Bunbury Injury Update, Schedule Changes, and More

Along with the announcement of Kevin Ellis signing with the Wizards today, there was plenty of other news in the Sporting Kansas City world today.

The first is a bit of bad news, originally the speculation was that Teal Bunbury might not miss any of the regular season. Now that doesn't look likely at all. Word from the team today is that Bunbury will now miss four to six weeks for KC. This comes after Bunbury met with team doctors in Kansas City after returning from Arizona. This means that Bunbury is now more likely to miss the Chivas USA game and Chicago Fire game to start the season. There's also a potential that he could miss the team's first trip to Canada to take on Vancouver. This is a blow for KC and for Bunbury as it's certainly a blow in his hopes to fight for a Gold Cup spot with the US.

Sporting KC has also announced two schedule changes and three television changes as the league and FSC announced their new deal and FSC's 31 game schedule. KC will appear 3 times on FSC, all of which at Sporting Park. Two of those 3 games see KC moving the day of the game. KC's game against San Jose on Saturday, June 18th to Friday June 17th at 7:30. The team's second game on FSC is August 13th against the LA Galaxy. The team's final game on September 23rd was moved up a day from Saturday the 24th when KC will take on the Philadelphia Union. Those three combined with the home opener against Chicago give KC 4 national televised games.

In trialist news, Sheldon Bateau was released to head back to Trinidad. Bateau was one of three players along with Daneil Cyrus and Omar Colley from the team's Trinidad camp earlier this offseason. Bateau had captained the TnT U-20 team recently but has not done enough to impress. Bateau played mainly in the midfield it seemed during his time with KC and unfortunately doesn't look like he did enough to impress. In more trialist news, according to Gooch at The Full 90, Scott Lorenz is not going to joining the team for the second phase in Arizona, but according to Gooch Lorenz has not been released by the team. Lorenz had been playing left back for much of the preseason and had impressed enough that KC released second round draft pick, JT Murray early on in preseason. It's odd that the team has chosen to not officially waive him but yet he'll not be back for the second part of preseason.

Finally, check out the photos and video from James at Sporting Times from the stadium today. The stadium opening is getting closer and closer.

Remember Today

Remember today is a triple header of KC vs Chicago out at Community America today. The 3 games starts with the U-16 Wizards Juniors taking on the U-16 Fire Juniors. Following that is the main event, the Wizards vs Fire game that is also going to be on FSC. Pregame starts at 7pm on FSC and they want fans to be behind the FSC stand that will be on the party deck in right field. The night finishes with the "Win and You're In" US Open Cup Qualifier between KC Athletics and AAC Eagles. The Athletics team, as pointed out in the article, has a few players whose names should be familiar to Wizards fans. Included on the roster are former Wizards Boris Pardo and Brian Roberts. Also on the roster is Geoff Miles who trialed with the Wizards. The team is also made up of a lot of former KC Legends players.

Quick Wizards News

Some quick house cleaning news here late on your Saturday night. First, I have had confirmed the news I posted earlier tonight about the Wizards-Fire game being a double header with the KC Athletics-AAC Eagles US Open Cup qualifier game. So all of you planning on coming to the game next Saturday night, please plan on staying at least for a portion of the second game that will feature the Athletics go for qualification into the US Open Cup. It should be a good time and worth the extra time.

In more news related to the Wizards, for those that missed it tonight, FSC talked about the upcoming tour by Manchester United in the United States. During the broadcast tonight, they announced that the Wizards vs Manchester United game would be shown on Fox Soccer Channel, so the Wizards will get at least one more nationally televised game this year after next Saturday's game against Chicago. So for those interested, they will actually be able to watch the game later and see how the Wizards did against United.

Nail on the Head

Earlier this season, I laid into SI.com writer, Steve Davis for his poor season preview of the Wizards and his comments about the Wizards not making many changes. Tonight I have to give him credit for coming out and putting into words what most MLS fans have been saying for years about the announcers and crews that do MLS broadcasts around the league. He brings up 5 and a half points on how to improve local broadcasts, and after watching the FSC broadcast of the Wizards game, I think many of the points can be carried over to them as well. Using his points, let's take a look at last Saturday's game against Houston.

1. Get the damn lineup graphic right. FSC had Kansas City lined up in a 4-4-2 with Davy Arnaud and Kei Kamara up top and Josh Wolff and Ryan Smith playing in the midfield. Anyone who has seen the Wizards play this year knows that's not the way KC regularly lines up. They line up like a lot of teams are starting to do lately, in a 4-5-1/4-3-3 hybrid formation.

2. Use a damn lineup graphic. FSC actually did do this. Although they did not have anything that showed who was on the bench for KC on Saturday night.

3. Long, static shot of someone. This is one of my biggest pet peeve, and while FSC isn't as bad as some, the worst was last year when the Wizards just piggybacked off of the home teams broadcast and had the broadcasters in studio in KC. The broadcast would do one of their close ups and Sean Wheelock and Kevin Souter wouldn't have a single clue about what to talk about. Just show the game.

3a. Replays. Another one where FSC doesn't do well, I don't remember specific examples from the KC game this weekend, but there have been plenty of times when the broadcast has missed a big play because they were showing a replay.

4. Pronounce the names correctly. This may have been my biggest gripe about Saturday's game. Particularly when it came to midfielder Stephane Auvray who they pronounced like ovary, the female reproductive organ. Although looking at the Wizards media guide again I can't totally blame them as they have the pronunciation as OH-vray. When it really sounds more like AH-vrey based off of the Wizards broadcasts.

5. Stop talking. Another big one, seriously we don't need every spare second of air time filled with some nonsense. Let the game tell the story a bit, let the fans cheering tell the story a bit. Don't fill every second of air time with your voice.

I like that someone in a bit of a higher position has stated something like this as it's something that really needed to be said, I've taken to watching most games on mute or on a low volume so I don't have to hear what the announcers are saying because 2/3rds of the time it's just so bad.

Help Bring FSCHD and Fox Soccer Plus to KC

Time Warner Cable has asked the Wizards to help them to help poll soccer supporters to gauge interest in the FSCHD and Fox Soccer Plus. Go here and fill out the survey provided by the Wizards and show your interest in bringing the two new soccer channels to Time Warner KC.