Hohlbein Selected in First Stage of Re-Entry Draft

The first stage of the re-entry draft was today. The draft took a grand total of 5 minutes as all but two teams passed in the first round and those two passed in the second round. With the first pick, DC United selected Joseph Ngwenya of the Houston Dynamo. Heading into the draft a lot of speculation surrounded whether or not DC would use the first pick on Jimmy Conrad to help solidify their back line. Instead DC went for a cheaper option, and one to help their forward line that scored an MLS worst 21 goals last season.

The only other selection was by the Columbus Crew who picked up Sporting KC defender, Aaron Hohlbein. While everyone seemed to be predicting that Conrad would be the Wizards player selected, Hohlbein in the end made the most sense for most clubs, as he makes the league minimum $40,000 while also being fairly experienced making 43 appearances for KC in league play. Hohlbein's KC career looks to end with just under 3,500 minutes in league play (3,496), in 41 starts in those 43 appearances. He also scored two goals in the 2009 season for KC. In all competitions Hohlbein played in 48 games, 46 starts, and 3,945 minutes played. For the Crew he fills a much needed backup role in the center back position as they currently have Chad Marshall and Andy Iro to start but need to replace Eric Brunner who was taken in the expansion draft.

Now the teams have a chance to renegotiate with players not selected. This means that KC has a chance to renegotiate with Conrad and Josh Wolff. Overall I still thing it's unlikely that either one is going to be back next season playing in the new stadium in a SKC jersey. But we'll have to see over the next few days as the team has the ability to renegotiate through Monday.

Conrad and Hohlbein Join Wolff in ReEntry Draft

Today the full list of players that will be available for Wednesday's Re-Entry Draft. Along with Josh Wolff, whose contract option was not picked up, Jimmy Conrad and Aaron Hohlbein will be available in the draft as well. Conrad and Hohlbein are both out of contract, for the draft it means that both players can accept or reject a "bona fide" offer by the team that drafts them. If they reject it, the drafting team holds the player's MLS rights. As for Wolff, any team that drafts him will be taking on his current contract. The full list contains a number of former SKC players available for selection including Preston Burpo, Nick Garcia, Claudio Lopez, Khari Stephenson, Carey Talley, and Alex Zotinca. The draft will take place place at 1pm Wednesday. Players not selected will have until next Monday to negotiate a new contract with their old club. If they do not, the second stage of the draft will be Wednesday the 15th.

Looking at the list, no player really strikes me as currently being worth taking with the 8th spot and making a bona fide offer to.

Hohlbein Loaned Out

The Wizards have freed up another roster spot for the rest of the season today. The team loaned out defender Aaron Hohlbein to Miami Blues FC of the USSF division 2. This move, or something like it was coming, and you could really tell, especially after the signing of Nikos Kounenakis. Kounenakis gave the Wizards 5 central defenders on their roster, a number the team really didn't need. I had originally thought that Hohlbein might be waived to make room for Kounenakis, instead Santiago Hirsig leaving the team took care of that. As part of the loan, Hohlbein will start Miami's remaining 11 games, trying to help shore up a defense that has allowed a league worst 32 goals this season.

This season Hohlbein has only made 2 appearances (1 start) for a total of 111 minutes. Unfortunately his last game for the Wizards may have been his worst performance in a Wizards uniform as he played a roll in all 3 goals the Wizards gave up in their 3-0 loss to New York. Good luck to Hohlbein, hopefully he'll get plenty of minutes and come back ready to challenge more next season. As I mentioned this move does open up roster spot, meaning the Wizards now have 2 open roster spots after also loaning out Sunil Chhetri, so I don't think all the moves are done.

Career Years

A few of the Wizards players had career years this year. Here's a list of the players that are in at least their second year in the league and the career highs they hit this year.

Josh Wolff reached a career high in goals (11), games started (27), and minutes played in league play (2,348).

Claudio Lopez hit an MLS career high in games played (29), games started (28), goals scored (7), assists (8), and minutes played (2,501).

Aaron Hohlbein hit career highs in goals (2), games played (22), games started (22), and minutes played (1,867)

Lance Watson hit career highs in games played (20), games started (19), and minutes played (1,649).

Rauwshan McKenzie hit career highs in games played (5), games started (5), and minutes played (437).

