Josh Wolff to KC (Editorial)

So the news now is that Kansas City could be bringing back in former Wizard, Josh Wolff to try and help cure their scoring woes. Those woes include only scoring 10 goals this season, 1 less then Landon Donovan has himself. They also include a current scoreless streak of 320 minutes, and been shut out a total of 5 times, which is as many times they've shut out a team. The question is, would he be able to solve the Wizards problems? I personally have my doubts. Wolff has never been as great a scorer as many would have liked him to become. His career high in MLS is 10 goals. Not exactly a great strike rate for a guy that is supposed to help cure the Wizards scoring woes.

On top of that, Wolff has scored only 1 goal in the postseason in his entire MLS career. This includes a a seven year span from 98 to 04 where his team made the playoffs ever season. His lone goal was a PK in MLS Cup 2004. Not the type of scorer you want on your team in crunch time. Even when he was in Germany he wasn't lighting it up. In the season and a half he was in Germany he played 34 times and scored a total two times. Another sign that he's not the type of player that will cure the teams scoring woes. Then there is Wolff's injury history, he's never been a player known to stay healthy, and that will likely continue as he gets older.

So if I'm not in favor of Wolff, I probably should give some examples of who the team could get instead. One guy that isn't under contract to a team right now, is Nate Jaqua. Jaqua played last season with LA and Houston scoring 8 goals in 25 games between the two clubs. He helped to provide striker support for Houston as they made their way to their second straight MLS Cup. After the season he signed with SCR Altach in Austria where he scored 5 goals in 10 games with the club. Jaqua is also just starting to hit hi prime at 26, unlike Wolff who at 31 is likely past his prime. The one issue with Jaqua is that his rights are probably still held by Houston, so some draft pick would likely need to be traded to Houston for his rights.

Adam Cristman could possibly be pulled away from New England. With Kheli Dube, Sainey Nyassi, Kenny Mansally who can all play forward, and that's not even counting Taylor Twellman. The Wizards could possibly persuade the Revolution to part with Cristman for the right price.

Another option is to continue off of the work that Peter Vermes recently did in Hungary, and see if the team can find a good player through that route. Or go back to the well in Argentina and see if a player that impressed when playing against the Wizards in preseason would be available.

In the end, I just feel there are better options then a forward like Wolff who is getting older and past his prime. I also feel that a forward like Wolff is not the type of forward we need. We need a forward that can get on the end of crosses consistently with his head, a guy that can at least consistently hold the ball up. That's why I think a guy like Jaqua would be the way to go. He's still fairly young and I think would do well here with Claudio Lopez swinging the ball into him.

Wizards Drop Final Argentina Game

The Wizards lost their last game down in Argentina today, their first of the trip, 3-0 to Estudiantes. It was the team's first loss, since they lost to Toronto on their last preseason game in Florida. The team will be returning to KC tonight, and will be off until Tuesday, when the team will return to training at their Swope Park training facility. The starters played at least 60 minutes, and unless the paper work for Claudio Lopez gets done quickly, I'd expect this to be the lineup out on the field the 29th against DC United.

Hartman, Jewsbury, Conrad, Wahl (Hohlbein 60), Myers (Leathers 60), Zavagnin, Marinelli (Morsink 60), Pore, Harrington, Sealy (Colombano 60), Trujillo (DiCicco 60)

Wizards Reserves get Draw

The Wizards didn't play Boca or Velez, but they did play today. The reserves tied Tristan Suarez of the Argentine Third Division. It was an 80 minute game with mainly players that did not play in yesterdays game. Scott Sealy and Kurt Morsink were the only two who played yesterday that also played today. Suarez took the lead in the 50th minute. That strike was canceled out by rookie, Jon Leathers after a cross by Rauwshan McKenzie bounced around the box. Per the report on Hillcrest Road, Wizards goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg made key saves in the game. The Wizards are hoping that Kronberg will begin to challenge Kevin Hartman this season.

