Sporting Extend Rubio Loan

Right as Sporting KC was getting ready to kick off against the Houston Dynamo the Sam McDowell with the KC Star reported that according to Diego Rubio's agent Kansas City was extending the Chilean's loan with the club through December of this year. After the game tonight, Peter Vermes confirmed that the club had locked him up through December. The forward has played just 183 league minutes and scored one goal while appearing in both of Kansas City's US Open Cup games, starting tonight adding a second goal to his total.

Honestly this was a move that I didn't think KC would make about a month ago, I figured that KC would move on and start over with another back up striker this summer. Vermes though looks like he's going to stick with Rubio for the rest of the season. Based on KC's past history with summer signings this doesn't seem like a bad move, as Vermes usually seems hesitant to push summer signings to contribute early, and with KC's busy August, Vermes doesn't have that luxury this season.

That move locked up that can't be the only move that KC makes when the summer transfer window opens on July 3rd, KC has to look to improve their offense in this window. The winter signings of Brad Davis and Justin Mapp have not paid off at the level that KC needs for them to be successful. While Davis has scored two league goals, and added another in the US Open Cup, he's yet to record a single assist for Sporting KC since signing with the club in his 14 games played, the longest stretch for him dating back to 2010 (which is as far back as stats on MLS's website goes). With Mapp, the veteran has only been on the field twice, for less than 30 total minutes, the pair have not been able to pick up the slack in goal production that KC lost when selling Krisztian Nemeth. While Dwyer has scored eight goals on the season the rest of the team is more like KC's 2014 season, except without Dwyer setting team records. KC needs to improve their offense further in this summer's transfer window or KC is going to be in a bad spot come August.

Conflicting Stories on van der Vaart

Over the past two days, a pair of conflicting stories have come out regarding Sporting KC and their potential new designated player, Rafael van der Vaart. The Dutch international has been linked with a summer move to Kansas City once his contract expires with German club Hamburg.

Yesterday, KC Star beat writer, Sam McDowell provided an update on the situation saying that Peter Vermes and SKC were still in contact with van der Vaart, but that the two had no movement in regards to a new contract. Peter Vermes, Robb Heineman, and Mike Illig met with van der Vaart after his club played Eintracht Frankfurt in Bundesliga action. In the article though, Vermes claims that "there is nothing happening at the moment."

Then today came a story from FutbolMLS.com that was picked up by Univision about KC's pursuit of van der Vaart. The article claims that the deal to bring van der Vaart to the US is done and that the 32 year old will sign a two and a half year contract with the club. The only quotes in the article are old ones from Heineman referencing the fact that van der Vaart is unlikely to come until the summer when he'd be available on a free transfer unless Hamburg were to release him early the same way that Wigan did.

In response to this latest story today, McDowell took to Twitter today to explain that nothing had changed from his reporting the day before regarding van der Vaart's status on signing with Sporting KC. For what it's worth, I put more faith in the reporting of McDowell than I do FutbolMLS.com. That's not to say that I don't think a deal will get done, just that I believe McDowell's sources on where things stand right now.

With the way that KC continues to play right now, the van der Vaart move makes more and more sense for KC. Vermes seems dead set on keeping Benny Feilhaber in that deep lying playmaker role, which has reduced his role in the offense. KC's passing from the midfield in the final third has really lacked this year with Paulo Nagamura, Roger Espinoza, and even Krisztian Nemeth filling in at the advanced role. Another playmaker on the field in front of Feilhaber would help to release some of that pressure that is currently on the attacking midfield position. My early concerns about his health, fitness, and defensive play are still to be answered though.

Let the Besler Transfer Speculation Begin

It was to be expected given his play the last few years and after a stellar World Cup, but it stil hits with a shock that Matt Besler could be on his way out of Kansas City. The Sporting KC captain and center back has been making the media rounds today after the USA's elimination from the World Cup. Locally though all the talk has been about Besler's future. Sporting's CEO, Robb Heineman said today that the club has received "enormous interest" in Besler from teams around the world (the club has also received interest in Graham Zusi as well).

Heineman confessed today to the KC Star that "there's a strong possibility that could happen (a transfer overseas) based on the interest that's out there."

