The Swope Park Rangers (5-4-1, 7th place) will host Phoenix Rising FC (5-5-0, 8th place) at 4 p.m. CT on Sunday, June 18 at Children’s Mercy Victory Field in Swope Soccer Village.
Tickets for the Father’s Day outing are available online at SeatGeek.com or at the venue box office prior to kickoff. The USL Week 13 finale will be streamed live on SportingKC.com and can also be followed online via the USLsoccer.com MatchCenter.
The match-up will see SPR’s roster of young, emerging prospects take on a Phoenix Rising FC squad that features a veteran contingent whose careers have reached the highest levels of the game.
Didier Drogba, who won the Premier League for a fourth time with Chelsea in 2015 and scored against Arsenal in the MLS All-Star Game last summer, debuted for the club last weekend with a goal and assist in a 2-1 victory over Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2. The 39-year-old striker has played in the past three FIFA World Cups and is a co-owner of Phoenix Rising FC, one of 12 MLS expansion applicants.
Drogba is part of a formidable attack that also includes 37-year-old Omar Bravo and 35-year-old Shaun Wright-Phillips. Bravo is C.D. Guadalajara’s all-time leading scorer and represented Mexico at the FIFA World Cup before joining Sporting Kansas City in 2011. Wright-Phillips, the brother of two-time MLS Golden Boot winner Bradley Wright-Phillips, was a member of England’s 2010 FIFA World Cup team and scored his second goal of the season last Saturday.
Defensively, the club is led by 33-year-old Peter Ramage and 35-year-old Jordan Stewart, who have 120 career appearances in the Premier League combined. Phoenix also recently acquired Amadou Dia, a first round pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft who helped Sporting Kansas City win the U.S. Open Cup in his rookie season, and introduced new head coach Patrice Carteron as the team looks to snap a streak of 20 consecutive games across all competition without a clean sheet dating back to last year.
The Swope Park Rangers will be aiming for their first win in the all-time series when the visitors come to Kansas City for the first time on Sunday. Last year, the sides traded penalty kicks in a 1-1 draw in Arizona. This year, SPR fell behind 4-0 on the road in April before nearly completing an unprecedented comeback with three goals in the final 15 minutes.
SPR continued the late-game dramatics last week with a 3-1 home win over regional rivals Tulsa Roughnecks FC courtesy of two goals from Mark Anthony Gonzalez in second half stoppage time. The victory continued an impressive run of results in the month of June across the organization.
Sporting Kansas City remains atop the Western Conference standings with a 17-game MLS home unbeaten streak and advanced to the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup Round of 16. The Rangers picked up a point on the road at unbeaten San Antonio FC and moved into playoff position with last week’s 3-1 win. The Sporting KC Academy U12’s and U13’s qualified for the U.S. Youth Soccer Region II Championships from June 23-28 after winning Kansas State Cup titles, while the U16’s and U18’s concluded their regular seasons with emphatic victories and will now begin postseason campaigns in the U.S. Soccer Development Academy Playoffs on June 22.
In addition, Sporting Club celebrated the opening of the Wyandotte Sporting Fields in Kansas City, Kansas and six different players were selected for international duty, including three – Kevin Oliveira, Tyler Pasher and Erik Palmer-Brown – who have featured for the Swope Park Rangers this season.
Game 11
Date: Sunday, June 18, 2017
Kickoff: 4:00 p.m. CT
Location: Swope Soccer Village (Kansas City, Mo.)
Swope Park Rangers: 5-4-1 (16 pts), 7th in Western Conference.
MLS Affiliate: Sporting Kansas City
Phoenix Rising FC: 5-5-0 (15 pts), 8th in Western Conference.
MLS Affiliate: N/A
BROADCAST INFORMATION
Live Stream: The game will be broadcast on SportingKC.com and YouTube.com/USL
Talent: Dave Borchardt (play-by-play), Patrik Bergabo (analyst)
SOCIAL TAGS
Game-specific hashtag: #SPRvPHX
Swope Park Rangers
Twitter: @SwopeRangers
Instagram: @SwopeParkRangers
Phoenix Rising FC
Twitter: @phxrisingfc
Instagram: @ phxrisingfc
GAME NOTES