Michael Kraus hit career highs in appearances (11), minutes (147) and goals (1).

Rangers Beat Creighton

The Swope Park Rangers started the fall portion of their "season" with a 4-2 win over the University of Creighton today out at the Swope Park training facility. You can follow the twitter updates of the game over at the Wizards twitter page. Here's the lineup that started the game.

Pardo
Leathers - Hohlbein - McKenzie - Marquess
Morsink
Myers - Zusi - Espinoza
Cristman - Thompson

From what I was told by people at the game, the Rangers had a few early chances, beating the keeper, but unable to beat the post. It was actually Creighton that grabbed the lead as they scored on a breakaway. The Rangers, though, came back as the half wore on through Adam Cristman. Cristman tied the game up as he rounded the keeper. He made it 2-1 soon after as Jonathan Leathers made an overlapping run and crossed to Cristman.

Swope Park made one change at half time, as Michael Kraus entered the game for Graham Zusi. Creighton made it 2-2 when one of their players intercepted a poor back pass. The Rangers made more changes as the half went on, as Josh White, Eric Kronberg, and Kevin Souter all entered the game as the half went on. Kraus put the Rangers up for good with a header at the back post to make it 3-2. They sealed the game when Aaron Hohlbein connected with a Souter corner kick and headed it into the net.

This was the second time the Rangers have played Creighton this season, as they tied 2-2 back in the spring.

Chances But No Finishes

The Wizards created numerous chances last night, tying a season high with 11 shots on goal, but could not beat Revolution goalkeeper, Matt Reis. The 0-0 result gave the Wizards a point, but with that many shots on goal, you would have hoped that KC could have put one of them away.

It was actually New England that started the game stronger, and almost capitalized. Less than a minute in, Kenny Mansally found himself free on the right side of the Wizards defense after a cross, but his shot was stopped by Kevin Hartman's foot and Hartman covered up the rebound. The game went back and forth for much of the first half. Michael Harrington had a decent look after a give and go, but couldn't get his shot over Reis. Claudio Lopez had a great opportunity to make it 1-0 KC when he took advantage of a poor back pass by New England, getting 1v1 with Reis, but Lopez couldn't lift his chip over the Revolution goalkeeper. Josh Wolff almost took advantage of a similar situation later in the half, but could not catch up to the header back by the Revolution defender.

In the second half, KC continued to threaten, as Jack Jewsbury had a couple chances that were both saved by Reis. New England had the best chance of the second half in the 75th minute when Edgaras Jankauskas touched a cross back across the face of goal to Nico Colaluca. Hartman had been pulled to the far post, so Colaluca had the full net to shot at, but put it wide of the near post. In the 79th, Wolff forced Reis into a good save after he flicked a cross on net. In the 81st, the game changed when Lance Watson was given a straight red for a tackle on Colaluca. The tackle didn't seem to be a red card worthy tackle, and even the Revolution announcers (who are notoriously bias for the Revolution) thought the tackle should have only warrented a yellow.

In the end, neither team found net and the teams each settled for a point. For the Wizards, they now earn a nice week off after having played 7 games in the last 20 days, 5 of which were on the road. The rest will give them time to work out the small knocks and hopefully get some of the injured players back to health.

Wizards Man of the Match - Aaron Hohlbein - Hohlbein did a good job yesterday of shutting down the Revolution attack. Hartman only had to make 3 saves, and outside of the first, the saves were routine. Hohlbein was able to Jankauskas fairly well in the second half as well, limiting him to really only one dangerous opportunity.

Player Ratings - Hartman 6, Watson 4, Hohlbein 6, McKenzie 6, Besler 5, Harrington 5, Hirsig 5, Jewsbury 4, Gomez 4, Wolff 5, Lopez 5. Subs Kraus 4, Morsink NR, Thompson NR.

Weekly Player Interviews

Here are this week's player interviews with this week's poll winners. This week both Herculez Gomez and Aaron Hohlbein were interviewed. Check them out. Sorry for the short post on this.

Sunday After Stats

Aaron Hohlbein's goal last night, was the Wizards 699th in all competitions, the Wizards next goal will be their 700th in all competitions.

Davy Arnaud's goal was his 37th in league play for the Wizards, breaking a tie with Josh Wolff for third place on that list. He's 2 goals behind Chris Klein for second.

