KC Current Transfer, Two SKC International Call-Ups, Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond in FIFA

Sep 22, 2022 - 12:00 PM

There are plenty of Kansas City soccer stories that don’t get the attention they deserve, let’s get caught up.

Maddie Nolf Sold to Rangers

The Kansas City Current are always wheeling and dealing. Their front office have made so many critical moves between acquiring players, drafting well and sending away players for good value (we still miss you Victoria). This is another occurrence of the latter.

On Tuesday the Current announced they traded Madeline (Maddie) Nolf to Rangers WFC in Scotland. Maddie was drafted in the third round of the 2019 NWSL draft by the Utah Royals. She only had three appearances in 2022, including two starts and 136 minutes. The team is just so deep, she can’t get on the field. Considering her contract was expiring after the season and there are only two games to go, selling her for a transfer fee (one assumes a modest one) is good business.

Best of luck to Maddie in the Scottish Premier League. She actually already made a gameday roster yesterday (h/t to Mike Kuhn for finding all the details).

Marinos Tzionis Called Up

MLS is currently in their international break and a couple players will be joining their national teams. First up is winger Marinos Tzionis who will join Cyprus for two group stage matches for UEFA Nations League C.

Cyprus are currently last in their group and trying to avoid relegation. Here are their two matches:

• Saturday, Sept. 24 vs. Greece | 1:45 p.m. CT | AEK Arena in Larnaca, Cyprus
• Tuesday, Sept. 27 at Kosovo | 1:45 p.m. CT | Fadil Vokrri Stadium in Pristina, Kosovo

SportingKC.com has much more on his international career.

Logan Ndenbe Joining the Belgium U-21s

While it’s not his senior national team (it’s freakin’ Belgium!), Ndenbe will also get some minutes over the break for a series of friendlies against two other great soccer nations: the Netherlands and France. Here are the details:

• Friday, Sept. 23 vs. Netherlands U-21 | 10:30 a.m. CT | Leuven, Belgium
• Monday, Sept. 26 vs. France U-21 | 2 p.m. CT | Valenciennes, France

SportingKC.com once again provides more background on Ndenbe’s international experience.

EPB Called Up

It’s not technically Sporting KC news anymore, but Erik Palmer-Brown is a Kansas City kid. He was called up as an injury replacement, along with Mark McKenzie, to replace Cameron Carter-Vickers and Chris Richards in United States Men’s National Team camp. This is the final camp before the 2022 World Cup in Qatar so it could be a chance to impress and steal a spot.

• Friday, Sept. 23 vs. Japan | 7:25 AM CT | Dusseldorf, Germany
• Tuesday, Sept. 27 vs. Saudi Arabia | 1:00 PM CT | Murcia, Spain

Bonus Links:

• The USMNT U-20s are also in action in the Revelations Cup in Mexico City. They will play Peru, Mexico and Uruguay, which are all good tests. No Sporting players earned the call, which will hopefully serve to motivate Kayden Pierre even further as the team builds towards the 2023 U20 World Cup.
• MLSsoccer.com has a couple series of stories for team’s eliminated for the playoffs. First, Matt Doyle does his “what this season meant” series. I don’t think he’s that far off base, but to say Pulido and Kinda wouldn’t have made any difference when their direct replacements have sparked this team to be top three in the league in the last month feels laughable. I understand the defense was poor, but if you score a lot more goals you aren’t pressing so hard and pushing numbers forward, as evidenced by this last six weeks or so.
• Then Tom Bogert asked three big questions, one of which the Shades of Blue guys already answered.
• Ted Lasso and AFC Richmond are in FIFA 23. They are going to convince me to buy this for some of this nonsense, aren’t they? (Despite those questionable ratings they gave Sporting KC.) The game comes out next week on the 27th.