If Besler is going to move, it looks like it's going to be a quick process, Besler's agent, Eddie Rock said that if it happens, it would happen "probably within the next 10 days." So there's going to be no dwelling on the situation.

Besler's agent said that there's really only three options for Besler at this point, signing an extension with Sporting, transferring to an EPL club, or transferring to a Bundesliga club. All three would likely see Besler get a pay raise from his current salary, with the moves abroad likely seeing him get a larger pay raise.

Any transfer fee for Besler would probably need to be one of the biggest in team history (Eddie Johnson to Fulham in early 2008 was close to $6,000,000).

I'd love to keep Besler here in KC, but if he wants to move I'd be happy for him to get the move and the pay raise that he deserves. I also understand that there's a point where keeping him here becomes cost prohibitive to KC. It's about making the right decision. Would signing Besler to a DP contract keep KC from signing other important players to contracts that keep them in KC? If so it begins to become a question of Besler's importance vs ability to replace.

Either way it's going to be an interesting next few weeks for Sporting KC as the Besler rumors come in and grow.

Contract Extension for Vermes

It appears Peter Vermes is going to stay around KC.  Since the offseason, Robb Heineman has mentioned on Twitter that there were trying to get a deal done to extend Vermes contract. The Star is reporting this morning that Vermes has signed an extension that will keep him in KC through 2017.

Vermes became the technical director of KC back in 2006, shortly after OnGoal bought the team from Hunt Sports Group. He became head coach mid-season in 2009, taking over from Curt Onalfo after he was fired.  Since then, Vermes has gone on to become the second winningest coach in KC's history behind Bob Gansler. Since taking over, Sporting KC is 55-40-36 in MLS play.  Since the opening of Sporting Park though the team has been one of the best in the league, winning back to back regular season Eastern Conference Championships.

Probably the biggest part of Vermes success has been his scouting and development of talent.  He's been responsible for helping to bring in the majority of the team as it exists now.  The only player still with Sporting KC that is pre-Vermes is back up goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg.  Every other player on the roster has been brought in since Vermes was named technical director. He's helped turn the likes of Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza, and Graham Zusi into solid contributors to their national team. Vermes has his critics still, but you can't argue with his success in bringing in and developing players.

Comets Owners to Own New Women's Team

So I didn't have to wait long on my thoughts on connecting the dots, the Star has broken the news that I'd guessed on earlier today, that the Missouri Comets owners will be the owners of the team in the new women's league.  The league which is set to kick off in the 2013 season will hold a press conference tomorrow where more details of the league will be announced. 

Where the team will play, name, etc. have all not been announced yet, but will likely need to get going soon. 

The press conference tomorrow is a joint press conference between the US Soccer federation, Canadian federation, and Mexican federation, which brings up the potential of a league representing 3 federations in CONCACAF.

The ownership will be adding a second team to under their ownership for the second time, as the the group had owned the arena football Command.  One concern that people could have right off the bat is the double ownership.  They dropped the Command after last season, and there is some history on the other side of the state regarding owning two soccer teams.  I would put the current ownership of the Comets above the ownership of Jeff Cooper in St. Louis when it came to AC St. Louis and St. Louis Athletica.  So while both teams may not last long term, I have little doubt that there won't be a situation where one team folds mid-season or lives the majority of the season under the cloud of likely closer at season end. 

I'll be interested to hear more information regarding the league tomorrow.

Sporting KC Set to Announce Chivas Friendly

Back in late July we heard from Robb Heineman that the friendly against Chivas de Guadalajara was looking good to take place in October this year. Late last night the Star put out an article saying that today the team would announce that the friendly will take place on Wednesday, October 12th at LIVESTRONG Sporting Park. That is the Wednesday after KC's weekend off from league play the weekend of the 8th and right before what could be a very big game at LSP against the New York Red Bulls on the 15th.

A month later, my opinion hasn't changed on this game. At that point of the season, with only 2 games left KC should be focused on qualifying for the playoffs, or improving their standing to try to get a better seed. Not playing a friendly. Especially when those two remaining games are at home against New York and away vs DC, two Eastern Conference rivals that are currently right on KC's heels in the playoff race. I'd rather the team be avoiding congesting their schedule at this point. And while some guys will certainly be given the night off, I expect Omar Bravo to get a good amount of time during the game, since this was part of the deal with Chivas when we signed and then loaned him back to Chivas.

