn't think Dorman had intended to hurt him, did some light jogging for a few minutes on Tuesday and then left the pitch.
“With it already being Tuesday and he's not training with us,” Vermes said, “I think it's more than likely that he won't be ready.”
Kamara and midfielder Graham Zusi both missed Sunday night's lackluster 1-0 away loss to San Jose – Kamara with the ankle injury and Zusi with a sore right quad that has sidelined him since the first half of the 2013 AT&T MLS All-Star Game on July 31.
Zusi went through a full training session on Tuesday, though, and Vermes said he hopes the club's assists leader will be available for Friday's Eastern Conference matchup at Chicago (8:30 pm ET, NBC Sports Network).
“We'll have to see what he's like tomorrow,” Vermes said, “but he's looking closer right now than Kei is, for sure.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
