CBA Details

MLS announced today some more details for the new collective bargaining agreement that was agreed upon on Sunday. Lots more details are out today, and although there are still some questions, there's a lot to look at. Ives has some of the highlights, especially some that I really like as well. Here are the ones that I really liked.

The salary cap will increase to $2.55 million, and will increase by 5% each season after this one.

Guaranteed contracts for all players over 24 with at least 3 years experience.

Minimum salary for senior roster players is now $40,000.

The reentry draft that MLS has set up sounds really interesting and I'm looking forward to what MLS will do with it, I think it's a positive step and a good compromise for the players that want to avoid a situation similar to what happened to Kevin Hartman and Dave van den Bergh.

The thing that I probably like the most about the new deal is that the league will work the players union in a committee to re-launch the reserve league. Personally I think getting younger, end of the bench players time in some form or another in at least semi-competitive games. The reserve league I think if in place consistently the reserve can only help to develop the players.

The Elephant in the Room

I've been ignoring the big gigantic elephant in the room regarding the MLS collective bargaining agreement for a little while now, hoping that if I ignored it it'd work itself out and go away. But it hasn't gone away, and it's time for me to pull my head out of the sand and realize this is a very big issue. The twice extended labor talks between the league and the MLS Players' Union are coming close to their deadline of February 25th and it appears the two sides are still far apart on one key point, free agency. Apparently the latest set of talks have broken down as neither side wants to budge on the issue. The owners are dead set against allowing it, while the players don't appear willing to settle without it. The Wizards player union rep, Jimmy Conrad is quoted at length in an ESPN piece about the issue saying that unless things change, a work stoppage appears inevitable.

Each side is now trying to win the battle in the media it would appear, as in response to the players' comments, the league has come back with counter claims to what the union says is going on in the meetings. There are a lot of quotes from MLS President Mark Abbott about the negotiations in that article and what they are trying to do. Based on what the league is saying, it appears that if there is a work stoppage, it will be from a players' strike, not a lock out. That's based on the news that the league is willing to start the season under the rules of the expired CBA (which the league can do based on the rules of the current CBA that state the terms remain in effect from year to year unless the other side is notified in writing 60 days prior to the expiration or renewal of the agreement. (page 9)). What that means for the players, is that they'll have to be the ones that walk out, and in doing so they will likely keep themselves from being able to play in other leagues as they'd still be under contract to MLS.

That could really hurt players like Jimmy Conrad, Roger Espinoza, Chad Marshall, Robbie Findley, and multiple other players who have hopes of making their countries World Cup team for this summer's tournament in South Africa. A work stoppage could kill any of the players' chances of making the cup, and certainly something that weights on some of those players' minds.

Right now it would appear that the league is the one holding the better cards after the statement that they're willing to work under the old CBA, but the union has come back again with another response to the league's statements. With more of this out in the media now, this looks like it could start to get really ugly as each side tries to win the media war. From what I've read by fans, there seems to be a fairly even split on which side people support, but all definitely don't want a work stoppage. The next 4 days will be very interesting.

More Player Signing Rumors

The Wizards have continued to remake their roster this year and it appears that the Wizards have signed two new players. First, Ives Galarcep is reporting that the Wizards have signed another trialist, this time it's one of the Wizards two Moldovan trialists, Igor Kostrov, a 22 year old midfielder/forward who has been playing in Israel for Maccabi Herzliya, he scored 2 goals this season.

The other signing is being reported by Thad over at The Back Post, who's reporting that the Wizards have signed second round draft pick, Korede Aiyegbusi, who played at NC State last year. Aiyegbusi was late to preseason camp but has apparently impressed in his time there so far. I believe that both Kostrov and Aiyegbusi will both be taking up international roster spots. With those two, it gives the Wizards 8 internationals on their roster as the team already has Stephane Auvray, Pablo Escobar, Zoltan Hercegfalvi, Santiago Hirsig, Jimmy Nielsen, and Kevin Souter. That should leave the Wizards with 1 international spot left.