UPDATE: The team did announce it this morning, tickets are on sale to season ticket holders right now and go on sale to the general public on Friday. Certainly in many of the comments I've seen many fans are not really in favor of this, especially with the timing.

Why Signing Nick Garcia Would be a Mistake

Today posted on the Star that it looks like Nick Garcia is going to be training with the team. It sounds like it's not quite a trial, but not quite just training either. And with the way that the center defense has played at times this season, one might think this is a good move to sign for the former Wizards player. Personally I really don't think it would be a good move for KC for two main reasons.

First, Garcia is not exactly good friends with Sporting KC forward, Kei Kamara. The two have a colorful history dating back to both players' time with the San Jose Earthquakes. It continued through Kamara's time in Houston, and continued with Garcia in Toronto, as Kamara left BMO last year with a gash in his thigh. Needless to say it doesn't sound like the type of relationship that will be taken care of with a quick handshake. And that certainly is not well for team chemistry, especially heading into an important part of the season with the home opener and all the other games coming.

Second, is Garcia much, if any, better than Julio Cesar or Shavar Thomas? I'm really not so sure at this point. The past few years in San Jose and Toronto, Garcia has been a part of some of the worst defenses in the league each of those years, not exactly a ringing endorsement for him. While Cesar and Thomas haven't been great, I don't think Garcia brings anything that they don't to the table. Add onto that, at least Thomas (due to his time in the league) and likely Cesar (due to his previous experience) are on guaranteed contracts, getting rid of either one of them, KC would still have their salary hit the cap. Any potential value over Cesar or Thomas is negated by the potential issue it could have with Kamara.

But this all could be for nothing as this really could just be him training with the team. But it'll be interesting to see how tomorrow works out, especially if Kamara is back from Sierra Leone tomorrow. I hope Peter Vermes knows what he's doing in this situation.

Heineman KC Star Chat

Today on the KC Star's website, Robb Heineman was involved in a chat and gave out plenty of little bits of information regarding the team. No real earth shattering information, but certainly some interesting information. With the Star running the Q&A, it was a chance for some fans to try and get some questions in that might be screened if the team had done the Q&A.

On the opener, we got some information on what some of the festivities are going to be, including a band on the plaza area, a stealth fly over, and the team's original coach, Ron Newman will be on hand inside the Members' Club before the game.

The topic of Peter Vermes was brought up wondering when the team would look to go in a different direction. Heineman said "we've set pretty clear expectations for the team, which is making the playoffs and competing in the playoffs, and if those expectations aren't met, there will be consequences."

This seems to mean that Vermes has the rest of this season, or at least until the team is out of the playoff hunt. And honestly that's not that surprising with the extended road trip. Things can certainly change if things really go down hill for the team, or if things don't go well after they return home. Currently the team has the same record on the road as they did through 7 road games last year, but KC will need to have some very good home form to fulfill OnGoal's expectations this season.

Earlier today the Aaron Galindo to KC rumor came back up in the Mexican media. It seemed that Galindo was trying to find a way out of his contract with Chivas to allow him to join KC in an out of contract signing. Heineman though said that this was the first he'd heard of the most recent rumor. Although after the window closed, Heineman had said on Twitter that they were still hoping to to sign him during the summer. Heineman also said that they are working on a number of players for the summer.

During the chat Heineman also confirmed the soccer/rugby doubleheader in October on the 15th the same day as the KC-New York game. The KC Blues will compete at Livestrong Sporting Park as part of the double header. He also said that they are continuing to work on other sporting events to take place at LiSP.

He also tackles the jersey sponsorship that has become a small joke to some people, because we've heard a few times that we are only a few weeks away from an announcement. Heineman says that they are currently negotiating contract terms and that he put the chances at 50-50.

One final thing that Heineman talked about was the work that KC has done to create a rivalry with Chicago. I know that I've talked about the team trying to manufacture a rivalry with the Fire, and Heineman is at least straight forward about that, saying they are "poking the bear", but they feel they need to create a natural rival. And with Colorado already having the Rockie Mountain Cup and Dallas battling Houston for El Capitan, leaving Chicago as the closest team for KC to try to build a rivalry against.