Here is the Wizards lineup:
Kronberg, Hohlbein, William, Kraus, Leathers, Souter, Lowery, Morsink (McKenzie 55), Troyano, Sealy (Santiago 55), Colombano (DiCicco 55)

Wizards Get Another Win

Another day, another Wizards win down in Argentina. The Wizards got their 5th win of the Argentina trip today against San Lorenzo, 3-0 today in a 70 minute game. Last year, the Wizards drew and lost to San Lorenzo, but the story was different this year. Ivan Trujillo scored two goals, and Carlos Marinelli got the third as the Wizards starters played the entire game, except Marinelli who subbed out in the 60th minute according to the Hillcrest Road report. The lineup looks to be the continued use of the 3-5-2 or more of a 3-4-1-2, with Pore playing in a role right behind the strikers would be my guess. Something like this:

Hartman
Jewsbury - Conrad - Wahl
Zavagnin
Myers - Marinelli - Harrington
Pore
Trujillo - Sealy

It's great to see more goals out of Trujillo, hopefully he can carry it through to the season and give the team a great lift up top along with Lopez and Sealy.

Wizards Take a Draw

The Wizards didn't score for the first time during their tour of Argentina this preseason. Today, the Wizards drew with Argentine second division side, Platense, 0-0. The game was divided into 3 30 minute periods today. Many of the starters played only about 30 minutes, with reserves getting the majority of the time. The starting line up was basically what you'd expect for the season opener, minus Kevin Hartman, Claudio Lopez and/or Scott Sealy. Eric Kronberg and Boris Pardo split time in net. After this results, the Wizards are 4-0-1 in Argentina and 5-2-3 in their preseason. Tomorrow the team plays San Lorenzo, and according to Hillcrest, the starters will get most of the time.

Rest of the Argentina Trip

The Wizards have released their weekly update for this week. In it, the team has released their schedule for the rest of their trip down in Argentina. The team has 4 more games schedule over the next 4 days. Tomorrow the Wizards will be playing Platense of the Argentine Second Division. Wednesday the Wizards will play San Lorenzo of the Argentine Primera Divsion. Last year, the Wizards reserves drew San Lorenzo 2-2, while the first team lost 2-1. Thursday's opponent is yet to be finalized, but is either going to be Boca Juniors, or the team will play Velez Sarsfield for the second time on this trip. Last year Boca defeated the Wizards 2-0. The Wizards final game in Argentina will be on Friday against LP Estudiantes, also of the Argentine Primera Division. After that, the Wizards will be returning to Kansas City, where they will train in KC on Tuesday the 18th in preparations for the Saturn Cup and the team's season opener against DC.

Wizards Win Again

The Wizards were supposed to play River Plate today, but for some reason they backed out at the last minute. Instead, the Wizards played Deportivo Moron. Moron plays in what amounts to the Argentine third division. The Wizards won 5-1, with two goals coming from new signing Ivan Trujillo. His first was a tap in, in the 8th minute. Carlos Marinelli doubled the lead in the 12th minute on an individual effort. Trujillo's second came in the 20th minute on another tap in, again set up by Scott Sealy. Jack Jewsbury made it 4 in the 36th on a free kick, before Moron pulled on back in the 40th. The Wizards made wholesale changes at half time, with everyone but Ryan Pore being subbed out at the half. In the 72nd, Eloy Colombano made it 5-1 on a header after a cross from Jon Leathers.

Finally we get some goals, even if it was against a lower league opponent. It's also great to see goals from the new signing Trujillo. Good news from the team today.

Wizards Win Again in Argentina

The Wizards came from behind for their second win of their Argentina trip today against Velez Sarsfield, coming from behind to win 3-2. The Wizards fell behind in the 13th minute, but equalized on a goal by Ryan Pore in the 21st off of an assist by Carlos Marinelli. They fell behind again in the 38th minute. At half time many changes were made to the team (full line up on Hillcrest Road), and went from playing a 3-5-2 to more of a 4-4-2 it looks like. The Wizards started their comeback in the 84th minute, when Eloy Colombano curled a left footed shot into the upper 90. Trialist Andrew DiCicco continued to make it hard for Curt Onalfo to not sign him as he scored the winner in the 87th off of a cross by Colombano. The goal was DiCicco's 3rd of the preseason, which leads the team. Included in that total is his goal in the split squad scrimmage. Here are the goal scorers for the Wizards this preseason.

Andrew DiCicco - 3
Carlos Marinelli - 2
Ryan Pore - 2
Kurt Morsink - 1
Lance Watson - 1
Eloy Colombano - 1

The team also announced in that release that the team will be playing River Plate on this Friday morning, and will be playing San Lorenzo on Tuesday. So the team will have at least 5 games on this current trip now.