Our Central Defender Signing

Yesterday the name of the Wizards new midfielder, Stephane Auvray, was publicly released. Today we get the name of the Wizards central defender. Ives Galarcep posted today about the Auvray signing and said that he'd been hearing that the Wizards central defender from Colombia was Pablo Escobar. Escobar is the Colombian player from Deportivo Cali. Escobar's name was the name that I was hearing as well as the Wizards signing of the 3 Colombians. Escobar spent last year with Deportivo Cali, coming over from Deportes Quindio. He hasn't appeared as much for Cali as he did for Quindio, but he has gotten games in the Copa Sudamericana, and appeared in 19 games for them last season. I can't find much on Escobar the football player, plenty on the drug lord with the same name though. He did score his first professional goal with Cali, below is video of the goal.

Draft Day Rewind

The MLS draft ended a couple hours ago, and there are 5 new Wizards draftees, only one of those players though is already signed to an MLS contract, the other 4 will be looking to earn contract this coming preseason.

Let's start with some really good news to most Wizards fans. When ESPN opened their broadcast today they mentioned that the Wizards were shopping Jimmy Conrad. Many Wizards fans were pissed off and frustrated with this announcement. Thankfully for those fans, the team has come out and denied those rumors. Peter Vermes spoke with Ives Galarcep after the draft and Vermes did not mix words saying "we were NEVER shopping around Jimmy Conrad" and "we are not looking to deal Jimmy Conrad." So breath easy Wizards fans, it appears Captain Conrad will be staying in KC.

As for the draft itself, the first four picks went as many people seemed to expect them to, Philadelphia grabbed Danny Mwanga, New York took Tony Tchani, and San Jose took Ike Opara. That left Teal Bunbury right there for the Wizards to grab. They didn't have second thoughts about taking Bunbury and he will not only become the first son of a former MLSer to play in the league, but he'll play for the same team his father did. I like this pick, he brings size, speed, and a touch to the Wizards forward line. With Kei Kamara still being an unknown as to whether he will return, Bunbury could step in almost immediately and fill a hole for KC. Thad over at The Back Post also has a quick phone interview with the Wizards first pick.

In the second round the Wizards went a different way than I think anyone really thought they would as they grabbed defendner Korede Aiyegbusi (co-REH-day eye-a-BOO-see) or Kay as Robb Heineman called him. From everything I've been able to find on Aiyegbusi and his performance during college and in the combine, the Wizards should have been able to grab the left back from NC State later in the draft. Later in the draft, Heineman said that Vermes sees Aiyegbusi as more of a left winger in the professional game. That means more competition with Claudio Lopez and Roger Espinoza for the left wing.

In the third round, the Wizards had two picks and they tried to take care of both ends of the field. First the Wizards grabbed Nick Cardenas from San Diego State with the 36th pick in the draft. Cardenas is a big center back, 6-5 the worry on him is that he is apparently a little slow with his feet. Of course the same thing was said by some people about last year's rookie of the year, Omar Gonzalez. Not saying Cardenas will be rookie of the year, but it's too early to tell. The Wizards other 3rd round pick was University of Michigan forward Mauro Fuzetti a multi-time All Big 10 forward I want to think he'll be different, but I have a feeling he'll be the second coming of Doug DeMartin.

With their final pick, the Wizards grabbed former US U-17 captain and U-20 international, Ofori Sarkodie. Sarkodie could be a good late round pick up for KC, although he had a poor combine, he'll provide some competition out on the wing positions. We'll see if the promise he showed back when he was a youth international shows up.

Overall I was a little underwhelmed with the draft, I thought there were better players out there are certain times in the draft, but I probably haven't seen the players as much as other people have and I'm willing to give a pass until I see these players more.

Podcasting

For those that missed it, Thad from The Back Post and myself did a podcast and published it today. We'd talked about doing this last year and we're now going to try to do this regularly. Anyways, let us know what you think of it, like it, hate it, indifferent. Also if you have any ideas for names of the podcast, feel free to post them. Here again are the two parts of the podcast.