Lots of good information from Heineman today, but as I said earlier, nothing earth shattering, but I don't think anyone expected that.

Deeper Look at Salaries

I just got beaten in posting this by Gooch over at the Star who basically posted some of the same information. But I spent enough time working on this I'm going to post anyway.

Over the weekend, the MLS Players' Union put out the salaries for players through May 1st. When the list was released there were certainly a few questions about the list. Some of my original questions were based on the roster set up for the team. I've had some time to go through the roster rules again and I have a bit better understanding, but I still have some questions.

One of the questions is wondering how much cap space KC still has available for potential summer purchases to help SKC should they need it. This is based off of how many of the players are “Salary Budget Players” as the MLS rules call them. KC can have up to 20 of these players on their roster. The other 10 roster spots are “Off-Budget Players.” From looking at the roster and the salaries I see 17 players that are “Salary Budget Players” and 6 players that are “Off-Budget Players.” There are still 3 more players that I'm not sure of where they fit.

Just looking at the salaries of the 17 players, KC is using $2,407,918 of the $2,675,000 salary cap. That includes the $110,004 for Nikos Kounenakis. That would leave around $267,000 in cap space. But I think at least one of the 4 questionable players (Korede Aiyegbusi, Luke Sassano, CJ Sapong, and Graham Zusi) is on the “Salary Budget Players” list. This is because KC would be charged a fee for not filling at least 18 of those roster spots. All three make $42,000, so KC would have around $225,000 of cap space if all the numbers on the players union list are correct.

But that leads to another question, Omar Bravo's salary. Gooch at The Full 90 is trying to look into it, but has not been able to get a response from the players' union. The union's list says that Bravo's salary is only $120,000, which doesn't make sense as a designated player. Designated players cap hit is supposed to be $385,000. Now the cap hit can be lower if a transfer fee is used to bring the player to the league. But all the information back in August seemed to point to Bravo being a free agent, which would mean he should likely have a salary of $385,000. If Bravo is making the DP salary, then KC only has about $2,000. That's before factoring in one of the 4 questionable players.

With all four players making over that amount though, it would seem to point to KC being over the cap. But there are other things that likely knock KC below the cap again. 1) KC still has allocation money that they could use to pay down the salary to get people in under the cap hit. 2) Philadelphia could still be covering a portion of Shavar Thomas' salary. Last year when KC traded for Thomas, the Union covered a portion of his salary. It's possible that the Union is still covering a portion of Thomas' salary making it possible for KC to fit one of the other guys in under the cap.

If Bravo is on the designated player level, then KC doesn't really have much of any cap space left at all. So with that information, I would be more inclined to believe the listing on the players' union website. Which is still surprising.

Here is how I believe the players are divided up on Salary Budget vs Off-Budget

Salary Budget players

Davy Arnaud
Stephane Auvray
Matt Besler
Omar Bravo
Julio Cesar
Aurelien Collin
Birahim Diop
Roger Espinoza
Michael Harrington
Kei Kamara
Eric Kronberg
Chance Myers
Jimmy Nielsen
Craig Rocastle
Ryan Smith
Milos Stojcev
Shavar Thomas

Off-Budget

Teal Bunbury
Kevin Ellis
Mike Jones/Seth Sinovic
Jon Kempin
Scott Lorenz
Konrad Warzycha

Unsure (1 is on the Salary Budget the other three are on the Off-Budget list)

Korede Aiyegbusi
CJ Sapong
Luke Sassano
Graham Zusi

SKC After Another Colombian? UPDATE

Well this rumor has lasted longer than the Diego Chara rumor did earlier this week. Earlier today Charles Gooch tweeted about Peter Vermes being excited about a possible transfer deadline deals. He also mentioned the the name Cristian Nazarit. Nazarit, or Nazarith as his wikipedia page spells it, currently plays for Independiente Santa Fe in Colombia. Gooch isn't the first to link him with a move to KC, as this article shows. Nazarit seems to have a decent scoring touch based on his recent record with Santa Fe and the Colombian youth teams. Back in December he was apparently being watched by both Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Certainly not the defensive help that I think most Sporting KC fans think KC needs with the window about to close. But it'd likely make KC the deepest offensive team in the league with Nazarit competing for time with Teal Bunbury, Omar Bravo, Kei Kamara, CJ Sapong, and Ryan Smith.




