First professional match in the all-important holding midfield role?
No sweat for 18-year-old Sporting Kansas City Academy product Gianluca Busio.
In Friday's showdown against Minnesota United FC at Allianz Field, Busio thrived as Sporting's No. 6 in a 2-1 victory that lifted Manager Peter Vermes' men four points clear atop the Western Conference standings.
The performance landed him a spot on the MLSsoccer.com Team of the Week bench and, perhaps more notably, drew significant praise from Vermes after the match.
“There was a guy who was a pretty good player in his day. His name was (Andrea) Pirlo and he played as a deep-lying playmaker. I thought Busio was excellent today,” the Sporting manager said. “He gave us something a little different in the game. His work ethic, his ability to win balls, he got out of a lot of stuff, he connected to the group – all without a lot of training in that spot. He did a really good job and adjusted to the position very well and was effective.”
In addition to becoming the youngest MLS player to log the full 90 minutes this season, Busio completed a team-high 43 of 47 passes at a 91.5% clip and led all players with five interceptions. He also connected on all four of his long-ball attempts, had a game-high 14 successful passes in the attacking third and created a scoring chance.
Busio and Sporting (5-1-0, 15 points) will look to extend their lead at the summit of the West on Tuesday when they host the Houston Dynamo (0-2-4, 4 points) in the first MLS match at Children's Mercy Park since March 7. The winless Dynamo took a 4-0 defeat that night and will hope to avoid a similar fate this time around against a streaking Sporting side.
Kickoff on Tuesday is set for 7:30 p.m. CT with live coverage on FOX Sports Kansas City Plus, FOX Sports Midwest Plus, FOX Sports GO, Sports Radio 810 WHB and La Grande 1340 AM.
