Wizards/Rain wash away TFC

The Canadians came into Kansas City, and were beat all over the field, as the Wizards went on to a 3-0 win over the expansion side. The Wizards started early, as Davy Arnaud picked out an overlapping Sasha Victorine who played the ball into the box, where it was headed in by Eddie Johnson, who has now equaled his goal output for all of last season in the first 3 games of this season, which is a good sign for Wizards fans. Through the rest of the half, Carlos Marinelli dictated much of the Wizards play, having a stellar match in his first MLS start. The Wizards though were unable to grab another goal. But unlike the first 2 games this season, the Wizards did not concede a goal in the first half, even though Toronto had some decent chances.

In the second half, Marinelli continued to dictate the tempo, but it was an unsung player who got goal number 2. Eddie Johnson drove into the box and has his shot saved by Sutton, the ball fell to Marinelli, who's volley was blocked on the line by TFC keeper Greg Sutton, the ball bounced right out to Kerry Zavagnin who settled, turned and put the ball into the far right corner for his first goal since the 2003 season, to make it 2-0 Wizards. The Wizards dominance continued, as Marinelli found Johnson again but his finish was off, and a Marinelli corner was headed into the cross bar by Jimmy Conrad. Finally in the 70th minute, the Wizards finished the game off. A long ball from Michael Harrington found Yura Movsisyan, who beat his defender then beat Sutton near side to make it 3-0.

The shutout by Kevin Hartman was his 63rd of his MLS career, giving him the all time shutouts record, passing former Wizard Tony Meola.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Carlos Marinelli - KC - Dictated possession for the entire game for KC, his passes were on all night and should have had 2 assists, setting up both Johnson and Conrad who didn't finish.
2. Kevin Hartman - KC - The Wizards keeper gets his first shutout of the season, the 63rd of his career, setting a new MLS record.
3. Eddie Johnson - KC - With his goal tonight he equaled his goal output for all of last season, and still looked dangerous the rest of the game, he made the 2nd goal happen with his drive into the box.

The Canadians are coming, eh?

Finally the Wizards are coming home to KC for their home opener. This year the Wizards open on a Wednesday against expansion club Toronto FC. Let's forget the fact that MLS had the bright idea to schedule KC's opener for a Wednesday night (expect the "move KC" people to come back out after this game, especially if the forecast for tomorrow remains true). After opening up with a big win in DC, KC has fallen twice, once in the US Open Cup to Real Salt Lake, and last Saturday to Chicago, both by the score of 2-1. The Wizards will now play their 4th game in 12 days, in their stretch of 5 in 15. All this does not bode well for a stellar performance.

It looks as though the Wizards will be without Scott Sealy again for this match, even though the preview for the match tomorrow on MLSnet says he's probable. What this means, is that Yura Movsisyan will likely get another start even though he did not impress at all in the game last week in Chicago, before being subbed out at halftime. We're also still not likely to see Carlos Marinelli start as he's probably still not up to full match fitness quite yet, although after his performance in Chicago and in Salt Lake, it's gonna start getting hard not to start him soon. I'd expect the same lineup as Saturday against Chicago, if Sealy is indeed out.

Hartman
Jewsbury - Garcia - Conrad - Bruciaga
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Victorine - Harrington
Movsisyan - Johnson

As for Toronto, they're on 10 days of rest after losing 4-0 to New England, and have since that time made 3 trades and one signing, bringing in Marvell Wynne from New York for an allocation and a draft pick, Kevin Goldthwaite from Houston for Richard Mulrooney, they traded Conor Casey to Colorado for a draft pick, and Riley O'Neill. Finally, Toronto announced the signing of Daniele Dichio from Preston North End. I'd expect Wynne and Goldthwaite to be in the lineup, but it appears that Dichio won't have his visa ready in time to play Wednesday. The Wizards are also likely to see this years first pick in the draft Maurice Edu who had missed the preseason with a groin injury. Also, while MLSnet lists Ronnie O'Brien and Chris Pozniak as being out for this match, TSN is reporting that both will be available for the game tomorrow.

Prediction
Anything less then a win tomorrow is a major disappointment for KC. They're at home, and they're playing the leagues newest team. I expect KC to come out and get the win fairly easily, although I see them conceding Toronto's first ever goal at the hands of Alecko Eskandarian (pun intended).

KC - 4 (Johnson, Arnaud x2, Marinelli)
TFC - 1 (Eskandarian)

Fire down the Wizards

The Wizards still can't play well in Chicago. Last night the Wizards lost to the Fire 2-1, with goals by Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe (PK), and the Wizards tally coming from Carlos Marinelli.

The Wizards looked like they were tired tonight, which is not surpising, considering only 2 players that played last night didn't play in the US Open match against Salt Lake that went to extra time.

The Fire looked more rested and better prepared for this match. Eddie Johnson was almost completely neutralized, and never really got a chance to turn and go at defenders. Instead, a Chicago defender was on Eddie's back all night. The Wizards never really had any threatening chances until the second half and the introduction of Marinelli. Looking at the match, KC missed Scott Sealy last night. What it proved is that after Johnson and Sealy, there is a big drop off when you reach 3rd strike Yura.

Chicago took a 1-0 lead a little after the half hour mark, as Rolfe stuck in between 2 KC players and won the ball to Chris Amras who released Chad Barrett who beat the offside trap and was in alone on Hartman, and he finished. Chicago doubled their lead in the 73rd, when Nick Garcia made a late tackle on Ivan Guerrero that Guerrero hammed up, even though replays showed Garcia didn't touch him. KC was able to salavage a goal in the 90th, when Marinelli took an elbow to the face from Dasan Robinson in the box, leading to a PK.

Overall, the Wizards didn't look terrible, but they definitly didn't look like the team that beat DC 4-2 last weekend. Johnson was completely neutralized and he missed Sealy, who we saw tonight is VASTLY underrated.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Chad Barrett - Chicago - Barrett gave the KC back line trouble all night, he got Garcia an early yellow for a poor challenge, and then shreaded the KC defense to soccer the first goal.
2. Chris Rolfe - Chicago - Playing deeper then he normally does as a forward, Rolfe did really well in that position, setting up the first goal, as well as stepping up to bury the PK that doubled Chicago's lead.
3. Chicago Backline - Chicago - Completely shut down the KC strikers and didn't allow much of anything past them. A solid performance.

Yes, no KC players deserved to be mentioned as a star of the game, they were all just adequite tonight.

On to the 4th game in 12 days.

Wiz on the Fire

Kansas City Wizards (1-0-0) vs Chicago Fire (1-0-1)

The Wizards roll into Toyota Park after bowing out of the US Open Cup in the qualifying stages, to Real Salt Lake. The Wizards now can concentrate on the MLS season, where they are coming off their big 4-2 win in DC on opening day. The Fire come into this match up having drew with 10 man Colorado out at Dick's. The Fire won their opening game of the season, taking down New England 1-0 on a Logan Pause goal.

Chicago as a whole has never been a friendly place for Kansas City to play in, the Wizards are 1-11-1 in Chicago since the Fire joined the league in 1998. The only time the Wizards have taken points off the Fire in Chicago, was in the 2005 season when they got their only win and draw in Chicago. History is not on the Wizards side in that regard, although the Wizards two trophies have come at the expense of the Fire. The Wizards won the 2000 MLS Cup and 2004 US Open Cup against the Fire.

Overall, I'd expect the Wizards to be putting out what should be their best lineup, except with the possible exception of Carlos Marinelli, who still lacks match fitness. Although I would bet that the Wizards Argentine will make his MLS debut tomorrow. The Wizards will likely come out in this lineup tomorrow:

Hartman
Jewsbury - Garcia - Conrad - Burciaga
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Victorine - Harrington
Sealy - Johnson

The only question mark will be the health of Scott Sealy after the knock he took out in Utah on Wednesday, although the MLS preview says that Sealy is probable. Mixed news for all Wizards fans as well about this game, as our favorite munchkin, Michael Kennedy is on the game. The good news though is that he is the fourth official, so he'll have little to do with the game itself.

Prediction
This is an early test for the Wizards, their history in Chicago has not been bright, but under a new coach, things can change. The Wizards will likely get to face off against another 3 man back line, but this one should be better then the abysmal defending we saw out of DC last week. That said, Johnson could have another big day against this back line.

KC - 1 (Johnson)
Chicago - 1 (Rolfe)

Bannister Mall Closing... Wizards Stadium Coming?

Tonight I had this article from KMBZ emailed to me. I've spoken in the past about the possiblity of Bannister Mall being a location for the Wizards, and now things look like they could be moving in that direction.

