Local Media Picks Up on Stadium Delay

NBC Action News here in KC has picked up on the continued delays in the process to get Bannister Mall torn down so that the Wizards stadium and a new shopping area can go in. As I've stated previously, the project is only needing one final approval before construction on the site can begin. Once that is done, then the construction on the stadium can actually begin. The article says that Lane4 will need to provide more detailed information about the project. So we'll see how the meeting on the 30th goes, but some people are already very frustrated that a project that many fans thought would start in June has now been pushed back to starting sometime this fall.

Zavagnin Interview

Thad has posted the second player interview, this time with Kerry Zavagnin. Some good answers from Zavagnin this time from what you guys asked and some that we had as well.

Vermes turns down Galaxy

Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes will remain with the Wizards. Bob Luder is reporting that Vermes had been offered the job of GM with the LA Galaxy, following the firing of Alexi Lalas. Vermes turned the position down. Honestly I can't blame him for it. The situation in LA is a circus and almost a no win situation for the man that takes the GM position. While in KC, Vermes likely has more time to work with than he would have if he was in LA. That's not to say that KC doesn't expect to win now, but OnGoal and their current strategy with the team seems to allow Vermes more time to work in his position.

In LA he would have been under pressure from AEG from the get go to help Bruce Arena put a winning team on the field immediately. All while handicapped a bit with the salaries of Beckham and Donovan. It just doesn't seem like the best position for him to walk into, and it's not overly surprising he turned it down.

Reserves Top Creighton

Not much to say about this one, Hillcrest Road has a small write up, including the starting lineup for the reserves. Creighton's website has a little bit more, including the time of the Wizards lone goal, in the 86th minute by Ivan Trujillo from Creighton alum, Michael Kraus. Unfortunately that's about all the info you can get from the two write ups on the game.

Interview Poll Number 2

The Back Post and myself are getting ready for the second interview with a player. Like last time, you, the fan get to vote on who you think we should interview from the choices we have listed. You can vote both here and on The Back Post, so get in your vote for who you think should be interviewed. Here are your options this week:

Michael Harrington - The Wizards goalscorer in Colorado this past weekend.

Kerry Zavagnin - Set the all time league starts record for the Wizards and passed 25,000 career competitive minutes with the Wizards.

Other - Someone else, if you want someone else, write it in in the comments to this post.

Remember to put questions into the comments section as well.

Sunday (Now Monday) After Stats

Ok, wanted to get these out today before I went to bed after getting back from Colorado, here are a few stats after this weekends game.

Last night's game was Kevin Hartman's 50th game in league play with the Wizards. Hartman has played in every minute of every league game since coming to the Wizards for 4500 minutes.

Jimmy Conrad played in his 144th MLS match with KC, tying him with Matt McKeon for 7th on that list.

Michael Harrington is the only player to play in all 23 of the Wizards competitive games this season.

Jack Jewsbury hit the 9500 minute mark in all competitive games.

Kerry Zavagnin hit another milestone this week. Along with breaking his tie with Nick Garcia for most league games started (225), Zavagnin becomes the first Wizards player to go over 25,000 minutes in all competitions.

Here are some other stats from the Wizards release on the game.

Hartman is only 37 saves behind Tony Meola's saves record of 1136. His next save will be Hartman's 1100th.

Hartman has also played 26,235 minutes over his MLS career, only 7 behind Chris Henderson for 2nd on the all time list.

The Road is Not Our Friend

The Wizards continue to have their trouble on the road as they put in a lackluster effort and fell in Colorado 2-1. Overall, the performance was another poor one, as a struggling Colorado side dominated the Wizards for long stretches of the game.

Colorado were pressuring from the beginning and were able to get the opening goal through Conor Casey. After the goal, the Wizards started to play a little better, as Sasha Victorine had the Wizards best chances, in the end a rebound from one of his shots fell to Michael Harrington who put the ball away to even the score and take the Wizards into half time tied 1-1.

The Wizards didn't come out to play to start the second half, and Colorado made them pay as Casey got his second goal of the game muscling Jimmy Conrad off the ball and beating Kevin Hartman. Throughout the rest of the second half, the Wizards had trouble mustering anything on the attacking side of the field. The attack continues to struggle, and San Jose has almost passed them for the lowest scoring team in the league. And while other teams down by the Wizards at the bottom of the table (San Jose, New York, etc) have brought in multiple players to try and improve their team, the Wizards have only brought in Wolff. And with the MLS transfer window closed, they'll have to try someone in the league to fill that final roster spot, if they choose to actually fill it.

The Wizards website has put a good spin on the game, as it's only the Wizards second loss in 9 league games. What they don't tell you, is that of the 27 points available to the Wizards from those games, the Wizards have only picked up 13, less then half.

Wizards Man of the Match - Michael Harrington - I struggled to pick someone for this game, but I'll go with Harrington since he got a goal, but that's about it for the highlights of this game.

