What I've Missed This Week

First, apologies for the lack of posts this week, late last week I asked to travel for work this week and after working 12 hour shifts I didn't have a whole lot of energy to sit down and write, plus I was having problems with the PC I was trying to use.

Anyways, let's look back on the news that's happened this week for the Wizards, lucky for me there was no real big news, but lots of little bits of news. I will be doing a full Former Wizards update for this past week and a post on the 2011 season tickets, so look for those to come too.

First, Wednesday was the roster deadline for MLS teams. The Wizards made no big moves on the day to fill their two open roster spots. They did make one roster move, activating forward Zoltan Hercegfalvi from the injured reserve list so that if he does get healthy enough to play, he could potentially play late in the season. Hercegfalvi is recovering from a torn ACL that he suffered in the team's 2-1 win over AC St. Louis in a friendly early in the season.

In other player player news, Wizards forward, Sunil Chhetri, currently on loan to the Indian national team, picked up another cap this week in his country's 2-0 friendly win over Namibia. Chhetri had a few chances for India, but did not get a goal.

Before I left last weekend, I got together with Thad from The Back Post for a podcast. We also had James Starritt from KCWFans, and Charles Gooch from the Star for a second blogger summit. We discussed the Wizards resurgence, the playoff race, the potential rebranding, and other things as well. It's available on iTunes and Posterous.

The Wizards also announced that their two rescheduled games against Houston this coming Wednesday and against Chicago in October will not be on KCWE. Instead, due to scheduling conflicts, the games will be broadcasted on MetroSports. It sucks for those in the metro area that do not have Time Warner Cable or if their cable provider does not offer MetroSports, but at least the games will be on TV in KC for many fans.

Away from direct Wizards news, but still related to the team, a few changes to the league as a whole appear to be set to occur next season. First, the league has announced that we will once again have a balanced schedule next year with the introduction of Portland and Vancouver into the league. The Wizards will now play 34 games next year, home and away against each team just like this year. The season will begin on March 19th and conclude October 22nd. This is a great step for the league in my opinion, it continues to keep the competitive balance in the league as each team will continue to play every other team in the league.

The other bit of league news this past week is that MLS apparently is going to be enlarging the rosters for teams. According to FC Dallas head coach Schelllas Hyndman, MLS will add 4-6 roster spots depending on the number of home grown players teams have. Currently teams can have 20 senior roster players, 4 developmental/Generation Adidas players, and 2 home grown players for a total of 26. According to Hyndman, teams will be able to have 30 players on their roster next year. No word yet on how that will be divided up between senior roster and developmental. I would think they'd up the senior roster to something like 22 or 24 and then have 6-8 developmental player spots for players making the league minimum, are Generation Adidas, or are home grown players. The big question from this one though, is what this does to the salary cap? The home is that it will see a bit of a bigger bump this coming year to accommodate for the additional roster spots, but that remains to be seen. These two bits of news were easily the biggest to come out this week related to the Wizards.

Finally, another of KC's teams continues to build their team up. The Missouri Comets announced the signing of two assistant coaches, Vlatko Andonovski and Douglas McLagan. Andonovski is a former indoor player with the Wichita Wings and KC Comets, he was named the Comets MVP back in 2005. Andonvski has most recently been the director of coaching for Futura FC a local youth club, and the head coach of the KC Kings, Kansas City's other indoor team. McLagan also played for the Comets, the original version, before joining the Wings later in his career. McLagan also coaches at Blue Springs High School and for local youth club KCFC.

Watson Gone, More TV News, and Other KC News

Lots of different bits of news out today from the Wizards. First, the Wizards have continued to make over their roster as they have waived midfielder/defender, Lance Watson. Watson was a starter for much of the last season, starting 19 games, mainly at right back. Late in the season, though, Watson lost his place to Jonathan Leathers. It seemed to mainly coincide with Peter Vermes taking over the Wizards. To show how much of a make over the Wizards have had in the past few years, Watson was actually the 4 most tenured player with the Wizards before being waived, and he'd only been with the team since 2006.

Along with Watson's departure, the Wizards have let Alexei Casian and Shahriar Dastan go from the team's preseason roster. Casian had been with the team since the beginning of preseason, the same as his countryman, Igor Kostrov, but apparently didn't impress enough as Kostrov. Dastan, the Iranian defender, had only joined the team on their return to Arizona.

Today the Wizards announced the news that was on TV last night, that the Wizards will have all their games this year in High Definition on KCWE. The team also announced who would be doing the broadcasts in the booth. On play by play will be a member of KC's press staff, Dave Borchardt, on color will be someone familiar to Wizards fans, former Wizard, Sasha Victorine, who returns to KC after spending the last season and a half with Chivas USA.

While today was supposed to be the MLS roster deadline day, and the Wizards did make a roster move, that deadline has been moved. This extension comes as talks between the league and the Players' Union continue to talk about the collective bargaining agreement.

Wizards on KCWE this Season

Just announced on KMBC tonight, the Wizards will have every one of their games this season over on KMBC's sister station, KCWE. All the games will be shown in high definition as well. This is a great move for the Wizards in the long run in my opinion, while Metrosports has been a good location for Wizards games the past few years, it didn't get the games to the entire metro area of KC. This move to KCWE allows the Wizards to reach a much bigger audience than it has in previous years. The Wizards have obviously listened to their fans earlier this offseason when Robb Heineman and the team asked for some feedback from their fans. One of the topics that was popular in the comments section was the Wizards television contract. Once again, I really like this move by the team, it allows more people the chance to see the team play.