Apparently, the mall will be closing in about a month's time. The current tenants of the mall, 50 out of 134 retail slots, were sent a letter April 17th telling them of the plans of Donaldson Properties to close the mall. The closing of the mall basically closes all the commercial in an area that for the past 7-10 years has seen a massive down turn in business. At one time, Bannister Mall was the center of shopping for much of the KC area, now it's mainly empty as are the rest of the buildings in the area, as businesses like Montgomery Ward, Wal-Mart, JC Penny's, Toys R' Us, and Best Buy have all moved or just closed.

This paves the way for a possible Wizards stadium. This plan has been rumored for a while. The talks heated up when the Wizards hired Lane4 Property Group to look into the property as a future home for the Wizards. Since then, Lane4 has held one meeting with a local community group about the plans for the area.

The idea of using TIFs to help fund the building of the stadium and commercial complex was supposed to be on the agenda last night at a TIF meeting, but was pulled from the agenda a week ago.

We shall see where this leads, but things are definitely starting to look like KC proper is the favorite to land the Wizards stadium right now.

Wizards vs RSL

The Wizards bow out of the US Open Cup tonight 2-1 after extra time, to Real Salt Lake. While there was no TV for this game, fans were able to listen to the radio broadcast, featuring Sean Wheelock and Brian Roberts.

Salt Lake took the lead after Kevin Hartman brought down Freddy Adu in the box, leading to a PK that was converted by Jeff Cunningham. The Wizards best first half chance came when Eddie Johnson was able to round Chris Seitz and have an open goal, only to have Daniel Torres recover and clear the ball away before Eddie could shot.

In the second half the Wizards came out pressing more, and almost equalized when Ryan Raybould's 20 yard blast hit the cross bar. Carlos Marinelli got his first run out with the Wizards tonight as well, coming on in the 61st minute. Listening to the broadcast it sounded like Marinelli did a great job and really changed the game when he came on. Some RSL fans who post on bigsoccer gave their thoughts on Marinelli in this thread, and this thread. Finally in the 88th minute, Marinelli helped set up the equalizer, as he turned Kenny Cutler, laid the ball off to Davy Arnaud, who crossed in to Will John. John's shot was saved by Seitz, but Victorine was there to put the ball in the net.

In extra time a good combination from RSL led to Andy Williams beating Hartman for what proved to be a winner.

Overall, the lineup was not entirely what I expected, 6 of the starters started the game on Sat, 8 of the 13 players used against DC started tonight, and 11 of the 13 played tonight, only Aaron Hohlbein and Jose Burciaga did not.

Since I can't comment more on the game, I'll comment on the announcing. Sean Wheelock can be really great at times, he does really well at capturing the excitment, there were times when he'd call players names who had been subbed out as the action got faster, the goal in particular. As for Brian Roberts, he did ok for his first radio broadcast. He stumbled through the first 45 minutes or so having to clear his throat a lot and mumbling, not finishing his sentences, but he got better over the course of the game.

My stars of the game tonight are all based on first hand accounts or from what I gathered from listening to the radio.

Stars of the Game
1.) Jeff Cunningham - RSL - scored the first goal, and seemed to give the Wizards back line trouble most of the night.
2.) Carlos Marinelli - KC - The game completely changed when he came in the game, I recall 4 or 5 times when Wheelock said he turned his mark inside out to get by him. This is a good sign and gets me more excited to see him play in person more.
3. Andy Williams - RSL - The match winner, also helped to change the game when he came on, Roberts mentioned in the broadcast that he was able to find a lot of room on the right side of the field and eventually he exploited it.

The Lamar Hunt US Open Cup

Kansas City Wizards (1-0-0) vs Real Salt Lake (0-0-2)

Tonight the Wizards begin their US Open Cup run out in Salt Lake as they take on Real at 6 pm central time. While there is no TV for the game, Wizards fans can listen to the game on 97.3 FM.

KC comes into the game on a high after defeating almost everyone's pick to win it all this season, DC United. How KC plays this game will be very interesting, this will be the Wizards second game of 5 games in 15 days to start the season. The Wizards will be in Chicago on Saturday for their second MLS game of the season before returning home for the first leg of a home-home run with Toronto FC. It's likely that we'll see plenty of reserves get the run out tonight against RSL. It's hard to guess on the lineup though, as it is currently unknown how Curt Onalfo and the current Wizards organization view the US Open Cup competition wise. Will they take it seriously, or will they use it as just a place to get some reserves some experience. Some things I think we can figure on though, is Eric Kronberg to get the job in net tonight, Ryan Raybould will probably be starting at right back, Will John and Kurt Morsink will be in the midfield, as will Edson Elcock, and Yura Movsisyan will be up top. The rest of the lineup I am not sure of, although it wouldn't surprise me to see one a lot like the lineup used against Evansville.

Salt Lake I would think will have the majority of their starters play in the Open Cup match, as this game is the first of a double header tonight. The other game is Salt Lake vs the Fiji National team. So I would think that Salt Lake will be putting out almost their best 11, although I'm sure a few players will be held back. According to a poster on bigsoccer who was listening to the radio in Salt Lake, Chris Seitz will get his first professional start tonight against the Wizards. Other then that though I don't have enough information on the Salt Lake team to make a good guess at the lineup, as I don't know how John Ellinger plays the US Open Cup either.

Prediction

As I said I expect mostly reserves for the Wizards tonight, and overall my hopes aren't too high at all for this one.
KC - 1 (Movsisyan)
RSL - 2 (C. Brown, Rowland)

Pardon the Interruption

Anyone who's ever read this blog knows I concentrate my writings on soccer, specifically the Wizards. I don't claim to be up to date on current world events, I don't know what's going on with whoever's presidential campaign and the immigration debate, I'm not a social commentator. If you want more of that, check out Tony's Kansas City. I write about what I know, and that's soccer and the Kansas City Wizards. That said, there are certain events that when they happen cause everything else around you to seem so small and insignificant. Today unfortunately one of those events occurred.

As almost all of you probably know by now, this morning, a gunman at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University opened fire at two locations on the the schools campus, the first at West Ambler Johnston Hall, one of Tech's larger dorms on campus. The second was in Norris Hall, one of the campus' engineering buildings. As of the posting of this blog message, deaths are currently numbered at 33 and as many as 28 injured. Making it one of the largest mass shootings in American history. Details are still so sketchy at this time that it'd be almost a waste to post the details as they are right now.

You can't put into words what the people on Tech's campus must be going through right now, and I can't even begin to think about what they could be going through. All I know is that I have that sickening, depressed feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you read and hear about things like this.

As a person who has recently graduated from college, it's a scary thing to think about, you start to look at your college life in a different way, you hear about what is happening and you begin to put those events in play on your campus, and it makes you even sicker. This isn't suppose to happen in college, in college you have the rest of your life ahead of you, you're shaping your life for the future, and to have so many young lives ended is such an immense tragedy. It just brings up so many questions about this incident and what happened here. The biggest being the question WHY? Why would someone do this sort of thing to other human beings? What could drive a person to do this? Was it a girlfriend problem, as some would suggest the dorm shooting was? Was it a grade issue, as people think the shooting in the classrooms were? Why was the school put off of lockdown after the first shooting occurred in the dorms? Were there signs that this was going to happen and could anyone have stopped this? There are so many questions right now, and no where near enough answers. Hopefully in the next few days, some answers will start to come out. But right now it's time to morn the losses that have occurred today.

It's senseless when things like this happen, you can't even begin to think about it. All you can do is to pray for everyone involved in any way in this incident and to morn those that have died.

My prayers and thoughts go out to those families, friends, and anyone else whose life has been altered by the events today.

KC vs DC postgame thoughts

Wow I was way off when I predicted this game. Only thing I got right was both of DC's goal scorers and one of KC's.


4-2 final.

What can I say other then, PLEASE let this be the Eddie we see all season. Eddie Johnson showed the type of player he can be tonight, he was strong on the ball, fast, attacking players, beating players one on one, passing well, and finishing. A good night for one of the major scapegoats of last season.

The Wizards came out strong early, as Michael Harrington received a flick on header from Eddie, drove down the line beating Facundo Erpen, who slipped, and then beating Troy Perkins 5 whole to put the Wizards up 1-0 in just the third minute.

Five minutes later, a quick counter from a DC corner had Scott Sealy on the left side crossing to Johnson who clamly brought the ball down, looked up, and found Sasha Victorine making a run down the right. A nicely slotted ball later, and it's 2-0 Wizards and it looks as if the route is on.

It wouldn't last long though, as Luciano Emilio pulled one back in the 11th on a goal that appeared to be offside, but none of the replays from FSC showed a definitive view to say he was on or not.

