Jimmy Nielsen is goalkeeper for Sporting Kansas City. Nielsen, a native of Denmark, lives with his wife and two children in Brookside. He will speak and sign copies of his autobiography, “Welcome to the Blue Heaven,” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at the Plaza branch of the Kansas City Public Library, 4801 Main St. This conversation took place at Jalapeno’s in Brookside.
In your book, you write about overcoming a serious gambling problem that derailed your career in Europe. Why did you choose to go public with such private and embarrassing details of your life?
This is the second book, and if I hadn’t written the first book, which came out in Denmark, I wouldn’t have written this one. But people here kept asking me about having the book translated into English. At first I said no because I was over that part of my life. But then I decided to write a new book that was more updated and more about Kansas City but still include my gambling history, to be honest about that.
Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury returned to action Wednesday for the first time since suffering a torn ACL in his left knee last Aug. 26. He entered for forward Jacob Peterson during the 76th minute.
“It’s nice to be out there, but to be honest right now I’m pretty bummed out,” Bunbury said after Sporting KC was eliminated from the 100th Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup with a 1-0 loss against its USL Pro affiliate, Orlando City SC.
Returning to a competitive match, even for a brief time and not against an MLS side, clears a significant mental hurdle for Bunbury.
Turns out, Orlando City SC didn’t need any loaned players to knock off its MLS affiliate, Sporting Kansas City, during the fourth round of the centennial Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup on Wednesday at Sporting Park.
“It’s devastating,” Sporting KC coach Peter Vermes said.
Orlando City SC, the most dominant team in USL Pro during the last three season, struck less than 2 minutes into its match with 2012 Open Cup champion Sporting KC, and that wound up being enough in a 1-0 victory.
Less than five months ago, Sporting Kansas City and Orlando City SC entered into an affiliate agreement.
As part of that arrangement, Sporting KC loaned the Lions four players, including forward Dom Dwyer, who broke the USL Pro single-season scoring record with 15 goals in only 13 games this season.
“It’s been great,” coach Peter Vermes said. “They’re a very professional organization that has great ambitions to join MLS. They run their club very professionally. They’ve been great from a technical perspective. It’s been a great environment for our guys to go and get training and games there.”
More than nine months ago, Sporting Kansas City forward Teal Bunbury tore the ACL in his left knee.
Bunbury, 23, has been patient and tried to focus on working diligently through the rehab process, but now that the months until his return have dwindled to weeks and finally days, Bunbury is find it hard to keep the excitement bottled up.
“C’mon, yeah, it’s right around the corner, a week or two away,” Bunbury said. “It’s been nine months, so I’m definitely getting more anxious. It’s just excitement. I haven’t played a game in forever. Obviously, coming back to training is one thing and the game is the next thing. I’m really excited to be back and probably when I get on the field, I’ll be smiling the whole time.”
Sporting Kansas City was drawn into Group 2 on Tuesday for the 2013-14 CONCACAF Champions League.
Sporting KC qualified for the continental club championship tournament — which begins with a round-robin, home-and-away group stage — by winning the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup last August.
Group 2 also includes CD Olimpia, which won the 2012 Apertura and 2013 Clausura titles in Honduras’ Liga Nacional, and Real Esteli FC, which are the champions of Nicaragua’s Primera Division.
Sporting Kansas City forward Soony Saad made an immediate impact with the Lebanon men’s national team, scoring a goal Wednesday in a 1-1 draw with Oman during an exhibition that was played in Qatar.
Buoyed by that performance in his debut with Lebanon, Saad, 20, was held over for two upcoming FIFA World Cup qualifying matches — against South Korea on June 4 in Lebanon and at Iran on June 11 in Tehran.
Saad, who has a goal and two assists in 21 appearances since joining Sporting KC via weighted lottery midway through the 2011 season, obviously won’t be available for tonight’ match against the Montreal Impact.
