On Tuesday night French champions Montpellier opened their American tour with a 3-0 victory over Sporting Kansas City. Gaetan Charbonnier opened the scoring with his first goal for his new club and in the second half Argentine striker Emanuel Herrera added two more goals to his pre-season account. Although it was against a second string Sporting side Rene Girard would have been pleased with his sides performance.
Our man in Kansas City Stephen Skiles took his place at Livestrong Sporting Park to watch Montpellier take on his hometown club. Let Stephen guide you through his match-day experience.
It was a rather steamy evening in the Livestrong Sporting Park last night. As you’ll see from the photos there were a lot of empty seats. I’m sure the 104 degree kick-off temperature along with the fact that, honestly, many people in my area aren’t familiar with Montpellier, kept the crowd total down.
Sporting KC’s reserves held their own for the first half against what I thought was a very strong Montpellier starting line-up. First-half notables for Montpellier were Mapou Yanga-M’biwa, he was incredibly composed and always in control of the backline. I was really looking forward to seeing Younes Belhanda play but, from my perspective, he was very quiet in the first half… at times, barely noticeable.
Clearly, Rene Girard is still trying to work out his best XI with all of Montpellier’s recent additions. Gaetan Charbonnier got the start and was somewhat isolated until he scored on a very well-taken diving header. Once Charbonnier gets his feet under him, I think he will be very tough to handle.
From my vantage point in the stands, the most impressive player of the night was Remy Cabella. That’s saying something considering he only played for the final 30 minutes of the match. Despite the cameo appearance, Cabella put on a show. He really seized control in midfield, used his speed well, and linked up nicely with two other recent signings for Montpellier… Emanuel Herrera and Anthony Mounier. The squad looks quite good. Girard has done well to replace Giroud.
Anyone that watched the game on Sporting KC’s YouTube channel would hopefully been impressed with the game presentation, everything my local club does is top notch. So much so, in fact, that other MLS teams and even some Major League Baseball and NFL teams (Dallas Cowboys) have visited Livestrong Sporting Park to study their methods.
One of the things Sporting does is find some unique presentation / music to play right before the opponent’s line-up is introduced. For Montpellier, Sporting chose to play the “Be our Guest” clip from Disney’s “Beauty and the Beast”… rather funny indeed.
All in all, it was a great night. I even got to hear La Marseillaise performed live!
Oh! Be on the look-out for a photo of the International Man of Mystery, John Utaka, shooting wide.