Overland Park shooting victims remembered before Sporting KC match

Sporting Kansas City held a pregame moment of silence Saturday to mourn the loss of the three people killed at Jewish facilities in Overland Park on April 13.

The national anthem was sung by Anna Arends, a Blue Valley High classmate of Reat Griffin Underwood, one of the victims. Several other Blue Valley students joined her on the field.

Sporting KC players wore white armbands during the match to honor the dead. The armbands will be signed by the players and given to the victims’ families.

• The striker cycle is broken.

For the first time this season, Dom Dwyer started back-to-back games at the striker position for Sporting KC. Dwyer and Claudio Bieler alternated starts over the previous seven matches.

Dwyer scored twice Saturday, giving him four goals for the season, which leads the club.

“I feel great right now. I feel really confident in how I’m playing, and I feel like I’m in the best form of my life,” Dwyer said. “I’m fitter than I’ve ever been. I’m stronger. I’m mentally ready. I feel like everything is in place.”

Bieler, meanwhile, is still searching for his first goal of the season after leading the team with 10 last year.

• Graham Zusi wore soccer cleats honoring his former youth soccer coach, Curt Miller, who passed away last weekend.

Zusi scripted “RIP Curt Miller” on one shoe and “Matt 5:4” on the other, representing a Bible verse from the book of Matthew: “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

Zusi traveled to Florida on Wednesday to attend Miller’s funeral.

“He was a very close family friend,” Zusi said. “In coaching soccer, he was also extending the life lessons that you didn’t necessarily pick up on then, but when you’re older, you notice them and appreciate them.”

• Uri Rosell served a one-game suspension Saturday after picking up a red card against Real Salt Lake on April 5.

Lawrence Olum started in his place in Sporting KC’s defensive midfield.

Rosell was sent off in the in the 83rd minute against Real Salt Lake after being shown a red card for a dangerous challenge.

This story was originally published April 19, 2014 at 11:12 PM with the headline "Overland Park shooting victims remembered before Sporting KC match."