UPDATE: And I think Robb just waits until after I post to squash these rumors as he's done it again tonight. Nazarit doesn't look to be on his way either.

Sporting KC Endorsing Sly James

Today the KC Star had a story about the fund raising in the current mayoral race in Kansas City, Missouri between Sly James and Mike Burke. Normally that's something that's not really talked about on this blog. But the interesting thing was that the Star listed some of the people/organizations that contributed the maximum to James' campaign. Listed in that group that contributed $3,000 was Sporting Kansas City. I was a little surprised to see them on the list considering the fact that the stadium is out on the other side of the state line. But looking through some of the other names I have an idea why. Another of the top contributors was Three Trails Redevelopment, and with OnGoal still being involved in the redevelopment of the Bannister Mall area and maybe James is more likely to help them get that redevelopment done. Still an interesting aspect to see in the information for the campaign.

Julio Cesar Official

Tonight, the Terez Paylor at the KC Star is reporting the finalization of a contract with Julio Cesar Santos Correa, the Brazilian center back. Last week, Robb Heineman posted on Twitter that Cesar and Milos Stojcev would be announced within the week. Well we have the first one of those now according to the Star. Cesar has played all over North and Central America, and Europe. He'd most recently been with Maritimo in Portugal. Cesar has never spent more than 4 years at one club, the most appearances he's made for one club was 60 with Real Valladolid in Spain back in the late 90's. His career has been going on since before MLS actually started play in 1996.

Cesar looks set to battle with Matt Besler and Shavar Thomas for the two center back spots. Although in the article Peter Vermes says that Cesar is not 90 minutes fit yet, so if he does end up starting this weekend against Chivas he seems unlikely to go 90 minutes.

New Broadcaster for Sporting KC

Earlier today on Bigsoccer someone pointed out this Tweet by BBC commentator/report, Callum Williams. Gooch over at the Star has been able to get confirmation of this that Williams would be heading over to become a presenter and commentator on the television broadcasts on KSMO. It looks like he will be the lead commentator on the broadcasts, replacing Dave Borchardt. Williams is young, he's still in his early 20's, but has most recently been working for the BBC, manly doing Chesterfield games. It should add an interesting dynamic to the games this year.

Money To Burn

Last night after posting about the Jack Jewsbury trade, someone posted about the allocation money we were getting for Jewsbury. During my response I realized that along with explaining the allocation money process it'd be interesting to look at how much money KC had available under the cap. Well Gooch over at the Star beat me to both punches in the same post last night. With his explanation of the allocation process using the MLS rules I'm not sure I need to explain it more. If you feel differently, let me know and I'll work on breaking it down more.

But in regards to the salary cap space that the team has I want to look further into that. With the departure of Jimmy Conrad ($232,750), Josh Wolff ($220,004), Zoltan Hercegfalvi ($168,000), Jack Jewsbury ($145,000), Sunil Chhetri ($100,008), Nikos Kounenakis ($70,000), Jamar Beasley ($40,000), Aaron Hohlbein ($40,000), and Jonathan Leathers ($40,000), the Wizards have created $1,055,762 in cap space to use this season, and that's before taking into account how much money KC was under the cap last year.

To break down how much space KC still has to work with let's take a look at the players that have come in. Omar Bravo as a designated player will count $335,000 against the cap. There's also been the signings of Kevin Ellis, Mike Jones, Scott Lorenz, CJ Sapong, and Luke Sassano. Sapong and Sassano seem the most likely to be making the most money (Sassano made $40,000 last year). Those two are likely making in the $40,000 to $50,000 range most likely. The other three are likely making either the senior roster minimum of $40,000 or possibly the $32,600 limit for players 25-30 on this year's roster (see the roster rules here). I'd think Ellis and Jones are potentially in the later group, maybe Lorenz as well based on comments that he's on an apprentice contract. So when it comes to new players, KC hasn't added a whole lot in total salary outside of Bravo, with those other five players KC has probably added around or less than $200,000 to the cap. So with those six players there's about $520,762 left to spend.

But before we think we have that remaining for signings there's a little more to remember as well. First, Chance Myers and Roger Espinoza have both graduated from the Generation Adidas program, meaning their salaries now both count against the cap. Meaning Espinoza's $75,000 and Myers' $70,000 both count against the cap. That leaves $375,762 left to spend on new players.

