Stadium Model

For those that haven't seen it yet, the Wizards have posted stadium model pics over on Hillcrest Road. It's not full renderings, but it does give you another look at what the Wizards stadium will look like to some extent. It's pretty cool to see the model, a few people have already asked about getting a copy of it for themselves. I'd settle for small miniature one that I could put on my desk or something.

Wizards NOT Set to Sign Walker

For those that missed it earlier today, word out of the UK was that the Wizards were "set to sign" Ian Walker, who had been in town recently for the invite only tryouts that the Wizards held out at Swope Park. The funny thing is that the report states the source as, close friend of this blog, Thad from The Back Post. For reference, here is Thad's report about the invitee tryouts last Friday, you see a mention of the fact that Walker is there at the tryout, but nothing about the Wizards even considering signing the former England international. Thad told me he does not know where the article got the idea that he was "set to sign" from his post. According to Thad, Walker isn't even currently in camp with the team, while another keeper from the tryouts and Nelson Pizarro still are with the team.

After I read the article this morning I tweeted about the potential signing. I was quickly given a tweet response from the Wizards themselves on the signing, saying "Walker is on trial, but reports that he's signing are premature. He's trying to make the squad like others in camp." Given all this information, I'd that I've been given, including speaking with the article's source, I'd say it's a little far off the mark right now. Now whether it turns out to eventually be true, we'll have to wait and see, but he's certainly not "set to sign"

Things are in Place

For those that missed it earlier today, the equipment is now out at the Wizards stadium site out at the Legends location. Both Hillcrest Road and The Back Post have pictures of the equipment at the site. None of the work has started on the site yet, but that will hopefully start later this week.

While the equipment is out there, I'm still not breathing a sigh of relief yet. I haven't forgotten the fact that around a year ago there was equipment at the Bannister site. While I'm happy to see work getting ready to start at the Legends' site, I'll be really celebrating once they start pouring the concrete or start setting steel in place. I've gotten my hopes up before and I'm not doing it this time until the stadium is actually going up.

Stadium Update From Heineman

Tonight over at Hillcrest Road, Robb Heineman posted an update on the Wizards stadium situation. It's good news for fans that have been waiting for news on the stadium. Heineman mentions his previous comments about issues with selling the STAR Bonds, saying that it appears they have that issue worked out.

The big news is that Heineman states that the team will be permanently staying out at the Village West area. This hopefully ends all the speculation of where the Wizards stadium site would go, whether in Missouri or in Kansas. He also states that we're likely going to start seeing dirt moved out at the site starting next week.

Between now and March 1st, Heineman says the Wizards will be working on; finalizing stadium design, get renderings out sooner than later, signing the formal agreements (including those signed by the Unified Government, the state, and Cerner), and start getting the stadium up. The big thing, he says, is the selling of the STAR Bonds that needs to occur between now and March 1st.

He also talks about the final step with the stadium, the marketing the team and the brand of the Wizards. Heineman calls it a "first chance to make a second impression to all of you". Something that many fans will find appealing. Some fans I've talked to have felt that OnGoal has dropped the ball in some areas of marketing the team. Hopefully this will be a new beginning in the look of the Wizards.

A formal announcement should be coming in January Heineman says.

He finishes by thanking the city of KCMO, and the state of Missouri for their work with them for the Bannister site and states again their intentions to have some type of development out there as well.

I'm personally relieved that this process looks to be nearing a close and that a stadium will finally start to go up. I'm not the biggest fan of the location due to wear I live in the KC metro area, but having it out at the Legends is much better than having it in some other city hundreds of miles away. Most Wizards fans will tell you that once the stadium starts going up, it'll feel like a huge burden and weight is off our backs because we'll know that the team is staying in KC.

Check out the entire announcement below, or head over to Hillcrest to see how you can potentially get a copy of the stadium shirt Heineman is wearing.

Top 15 Wizards

Kyle, who normally does the posting on Hillcrest Road has been away the past few days as he's getting married (congrats Kyle). In his place, Rob Thomson has taken over the duties of posting, and has given some great posts the past few days. He's given us some inside stories from the team's earlier years as well as a quiz to win an old Peter Byaruhanga from 2001. I've been wracking my brain trying to answer those questions, and as I've posted on the Wizards blog I think I have two of those questions answered, need one more and I may be getting that jersey.

