The goal was to get Graham Zusi a half-hour on the pitch in his preseason debut. Sporting Kansas City's DP winger exceeded that on several counts.
Zusi started and went 34 minutes in his return from a Grade 4 stress reaction in his right foot, capping his appearance with Sporting's first goal in a 3-2 Desert Diamond Cup win over Seattle on Saturday night in Tucson, Arizona.
“It felt good to be back out there,” Zusi told reporters in a conference call after the match. “It was my first competitive match since the end of the season last year. It was exciting to be out there with the guys and a nice test for me physically. I thought I responded pretty well.”
Manager Peter Vermes, who has taken a cautious approach to bringing Zusi back from the injury, was glad to see the sharp outing from the US international and World Cup veteran – and not just his finish past Stefan Frei after a long, beautifully-placed pass from midfielder Benny Feilhaber.
“He gives us something different that you can't replace when he's not out there,” Vermes said earlier in the conference call. “He was very good for 30 minutes. What was really good was his transition from defense to attack. That was excellent. As much as I think the team is playing very well, we're very dangerous, especially on the counter.”
The next step, both said, will be to increase Zusi's minutes until he's fully ready for Sporting's season opener against the New York Red Bulls – the team that knocked them out of the 2014 Eastern Conference playoffs – on March 8 (7 pm ET, Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes).
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Kansas City play next on Wednesday against Real Salt Lake, in the preseason tournament's group-stage finale.
“We'll want to keep increasing his minutes,” Vermes said. “Maybe we'll go 60 or 75. We'll look at that in the next couple days here.”
Steve Brisendine covers Sporting Kansas City for MLSsoccer.com.