In the 34th, things were all even. Christian Gomez broke away from the midfield, and was bearing down on Jimmy Conrad when Sasha Victorine gave a slite tug on Gomez's jersey and Gomez goes down earning the free kick and Sasha a yellow. Two things wrong with this, 1 why is Sasha pulling on Gomez, I mean he's going right at probably the best center back in the league, I had all the confidence in the world that Jimmy would have stood Gomez up. Two, what a weak foul that was. The goal was just as weak, as the free kick went to Hartman's right, Hartman got in front of it, but his parry of the ball went under him and into the net to make it 2-2.

In first half stoppage time, a take away off of Gomez in the midfield put Johnson in one on one with Perkins, and Eddie made no mistake slipping it under Perkins to restore the Wizards lead heading into halftime.

In the 54th minute, KC was able to put the game away, again it was Eddie Johnson making it happen, a long ball from the midfield found Eddie behind DC's defense, Perkins saved his first shot, but the rebound went right to Sealy who made no mistake.

Overall my thoughts on the game are a bit mixed. While I'm happy that the Wizards won and played well at times, there were a few things that bothered me. The first was the amount of possession we gave up. Yes we were leading and trying to protect the lead, but DC spent way to much time on the ball, especially in our own defensive third. Also, while overall Hartman played well, that gaff on the second goal could have cost us. I'll give his play at the end of the game though making up for it. Other thoughts on the game: DC's defense is horrid, Erpen got beat way too many times tonight, I'm starting to see why DC fans get so frustrated with him. The KC defense locked it down in the second half, after a shaky start, Hohlbein played well filling in for Nick Garcia.

3 STARS OF THE GAME:
1.) EDDIE JOHNSON - Kansas City - No contest here, easily his best game ever in Wizards blue, he looked like the Eddie of old running at defenders, using skill and speed, it was a thing of beauty, a goal and 2 assists, as well as basically setting up the fourth is nice.
2) SCOTT SEALY - Kansas City - Held the ball up well and played great off of EJ. Had a great cross into EJ that set up the second goal, and did what every good striker is taught to do on the fourth, follow the play.
3) CHRISTIAN GOMEZ - DC United - A wicked freekick for the second DC goal. Gomez played well in the middle of the field helping DC to keep possession and keep KC trapped in their own end of the field, especially in the second half when KC had trouble clearing it out.

Wizards to trade DP slot........ to Chivas?

This is like 4th hand news by now, but I wanted to post this. According to a poster on bigsoccer, on ESPN Deportes yesterday, Chivas is in negoiations with the Wizards to get the Wizards designated player (DP, Beckham rule) slot.

This move makes no sense to me from the Wizards perspective. Wizards coach Curt Onalfo looks to be wanting to get more out of Johnson, and if he does, then next season the Wizards are gonna need their DP slot for Johnson, as the grandfathering period for players like Johnson, Donovan, and Adu end.

But for a minute let's forget that and take a look at Chivas' roster and see who in the world they could trade to KC to get the DP slot. The first name that sticks out on the list, is Jonathan Bornstein. Last years rookie of the year, started the year by getting his first 2 caps with the US National Team. A move for him is unlikely mainly due to the fact that the Wizards already have Jose Burciaga Jr, who the coaches still seem to be high on, as well as Michael Harrington, the Wizards first round draft pick this year, who can also play left back. It doesn't make sense to bring in another player that can play left back, no matter what people think of Jose's play.

Continuing down the roster, is Amado Guevara, this is an unlikely move, as Chivas traded their DP slot to New York to get Guevara this season. Plus with the signing of Marinelli I doub tthe Wizards would want to bring in another attacking midfielder.

Brad Guzan, another player with a bright future, he's unlikely to move, as the Wizards have already brought in a new goalkeeper this season in the form of Kevin Hartman, bringing in another starting caliber goalkeeper would not make sense for the Wizards.

Sacha Kljestan, is probably not worth a DP slot alone. Add that with the fact that, like Guevara, he plays the same general position as Marinelli makes a move for him unlikely.

Finally there's Ante Razov. I just don't see this as a move that would make sense for the Wizards. As I mentioned earlier, the coaching staff seems to feel that Johnson will come around this season. Add in last seasons leading scorer, Scott Sealy, who is looking to become a full time starter now, it doesn't make sense to bring in a forward like Razov. The rest of Chivas' roster doesn't strike me as anyone worthy of a DP, and a few of the players I've listed above aren't even worth a DP slot, but we'll see what comes of this one.

If anyone can think of any kind of deal with Chivas for our DP that makes sense, feel free to post it.

Kansas City vs DC United preview

The last of MLS's 13 teams kicks off it's season this Saturday in DC as the Kansas City Wizards take on DC United. This is the Wizards first game of the season after sitting out league games last week due to an odd number of teams this year. Meanwhile, DC was at the opening of Colorado's Dick's Park, where they lost 2-1 to the Rapids.

Kansas City comes into the game after beating USL-1 side, the Seattle Sounders 3-2 last Saturday at Blue Valley District Athletic Complex. The Wizards will be without defender Nick Garcia who's red card at the end of the season against New York carries over to this season. New signing Carlos Marinelli is not likely to be playing with the team either this Saturday, although according to Wizards president Robb Heineman, Marinelli's visa is processed and done, so he should be playing soon, so who knows he could make an appearance. Those 2 I would expect will get their first run out in the US Open Cup match against Salt Lake next week. This week though, what can we expect for a starting lineup? Hartman is easily the number 1 choice in net. According to Curt Onalfo last night on the Wizards Weekly show on Metro Sports, Aaron Hohlbein will get the start alongside Conrad since Garcia is out and Tyson Wahl is coming back from a broken leg. So basically the lineup will be the same for this game as it was for the start of the game against the Sounders.

Hartman
Jewsbury - Hohlbein - Conrad - Burciaga
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Victorine - Harrington
Sealy - Johnson

While DC comes into this game 0-1 this season, they're still the team to beat in the East this season. They're a very talented attacking team, with 3 of the best attackers in the league (Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, and Luciano Emilio). They've also got the Brazilian Fred who played in Australia last season and should be working himself into the starting lineup soon I would think. My feeling on their last result is that they were physically and metally worn out from their CONCACAF Champion's Cup match in Mexico against Chivas. The weak point of the team is likely their defense, which seems to be guility of at least 1 or 2 brain lapses a game. The Wizards will need to take advantage of those. As for what DC will come out in:

Perkins
Erpen - Boswell - Namoff
Simms - Carroll
Olsen - Gomez - Gros
Moreno - Emilio

PREDICTION:
While I wanna be postive about this match, it's hard to be. DC is a very strong team, one of the strongest ever in MLS if they play up to their potential. Hohlbein will get a rude awaking to MLS going up against Moreno and Emilio, Conrad will definitly have to help him out in the middle of the defense.

Wizards - 1 (Sealy)
DC - 2 (Gomez, Emilio)

Marinelli and Bannister Mall

If you look on the Wizards website tonight, you will see that the Wizards are gonna finally announce the signing of their newest player, Carlos Marinelli. The new Wizards player got 45 minutes in the reserve game against Evansville last Saturday night and looked very good at times. The only thing that looks to be lacking right now is some match fitness as he had his hands on his knees during the game against Evansville, trying to catch his breath. If he plays this weekend, I would assume it would be as a late game sub.

In other news, it looks like things are moving forward in the Wizards stadium discussion, particularly the possible Bannister Mall site. According to this article on Kansascity.com, the Wizards have hired a developer to look into the development of the area. Lane4 Property Group is the group that will look into the redevelopment of the area. According to the article, the area used in the redevelopment would be the mall, the Benjamin Plaza shopping area, as well as the Benjamin Ranch property. The new complex would include "400,000- to 500,000-square feet of retail space, up to 800,000-square feet of office space and residential development. An amateur soccer complex with 12 fields also is envisioned."

Looks like though if this site was going to be used, construction would not begin until the summer of 08, meaning that a likely opening wouldn't happen until late 2009 but more likely 2010. It'll be worth the wait if it insures the Wizards stay in KC for good. All this is still not a permanent signing of a deal to be at the Bannister location though, as Olathe is still working to secure STAR Bonds for the building of a facility for the Wizards.

Finally, everyone in KC should tune in to 97.3 FM on Wednesdays, as Jimmy Conrad is now hosting the Jimmy Conrad Show from the 810 Zone on the Plaza, tonight he had Bobby Boswell and Davy Arnaud on as guests, it was a good show and I look forward to it being continued in the future.