Part 1 - We discuss the upcoming draft, needs and potential picks...



There's more news to add to the comments I made regarding the draft. Today in his Q&A about the draft, Ives Galarcep mentioned that the trade talk right now is that the Wizards are looking to trade up with New York to get the number two pick and grab Tony Tchani from Virginia. While I still think grabbing Teal Bunbury would be one of the better picks, trading up to get a player like Tchani who appears to be the real deal could be big for the Wizards as well

Part 2 - Kansas City made the 18 for the US bid to host the World Cup...




In other news today, the Yellow Pages released their cover for the new phone books. The Wizards are on the cover with a picture of Jimmy Conrad's first goal against the Colorado Rapids in KC's 3-2 win during the second game of the 2008 season. Here is the photo.

Waiting on the Two New Players

Last night, Wizards president, Robb Heineman mentioned that the team was going to be announcing two new signings today, unfortunately today that turned out not be true as Heineman posted today. As has been the case in the past the Wizards are waiting for P-1 Visas to be finalized before the signings are official. Unlike the past few years, when the signings of Ivan Trujillo and Santiago Hirsig were announced their P-1 Visas were finalized, the Wizards are not giving away the names of the players the team has signed. According to Ives Galarcep earlier this morning, though, he confirms my thought the Wizards had indeed gotten one of the three Colombian defenders that signed with MLS.

In his tweets today, Heineman says the Wizards also have "several more pending", which means it looks like the roster overhaul we were told was coming is finally starting to happen. The question is now when the "house cleaning" will occur and current players will start leaving. The Wizards were already over the 24 man roster limit due to players being onn IR to end last season, so the Wizards will have plenty of players that will not be making the team again this year, unless rosters are once again expanded.

New Players to MLS

Ives Galarcep reported today that MLS has signed 3 new players to contracts. The three players are from Colombia, all are central defenders, and all are 22 or younger. According to Galarcep, all 3 players have already had discovery claims put in on them, including by the expansion Philadelphia Union. The 3 players are Edward Zea, Pablo Escobar, and Hanyer Mosquera.

The question is whether the Wizards have filed discovery claims and whether they'll get any of those 3 players. Currently the Wizards are the only team in MLS to not have some kind of roster move already this offseason. This in an offseason where we would told when Peter Vermes had the interim tag removed that we'd see a roster overhaul. I'm not saying to make a move just for the sake of making one, but if we're having a real roster overhaul I would have expected at least a move or two to have already taken place. If these three players can be more like Fredy Montero and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado and less like Ivan Trujillo, than hopefully the Wizards got a discovery claim in and can bring one of these players in.

New Assistant Coach Rumor

There's very little in this rumor right now, so take that for what you will. In a post by Ives Galarcep earlier today about the MLS coaching carousel, he makes a passing mention of Octavio Zambrano, who used to coach in MLS but has most recently been coaching in Hungary. Ives mentions Zambrano as a potential new head coach for Chivas USA, but also mentions that Zambrano is "believed to be in the frame for an assistant coaching position within MLS (with Kansas City a possibility)..." In a way this rumor makes sense, with head coach, Peter Vermes' connection to Hungary and his scouting over there, including Ferenc Béres, who played for Zambrano at his last position at FC Tatabánya. On top of that, you have comments that both Vermes and Robb Heineman have made in regards to potentially bringing in another assistant coach. With all that there's certainly enough dots to connect to think that there are some legs to this rumor. We'll see if anything comes of this rumor.

Vermes to be Interim Coach?

Randy Covitiz at the Star is reporting that Wizards technical director, Peter Vermes is to be named the team's interim coach tomorrow morning at a press conference. Whether that happens or not, it's a bit of a shocking move that he's being named coach. Although he was one of the people considered for both the coaching openings in Seattle and Philadelphia, it's surprising. It will be interesting to see what comes of Vermes as a head coach, if it's like he was as a player, it's going to be intense from now on. (EDIT: The Star article has now been edited taking out the part about Vermes being named the interim coach.)

