KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Sporting Kansas City are down another center back, and still with no reinforcements due to arrive in the immediate future.
“We're closer,” manager and technical director Peter Vermes told reporters at Wednesday's weekly club news conference, a day before Erik Palmer-Brown's call-up to camp for the United States U-20 World Cup team. “Not close enough yet. Trying. We're trying.”
The young Homegrown defender and longtime Juventus target's call-up for the tournament, which starts May 30 in New Zealand with a match against Myanmar, came as no surprise.
“I pretty much knew he was going to go,” Vermes said, “so it isn't like this was something that came up.”
Indeed, U-20 coach Tab Ramos told reporters in a conference call on Thursday that Palmer-Brown has been assured of a berth in the squad since a 1-0 victory over Croatia last month in Austria.
“I think that at this point, that's all I needed to see because I know what type of player he is,” Ramos said. “I think this tournament is going to be a great experience for him leading into the next U-20 cycle.”
Expected or no, though, Palmer-Brown's absence leaves Sporting with just three available central defenders after Ike Opara's promising comeback season ended last month with a ruptured left Achilles tendon.
To add to those depth concerns, all three are playing right now and likely to start again in Saturday's away match against D.C. United (7 pm ET, MLS LIVE).
Matt Besler and Kevin Ellis (a converted fullback) have partnered at center back since Opara's injury, and Jalil Anibaba – brought in over the winter to back up Besler and Opara in central defense – is filling in at right back while Chance Myers (pictured at right) nears the end of a yearlong recovery from his own Achilles injury.
When he returns, that could free Anibaba to move back inside – but Myers also could provide help in central defense if needed, Vermes said on Wednesday.
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In the meantime, he said, Myers continues to expand his role in training and still is expected to be available again on June 1.
“His bottom line is that he's just about right now ready to enter training, where he's totally full, where a guy can go after him,” Vermes said. “A guy yesterday – we've had a couple of young kids just training with us, and they don't know Chance's situation, and the guy kind of hit him from behind a little bit.
“A couple of the coaches [said] 'uh-oh,' but he just kept playing. That's part of it. He's just going to have to start learning that piece as well. He's getting there.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