Wizards vs Sounders, and vs. Evansville

At a chilly Blue Valley District Athletic complex, the Wizards played their last preseason games of the season. The first team defeated the Seattle Sounders 3-2, and the Wizards reserves tied Evansville 2-2.

vs. Seattle

The Wizards came out in a 4-4-2, with Hartman in net, Jack, Aaron Hohlbein, Jimmy, and Jose across the back, Arnaud, Sasha, Kerry, and Michael Harrington in the midfield, and Eddie and Sealy up top.

The Wizards opened the scoring in the 18th, when a throw in from Jack to Davy was played long to Eddie who was in 1v1 with the keeper to make it 1-0. In the 30th minute, the Wizards were forced to make a sub as Hohlbein appeared to hurt his calf, and was replaced by Will John, forcing Harrington back to left back, and Jose sliding into central defense. The Wizards doubled their lead in the 36th minute as Jimmy Conrad headed in a Davy Arnaud corner. Then right before half time, Scott Sealy made it 3-0, after he received a ball from Eddie as he cut across the top of the box.

At half time, another true center back, Amir Lowery, who has been training with the team. The first 25 minutes of the second half were fairly uneventful, with the Wizards continuing to attack but not finding the net. Kurt Morsink came on for Sasha in the 70th. Two minutes later, the Wizards coulda made it four as Davy drove into the box and was fouled. Sealy stepped up to take it, but his stutter step did not fool the keeper, who made a good save. In the 74th, Seattle got themselves back in the game, when Leighton O'Brien found Jacob Basagno on a corner kick to make it 3-1. O'Brien also played a part in the second goal, finding Nathan Knox who scored to make it 3-2. Things got a little testy at the end, as 4 yellow cards were handed out, including a second to O'Brien who was sent off in stoppage time.

3 Stars of the game:
1. Davy Arnaud - Wizards - Made fantastic runs all night, set up 2 of the 3 goals, as well as setting up the PK Sealy missed.
2. Scott Sealy - Wizards - If he hadn't missed that PK he probably would have been number 1, did well working with Johnson, John, Sasha, and Morsink outta the midfield.
3. Leighton O'Brien - Sounders - Even with his red card, he still gave the Wizards more then their fair share of fits. Set up both of Seattle's goals.

vs. Evansville

The Wizards reserves came out in a 4-4-2 as well for their game with Evansville. Kronberg was in net, with Godbolt, Raybould, Lowery, and Watson across the back, Michael Kraus, Morsink, Carlos Marinelli, and Edson Elcock, and Ryan Pore with Yura Movsisyan.

The Wizards dictacted the majority of play in the first half, but were not able to create many clear cut chances. Marinelli showed some great work on the ball, but definitly lacked match fitness, as he had his hands on his knees late in the first half. The Purple Aces grabbed the lead about 4 minutes before half time off a long throw that was flicked on to the back post and finished by defender Dan Gibson.

At half time, the Wizards replaced Marinelli with Willy Guadarrama, and Kronberg made way for Chris Konopka in net. Just 3 minutes into the second half, the Purple Aces were 2-0 up thanks to Cory Elenio, who gave the Wizards two center backs, Raybould and Lowery fits for most of the night. The reserves struck back quickly though, as a cross from Godbolt was put back across the face of goal by Pore, and finished by Raybould to make it 2-1. Two minutes later, the score was level as a cross from Elcock was hit on the side volley by Movsisyan, that shot deflected off a defender to Guadarrama who scored to make it 2-2. The Wizards continued to dominate possession the rest of the game, making substitute keeper Corey Southers work to give Evansville the draw, including stopping Movsisyan on 2 occasions very late in the game.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Corey Southers - Evansville - Even though he only played a half, his play in that half, especially late in the game is what allowed Evansville to get a draw out of this game instead of a loss.
2. Edson Elcock - Wizards - Was the Wizards best player by far. The best attacks from the Wizards came down his side of the field. He has a TON of speed and he used it on numerous occasions to beat guys to balls and get past guys down the line.
3. Yura Movsisyan - The Wizards second year man didn't score, but looked much better then he did last year, he's more confident with the ball at his feet and looks a lot more mature on the field. His side volley that was deflected would have have been a very early candidate for goal of the year if it'd gone in.

Wizards vs Sounders

Tomorrow the Wizards play their final preseason game of the season. While the rest of the MLS teams get their season underway, the Wizards have the first weekend off due to the league now having 13 teams. So the Wizards will be playing a friendly match at Blue Valley District Athletic Complex against USL-1 side, the Seattle Sounders. The reserve team will also be playing, taking on the University of Evansville.

There are a few things that I will be looking forward to seeing for myself at the match tomorrow.

1. I wanna see how Hartman plays. I keep hearing that he's lost a step from his days when he was LA's number 1. Even if he has lost a step, he still has to be better then Bo'd been the last two seasons, right?
2. Jack Jewsbury at right back. Last seasons right back by committee looked successful at times, and terrible at times, Matt Groenwald, Lance Watson, Ryan Raybould and Alex Zotinca are just 4 of the players who saw time there last season. Let's hope Jack is a more constant starter. Will be interesting to see how he's adjusted.
   
3. Michael Harrington. The Wizards first round pick I had thought was brought in to play the right back spot, but he's apparently looking like he'll be the Wizards starting left midfielder. Personally this sounds like a good move, you put him and Jose on the same side, and while both like to attack, they're combined defensive ability may make that side look a little less exposed when one goes into the attack.
4. Eddie Johnson. This is a big season for Eddie, he's gonna be given yet another chance to prove that his 12 goal season in 2004 was not a fluke. Is this is last shot? Possibly, but he definitly needs to step up his play. While his performance with the national team has improved lately, he still hasn't found the net in a LONG time. Hopefully Onalfo has gotten into his head and is helping him to get out of the funk he's in.

I'd like to say that I wanna see more of Carlos Marinelli, he hasn't signed a contract, although he continues to work with the team, and was at the team function tonight. So odds are against him playing. Although tonight apparently Coach Onalfo said that they are looking to work him into the midfield the first few games of the season.

Overall though I look forward to the game and will have a report up tomorrow night with my thoughts on the game.

As for a prediction, I figure the first game will go 3-1 to KC. And the reserves will beat the Aces 4-1.

Wizards new signing seen at practice?

So it appears that the Wizards have a new player out at training. According to posts on bigsoccer, the player is practicing with the Wizards. Who is this mystery player that the Wizards have out there? According to pictures and first hand accounts from an anonymous viewer, who I'll call Belly Ball, the player is Carlos Marinelli. Carlos is apparently a product of the Boca Juniors system. He transfered from Boca Juniors to EPL side Middlesbrough FC in 1999 for 1.5 million pounds when he was only 17 years old. According to this site, from 1999 through the 2002-2003 season, he played 42 matches for 'Boro scoring twice, before being sent out on loan to Torino. He returned to 'Boro for the 2003-2004 season appearing in one game and scoring in that game. He transfered back to Boca in Jan. of 2004. Here is a link to a picture of him at practice today taken by Belly Ball.

Here's a 'Boro fan's look at how he did with the team. He was apparently heralded as the next Maradona when he arrived at 'Boro. While he may not have panned out at 'Boro, that coulda been seen as having more to do with his lack of adjustment to the English game then anything else. There are plenty of high quality players who have struggled to adjust to the style of play in the EPL.

According to his wiki entry, he was last playing in Portugal for SC Braga and seems to have done pretty well. Although he does not appear to currently be on Braga's roster.

He's still young, at only 25, this could very well turn out to be a great signing for the Wizards. Depending how he gels with the rest of the team and how he acclimates to the league. This could turn into a fantastic move for the Wizards. If this truely is who is out at practice for the Wizards, this could very well be the long rumored Argentinian signing.

As of this moment I'm planning on heading out to practice tomorrow to see for myself.

Kansas City and Atlas

Remember when I mentioned the note Robb Heineman posted on bigsoccer? And how they were looking to create a partnership with a team "south of the boarder? Well that came true this weekend, as the Wizards announced a partnership with Mexican club Atlas. According to the article, the deal was suppose to be announced in Guadalajara yesterday.

This is a fantastic move by the Wizards in my opinion. It creates a partnership with a recognizable Mexican league team. Along with the partnership is news of other things with the deal. Along with the regular "use of facilities" deal that you usually see with deals like this, Kansas City and Atlas will also participate in a home-home friendly series. This will give KC it's first friendly game at Arrowhead since 1997. While the crowd for this game is likely to be pro-Atlas, it will still be a great experience, and I for one am looking forward to seeing the match, hopefully some time this summer. The other thing that is part of the deal, is loaning of players to and from the clubs. It will be interesting to see how this works, but the interest in the player loaning will be something that will draw interest to many Wizards fans, as we wait and see who would come our way to help our team.