Josh Wolff's 104th appearance for the Wizards in league playing, breaking a tie with Digital Takawira for 18th place on that list.

Also Wolff's 97th start for the Wizards in league play, tying him wtih Sasha Victorine for 15th on that list.

Wolff's 106th start in all competitions for KC, breaking the tie with Bo Oshoniyi for 15th on the all time starts list.

In the 73rd minute, Wolff passed Chris Brown to move into 16th place on the list of most minutes played in all competitions for the Wizards. He finished the game with 9,474 minutes played.

10 minutes later, in the 83rd minute, Wolff passed Sasha Victorine to move into 15th place on the list of the most league minutes played for the Wizards, Wolff finished the game with 8,627 minutes played for KC.

Jack Jewsbury's 110th start for the Wizards ties him wtih Jose Burciaga Jr. for 10th place on that list.

Jewsbury's 170th appearance in all competitions for the Wizards, ties him with Mo Johnston for 8th on the all time list.

In the 78th minute, Jimmy Conrad hit the 15,000 minute mark for KC in league play.

Putting the Foot on the Throat

When New England defender Emmanuel Osei received a red card in the 31st minute of last night's game between KC and New England the cheers from the crowd were joined with a few groans. As I've mentioned earlier, the Wizards have struggled to score when they're a man up. Last night, the Wizards finally did it, taking advantage of the man up to score 2 more goals and defeat the Revolution 3-1.

Kansas City started off strong, with Herculez Gomez forcing a strong save out of Matt Reis early in the first half. New England's early trips into the Wizards end led to some long throw ins that the Wizards did well to clear out. The way the game was going, an early goal was certainly coming, and in the 19th minute, the Wizards found the net. Davy Arnaud made a hard charging run, playing a give and go with Claudio Lopez. On the return from Lopez, Arnaud one touched the ball into the net ahead of New England midfielder, Pat Phelan. The lead didn't last long, as New England was able to get forward and earn a corner. Jay Heaps put a good shot on goal from the corner that was well saved by Kevin Hartman. Stever Ralston played the rebound from the shot to the back post where Sharlie Joseph met it, heading it past Hartman and leveling the score. Three minutes after the goal, Osei picked up his red card for retaliating to a foul commited by Lopez. Osei kicked out at Lopez and after Lopez got in Osei's face, Osei pushed the former Argentine international, earning the red card.

Five minutes after the red card, the Wizards took advantage. Herculez Gomez ran onto a great ball into the box. Gomez's original shot was saved by Reis, but the rebound deflected off midfielder, Jeff Larentowicz and into the net to give the Wizards the lead again. Unlike previous games when being a man up and going up a goal, the Wizards actually put the proverbial foot on the Revs throat and came down the field again and scored a 3rd goal only 3 minutes after the 2nd. A Lopez corner kick was flicked on net by Josh Wolff. Reis did well to punch the first shot away. Jimmy Conrad, though, headed the punch back in front of net, where Aaron Hohlbein had made a late run in and tapped the ball into the net to give the Wizards a 3-1 lead. KC shut down the Revolution for the rest of the first half and were comfortably into the half up 3-1.

In the second half, the Wizards continued to put pressure on the 10 man Revolution in the second half, creating more chances to try and extend their lead. Unfortunatley, Jack Jewsbury, Lopez, and Wolff all missed chances to make it 4-1. Lopez had what would have been a goal called back for being offside on a very close play. In the end, the Wizards never scored their 4th goal, but it wasn't needed, as the Revolution offense didn't really threaten KC's goal much in the second half. This as a whole was one of the best performances the Wizards have put together, Jewsbury, Gomez, Santiago Hirsig and others all had good games last night.

Wizards Man of the Match - Herculez Gomez - Gomez had a very good game last night, he was all over the field and was able to create multiple chances, including starting the play that led to Arnaud's goal and creating the own goal.