Yesterday Rob posted another post with some more great stories about the team. At the bottom he makes mention of next year being the Wizards 15th season and wanted to get peoples' advice on who were the top 15 players in Wizards history. I've come up with my list of the top 15 players. Here is my list of the top 15 players in Wizards history, in no real particular order.

Preki - Easily the best player in team history.
Tony Meola - Great goalkeeper, his performance in the 2000 season was lights out.
Davy Arnaud - From West Texas A&M to Wizards legend.
Jimmy Conrad - Became a national teamer and one of the leagues best defenders during his time here.
Uche Okafor - The former Nigerian international was solid for the Wizards in the back during their early seasons.
Mo Johnston - Johnston was solid throughout his career in KC and will always be remembered for his sacrifice that lead to the Wizards mini-game win in the 2000 playoffs.
Nick Garcia - A rock in the defense for KC.
Peter Vermes - Current manager was a solid veteran presence in defense for KC.
Chris Klein - Worked wonders down the wings for the Wizards and twice came back from ACL tears.
Kerry Zavagnin - Didn't have the offensive stats, but was a consistent presence in the Wizards midfield.
Diego Gutierrez - Another player that wasn't flashy offensively, but was a strong contributor to the Wizards.
Josh Wolff - Wolff is a polarizing player for Wizards fans, but you can't argue with the fact that he's one of the top goal scorers in team history.
Mark Chung - Chung brought a great compliment to Preki in the midfield during the early years of the Wizards.
Kevin Hartman - He's been the most consistent and probably the Wizards best player the past 3 years.
Miklos Molnar - I tried to keep my list to players that had spent more than 1 season in KC, but you can't discount Molnar's 1 season, especially since he missed time at the Euro. He was just too important to the 2000 team to leave him off this list.

Players that just missed the list, Matt McKeon, Digital Takawira, Chris Henderson, and Sean Bowers.

Who are your top 15?

Worst EVER?!?

Got this from over at Hillcrest Road, and figured I'd pass it on cause it's pretty cool. The Wiz(ards) are one of 3 soccer teams nominated in the poll on the ESPN blog, Uni Watch, for the worst soccer uniforms. While the Wiz(ards) have plenty of potential nominees (as seen by the photo below), it's the 96-97 jerseys that are nominated in this competition. In my opinion they don't have a chance of winning as they are up against (in my opinion) the worst uniforms ever in any sport, the famous Caribou of Colorado jerseys from the NASL. Not everyone has the guts to try to pull off fringe, but the Caribous did.

It's also amusing when I think about the fact that I own two of those jerseys on that list (I also own the 94 US jersey).

And here's the jersey in question, along with every other home jersey in team history.photo courtesy of Thad Bell.

Season Tickets are Here!

I was a little worried whether the tickets would get here on time, but today on my front porch in a Priority Mail package, were this year's Wizards' season tickets. With it being only 3 days until the first game, I was ready to write a scathing write up about the lateness of the Wizards in getting the tickets out to Season Ticket Holders. Still, to an extent, I am upset that it took the Wizards this long to get the tickets out. Many of the teams have already sent their tickets out to fans, and sending them out the week of the first game is just begging for multiple fans to be calling the Wizards front office frantic wondering where their tickets are.

Overall, though, I'm happy with the look of this year's tickets. Not only did they come with my parking passes, they came with a folder with an electronic media guide and fact book, and while I'm a fan of the paper versions, this will still get plenty of use. Season Ticket Holders also got their membership card. Also included were pocket schedules, a pamphlet that has a picture of the stadium from the 3 Trails website and other bits of information on tickets, the 2008 season, and 2009 season.

