Your MLS SuperDraft winner: Sporting Kansas City

SD has a list of early winners at the 2013 SuperDraft, a list which I agree with for the most part. (The dude is so smart.)

But I think he missed out on one squad: Sporting Kansas City.

The highest-point-getter in the Eastern Conference had a wonderful first round, snagging Mikey Lopez with the 14th pick. Some thought he would go as high as No. 2 to Chivas, but the crafty midfielder who is a fixture on Tab Ramos’ U-20 squad slipped.

The 19-year-old is young, but he sounds like he knows what he’s getting into and he has had some good advice. “My parents said I looked ready on the field,” Lopez said prior to the Combine. “It felt like a good time for me to start my pro career. At a young age, I’ll be able to have a longer career and be able to move out of the States a lot sooner than if I were to stay longer in school.”

Elsewhere, but not related to the draft, is the fact that SKC scored a jersey sponsor after the disastrous Livestrong experiment. Ivy Funds, an Overland Park company, will lend their name and logo to the uniforms in 2013.

“They offer us everything we wanted, with the key attribute being local,” Sporting Club CEO Robb Heineman said in a statement. “Local was always the thing that was going to be most important to us in a jersey sponsor and then innovation. Ivy Funds has proven that they’re an innovator in their field. We wanted something that connected to our community in a large way and that’s exactly what this relationship is going to allow us to do.”

Doesn’t Aurelien Collin look nice? You now what will make him look even better? Holding MLS Cup in 2013.