As established by doing this for the first two months of the season, this blog is obligated by recent history to select a player of the month. Even for a month as tumultous as May.
The first two months were so easy (March: Graham Zusi, April: Aurelien Collin). Kansas City were winning and Zusi and Collin were integral reasons why. May? Not so much good happened. Two bad losses, one terrible draw, a stabilizing win and a hard-fought victory over a team closer to the bottom of the American Soccer pyramid than the top.
Who stood out? Anyone? Who was the most valuable player for Sporting KC?
It's probably easier to identify who
won'tbe the player of the month.
Collin followed his great month with an absolutely horrid one (two penalties given, no goals, abused by Chicago, should've drawn a straight red -- or at least a yellow -- for a bad tackle against Orlando). Roger Espinoza is eliminated because of his red card (which ruined the Fire game and cost him one against the Rapids).
Those two are out.
Several players were anonymous: Matt Besler (no assists, no goals, looked off against Montreal), Chance Myers (1 assist, poor against Orlando), Jimmy Nielsen (7 goals allowed) and C.J. Sapong (1 goal, slumped most of May).
And poor Seth Sinovic broke his hand (missing two games) before slicing his left hand open (and missing most of another). He was neither great nor bad during the minutes he actually did play.
So, of the players left, who's got the best case?
Kei Kamara:1 goal, 2 assists, slumped against Montreal (like the rest of the team), dominated San Jose.
Zusi:1 assist, didn't miss a match despite his national team call-up, best player on the field for stretches against Chicago and San Jose.
Teal Bunbury:2 goals in just 2 starts, may have helped re-ignite KC's sputtering offense. (Also had two goals in a reserve fixture against Chicago.)
Bobby Convey:1 goal, 1 assist, seemed to be settling into this team before an injury kept him out of the SJ and Orlando City games.
Soony Saad:2 goals against Orlando City to keep KC alive in the U.S. Open Cup. (Don't scoff, I'm serious.)
It really was a tough call. One that took a few extra days to decide too. But, in the end, I'm going with Kei Kamara -- if only because of how thoroughly he dominated the San Jose game.
Congratulations to Kei. Hopefully, the MVP in June isn't so difficult to pick.
Does someone have a better case for the award? Have your say in the comments.
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