As for the tickets, the Wizards did a cool think this year. While last year the team had put together a collage that spanned across tickets, this year the Wizards gave each ticket it's own theme. Each ticket has a picture representing the theme and included in the package was a sheet explaining each of the themes. Here is the list of the themes in order.

vs Toronto - OnGoal - The Wizards owners
vs San Jose - The Trails - The future home of the Wizards
vs New York - Human Tunnel - Prematch team walk out
vs DC - KCSoccerStore.com - Largest selection of Wizards merchandise
vs Chivas USA - MLS Cup 2000 - The Wizards first and only MLS Cup win
vs Columbus - World Cup Wizards - 19 current or former Wizards have been in the World Cup
vs New England - KC Soccer Foundation - Charitable arm of the Wizards and OnGoal
vs Houston - National Team Wizards - 27 current or former Wizards have represented the full US national team
vs LA - Starting XI Girls - The Wizards dancers/hospitality girls
vs Chicago - Swope Park Training Facility - The Wizards home facility
vs Salt Lake - Boot Room - "A symbol of the professional atmosphere encouraged within the training facility."
vs Dallas - Lamar Hunt - Wizards founder and first owner
vs Colorado - KCW Juniors - The Wizards youth system has so far been successful locally and some national success as well.
vs Seattle - Hillcrest Road - The Wizards official blog
vs DC - Cauldron - Home to the Wizards supporter's section.
Special Game A - KC Soccer History - Celebrating the history of the Comets, Attack, and Spurs, the city's previous pro soccer teams.
Special Game B - MLS History - The league enters it's 14th season.
Special Game C - Wizards History - History of the boys in blue.

Final Two Friendlies in Mexico

The Wizards have announced their last two friendlies of the teams training down in Mexico. Tonight, the Wizards will play Salamanca FC's reserve team before closing out the Mexico portion of preseason against Salamanca's first team on Tuesday morning. Salamanca is a team playing in Mexico's Primera División A, which is Mexico's second division. They are currently in third place in their group for the 2009 Clausura. Hillcrest says that they'll have a semi running commentary of the game up on the blog tonight.

Coaching License

Got quite a few things I want to touch on tonight, so be prepared for a few different posts on what's going on. I'm a little late to this first story, but I think it's a really great story to touch on. The Wizards the weekend of the open tryouts are also hosting a coaching clinic for season ticket holders to earn their USSF E coaching license. The feedback for this event was so great, the team received double the number of responses for the slots they had available.

This is a fantastic idea, 1) it helps fans to understand what coaches are going through and educating people on the game. 2) It helps the overall development of the game in this country. The more people that understand the coaching side of the game, the more people are going to not coach their kid completely wrong when it comes too playing soccer. I personally look forward to hopefully attend a future clinic and earn my E license to compliment the coaching experience I already have.

New Layout

So I thought it was time to update a few things on the website, nothing major on the scale of what Hillcrest Road recently did, but I did think it was time to update the header at the top of the blog. Replacing the old picture, is one taken by Thad Bell, of The Back Post, of which I thank him for letting me use the image. I'd also like to thank Kathie Thomas for the work she did on adding the wording into the photo.

Chance Can't Catch a Break

Last years number 1 overall pick, Chance Myers can't seem to catch a break. He came into this season preparing to battle fellow second year man, Jonathan Leathers for the starting right back position, but now all that is put on hold. Hillcrest Road is reporting that Myers will miss 10-12 weeks after he had surgery on his foot to repair a broken fifth metatarsal that he broken in Florida. This is just the latest in a string of injuries/illness for Myers. He missed much of last season while recovering from injury and mono. Hopefully Myers can recovery from this quickly.

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.

Rest of the Preseason

The rest of the Wizards preseason has been announced per MLSnet. Along with the 4 games scheduled for while the team is Florida, the team will play 4 games in Guadalajara, Mexico while they train at Atlas' facilities. There is also a game listed for March 14th out at the Swope Park training facility. Outside the U-17's, Chicago, and New York, none of the opponents have been announced. There has been one change to that schedule, based on an announcement from Hilcrest Road, which says the game against the U-17's is now Saturday. So here is the schedule of preseason friendlies for the Wizards.