A good point brought up by MLS Underground, is the increased venom this could add to games against Chivas USA, as Atlas is based in Guadalajara, same city that USA's parent club, Chivas de Guadalajara. We'll see how that affects the coming match ups with them this season, if at all.

Another thing that is discussed in the blog that I agree with is the importance that Atlas seems to be putting on this deal, having Wizards staff down for the ceremonial signing of this agreement instead of just having it announced in KC says to me that Atlas is taking this partnership serious as well.

Finally, in the final part of that blog post by MLS Underground, is some "exclusive" information. According to MLS Underground, the Wizards are close to that "big signing" that myself and many others have been talking about, waiting on since about December. The blog mentions 3 areas where the interest seems to be, right back, forward, or attacking midfielder. The entry seems to be leaning towards the 3rd, the attacking midfield position. This is music to Wizards fans ears, as the team has lacked a real attacking minded midfielder since the retirement of Preki. I'm waiting anxiously, as I'm sure many other Wizards fans are for this hopeful announcement to come.

Eddie Johnson to Boca Jrs.?

So apparently Boca Jrs. are interested in signing Kansas City Wizards forward Eddie Johnson. According to this article, and some reports on ESPN Deportes and GolTV the Buenos Aires club is interested in signing the striker. Here's a basic translation of it thanks to a poster on bigsoccer. The basic gist of it is that the club is trying to expand their worldly appeal by signing different players. The club in the past has brought in players from Asia in hopes of increasing their appeal, and are now turning towards the American market.

Apparently while the Wizards were down in Argentina for preseason this year, Johnson impressed in training down there. This move wouldn't be to play in the first team. This is a front office move by the Boca front office to improve their marketing. The other players that have come to Boca have all sat on the bench. It's a difference between the front office policy and the coach's policy.

From the perspective of a Wizards fan for this season I'm completely against this move. While EJ has been an incredibly annoying and frustrating player in his time in KC, he's miles ahead of any other talent at forward except for Scott Sealy. Getting rid of EJ would leave our starting forwards as likely Sealy and Ryan Pore. Call me crazy but that doesn't exactly strike me as a forward line that will strike fear into the hearts of defenders and goalkeepers around the league. True they had the same number of goals last season, but comparatively who would you rather have up top, Ryan Pore or Eddie Johnson. I'd take Johnson any time. Pore is a good off the bench backup forward, I don't see him as an everyday starting forward. With where we are currently at player wise it's doubtful we'd bring in anyone to take Eddie's place that would play forward, and what's already looking like a bleak season will get even bleaker.

Keep Eddie in KC, as Wynalda said last night, allow a coach like Curt Onalfo, a player's coach, to have a shot at Eddie and turning him around. You can already see some changes in his game just by watching the US game last night.

In some other interesting news, the Wizards now have competition on opening day on April 25 against Toronto. Starting at the same time as the Wizards game, is an MU-KU baseball game at Kauffman Stadium. While the baseball game isn't gonna be extremely crowded, it still is piss poor scheduling by someone in scheduling these both to start at the same time.

Notes from Robb Heineman

So for those of you that don't read bigsoccer, Robb Heinemann, the Kansas City Wizards president, has been posting occasionally on bigsoccer, asking the Wizards supporters on there about what the team can do better. That thread can be found here.

The reason I bring this up, is the fact that he has posted a response to many of the posts in that thread. You can read his response here.


Outside the normal rah-rah about the team and the stadium dealings, that you'd expect to get from the teams president, there are a few things that I want to touch on from his post.

Our South American scouting is developing rapidly. I think we started some really good relationships down there that are going to reap benefit for the club for years to come.

This is great news in my opinion, I look at what a team like DC has done with decent scounting systems in South and Central America, bringing them players like Chrisitian Gomez and Luciano Emilio, and I just hope that the Wizards can bring in players of that caliber to help improve this team.

Additionally, I'm pretty confident that we'll have a game exchange finished up in time for a game late this year - pending Arrowhead's availability. As a side note, I've heard you loud and clear and it's my goal to develop as many international and US soccer matches as possible in KC for years to come. Why wouldn't we.....

This is something I've touched on in the past, at the season ticket holder Christmas party, the team said they were working on a home-home series with a team, I'd love to have a friendly with a team from Argentina or Europe come to play the Wizards at Arrowhead, the last time the Wizards played an international game at home, was against Deportivo Saprissa back before the 2005 season. The last friendly was all the way back in 1997. I also love the second part of that post, I want the US National team back in KC for a game. KC showed it can have a good showing for a match, see the qualifier for the 2002 WC for proof of that. KC has not gotten a game since, and it's about time they did.

By the way - season ticket holders will be getting access to videos of our Boca Juniors and Riverplate matches. I'm not sure if it will be via the internet or on DVD - stay tuned.

This is something fairly cool that I'm looking forward to and glad they are doing, it woulda been great if they'd had it online for us to watch before the season so we could see how the team looked, but this is a huge step in the right direction.

On another front, we're going to announce a south-of-the-border relationship either this week or next, depending on some logistics. This is going to be a great thing for our club on a number of fronts: (i) player development, (ii) game exchange, and (iii) marketing. I hope you're all pleased with the info as it comes out.

More excellent news, as we're one of the few teams in the league that doesn't have a partnership of some kind with another club. I'm sure many people would have preferred a big name European team, but this is a great start and could turn out to be something huge for the team. If anyone wants to make a guess about who they think it will be, feel free to comment.

Wizards News

Nothing major to report that I've found out about the team, just wanted to get some of the recent news out there and comment on it about the team.

The Kansas City Wizards were back in town on Thursday, and were out on Saturday night at the VooDoo Lounge for a meet the players night that was fairly enjoyable. This is one of the good things about soccer in this country and particularly MLS. The players are so approachable and easy to talk to. I was able to laugh with Sasha Victorine about UCLA beating KU in the NCAA tournament. In a world where most of the sports players in this country seem so above the fans, it's nice to have guys that are willing to spend time interacting with the fans. There are also 2 more chances to meet some of the Wizards players before their first game on the 7th. See this post on bigsoccer for details on gatherings on both the 5th and 6th of April.

The Wizards also updated their roster on Friday, with one roster spot left available, and 3 players still non-contract players listed on the website. The interesting thing, is that one of the none roster players, KC's fourth round pick of the superdraft, Kurt Morsink, is listed as a non contract player. Yet this article on MLSnet says that Morsink has been given Preki's old number, 11. You wouldn't go around announcing the guys number if he wasn't going to be on the roster come opening day. Especially considering that Morsink started many of the preseason games with the first team, as Victorine was out injured. So if Morsink is on the roster, then as of Friday, the roster was full.

Then came this news later Friday night. The Wizards traded back up central defender Shavar Thomas to LA for a conditional second round draft pick next season. I'm not liking this trade at all right now for KC. Shavar is one of the best backups in the league, and with Jimmy Conrad spending time with the National team this summer at either the Gold Cup or the CopaAmerica, KC was gonna need an experienced center back to team with Nick Garcia while Jimmy is away on nats duty. Now the Wizards will likely rely on either second year man Tyson Wahl, or rookieAaron Holbein. Wahl had 607 minutes in 10 games last season. Whoever is the first off the bench out of those 2 will be thrown to the fire early this season, as Nick is suspended for his red card at the end of last season and will miss the first game of the season at DC.

The one good that comes out of this trade is that it does open another roster spot up for another player. One can hope the continued rumors of an Argentinian playermaker are true and the Wizards are getting ready to make a signing. From deals with the old ownership of the Wizards though many Wizards fans are not holding their breath on anything coming of this.

Finally, Jimmy Conrad and Eddie Johnson both started for the US today in their match against Ecuador in Tampa, FL. Jimmy went the full 90 for the US in their 3-1 win, while Eddie was subbed off at the half. While Jimmy and the rest of the US back line looked very shaky in the first half, the US was level 1-1 as Landon Donovan scored in the first minute. In the second half, the US defense tightened up and Ecuador had very few really threatening chances in the second half. Donovan scored 2 more goals for his second career hattrick, the first on a break away similar to his goal against Mexico, and his other 1 minute later a rocket into the upper 90 to the keepers left. As I mentioned in my blog about their call up, Eddie has got to be running out of chances with the national team, as he had another lackluster performance for the US. Will be interesting to see if he even makes the bench for the game on Wednesday.