Honorable Mention - Jack Jewsbury, Davy Arnaud

Player Ratings - Hartman 6, Watson 6, Conrad 6, Hohlbein 7, Besler 6 Hirsig 7, Jewsbury 7, Arnaud 7, Gomez 8, Lopez 6, Wolff 6. Subs Harrington 5, Zusi 5, Morsink NA

Weekly Player Interview

Thad over at The Back Post has the interview with this week's poll winner, Aaron Hohlbein. It's a good interview where Hohlbein talks about the goal, the San Jose, the Seattle game, and if there's any pressure from Matt Besler for the starting spot. Speaking of Besler, who finished second in this past week's poll, Thad was also able to get an interview with him this past week. Besler talks about his first start and playing Seattle. Finally, third place finisher this week, Lance Watson was also interviewed by Thad this past week at practice. Watson talks about having played every spot on the field basically as well as the game and atmosphere awaiting the team up in Seattle this past week.

Cold, Windy, Wet, and a Win

It was a cold, wet, windy, miserable day out at Community America Ballpark today as the Wizards took on the San Jose Earthquakes. Rain and snow along with 40 mph winds made for a difficult game on the field for both teams as well as in the stands. The Wizards came out the quickest of the two teams and seemed to be the quicker to adjust to the elements as well. KC had the majority of possession to start the game and had a few chances early to take the lead. The best of those chances was when Josh Wolff put a low shot just wide of the net. In the 28th minute, though, Kansas City had their first lead of the season. Claudio Lopez played in a long corner that was controlled by Davy Arnaud. Arnaud controlled the ball and then shot. Joe Cannon made the original save, but was immediately forced to make another save. This time the ball fell to Aaron Hohlbein who had an open net to put the ball into for his first MLS goal.

Kansas City continued to dominate after the goal, but could not find the second goal in the first half. The domination by the Wizards continued in the second half as well, as San Jose was completely shut down in the offensive half of the field. Outside backs Matt Besler and Lance Watson did a good job of shutting down the Earthquakes attacks through Darren Huckerby and Arturo Alvarez. It took until the 78th minute, but Kansas City finally got their deserved second goal through Lopez. Herculez Gomez plalyed a long over the top from the right side of the field to the left, where Lopez ran onto it. Lopez took a few touches and then buried the shot low to Cannon's far post. San Jose put up a little more threat after the second goal, but not enough to really trouble the Wizards.

Wizards Man of the Match - Santiago Hirsig - Nothing really stat wise for Hirsig, but his ability to conrol the midfield played a huge part for Kansas City today. He's a calming influence and is able to put his foot on the ball and pick a player out.

Player Ratings - Hartman 6, Watson 6, Conrad 6, Hohlbein 6, Besler 5, Gomez 6, Jewsbury 5, Hirsig 7, Wolff 5, Lopez 5, Arnaud 6. Subs Kraus NR, Espinoza NR

Wizards Continue Early Success

The Wizards continued their early preseason success down in Florida today with a come from behind 3-2 win over the Chicago Fire. That's the good news, the bad news, is that in the first half, when the two teams were basically playing their first team, the Wizards fell behind 2-0 on goals by Brian McBride and Patrick Nyarko.

In the second half, the Wizards got on the board in the 49th minute thanks to Aaron Hohlbein who headed in off a corner from Kevin Souter. Four minutes later, the Wizards were level, after a combination between Davy Arnaud and Graham Zusi, Zusi was brought down in the box. Arnaud stepped up and put the penalty kick away. The winner came in the 70th minute, off another corner, this one by Zusi. Rauwshan McKenzie got to this one and headed it under the bar for the winner. Trialist, Ferenc Béres went the full 90 today.

Missing from the game were Roger Espinoza and Jack Jewsbury, who are still with their respective national teams, Adam Cristman, who sat out for precautionary reasons, Herculez Gomez, who is recovery from surgery, Akeem Priestley, who is still trying his luck abroad, and then Eric Kronberg, Doug DeMartin, and Matt Marquess.

Wizards Begin Preseason with Win

The Wizards won their first game of the preseason today, as they beat the US U-17 team 7-0 today down in Florida. Hillcrest Road has write ups on each of the goals and the lineups for each half. In goal for the U-17's was Wizards' Juniors' player, Jon Kempin. Players getting goals today were Kevin Souter and Aaron Hohlbein in the first half, with Nelson Pizarro, Chance Myers, trailist Ferenc Béres (more on him later) getting two, and Michael Kraus.

Absent from the game today were Herculez Gomez and Michael Harrington with injuries, and Jack Jewsbury and Roger Espinoza due to national team duty. Also absent, but not mentioned specifically were forwards Josh Wolff, Abe Thompson, and Adam Cristman, and back up goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg.

