Sporting KC's Nielsen, Collin and Zusi named to MLS All-Star gameday roster

SportingKC.com

Sporting Kansas City goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen, defender Aurelien Collin and midfielder Graham Zusi are on the gameday roster for the 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game, Major League Soccer announced on Sunday.

The club’s three representatives, tied for most of any MLS team, will be available for selection to play against UEFA Champions League winners Chelsea FC on July 25 at PPL Park.

All three players were voted into the MLS All-Star First XI earlier this month and join the club’s list of 45 all-time All-Star selections (shown below).

"It's the fans who have been voting. I'm really happy that all three of us got through to the All-Star Game,” Nielsen said. “We could have even picked a few more to be All-Stars, but I'm very happy and very proud of our fans that we got three guys voted in. It'sgoing to be extremely fun and I'm looking forward to that game."

"It will be a big honor to represent Sporting Kansas City at the All-Star Game,” Collin said. “At the same time, we’ll be representing MLS against the best team in Europe. It's a big challenge and I'm very happy to be included."

“I'm very thankful to those who voted,” Zusi said. “It's a very big honor to be recognized by your peers and the fans, as well. I'm extremely excited to be one of the few representing Major League Soccer and to play against a team of the caliber of Chelsea. It’s always a lot of fun when you can see where you stand against some of the best in the world.”

The 2012 AT&T MLS All-Star Game will be broadcast live on ESPN2 and TeleFutura in the United States, with coverage in Canada on TSN and RDS.

In addition to the 18 MLS All-Stars on the game-day roster, 14 more players will be named 2012 MLS All-Stars as determined by player voting. Those selections will be unveiled on July 25.

Lucky 7: Sporting Kansas City remains undefeated

By NICK SLOAN, NJSloan212@gmail.com

One team in Kansas City is on a seven-game losing streak.

Luckily, the team in Kansas City, Kan., is on a seven-game winning streak.

Sporting Kansas City defeated Vancouver 3-1 on the road this evening in Canada. Aurelien Collin scored after a shot from Roger Espinoza's shot on goal deflected to the scorer in the 24th minute of the game.

Now 7-0-0 to begin the season, Sporting Kansas City later received help from the opposition in the form of an own goal.

Vancouver's Martin Bonjour kicked the ball in his own net while attempting to pass it to goalkeeper Joe Cannon.

The goal helped Sporting Kansas City take a 2-0 early in the second half.

In the game's 65th minute, Kei Kamara scored off an assist from Chance Myers.

Vancouver's Sebastien Le Toux scored in the game's 79th minute, but Sporting KC held Vancouver scoreless the rest of the way.

The win is even more impressive considering that most of the statistics, outside of the most important one, indicated a strong performance by Vancouver.

The Whitecaps out-shot Sporting 19-8 and had seven shots on goal to just two from Sporting Kansas City. Vancouver also dominated the possession rate, 56.5 percent to 43.5 percent.

Still, it was not enough.

Sporting's record remains perfect and now are 11 points ahead of the second best team in the Major League Soccer's Eastern Conference.