Again we have to wait though for other reasons. First, last year when KC traded for Shavar Thomas, there was word that Philadelphia was picking up a good chunk of Thomas' salary for the season. We don't know what amount that was, but Thomas' salary was $145,000 last year. So let's say we have to add another $100,000 for Thomas' salary fully being under KC this year. Finally, the other thing to remember is that Michael Harrington has signed a new contract. Harrington made $78,516 last year. We can be safe to assume that he's making over $100,000 now. Add that $100,000 plus for Thomas and Harrington and we're probably closer to about $250,000 or so left from the amount that was made available with all the players that left.

I'm sure my numbers aren't anywhere close to exact, but when you look at it, the $1 million plus in camp space is already going to use in other places for the team currently, but there is still room under the cap for some good signings, plus with the allocation money it can be used to help pay down a salary to max salary levels.

First Day of Preseason Recap

So the first day of preseason is in the books, and unfortunately I was unable to make it. This blog doesn't pay the bills so I was at work while preseason was going on. But the rest of the KC soccer blogosphere was there today and there is plenty of information that you can look at. I doubt I'll be able to make it out to a practice before the team heads down to Arizona, but there is certainly plenty to look over.

The team has an official rewind on The Sporting Way blog.

Thad over at The Back Post has multiple interviews up today with first round pick, CJ Sapong, Jimmy Nielsen, and Kei Kamara.

The Full 90 over at the KC Star has two stories, one Gooch's thoughts on the first day of training, and an article on first round pick Sapong.

And James over at Sporting Times has some thoughts as well as a new feature he's doing looking at the players on the team, starting with Chance Myers and Craig Rocastle.

Year End Review of 2010 Wishes

The year is almost over and it's time to take one more look at my wishes for the year 2010. Here was my take on the wishes half way through the year.

1. The stadium starts to take shape. While I respect Gooch over at the Star, this was the story of the year for KC soccer. The win over United was great, but the fact that this stadium has gone from being approved in January to being the structure you see below. It's amazing that 506 days after dirt started moving at the site the team will take the field for the first time at their new stadium. It's great, a sign of the work the team has done, along with an economy that favored the team to getting work done quickly.

photo courtesy of Thad Bell

2. Qualify for the playoffs early. May be better to just skip this one, the team didn't even qualify for the playoffs this year.

3. Some silverware. Another wish unfulfilled.

4. SI's that contribute more. I think this wish was fulfilled pretty well. Jimmy Nielsen did well, although wasn't as strong the second half of the season. Stephane Auvray proved how valuable he was. Ryan Smith will continue to be a difficult player for opponents to deal with and shut down. Craig Rocastle had a very strong second half to the season being a composed, strong presence in the midfield for KC down the stretch.

5. Re-sign Kei Kamara. This got done during training camp and Kamara was named the team's MVP for the 2010 season.

6. Round of 16 appearance for the USA in the World Cup. The US loss to Ghana was disappointing but it was a great trip for the United States. Overall it was a great tournament for the US and the goal by Landon Donovan against Algeria has been one of the best sports moments of the year, and this video never gets old and still gives me goosebumps.



7. A home record of only 1 loss. Another one that didn't happen. KC finished 7-5-3 in their last season at Community America Ballpark, 24 of 45 points at home isn't good enough and is one of the areas that the team must improve in 2010.

8. At least 40 goals this season. KC only got 36 goals this season, but only 6 teams out of 16 even hit 40 goals this season so while the team not hitting 40 sucks, they were in very good company. And they at least weren't DC who hit an all time low for MLS with only 21 goals.

Wolff Option Declined, Reentry Draft Awaits

It appears the offseason work is really beginning for SKC now, first the word on Jimmy Nielsen being re-signed and now we learn the name of the first Sporting player that will officially enter next week's reentry draft, and it's Josh Wolff. Wolff, 33 and a 12 year MLS veteran, had his option declined by SKC. After scoring a career high 11 goals in 2009, Wolff only scored twice and saw his playing time decrease late in the season as Teal Bunbury began to develop. I find it unlikely that a team will take on Wolff in the first round of Monday's reentry draft. I could see something happening in the second trip through later in the week, but not this time, I just don't think at this point in his career he's work the $200,000+ that he was making this year. We'll see if anyone does at this point soon enough though.

