Kempin leads U.S. U18 team to victory

UPDATE: Click here for the official match report from U.S. Soccer

Sporting Kansas City academy product Jon Kempin started and played the entire 90 minutes today in the United States Under-18 Men's National Team's 2-1 win over Georgia in the 2011 Northern Ireland Milk Cup. The win secured a third-place finish for the U.S. team, who went 2-0-1 at this year’s tournament after defeating Israel and drawing Mexico earlier this week. 

This was Kempin’s first appearance at the annual Milk Cup tournament, and the Sporting KC goalkeeper will now return to Kansas City to re-join his SKC teammates. Check back here as we will post photos and/or video highlights as they become available.

Kempin with U.S. U18s at Milk Cup

Sporting KC goalkeeper and former SKC Junior, Jon Kempin, is currently with the USMNT U18 side that will play for third place in the Northern Ireland Milk Cup on Friday. The team beat Israel 2-0 on Monday and came from behind to tie Mexico 1-1 on Wednesday. The US team will play Georgia for third place on Friday, and Kempin could get his first minutes of the tournament then. For scores and updates from the game on Friday follow @ussoccer_ynt on Twitter. For more Milk Cup news and information check out http://www.nimilkcup.org/.

US U-18 Mens Team Begin Northern Ireland Milk Cup

UPDATE: The U.S. defeated Israel 2-0 today on goals from Jerome Kiesewetter and Omar Salgado.

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The United States Under-18 Men's National Team will face Israel today at noon, and Mexico on Wednesday at 2 p.m. Head coach Mike Matkovich's squad will play it's final game on Friday, against an opponent to be determined.

Sporting Kansas City academy product Jon Kempin will begin today's game on the bench, behind GK Cody Cropper. For live play-by-play and in-game updates, be sure to follow the action on Twitter @ussoccer_ynt

Jon Kempin to play in Milk Cup with U.S. U-18s

Sporting KC goalkeeper and former Junior, Jon Kempin, has been named to the USMNT U18 roster for the 2011 Northern Ireland Milk Cup. Kempin is one of nine MLS players selected for the eighteen player roster. The tournament will be held from July 21st to the 30th. The U.S. team’s first game will be against Israel on July 25th, followed by a meeting with Mexico on the 27th.

Click here for an interesting article that compares Kempin to German great, Oliver Kahn.

GK Jon Kempin joins U.S. U-18 Men's National Team

Jon Kempin, a product of the Sporting Kansas City Juniors academy, is set to join the U.S. U-18 Men's National Team roster. Head coach Mike Matkovich announced on Wednesday that Kempin would be one of two goalkeepers on the roster for the upcoming Northern Ireland Milk Cup, scheduled to be July 21st-30th. Congrats, Jon!

Juniors return from Colorado with mixed results

The Sporting KC U16 and U18 Juniors squads returned from Colorado late Sunday night with mixed results. The U16 side pulled out a 1-1 draw against Real Colorado on Saturday, and defeated Colorado Rush AJ Auxerre 3-1 on Sunday. Saturday’s goal came from Eduardo Moreno who would also score in Sunday’s match. Wes White and Nate Opperman tallied the other two goals against the Rush on Sunday. With the positive results the Sporting KC U16’s remain in first place in the Central Conference’s Frontier Division. Sporting are now 5 points clear of Scott Gallagher and 6 points clear of the third placed Colorado Rapids with 11 games played.

The U18’s had a bit of a tougher weekend, dropping results to Real Colorado (1-5) and Colorado Rush (0-2). The lone goal for the 18’s came from Garrett Pulliam. Despite the losses to the first and third placed teams, Sporting remains second in the Frontier Division. Sporting full team goalkeeper, Jonathan Kempin accompanied the U18’s to Colorado, starting both games.

Wes White and Eric DeJulio were called up for the reserve match in Chicago tomorrow at 11am. Stay close to twitter as we’ll be tweeting live updates throughout the match.

USSDA Weekend Results

The SKC Juniors traveled to St. Louis this weekend for USSDA action. It was mostly a good trip for the teams as the U18s got back on track with two wins and two clean sheets. After a run of three straight poor results, it looks like they have things under control.

The U18s beat St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro 2-0 on Saturday and SLSG Missouri 3-0 on Sunday. This is a week after losing to the same Missouri team, 1-3 at home. Tom Adams came away with a goal in each match. Shane Bowlen, Garrett Pulliam and Will Witherspoon also scored on the weekend. Jon Kempin started in net both games and recorded two clean sheets, not a bad showing for the USA U18 call-up.

Photo Credit: Daniel Russell

The U18s now sit at third in the standings with the two weekend wins.

The U16s weren’t as successful, but were still able to pick up some road points. They beat SLSG Metro 2-0 and lost to SLSG Missouri 1-3. Nevertheless, the U16s were still able to retain their spot in first place.

After making his first appearance last week in over a year because of injury, Chris Tuso scored his first goal of the season on Saturday. Daniel Hare and Wes White were the other U16 scorers on the weekend with Jacole Turner picking up the clean sheet against SLSG Metro.