As for who will eventually take over the position, Ives Galarcep makes an interesting point tonight, although he doesn't completely realize it. That being former Metrostars coach, Octavio Zambrano. Zambrano has recently been coaching in Hungary, a place that Vermes has visited to check out players. Zambrano knows MLS and how it works, which is almost a prerequisite to coach in MLS today. If you don't know the rules you won't last long, so Zambrano could definitely be on the Wizards short list.

Wizards Involved in Triple Header

Today the home venues for this year's CONCACAF Gold Cup were announced, and it looks like the Wizards will be part of a triple header on their trip to New England in July. On July 11th, the Revolution are set to host a 2 of the final group play games, along with their game against the Kansas City Wizards. It'll be a day full of soccer, as the Wizards kick off at 3pm central time. Ives Galarcep is reporting that one of the matches in New England that day will involve the US team. So it'll be a day of club and country for Wizards fans, especially for any that are interested in making the trip up to the Boston area for the game. Me, I'm interested in making the trip, I've never been to Boston period, so going and seeing the Wizards and US play would be a major bonus.

Questions for Peter Vermes?

Ives Galarcep over at Soccer by Ives is asking for you questions for an upcoming interview with the Wizards Technical Director, Peter Vermes. While Thad Bell over at The Back Post has done quite a few interviews with Vermes, here's your chance to try and ask him something. I got a nice laugh out of a few of the questions that were in that are being put it, we'll see if any of those actually get asked.

See you in St. Louis

Down the Byline is off to St. Louis tomorrow for the MLS Draft. Like last year, I'll be bringing you the Wizards picks as they come through. This time though, I'll be doing it live from the draft as a member of the media. I'll also hopefully have pictures and exact quotes from people there. Enjoy the coverage tomorrow.

In his final mock draft before the draft, Ives Galarcep has the Wizards taking forward, Chris Pontius of UCSB in the first round. In the second he has us taking Josh Boateng of Liberty and Graham Zusi of Maryland, the College Cup Offensive MVP.

Lopez' New Salary

Saturday we found out that Claudio Lopez would be returning to KC for the 2009 season. We also found out that Lopez will not take up a designated player spot next season. Today we hear from Ives Galarcep again with more details on the new deal. According to Ives, Lopez new contract is for 1/4 the cost his contract was last year. Lopez' contract next year will apparently only be $200,000. So not only does Lopez' new contract free up the Wizards designated player slot, but also frees up another $200,000 under the cap. Add that to the $100,000 plus the Wizards were paying of Dave van den Bergh's salary last year, Carlos Marinelli's $115,000 salary, Kerry Zavagnin's $170,000 contract, and the contracts of Ivan Trujillo and Ryan Pore, and the Wizards have plenty of cap space to work with this offseason.

One would think that this would put the Wizards in line to line up another designated player, but in the same article, Ives says that the Wizards appear unlikely to lose that slot and instead strengthen the full squad. But with somewhere close to $600,000 in cap space and the now smaller roster size, I'm personally a little worried that the Wizards may play the 2009 season with quite a bit of cap space. Now some of that money will be going to salary increases, like Jack Jewsbury's new deal that likely puts him over the $100,000 a year mark. Still there would appear to be a lot of money still available in the cap and I just struggle to see how the Wizards use most of that cap space. But we shall see.

Lopez Returning

Claudio Lopez will be returning to KC next year, but he'll be doing so without the high price tag. Ives Galarcep over at ESPN Soccernet is reporting that the Wizards have signed Lopez to a new contract that is "considerably less than the $800,000 in guaranteed salary he earned as a Designated Player in 2008".

On his blog, Ives has added onto this story by saying that Lopez salary cap hit next year could be as low as half of this past years $400,000 cap hit. Whether his actually salary is that low, or the Wizards are using allocation money to pay it down (similar to what Columbus had been doing with Guillermo Barros Schelotto) remains to be seen.