Wizards preseason finished in Argentina

The Kansas City Wizards today finished their preseason training in Argentina today with a 4-0 win over River Plate. Over the course of the trip, the Wizards went 3-2-2, with wins over Defensa & Justicia reserves, Nuevo Chicago, and River Plate. Their two losses came against San Lorenzo and Boca Juniors. The two draws came against Defensa & Justicia first team, and San Lorenzo's reserves. I am missing the final roster stats for the match against Nuevo Chicago. The Wizards never released any game stats on their website. The only way I know that the Wizards won the game is through one of Kevin Hartman's blog entries from earlier in the week where he said, "Even when the rest of the team was dismantling Nuevo Chicago, a first division side, I was putting in interval work on the track." And mentioned the scorer of at least 2 of the goals: " While Davy Arnaud was scoring his second goal of the game, I was about halfway through my 30-minute session." So while the Wizards may have won that game by more then 2 goals I don't have any of the other information to put into the stats.

Unfortunately I have not been able to gain any more information about the match. The Wizards look like they may have at least 3 more friendlies to start the season. Two of them are on April 7th, while the rest of the league kicks off the regular season, the Wizards will host the Seattle Sounders, and the University of Evansville in final tuneups. Also according to this post on bigsoccer, they also have a game coming up on the 31st of March.

As of right now though, these are the Wizards stats this preseason.
Record
6W - 4L - 3D

Goal Scorers
Scott Sealy - 3
Momadu Ba - 2
Jack Jewsbury - 2
Michael Harrington - 2
Davy Arnaud - 2
Willy Guadarrama - 2
Ryan Raybould - 2
Yura Movsisyan - 1
Jimmy Conrad - 1
Eddie Johnson - 1
Ryan Pore - 1
Lance Watson - 1
own goal - 1

shutouts:
Kevin Hartman - 2 split game shutouts
Eric Kronberg - 3 split game shutouts, and 1 solo
Chris Konopka - 1 split game shutout, and 1 solo

Wizards in Preason

These are some numbers that I've been able to find on the Kansas City Wizards current preseason friendlies.

Record
4W - 3L - 3D

Goal Scorers
Scott Sealy - 3
Momadu Ba - 2
Jack Jewsbury - 2
YuraMovsisyan - 1
Willy Guadarrama - 1
Ryan Raybould - 1
Jimmy Conrad - 1
Eddie Johnson - 1
Ryan Pore - 1
Lance Watson - 1
own goal - 1


shutouts:
Kevin Hartman - 2 split game shutouts
Eric Kronberg - 3 split game shutouts
Chris Konopka - 1 split game shutout, and 1 solo

4 of the 10 games have been shutouts and have allowed 10 goals in those games while scoring 15 goals. One of the goal scorers, Momadu Ba, who scored twice against the U-17's in a split squad match is no longer listed on the roster. Also, according to this press release fromt he Wizards in late Feb., the Wizards listed their matches for the trip to Argentina. According to it, the Wizards were suppose to have played a friendly on Friday down there, but I have yet to see anything about that match anywhere. The also should be playing the final match of the Argentina trip on Wednesday before heading back to KC.

Jimmy & Eddie to US Camp

With 2 friendlies coming up in late March, during the international break, The US Men's National team has 2 friendlies scheduled, on the 25th in Tampa against Ecuador, and on the 28th in Dallas against Guatemala. With that said, Bob Bradley announced his 24 man roster for those 2 games.

Two Wizards have been named to the team for the upcoming friendly. Jimmy Conrad and Eddie Johnson.

Jimmy has become indispensable in the back for the National Team, you'd expect him to start at least one of those games, possibly partnering with Oguchi Onyewu in a more "first team" look in one of the matches.

Eddie has got to be running low on chances with the US National Team, after bursting onto the scene a few years ago, he has not done much of anything to impress or continue to receive call ups to the national team. He's probably gonna be in camp against the best group of US forwards who haven't retired (read: McBride). So this is his time to prove that he still deserves to be a part of the National Team.

Missing from the list in my opinion is another Kansas City Wizard, Jose Burciaga Jr. With the recent injury that will keep Jonathan Bornstein out of camp, I had thought that Bob Bradley might have brought in the Wizards left back. Currently on the roster for left back is Heath Pearce although Carlos Bocanegra can also play on the left. In my opinion this camp woulda been a good time to bring Jose in to see if he can step his game up to the national team level, because with 2 tournaments this summer for the national team, the depth at all the positions are going to be tested.

Bannister Mall

News continues to come out about the Kansas City Wizards and a possible stadium site where Bannister Mall currently sits.

While Olathe continues to work to get STAR Bonds approved for the stadium, Kansas City seems to be working to woo the Wizards to the Bannister Mall location. KC Councilman, Chuck Eddy is wanting to get the team out to the Bannister site.

“We’re still talking with the Wizards and trying to make this a reality,” Eddy says. “It would be huge, there’s no doubt about it.”

The Bannister site is also close to the old Marion Labs buildings which Cerner is now leasing. Cerner is owned by Neil Patterson who is a prinicpal owner of the Wizards. Which you can't chalk up to just coincidence that these 2 things are happening.

Apparently enough progress has been made on the topic that " The Economic Development Corporation has published a notice for a public hearing at the April TIF Commission meeting." These are big steps being made, and is good news for Wizards fans that want a stadium. The TIFs, Tax increment financing, that are referred to, are a tool for redevelopment and community improvement projects. They are the same thing that was used on the old Blue Ridge Mall to bulid the Wal-Mart at I-70 and 40 Highway.

As I've mentioned in the past, I like the fact that there are 2 sites kinda competing for the Wizards stadium. In the article, Eddy even talks about the competition, saying he's worried about what Olathe could offer the team. As he mentions, neither the city, nor the state have anything that could compete with the STAR Bonds that Olathe is looking to get to help finance the stadium.

Both sites have their pros/cons, the Olathe site would be close to the precieved target market for the Wizards team, the soccer moms and dads in Johnson County. The main con is the fact that Olathe is on the edge of the metro area. Only recently has Olathe truly become a full fleged suburb of KC as the suburban sprawl has reached Olathe.

Bannister on the other hand is a more centralized location for the Kansas City area. It also has great highway access, which Eddy touches on as well in the first article, as it is right off of I-435, and just north of the Grandview Triangle where 71, and I-470 meet with 435. It's main draw back is something I have touched on previously, and that's the preconcieved notion that the Bannister Mall location is a high crime area and not a good place to go.

Here's a link to google maps with Bannister Mall on it for those of you that might not know where Bannister Mall is.

Wizards Offseason

With the season about a month away and the Kansas City Wizards first game of the season against Seattle in a friendly on April 7th, it's time for a look at what the Wizards have done in comparison to the team the Wizards put on the field last season.

Here's the Wizards lineup for their last game of the season, on the road against New York:

Bo Oshoniyi, Nick Garcia, Jimmy Conrad, Ryan Raybould (Yura Movsisyan 69), Jose Burciaga Jr., Davy Arnaud, Jack Jewsbury, Sasha Victorine, Dave van den Bergh (Ryan Pore 77), Josh Wolff, Scott Sealy,

Substitutes Not Used: Will Hesmer, Shavar Thomas, Tyson Wahl, Lance Watson, Kerry Zavagnin

First off let's see who's no longer on the Wizards roster.
Bo Oshoniyi was waived, Dave van den Bergh was traded to New York for a supplemental draft pick, and Will Hesmer was taken in the expansion draft and then traded to Columbus.

Now let's look at the Wizards big pickups this offseason:
Kevin Hartmen was picked up in a trade with LA, Michael Harrington was drafted in the first round of this years draft.

Earlier this offseason, Curt Onalfo said that the 2 main areas the team needed to improve was goalkeeping and midfield. Goalkeeper has been taken care of, the trade for Hartmen is an upgrade over Oshoniyi. Then last Friday, the Wizards released a press announcement with the senior roster for this year. In the announcement was this quote from Onalfo: "When (Technical Director) Peter Vermes and I took over the leadership on the technical side of the organization, we identified the areas we wanted to improve," Kansas City Wizards Head Coach Curt Onalfo said. "I think we tackled those issues during the off-season and I'm comfortable with the roster as it stands now. I'm optimistic we will have a successful 2007 season."

Excuse me Curt, but what happened to getting a midfielder? The midfield is still a very weak spot for the Wizards, currently on the roster there is only 1 maybe 2 midfielders that aren't afraid to take defenders on. The rest are mainly a mixture of unproven players and defensive mids. There's been no improvement there and right now we're gonna be playing the same "bypass the midfield" game we played last season where we just hoof the ball forward to the forwards.

It's frustrating to see other teams going out and improving their team greatly while KC sits on it's hands "comfortable with the roster as it stands." DC signed Luciano Emilio, who's already made an impact in the CONCACAF Champion's Cup, and look like they're going to be signing Fred from Austrailian. Toronto FC is looking to be the strongest expansion team since Chicago back in 98. New York has improved themselves and with a full season under Arena is going to be better.