Defensa y Justicia Game Back On

The game was canceled today due to the weather down in Argentina, but is back on now. The game will be played tomorrow down in Argentina. The Wizards have had to deal with the weather since they landed down in Argentina and have spent much of the time training indoors.

Lopez Deal Close

More news on the Claudio Lopez front. Steven Goff is reporting that the teams are very close to a deal and are ironing out details. According to Goff, barring any major problems late in the process, a deal could be announced later this week. Goff links to an Argentine article that talks about the ongoing process as well. According to the article that is linked, Lopez is currently in Buenos Aires having been introduced to the team and will join them for their continued preseason. The article also mentions two other teams that the Wizards will be playing while down there, Boca Juniors and River Plate. Last year, the Wizards played both teams last year on their trip down to Argentina, losing 2-0 to Boca and defeating River Plate 4-0 in their final game of the trip.

Preseason Game Canceled

The Wizards preseason game today against Eloy Colombano's former club, Defensa y Justicia has been canceled today due to the rain that has been falling almost constantly since the team arrived in Argentina.

Games in Argentina

The Wizards have announced two of the teams that they will be playing during their two and a half weeks down in Argentina. They're first game will be this coming Monday against Eloy Colombano's old team, Defensa y Justicia. The Wizards played them last year in a split squad game, with the first team drawing and the reserves winning 1-1 and 1-0 respectively. The second game will be this Wednesday, the 5th against Velez Sarsfield of the Argentine first division. The team has two more games planned for March 11th and the 14th, but those dates have not been set in stone and neither have the opponents.

Trujillo Deal Still Held Up, Roster for Argentina

Brad Porter on his Metrosports Wizards blog gave an update on the Trujillo situation on Friday that I missed. The Turjillo deal is still being held up by his P1-visa, ITC (International Transfer Card). He should be joining the team in about two weeks, but until then has apparently been training in Columbia.

Porter also says that the team wants to get their roster down to 30 by the time the team leaves for Argentina at the end of February. Right now, counting the 10 draft picks and roster from last year, the team has 30 players, but that's not counting Trujillo or any of the trialists, like Andrew DiCicco, so there is still plenty of fighting to do for spots.

Preseason Starts Tomorrow

For the majority of the Wizards, preseason training for the 2008 season will begin at the KC Sports Lodge in Independence, MO tomorrow. The team will train the next 3 days at the indoor facility, from 10 to 11:30 a.m. before leaving to continue their training down at Bradenton, FL, through February 16th. While down in FL, the Wizards will play 4 matches against Columbus, DC, Toronto, and Chicago.

After returning to KC, the team will train for about a week at either the training facility in Swope Park, or at the Sports Lodge depending on weather. The team will then depart for Argentina for a two and a half week training trip down there, returning on March 14th.

There will be at least 3 absences from the team, though to start training. Jimmy Conrad will be with the US Men's National team preparing for the game against Mexico. Chance Myers will be in camp with the U-23 team, while Will John is on trial in Denmark until the end of the month.

Wizards Preseason

The Wizards will return to Argentina this year for their preseason, in preparations for the 2008 MLS season.

The Wizards will report to Kansas City on January 26th to prepare for the preseason. They'll then leave for the warmer climates of Florida for training for the first half of February. After returning to Kansas City for a few days, the team will leave on February 27th for Argentina. That trip will be 16 days, and you can guess that they'll play friendlies against Argentine clubs like they did last year. According to the press release, that information should be out in a couple weeks.

Last year on the trip, the Wizards scouted two players that they eventually signed, Carlos Marinelli and Eloy Colombano. Coach Onalfo has already spent time down in Argentina this offseason scouting, and you can bet he'll be doing more while they are down there again in February and March. Will see what he comes back with this time.

Changes to MLS Foreign Player Rule

Steven Goff, over at Soccer Insider reported a few days ago that it looked like MLS was going to dumping their senior/youth international distinction for foreign players, instead going with a foreigner or not approach. According to Goff MLS teams will have 8 foreign slots with no age restrictions starting next season.