This is good news on a couple fronts, as it not only gives the Wizards their designated player slot back to use on another player if they want, but it also gives the Wizards cap room to play with, as well as keeps a locker room leader around next year. Last year Lopez scored 6 goals and had 7 assists in MLS play, including a goal and 2 assists in the Wizards dramatic 3-2 win over San Jose late in the season that basically assured the Wizards of a playoff birth.

And with the 8th Pick

Coming up next week is the MLS Draft, which will take place this year in St. Louis, MO. The Wizards have the 8th pick in draft after being the lowest ranked team to be eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. With that pick, there are plenty of ways the Wizards will be able to go with that pick, if they choose to keep it.

Of the mock drafts I've read pre-MLS Combine (which is this weekend), people seem to think the Wizards will be taking a midfielder in the first round, with favorites being Michael Stephens (who isn't listed on the Generation Adidas list so is unlikely to be him) and Baggio Husidic. I don't know if the midfield is such a huge need, especially after the late season move of Davy Arnaud to attacking midfield. The greater need in my opinion is up top, where the Wizards finished 12th in MLS in scoring with only 37 goals. That will have to improve greatly for the Wizards to compete in 2009. I'd like to see the Wizards grab a forward, although it will depend on who is available at the time, as GA Steve Zakuani is projected right now to be the number 1 pick, and Peri Marosevic is the only other GA forward. The other option is that the Wizards could trade away that pick for a proven MLS player. And the latest rumblings from Ives is that the Wizards are actually looking to trade up, with one target being Sam Cronin of Wake Forest.

Personally if we're looking for a midfielder, I'd rather go after another player listed in Ives post, Dax McCarty of FC Dallas. He'd help out in the midfield, which is where people think we need help and would be a proven MLS player. If we're not going for a forward, I'd certainly like to see that trade.

No More Supplemental Draft

Ives Galarcep is reporting that with the new roster changes, MLS will scrap the leagues second draft, the supplemental draft. This seemed to be an expected move with rosters being reduced to 24, it doesn't make sense to have another 4 rounds to draft after you already have 4. The players that would have been taken in this draft will now become free agents if they're not taken, able to negoiate with any MLS team. With the roster changes, this is a smart move, but overall I was not a fan of the roster changes period, so it's just the continuation of a move I didn't like.

As for what this means to the Wizards, at the time of this announcement, the team had 4 picks in the supplemental draft, one in each round according to the blog Climbing the Ladder (second entry). It does have some implications for previous trades the team has made. The Wizards had been scheduled to receive Real Salt Lake's first round supplemental pick as part of the Yura Movsisyan trade. The team also owed one of their two first round supplemental picks (the RSL pick included) to Colorado as part of the Herculez Gomez trade. What is to be done with this now is not known, and it could be nothing at all.

Vermes Turns Down Seattle

Ives Galarcep is reporting that Wizards Technical Director, Peter Vermes has turned down Seattle Sounders FC for the chance to become their head coach. According to the report, Vermes is one of 3 candidates that the Sounders have reached out to about becoming the team's first head coach next season. Chris Henderson, the Sounders Technical Director played with Vermes in Colorado and here in KC, before being an assist coach here in KC last season.

Ives, also reports that Vermes is a strong candidate to take over a position with the new Philadelphia franchise before they start play in 2010. Vermes, a very vocal leader on the field, became the team's technical director before last season, and has also trained the reserve team's on Sundays when the first team is out of town for a game.

Overall, there are plenty of fans that currently want Vermes gone and wish he would take the position with Seattle, but he wasn't going to move, he's started a rebuilding process, and he's likely going to work with it for a little while and see how it turns out before leaving.

Early Injury Report Favors Wizards

The KC Wizards are back in action this Saturday as they take on Red Bull New York. The Wizards already have some good news heading into the game though, as Ives Galarcep is reporting that two of Red Bulls starting midfielders could miss the match up. Red Bull defensive midfielder, Seth Stammler is out, while Red Bull captain, and designated player, Claudio Reyna is listed as questionable for the match. Those two out would be a big boost for the Wizards, especially in the midfield, where the Wizards have had some trouble the last few games.

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.