Bradenton, Florida
Sat Jan 31 - US U-17 team
Wed Feb 4 - Chicago Fire
Sat Feb 7 - New York Red Bulls
Wed Feb 11 - TBA

Guadalajara, Mexico
Fri Feb 20 - TBA
Tues Feb 24 - TBA
Fri Feb 27 - TBA
Wed March 12 - TBA

Kansas City, MO
Sat March 14 - TBA

Wizards Preseason Schedule and MLS Schedule

The Wizards have announced a few of their preseason friendlies while they are down in Florida for training. They'll begin with a game on Friday against the US Under-17 team. As I mentioned earlier today, week from tomorrow, the Wizards will take on their first MLS opponent, the Chicago Fire. Saturday the 7th, the Wizards will play MLS Cup finalist, New York Red Bulls. The Wizards will finish out preseason in Florida with a game Wednesday February 11th against an opponent to be named.

Speaking of schedules, tomorrow MLS and the Wizards will announce their schedule for the 2009 season. The schedule will be announced at 11, with a press release going out around 11:30. Check Hillcrest Road for when the schedule is announced. I'll take an indepth look at the schedule tomorrow night.

New Hillcrest Road

The Wizards blog, Hillcrest Road has received a major face lift today. The new site in my opinion is fantastic and gives it a new great look.

Ask Jack

Interested in asking some questions to a Wizards player with their national team? Hillcrest Road is giving you the opportunity by setting up an interview with Jack Jewsbury, who is currently in camp with the US Men's National team. Post your questions for the Wizards midfielder in the comments section of the post on Hillcrest.

Espinoza on Honduran Roster

Earlier this week I posted an article about how midfielder, Roger Espinoza had just missed out on being named to the Honduran roster for the UNCAF Cup coming up in late January. Now comes word that the Honduran coach will name a preliminary 25 man roster that he will cut down to 20 for the tournament. Espinoza has been named to that preliminary roster. We'll see if Espinoza can get himself into the 20 man roster for the tournament.

Update 12/19: Hillcrest Road has some quotes from Espinoza and Peter Vermes about the call up.

Open Tryouts

The vote was never much in doubt either here or on Hillcrest Road, but both votes are now over. Of the 176 votes 147 were in favor of me trying out for the team this year. So I'll be out there March 7th for the tryouts ready to make a bit of a fool of myself and get graded by some players. If anyone is interested in donating to help me cover the cost of the entry fee, you can email me.

I'm looking forward to it, even though I have no grand plans for being invited back to train with the team, it will certainly be something worth doing.

Another Year of Open Tryouts

The Kansas City Wizards have announced that they are going to be having open tryouts again this year. The Wizards are hoping to duplicate the success that they had last year with their open tryouts, when the team signed two players from the open tryouts, Kevin Souter and Nelson Pizarro. Both Souter and Pizarro got time in MLS games this year, with Souter being the most successful, scoring a goal in 7 league games this past year.

This year the cost for the tryout is $205 and will be held at either the Wizards Swope Park Training Complex or at the KC Sports Lodge, where the tryouts were held last year.

Last year I'd thought it would be cool to try out, unfortunately at the time I was still not cleared from my ACL surgery so I had not been able to participate. Well this year I've been officially challenged to participate in the open tryouts by Kyle over at Hillcrest Road. He says that he'll have players "grade" my performance at the tryouts similar to how I've graded players for their play this season. You can vote over on Hillcrest whether I should attend or not, and I am most definitely open to the idea.

So should I tryout, make a fool out of my self, and be graded harshly by members of the Wizards team? You can vote in the poll here and feel free to leave comments on whether I should or not.

Wizards Opening 2009 Season at Home

The Wizards will open the 2009 season the same way that they opened the 2008 season, at home. This time, the Wizards opponent will be Toronto FC. Today the league announced the home opener for all 15 teams. With that announcement, the Wizards have their opponents for the first two weeks of the regular season.

After opening at Community America Ballpark March 21st at 7:30, the Wizards will go on the road for their second game of the season, as they'll play in Colorado on Saturday March 28th against the Rapids with that kickoff set for 8:30. The schedule on Hillcrest Road for all teams only lists the home openers, so don't assume that because the Wizards aren't listed that they are off the weekend of April 4-5. They could still be off, or they could be playing at home again, or on the road against a team that's already had their home opener.