KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sporting Kansas City's trio of 2014 World Cup veterans could all be on the pitch at the same time on Tuesday night, when the US national team meet Honduras in a friendly match in Boca Raton, Fla. (8 pm ET; ESPN)
Center back Matt Besler and winger Graham Zusi, both of whom appeared in all four matches for the Yanks as they reached the Round of 16 in Brazil, were called in over the weekend by US coach Juergen Klinsmann.
On the other side, defensive midfielder Jorge Claros, who joined Sporting from Honduran side Motagua after his World Cup turn, will be available for Los Catrachos again after going the full 90 in last Thursday's 2-0 loss to Mexico.
With only two league matches and their final CONCACAF Champions League group stage match left to play before the start of the postseason, Sporting could be forgiven a bit of extra concern about the possibility of injuries to any of the three. But the timing of the match doesn't really matter, manager Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com after Tuesday's training session.
“It's all part of it,” Vermes said. “It never changes. It doesn't matter if it's now or any other time. You don't want to have any of your players injured. But [Besler and Zusi] are both in pretty good form at the moment, and we'll just have to wait and hope we see them on Saturday.”
Sporting, who travel to Philadelphia for that Saturday match, qualified for their fourth straight postseason berth with a 2-0 home victory over Chicago last Friday.
“We're just looking to stay in rhythm and keep getting better at the things that we do,” Vermes said. “It's really not anything special, other than making sure we're in a good rhythm.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