Expansion Draft Time

It's almost time for another one of those wonderful expansion drafts. This year the 14 current MLS teams will help stock the Seattle Sounders FC. Today teams had to turn in their list of protected players to the league. The Wizards list has now been published on Hillcrest Road. The only surprise on that list is a big one, Carlos Marinelli. Marinelli, who the Wizards signed last season is on the protected list. The same Marinelli that was involved in a practice confrontation with Coach Onalfo. That's a bit of a head scratcher, that he was protected over Ivan Trujillo, but since most fans expect both gone next season it's not totally surprising. It should say a lot about Trujillo that Marinelli, with all his baggage, is being protected over him.

As for who could possibly be taken by the Sounders, here are the players the Wizards have left unprotected; Kevin Hartman, Aaron Hohlbein, Michael Kraus, Eric Kronberg, Matt Marquess, Rauwshan McKenzie, Kurt Morsink, Boris Pardo, Nelson Pizarro, Ryan Pore, Abe Thompson, Ivan Trujillo, Tyson Wahl, Lance Watson, and Kerry Zavagnin.

The fact that the Sounders Technical Director is former Wizards player and coach Chris Henderson could certainly play a roll in whether or not the Wizards lose a player. There are a few players on that list that would be favorites to be taken; Kevin Hartman, Aaron Hohlbein, Kurt Morsink, and Tyson Wahl. Hartman could be a target in a draft and trade scenerio, as LA is looking for a new keeper to lead the team and getting Hartman back would certainly be an improvement for the Galaxy. Hohlbein would make a good pick for the Sounders as well, as Hohlbein started almost half the Wizards games in the center of defense last season and could certainly start for the expansion Sounders. The same is true for Wahl, who partnered with Jimmy Conrad for the rest of the games last season. Morsink could be taken if he impressed Henderson during his time here as an assistant coach, he can play as a holding midfielder and at times has shown a very good ability at passing the ball.

For those interested, here is the full list of players exposed for each team.

What do you think of the Wizards list? Who are we most likely to lose? And remember either Trujillo or Marinelli had to be protected.

Wizards Cruise in Friendly

The Wizards played a friendly today at their Swope Park training complex against the U-23 Arkansas Wizards. Hillcrest Road has a more indepth write up on the game. The Wizards, though, had no problem taking out their Arkansas counterparts, as they beat them 13-0. All healthy Wizards players got into the game and most played a half. The starting lineup for the friendly was the same as that for the game on Saturday against LA. The Wizards got goals from Davy Arnaud, Abe Thompson x2, Roger Espinoza, Jimmy Conrad, Claudio Lopez x2, Ivan Trujillo x2, Ryan Pore, Carlos Marinelli, Kurt Morsink, and Aaron Hohlbein. So everyone really got into the game.

Stats on Sunday

I'm starting a new little feature called "Stats on Sunday" (or whatever the day is after the game we play). Anyways, what I'll do, is break down some of the stats from the game. So here are some other stats from last nights game.

- The BIG one first, Kerry Zavagnin became the Wizards all time leader in minutes played in MLS matches, passing Nick Garcia. Zavagnin has now played 20,192 minutes in league play for the Wizards.

- Zavagnin started his 224th league game for the Wizards, tying him with Nick Garcia for the most league games started for the Wizards

- Davy Arnaud got his 150 start in all competitions for the Wizards. He's the 8th Wizard to hit that mark.

- Jimmy Conrad started his 142nd league match, which ties him with Mo Johnston for 5th on that list.

- 5 Wizards (Jimmy Conrad, Kevin Hartman, Claudio Lopez, Jack Jewsbury, and Michael Harrington) have started all 19 league games this season. Two of those players (Conrad and Hartman) have played every minute.

- Arnaud's goal last night was his 35th in all competitions for the Wizards he's 3rd all time on that list. It was also the Wizards 20th of the season.

- Sasha Victorine's goal put him into 11th place with 4 other players on the Wizards league goals list with 13. The goal also tied him with Jose Burciaga for 15th on the all competitions list with 15 goals in MLS play for the Wizards. It was also his 30th career MLS goal.