This change likely won't have much of an effect on the Wizards, though. Kansas City has rarely ever used their full allotment of SI and YI spots. Usually the Wizards have had anywhere from 3 to 5 of their international slots used at one time. This year, the Wizards only had 3 of their slots used, for Scott Sealy, Carlos Marinelli, and Eloy Colombano. So chances are extremely unlikely that the Wizards will fill those other 5 slots for next season.

I could, though, see the Wizards adding another one or possibly two foreign players to their roster next year. Especially with the news later on in that same Goff article about Coach Onalfo attending a scouting combine in Argentina.

Colombano Officially a Wizard

It has been officially announced today, the Wizards have announced the signing of Argentine forward/midfielder, Eloy Colombano. According to the article, Colombano will be wearing number 16. It will be interesting to see what he brings to the Wizards. Hopefully he turns out to be a signing this season like Juan Toja or Luciano Emilio and not like Luis Tejada

Ask and You Shall Receive, Colombano Update

A few days after I posed the question of what was going on with the Wizards and Eloy Colombano, I find out today that his signing is expected to be announced later today. It's taken them a while to get this done, but Colombano will apparently be ready to play next Sunday when the Wizards take on New England. Colombano will be classified as a Youth International under MLS rules.

We'll see how much playing time he gets once he joins the team. The question is, is he good enough to start up top with Eddie Johnson? If so, who from the midfield drops to the bench to make room for him? Honestly right now I'd drop Harrington for a few games, he seems to have hit a wall and is struggling a bit now. If not him than Sasha Victorine may be the odd man out.

School in Session

Coming into Copa America, everyone knew the match against Argentina would be a tough one for the young roster that Bob Bradley named for the competition. The US though played well in the first half, challenging for the ball and creating some chances. They even managed to grab the early lead, as Eddie Johnson was brought down in the box. Johnson converted the PK, and the US had an early 1-0 lead. That lead did not last long though, as all it seemed to do was wake the Argentine's up. A Juan Roman Riquelme free kick in the 10th minute was flicked into the box, where Kasey Keller appeared slow off his line to try and punch the ball away. This led to the ball bouncing around in the box, where Hernan Crespo finished it. The US though was able to show good defensive shape the rest of the half, bending but not breaking under Argentina's attack, including a great save by Keller on a Juan Sebastian Veron shot.

Just after the hour mark, things started to fall apart. The US looked tired and worn out from having to chance the Argentine's all over the field. Crespo scored his second in the 64th minute as he was able to get himself alone just outside the US box, and was found with a through ball by Lionel Messi. Argentina's third goal came in the 78th from Pablo Aimar, who scored on a header after out racing his defender, Ricardo Clark, into the box. To add insult to injury, the US conceded a fourth in the 85th minute. Substitute, yes I said substitute, Carlos Tevez beat the offsides trap, when Jay Demerit was slow to pull with the rest of the line. Tevez walked in alone on Keller and easy slotted the ball past him. The loss is the first for the US since the 2-1 loss to Ghana at the World Cup, and the first under Bob Bradley. That said, this was easily the hardest team the US has faced under Bradley.

It's hard to be overly disappointed with this result. Sure we got our butts handed to us after the hour mark, sure the US looked tired and worn out by then, but did anyone really have their hopes up for this match? I mean when I saw the lineup for the tournament, I almost immediately knew we were in trouble, if the US didn't care enough to send a stronger lineup, why should I care so much when the young lineup we put out there lays an egg? The 10 starting field players last night had a grand total of 140 combined caps. The majority of those cap coming from 4 players (Jimmy Conrad 21, Ben Olsen 35, Eddie Johnson 27 & Taylor Twellman 26), the rest of the starting lineup each had under 10 caps.

The 3 subs (Eddie Gaven, Kyle Beckerman, & Herculez Gomez) were even less experienced, with a grand total of 4 caps between the 3 coming in. Look at it this way, in the 79th minute, the US subbed in Beckerman for Clark, at the same time who did Argentina bring on? Tevez... Defenitely shows the difference in the quality of the 2 sides.

Update on Argentine

Robb Heineman has apparently let posters on bigsoccer know who the Argentine is that I posted about earlier today. The name of the mystery Argentine is Eloy Colombano. His profile up on the Defense and Justice site says he's a 24 year old, 5'9" forward. He joined Defense this past season from Estudiantes, where he'd played since 2001. Unfortunately, he does not have a wikipedia page, and I can't find much other information about him.