Roger Espinoza

Roger Aníbal Espinoza Ramírez (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈroʝer espiˈnosa]; born 25 October 1986) is a Honduran footballer who currently plays for Sporting Kansas City in Major League Soccer. Capable of playing both as a defensive midfielder and as a wing back, Espinoza has represented Honduras at two World Cups and the Summer Olympic Games.

Club career

Youth and College

Born in Puerto Cortés, Espinoza moved from his native Honduras to Denver, Colorado when he was 12 years old. He attended Denver South High School before transferring to Regis Jesuit High School in Aurora, Colorado.

He played two years of college soccer at Yavapai College, spending one season with the Arizona Sahuaros of the National Premier Soccer League in 2006. In 2007, he transferred to Ohio State for his junior season. That season, Ohio State advanced to the national championship game of the College Cup. Espinoza scored in the 12th minute, but Ohio State lost to Wake Forest, 2–1. In his one season at Ohio State, Espinoza was named first-team All-Big Ten, second-team all-region, and earned a spot the NCAA College Cup All-Tournament Team.

Kansas City metropolitan area

The Kansas City metropolitan area is a 14-county metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri that straddles the border between the U.S. states of Missouri and Kansas. With a population of 2,393,623, it ranks as the second largest metropolitan area with its core in Missouri (after Greater St. Louis) and has a population in Kansas larger than the Wichita metropolitan area. Alongside Kansas City, the area includes a number of other cities and suburbs, the largest being Overland Park, Kansas; Kansas City, Kansas; and Independence, Missouri; all over 100,000 in population.The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) serves as the Council of Governments and the Metropolitan Planning Organization for the area.

Geographic overview

The larger Kansas City Metropolitan Area as seen on a map can be visualized roughly as four quadrants:

The northeast quadrant of the map is locally referred to as "north of the river" or "the Northland". It includes parts of Clay County, Missouri including North Kansas City, Missouri. North Kansas City is bounded by a bend in the Missouri River that defines a border between Wyandotte County, Kansas and Clay County, Missouri running approximately North-South and a border between North Kansas City, Missouri and Kansas City, Missouri running approximately East-West. The sharpest part of the river bend forms a peninsula containing the Kansas City Downtown Airport.

Sporting Kansas City

Sporting Kansas City is an American professional soccer club based in Kansas City, Missouri, playing its home games in Kansas City, Kansas. The club competes in the Western Conference of Major League Soccer (MLS). They are one of the ten charter teams having competed in the league since 1996. The team was founded by Lamar Hunt in 1995. Since moving across the state line, they have been the only major professional sports league franchise to play their home games in Kansas.

For the majority of their existence, the franchise were known as the Kansas City Wizards. The team rebranded in November 2010, coinciding with its move to their home stadium, now known as Children's Mercy Park. The franchise has won the MLS Cup twice (2000, 2013), the Supporters' Shield in 2000, and the U.S. Open Cup in 2004, 2012 and 2015.

The club also has a reserve team, Swope Park Rangers, that plays in the third-tier United Soccer League.

History

The early years: 1996–1999

The Kansas City MLS franchise was founded by Lamar Hunt, who was also the founder of the American Football League, the Kansas City Chiefs, the United Soccer Association, and Major League Soccer. The Kansas City Wiz played their first game on April 13, 1996, defeating the Colorado Rapids at Arrowhead Stadium, 3-0. The Wiz players included Preki, Mo Johnston and Digital Takawira, and were coached by Ron Newman. The team finished 5th in the 1996 regular season with a 17–15 record, qualifying for the first ever MLS Playoffs. In the 1996 conference semi-finals, the Wiz beat the Dallas Burn in three games, winning the final game in a shootout, before losing the conference final to the Los Angeles Galaxy.

Roger

Roger is an English male given name and surname, from the Anglo-Norman French Roger, Rogier, which is itself derived from Germanic words (hroth, hruod and ger) meaning respectively "fame" and "spear". In Anglo-Saxon sources the name is first recorded, in the Dark Age epic poem Beowulf, as Hroðgar ("glorious spear-bearer").

The name is also found in the Netherlands in the form Rutger, and in German as Rüdiger. The Latin form, as used by a few medieval figures, is Rogerius. A Welsh variation is the family name Rosser.

Slang

Roger is also a short version of the term "Jolly Roger", which refers to a black flag with white skull and crossbones, formerly used by sea pirates since as early as 1723.

From c.1650 to c.1870, Roger was slang for the word "penis", probably due to the origin of the name involving fame with a spear. Subsequently, "to roger" became a slang verb form meaning "to have sex with"/"to penetrate".

In 19th century England, Roger was slang for the cloud of toxic green gas that swept through the chlorine bleach factories periodically.

Houston Dynamo

Houston Dynamo is an American professional soccer club based in Houston, Texas, United States. The franchise competes in Major League Soccer (MLS), in the Western Conference. The Dynamo originally played their home games at Robertson Stadium on the University of Houston campus until moving to their home stadium, BBVA Compass Stadium, during the 2012 season.

Houston Dynamo won the 2006 and 2007 MLS Cups in their first two years of the franchise's existence. In 2008, Houston became the first Major League Soccer club to secure a point on Mexican soil in the CONCACAF Champions League era.

The Dynamo is owned by Gabriel Brener, Jake Silverstein, Ben Guill, and world and Olympic boxing champion Oscar De La Hoya. The team's head coach is Owen Coyle.

History

The team was created on December 15, 2005 when the San Jose Earthquakes players and head coach Dominic Kinnear were relocated, due to AEG being unable to secure a soccer-specific stadium, even though this stadium would not be finished until 2012. Although all of San Jose's players and Kinnear moved to Houston, the team's name, logo, history and statistics were not transferred and remained inactive in San Jose until the Earthquakes were reactivated in 2007. The Houston Dynamo MLS home record attendance currently is 70,550, which was set in 2006.