Stadium Update

A quick stadium update. The Wizards, OnGoal and Lane4 only have 1 hurdle left in getting the funds to begin construction of the Bannister Mall area, that includes building Hillcrest Road for the Wizards. That last hurdle was to petition the release of those funds from the Department of Economic Development. Their next meeting was supposed to be August 19th.

Unfortunately, a poster on bigsoccer posted that the meeting had been canceled. As the poster says, it doesn't mean that the funds for the stadium will not be released. It's likely because a member of the committee had another commitment on that day and could not make the meeting. The next meeting is apparently on September 30th, and the meeting will take place in Kansas City.

It's another minor delay, but all these minor delays are starting to push the demolition of the mall back. Originally construction was to start in June, now we're looking at early October before we can even begin to tear the mall down.

Head for the Rockies

The Wizards head west down I-70 to Denver to take on the Colorado Rapids tomorrow night. The Wizards come in after holding off Chivas USA 3-2 at home last Saturday, while Colorado comes in having lost 1-0 at home against Toronto FC. Colorado's fans' spirits are low with the way that the team has been planning and that Coach Clavijo is still in charge of the team after their poor performance of late. He likely won't be in charge tomorrow, though, as he has left the team to attend to family matters. For this game, the Rapids will also be without Colin Clark, who picked up a red card against Toronto FC.

The Wizards are probably their most healthy since the beginning of the season, with only Jonathan Leathers on the injured list currently. That said, I don't expect Onalfo to deviate from the lineup that he put out to start the game against Chivas (they scored 3 goals, you can't really argue with that).

Hartman
Jewsbury - Conrad - Hohlbein - Marquess
Harrington - Victorine - Zavagnin - Lopez
Arnaud - Wolff

PREDICTION - The Wizards haven't won on the road since the beginning of that long 6 game road trip to begin the season. Now, against a disheartened Colorado side would be a good time to double that total. They'll need to be stronger on defense than they were last week against Chivas, especially late. Colorado still has Christian Gomez, who if Zavagnin, Victorine, or Morsink don't watch, will torch us.

KC - 2 (Lopez, Wolff)
CO - 1 (Gomez)

Wolff's Salary and Former Wizards Update

Earlier today, Steven Goff with the Washington Post posted some of the salaries for some of the recent additions to MLS. His original post didn't have the salary for the Wizards latest signing, Josh Wolff. In a later post today, he does have Wolff's salary. Wolff's full season salary is $200,000. That is right around where I had expected it to be, as he's a returning US international. Is that too high a price to pay for Wolff, a forward who coming in had scored only 2 goals in a season and a half playing as a right winger in the German second division?

Wolff has shown good since coming to KC, while he only has one goal, he's been able to combine well with Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez to help make KC more dangerous.

OTHER NEWS
Some other news, this time about former Wizards. First, last seasons MVP, Eddie Johnson, was named to the preliminary roster for the upcoming World Cup Qualifier against Guatemala. Johnson joins Fulham FC teammate Clint Dempsey, Brian Ching, and Landon Donovan as the 4 forwards on the roster. Still no Kenny Cooper which is still the most puzzling thing about Bradley's roster choices.

In other former Wizards news, former first round draft pick, Matt Taylor has signed with TUS Koblenz on the German Bundesliga 2. Taylor, who was picked up by Chivas USA in the expansion draft had been playing with Hollywood United after being released last year by Chivas, and finishing the season with the Portland Timbers.

Zavagnin Retiring

Rumors that had been swirling all season have finally been proven true, Wizards midfielder, Kerry Zavagnin will retire at the end of the season. Zavagnin, the Wizards all time leader in games and minutes played won an MLS Cup and MLS Supporter's Shield in 2000 along with a US Open Cup title in 2004, when he was also selected to the MLS Best XI team. It's been a great run for Zavagnin, who is a huge fan favorite, and one of the all time great Wizards players. Zavagnin also made 21 appearances for the US Men's National team in his career.

Thad has some audio from today's Wizards press conference where he announced he was retiring.

Arnaud Interview

Wizards midfielder/forward Davy Arnaud was the winner of the poll done by myself and The Back Post as to who should be interviewed. Thad over at the Back Post now has the first part of that interview up for you to listen. A very good interview with the questions you asked in the comments section answered. Once Part 2 of the interview is up, I'll add that to this post. And part 2 is now up, including Davy's response to comments Jimmy Conrad made in his blog.

New Trialist with Wizards

photo courtesy of Thad Bell

The Wizards have a new trialist out at practice this week. His trial started on Sunday, when he played the second half against Rockhurst in the reserve game. He was out at practice today and competed in a 6 on 6 tournament. From his play in the friendly, he's a forward. He is supposedly from African, but I don't know if he's currently under contract to a team or not. If he is currently under contract, the Wizards have until Friday when the secondary MLS transfer window closes. If anyone recognizes him, feel free to leave a comment letting me know who it is.

Overall, in the game against Rockhurst, he played well but not amazing, he set up one of the goals and showed some good moves on the ball.
photo courtesy of Thad Bell