- Zavagnin's assist was his 20th assist with the Wizards, tying him with Josh Wolff for 6th on the league play list.

- Lopez's goal was his 5th goal in all competitions for the Wizards this year, which leads the team. He also tied Conrad for the MLS lead with 4.

- Both Aaron Hohlbein and Matt Marquess record their first point for the Wizards, both got assists last night.

They All Count

Photo courtesy of Alan Hainkel/CLP

Yes, it was an own goal, yes one of our players still haven't scored since Claudio Lopez against LA, but all that will matter in the end is that the scoreline says 1-0 with KC being on top. In a game that KC had the better of possession and the more dangerous of play, they could only manage 1 goal.

Winning the toss, KC made Salt Lake go into the sun in the first half, which helped to negate much of Salt Lake's offense in the first half. The hope had to have been to get the ball high and make Nick Rimando look into the sun. KC couldn't create a clean chance though. In fact, the best chance of the half was when Kenny Deuchar got in behind Jimmy Conrad and Aaron Hohlbein. Deuchar's shot was fairly tame, though and taken care of by Kevin Hartman.

In the second half, KC continued to have the better of play, but their shooting had not improved as most of their chances went high or wide. One of the best didn't even count as a shot, as Davy Arnaud put a cross into Claudio Lopez at the back post. Lopez headed the ball back across the face of goal, but was just a little to high for Jack Jewsbury who had made a late crashing run into the box. The introduction of Carlos Marinelli also helped to give more play to KC, as he played like someone who was looking to get his starting spot back. He was actually fairly quick on the ball and playing very smart. Another sub, Chance Myers, also missed a glorious chance, as a cross came to him all alone at the back post, he was able to trap it down, but he skied his shot well over the goal.

Finally, in the 89th minute, just when it looked like KC would have their second straight 0-0 draw, and their 4th straight game without scoring, Davy Arnaud swung a free kick into the box. Conrad challenged for it with Tony Beltran, who got his head on it, but headed it into his own net to give the Wizards a deserved 1-0 lead. The entire second half, you could tell that if KC could get their shots on net that a goal was going to come, and it finally did. In fact after the goal, KC almost made it two, when Scott Sealy rounded Rimando but his shot was blocked off the line for an RSL defender.

Wizards Man of the Match - Jimmy Conrad - Yet another great battle with Kenny Deuchar, Captain Kansas City solidified the defense and helped to give KC their 3rd shutout in 4 games. Not a bad run for the defense, now if the offense would just start to pick it up, the team could begin to look dangerous.

Honorable Mention - Aaron Hohlbein, Jack Jewsbury

Potential Call Ups for U-23 Wizards

The Wizards may lose a couple of their U-23 players for the last game of this 6th game road trip on the 24th of May in LA. This is due to the fact that the US Under-23 team has been invited to the Toulon Invitational in France, May 20-29. According to Ives Galarcep, the tournament will be used to look at fringe players for the Olympics coming up later this year. With that in mind, US U-23 coach, Peter Nowak, could look to take as many as 4 Wizards with him, as Chance Myers, Michael Harrington, Aaron Hohlbein, and Jonathan Leathers have all recently been in camp with the U-23 team. Will all 4 get called in? Unlikely, but I could see 1-2 (Myers and Harrington) getting called in for the tournament.

No U-23 Problems for Wizards

It looks like the Wizards won't be missing any players for the upcoming trip to Argentina due to the U-23 Olympic qualifiers. The roster for the training camp pre-qualifiers was released toay. None of the 3 Wizards that have previously been called in recently to the team were part of the roster. That means Michael Harrington, Aaron Hohlbein, and Chance Myers will all accompany the Wizards team to Argentina tomorrow for the final leg of their preseason training.

Injury Update

Hillcrest Road this morning gives us an update on three of the Wizards players that picked up knocks, or didn't play against DC United on the 12th. The three players, Jimmy Conrad, Andrew DiCicco, and Aaron Hohlbein.

During the game, Conrad picked up a deep contusion on his upper arm, while DiCicco tweaked a leg muscle. Both had tests that ended up coming back negative. As for Holhbein, who did not play against DC United, the blog says that Hohlbein was rested, due to soreness, and was only done as a precaution. None of these injuries sound too serious, but it's nice that the team is willing to answer the concerns that fans had with the players.