In other offseason roster movement potential, Robb Heineman posted a quick post on Bigsoccer tonight, touching on a few potential roster moves. He mentioned the Trinidad and Tobago trials that begin tomorrow, Heineman says that they're using this for helping them find some developmental players to help them fill out their roster next year. He also talks about the recent scouting trip to Europe, South America, and Africa and have a lengthy discovery list to turn into the league with the hopes of signing one. He also mentioned the potential of a young designated player signing based on his skill level, not his name potential. I like this move, especially with the recent news of Seattle and Real Salt Lake using designated player slots to keep players (Fredy Montero and Alvaro Saborio) who aren't necessarily big names but are very good players, this move if it happens I like the idea of. Finally Heineman says that they are working on two trades for one position but only want to get one of them. Either way it looks like the offseason could start moving very quickly very soon.

Nielsen Contract Extension

Gooch over on The Full 90 posted this earlier today, but word out of Denmark is that the SKC has extended the contract of Jimmy Nielsen for another year. Originally reports of his contract were that it was a 1 plus 1 contract with the second year being an option year, based off of that and this news it looks like the option was picked up and the team negotiated Nielsen's salary a bit as well. For more confirmation on this, just look at Nielsen's status yesterday on Facebook, where he posted: "Jimmy Kjær Nielsen is planning on winning the championship with Sporting KC next year!!! SO looking forward to one more year with you guys!!!"

Based off of that and the comments in the Danish article, it appears that Nielsen is only looking for one more playing year here, maybe he's contemplating retirement, or maybe he's looking to go back to Denmark, we'll have to wait and see. Overall Nielsen has stepped in a picked up basically where Kevin Hartman left off. He hasn't been a big upgrade over Hartman, many would say it was a lateral movement skill wise, but he still saved points for KC last season when needed.

Vermes Arrested for DUI Last Week

The Wizards have had a lot of good news both on and off the field in the past couple weeks. The team is on a fantastic run of form with only 1 loss in their last 7 league games. They're getting ready to announce their first homegrown player from the Wizards Juniors program. The stadium is growing like a weed with more and more going everyday.

Unfortunately all that will now pale in comparison to what was reported tonight by the KC Star. Wizards head coach and technical director, Peter Vermes was arrested last week for DUI. Vermes was arrested in Gardner on the 24th for driving under the influence. This news makes all the positives above worthless, it's a poor representation of the team and will likely hang over any good news that comes out for the rest of the season.

There's really no excuse for this for Vermes. This isn't the type of publicity that the Wizards wanted or needed. The question now is what, if anything, does the team do about this? Certainly there will be some behind doors repercussions from this for Vermes. Will anything publicly be done? Certainly a few fans are already calling for Vermes job because of this. It certainly gives the Wizards a black eye and is certainly something that Robb Heineman and the rest of the ownership have to look into deeply.

News and Notes

Earlier today, the Star posted a quick note from practice today that probably scared a lot of Wizards fans. Apparently at practice today, Wizards forward/midfielder, Ryan Smith, was carted off the field with an apparent knee injury. The Wizards have addressed the injury tonight on their website, and Wizards fans can step off the ledge. Smith's injury is apparently not serious. He has a knee strain, but they right now don't plan on doing an MRI. Smith will be readdressed tomorrow before training, so hopefully in the end it doesn't keep Smith from playing this weekend.

Also on the Wizards website today, head coach, Peter Vermes had a chat with fans where he answered questions. Overall no real new information came out that fans weren't really aware of. The biggest news really was the fact that the team expects Zoltan Hercegfalvi back in October from his ACL tear. Certainly good news for a team that has lacked a scoring punch for much of the season, but is likely going to be too late.

Finally, over the weekend, the MLS transfer window for players under contract in other leagues closed. It closed on the 15th of August. Team's can still sign players that aren't under contract or from within MLS until September 15th. With the Wizards having two open roster spots, one would hope that they're looking to fill at least one of those spots (with Hercegfalvi eventually taking the second). A bit more scoring punch off the bench, or starter would certainly be appreciated at this point.