Overall the Wizards just don't look like they'll be competitive this season, they've addressed 1 need, but haven't touched any other needs, and in that time other teams in the conference have improved, including the one closest to us last season, New York. They'll be missing Conrad, Johnson, and possibly Sealy during the summer for National team duty. This is basically the same group of players that have missed the playoffs the past 2 seasons. Right now I see the Wizards missing the playoffs for the third year in a row, and fighting to avoid finishing 13th out of 13 teams this season.

The Wizards vs Fiji???

I was bored today and started searching around the internet, and came across this article from The Fiji Times a few days ago.

Apparently Fiji's national team is gonna be coming to the US in April in preparation for the South Pacific Games. They're gonna play 8 games on their tour and apparently are waiting for confirmation of their match against the Kansas City Wizards. The article also mentions Real Salt Lake and Santa Clara as being a couple of other teams that they will be playing.

This is an interesting idea. Fiji's first game in the US on this tour is scheduled for April 4 against Santa Clara.

After looking around The Fiji Times a bit more tonight, I found another article about the trip to the US. This article while stating that some of Fiji's players may not be available also gives the date of their match with Real Salt Lake, and the tentative date of their match with the Wizards, April 17, which is a Tuesday. That match with the Wizards though has yet to be confirmed as of the posting of that story earlier today(tomorrow, the 7th in Fiji).

One interesting thing about this though, is that the date of the possible friendly against Fiji is also the day before the Wizards play RSL in their US Open Cup qualifing match, which will likely lead to a very reserve based squad going out against Fiji if the friendly happens.

Another interesting note from that second article is that Fiji is apparently going to be scouting for national team players in their final two games. One of the matches looks to be against a group of Fiji All Stars. An interesting idea, but a concept that has been done by quite a few national teams. For instance I remember that Pat Noonan was elligable to play for the Irish national team.

The Groin Staying

As mentioned in my last blog entry, Lillestrøm has given up on trying to land Wizards favorite Jimmy Conrad. That news alone was great to hear for any Wizards fan, but now days later, comes this great news as well.

Obviously, MLS listened to me in my last entry, and the league is looking to lock Jimmy up for the rest of his playing career.

Overall, this is probably the best move for Jimmy, while he likely coulda made more money playing soccer in Norway, it also had it's draw backs as well. Jimmy mentioned in an interview a while back in Rochester that often times, US players in the Scandanavian leagues often get overlooked when it comes time for national team camps. And as Jimmy has shown lately, he's definitly gonna continue to be a big part of the national team leading upto and into the next qualifying cycle for the 2010 World Cup.

Another draw back is the fact that Jimmy is not getting any younger, he just turned 30 years old, and his playing days aren't gonna last forever. With that in mind, Jimmy's likely also looking towards his career after soccer. He's already shown his humor in his articles on CNNSI and now ESPN, and he's done well in webcasts with Sean Wheelock. He seems to have a want, and the skill to continue to do that after his playing days are done. Staying in MLS gives him a great opportunity to get a jump on that while he's still playing.

Stadium news for KC

Good news for the Wizards lately on the stadium from, as Olathe seems to be stepping up to try and get a stadium built for the Wizards. The KC Star on Wednesday, posted this article about the current process that Olathe is going through. Olathe officials basically had to get state lawmakers to alter the law for STAR Bonds to get a stadium and soccer hall of fame. Later in the same day, the Star posted this article as well. As a continuation from the first story, it discusses the fact that the Senate agreed with Olathe "that sales tax revenue could be used to pay for a professional soccer stadium there." This is fantastic news for the Wizards, as there had not been much news about a new location for a Soccer Specific Stadium since the failure of the youth soccer bill for 159th and 69 Highway back in November and the subsequent pulling of support by the Overland Park mayor of the STAR Bonds that were to be used for a stadium and commerce area.

Another exciting part of the first article, is the fact that we could a competition starting to get the Wizards. Along with Olathe working to get STAR Bonds changed so that they can work to get the team there, the article also mentions a location that had been mentioned in an earlier Down the Byline entry. Bannister Mall is apparently a very viable location for the Wizards to build their stadium. With Wal-Mart closing their supercenter in that area, the area is almost entirely empty of major businesses to hold down that 300 acre commercial area. The fact that there is more then 1 location being looked at as a site for the stadium means that people are starting to look more seriously at the effect of soccer on the community.

OTHER WIZARDS AND MLS NEWS

The Wizards have confirmed the news that was first posted on bigsoccer, then here in this blog. That news being that Alex Zotinca is no longer with the Wizards. In this press release, the Wizards confirmed that Zotinca is out, he was traded to Chivas USA where he's reunited with Preki. The Wizards in return get a conditional pick in next years SuperDraft. While Zotinca was decent for the Wizards, he was never more then a utility player on the right side of the field in the midfield and the back. But with the drafting of Michael Harrington and Jack Jewsbury apparently getting more time at right back, Zotinca had become expendable.

Some very good news for the Wizards back line, Jimmy Conrad is going to be staying with the team. Lillestrøm have apparently given up in their bid to land the KC and US center back. I hope the Wizards and the league lock him up for the rest of his career then give him a nice cushy job writing articles for MLSnet and doing commentary on MLS games.

Kansas City finally picked up their first preseason win this week against the Fire, 3-0. Although apparently a guy that was at the game said the score was 4-0. The updates from down at camp keep coming in as well, check out KC Wizards.com for all those entries, as I said before, good reads.

Some new info I just found out today, thanks to JoeW on bigsoccer. According to Steven Goff with the Washington Post, the Wizards are apparently interested in Luciano De Bruno of Hapoel Tel Aviv. De Bruno is a 28 year old Argentine attacking midfielder, here is a wikipedia entry on him, although it appears to be written by someone who is not a fan. There's some rather harsh language in it about him, so you have been warned. We were told that the team was looking at an Argentinian, but I'd thought it have been a player currently playing in Argentina.

De Bruno was also involved in a recent altercation with Rangers keeper Allan McGregor in the second leg of their UEFA Cup match recently.

One last thing I wanted to post, this is the transcript of a question Steve Nash was asked recently on PTI, this is a great endorsment for the league, thanks to D at DCenters for posting it.

KORNHEISER: ...Do you seriously think that David Beckham is going to make an impact in soccer in the United States?

NASH: He will make an impact because he's a huge star regardless of the sport, and he'll put soccer in every magazine and every newspaper and TV Show. You guys will be dying to have him on PTI. He'll make an impact because a lot of people will be exposed to the sport. But I really think this sport is on its way in this country regardless. I think the talent is growing, I think they've always had the grassroots, and the professional league is building soccer-only stadiums. There's a lot of money going into it, so I think soccer is here to stay. It may never be as big as the big four, but it's definitely growing, and maybe it'll be the fifth sport. Obviously, I'm a fan and a bit biased, but I think it's really on its way.

Wizards news for the week.

Well the Wizards have moved down to FL to continue their preseason preparing for the 2007 season, and here is some news about the boys in Blue. Before I start though I wanna make a note for everyone to know as I have seen mentioned quite often around bigsoccer and other forums.

Yes the Wizards have a new logo this season, it is their old secondary logo. That said, the team's uniforms will still have the rainbow logo on them for this season. Below you can see both logos.


new primary logo






old primary logo, now secondary, but will appear on uniforms




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Some bad news to start with unfortunately. It looks as though Wizards defender Matt Groenwald is gonna be out of action for a while due to blood clots that were first found in his knee and now apparently found in his lung. This is sad and terrible news for Groenwald who was looking to get more minutes this season after being pushed to the bench after Bliss took over.

Continuing with some player news, apparently Alex Zotinca is no longer on the Wizards team. While there has been no official announcement from the team about this, a person that works for the Wizards posted on bigsoccer today that "He's no longer with the team." He was out of contract so it would seem the team decided against renegotiating.

Also missing from camp right now are Will John and first round draft pick, Michael Harrington, have been called into the US U-23(Olympic team) camp out at the Home Depot Center.

Speaking of Harrington, an interesting article on Yanks Abroad.com about the 23 players on the roster for South Africa 2010. Basically a break down of who they believe will make the 23 man roster, I assume this will be a regular column that they'll update. 4 Wizards made the list in some form. Jimmy Conrad and Eddie Johnson are both currently in their 23 man roster. On the outside, both Harrington and Jose Burciaga are listed as potential players that could move into the picture.

And back to John for a moment, there is a nice little video about him on the Wizards front page. He also had an article about him in the Star as well.

Connected with that article was a note about the other Wizards players who are from KC.

The Wizards fell in their first preseason match against Red Bull, down in FL on Tuesday, 3-1. Apparently the Wizards went with a rather makeshift lineup, especially with multiple players being away on national team duty or with injury. Red Bull apparently started the game with what looked to be their starting 11 for the regular season.

Definitly stay tuned to KC Wizards.com over the course of their preseason, as they've been doing a good job of giving training reports. Monday. Second Monday update. Wednesday. Thursday. These are great, it's enjoyable to know what the boys are up to and how they are doing.

Today the Wizards played the Crew in their second preseason match. According to a poster on bigsoccer who posted pictures in the Wizards forum, the Wizards lost 1-0. Here are the pictures as well as those for the match against Red Bull for those interested. (Credit to wembley on bigsoccer)

For those interested, early this Sunday morning on Fox Soccer Channel you can watch former Wizard Diego Walsh play for Adelaide United in the A-League Grand Final. Just remember you can't spell "I'm freaking crap" without Diego "I'm freaking crap" Walsh. Even if he did score in the PKs to help United get to the finals.

Finally, get to know the Wizards new number 1 goalie, Kevin Hartman. First through the KC Star article from earlier this week. Then through the interview on KC Wizards.com. And speaking of Kevin, a bit of a humorous look at the lack of female compaionship for the team on Valentine's Day thanks to Sasha, Kerry, and Kevin.

DOS A CERO!!!!!!!

The US do it again. 2-0 win over Mexico. I can't even remember the last time Mexico scored a goal on US soil.

Jimmy Conrad is the man.

Wizards 2007 schedule released

The Wizards 2007 schedule was released today along with the rest of the schedule for Major League Soccer.

I personally have a few problems with the scheduling as it's come about for the Wizards, and not surprisingly most of them happen on big events.

1. Home opener Wednesday 4/25 against Toronto FC - Great, so the Wizards home opener is on a Wednesday night while school is in session, that's a great way to get people out to the game for the home opener.
2. Saturday 5/5 against Columbus Crew - So not only is our first home game on a Wednesday night, but our second home game is in the middle of the afternoon in the middle of spring soccer season. The reason? The Royals have a home game that night against Detroit. So then why put the Wizards at home that same weekend?
3. Wednesday 7/4 against DC United - So you'd think 'Great, the Wizards get a 4th of July game, nice little attendance boost.' That's until you see the fact that the Wizards game kicks off at NOON that day killing any fireworks. Again it's cause the Royals are in town the same weekend. WHY have the Wizards at home when the Royals are?
4. Thursday 9/27 against LA Galaxy - So KC gets to see Beckham, like the rest of MLS. The Wizards get to see him midweek on a school night. That's a great one. I love the fact that ESPN has given MLS their own primetime slot during the week, but seriously did MLS not think about this? The Wizards never draw well for midweek games.
5. Finally 10/13 and 10/20 at Red Bulls and at FC Dallas - For the third year in a row, the Wizards end the regular season on the road. Seriously what do we have to do to finally have home field for the last game?

I'm not the only one that's unhappy with the schedule, many of the KC posters on bigsoccer are also not happy with the scheduling.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the Wizards and OnGoal are to blame for some of these problems, specifically the 2 middle of the afternoon Saturday games. My guess is that these were both originally scheduled to be night games at a temporary venue, but when the Wizads moved back to Arrowhead, the Wizards were forced to change the time. The amount of time it took the team to decide on their temp venue will be something that will hurt the Wizards quite a bit at the gate this season, as those first 3 home games I listed were likely all primed for a decent turnout at the gate, but not now with the times that these games are set to take place.

Wizards After 2 Guatemalans?

A lot has been made of new Wizards coach Curt Onalfo and technical director Peter Vermes taking a trip down to South America to scout talent for the Wizards for the upcoming season.

Well the players may not be from South American, but the Wizards are being linked to 2 players from CSD Municipal in the Guatemala National League. Those 2 players both have past ties to Major League Soccer. The first one was mentioned on Red Deportiva, which stated that Mario "Loco" Rodríguez looked to be on the verge of signing with the team. In 2005, "Loco" played for the Columbus Crew, playing in 19 of the teams games, starting 15, and scoring 1 goal. Last season, he played was on loan to USL-1 side, Miami FC. With Miami, "Loco" scored 7 goals and had 4 assists in 18 games.

The second article on this situation was on guatefutbol.com, which discussed "Loco," but also discussed another MLS Alum, Guillermo "Pando" Ramírez. "Pando" is best known for scoring the game winning goal in overtime of the 2005 MLS Cup Final between the Revolution and the LA Galaxy, who "Pando" was playing for. In that season with the Galaxy, he scored 2 goals and seemed to be an imitator of Fransisco Gomez, putting the ball into row Z more then on goal. The article quotes Onalfo saying that he's gotten a chance to see each play while with the US National team and sees them fitting in well with the Wizards.

Personally I'm against signing "Pando" and I don't know enough about "Loco" to make an informed decision. LA Galaxy fans have told me on a few occasions that if only Sampson had played him in the middle he woulda done better. (One, two, three) But in the article I linked above, Onalfo says he sees "Pando" on the left side of the field, meaning he'd be right back where Sampson played him. Not only am I against it because of his poor play on the left side with the Galaxy in 2005, but mainly I'm against it because of the price tag that he would likely come with, $270,000 transfer fee for the player according to the article.

With the scouting trips that Onalfo and Vermes went on, Wizards fans were expecting new faces, not rehashed MLS players.
Here is a picture of both players, "Loco" is on the left, "Pando" is on the right.

Kansas City Wizards Home for 2007 is...

Arrowhead Stadium.

Confirmed by Wizards president Robb Heineman.

Wizards Home for 2007 revisited

Recently I'd done two blog entries about where the Wizards would play their home games in 2007. With all the recent developments lately on where they'll play, I felt it would be a good time to revisit this issue, as the season grows ever closer.

The first blog I did about the issue. Came out after the superintendent of the Ray-Pec school district came out and said they were out of the running and that the Wizards were going to play somewhere in Olathe. From the 6 sites I listed in that blog, the only one that was located in Olathe was College Boulevard Activity Center. This led me to believe that the Wizards were possibly going to this site, which seemed to be a favorite among many Wizards fans.

The second, and more recent blog I did, involved the Wizards returning to Arrowhead for the 2007 season, as the renovations to the facility would not involve the seating area. With this info and some information about who the Wizards were talking with about concessions, it seemed like the Wizards could be going back to Arrowhead. Another option that pleased Wizards fans, as it meant that the fans to tailgate with alcoholic beverages if they so choose to.

Now we get up to the present, where we have some new information that has come out. Recently on bigsoccer, a person that teaches in the Ray-Pec school district posted two bits of information (one, two) that he found out about the Wizards still possibly coming to play in Ray-Pec. Not the best location for many of the Wizards fans, in the voting of the 6 locations I listed in my first blog on this topic, Ray-Pec did not fair very well as a location. One thing I found out that works against Ray-Pec is that supposedly no contracts have put in bids yet to work on adding the extra seating that would need to be added to the stadium. This process and the process of ordering the supplies can take at the least, 2 months, which would be pushing the them to be done by Cinco de Mayo, the date of the Wizards first home game. I don't know if all this is 100%, but does make the next bit of information more interesting.

The second bit of interesting information, came last night, from Metro Sports, a local sports network. Metro Sports was reporting that the Wizards would be playing their 2007 home games back at Arrowhead stadium, instead of temporary facility. As I had stated in my blog earlier, Arrowhead is still a viable option due to the type of renovations that will be occurring in 2007 at Arrowhead. The Wizards would though still have to find a home for 2008, and that coudl still be any of the sites I listed, or 2 more that Metro Sports listed that I had never even heard about being in the running, William Chrisman High School and Truman High School, both in Independence.

Finally today, to try and put some of the rumors to rest, this message was posted on bigsoccer, from Robb Heineman, the Wizards President. This is good news for Wizards fans, as it will finally bring to a close to the situation, although many Wizards fans are rightfully cautionous and won't believe it "until they get their tickets."

One last thing I wanted to touch on from the Metro Sports article, was the second to last paragraph in the article I linked above. Apparently the Wizards are interested in the Bannister Mall site in South KC. As rumors around KC have swirled on some other forums and outlets around KC as well about the possiblity of the Bannister site. Another one. A Third. This is a topic that will continue to be looked at and speculated on. Personally, I'm not sure what to think of the idea. It's a good location for a stadium, but my worry is the stigma, assumptions, or predeterminations that people have about the area, particularly Johnson County residents (people the Wizards try to get to attend games). The assumption is that the area is high crime and a "ghetto." This worries me in that it will likely keep people from wanting to attend the games.