Eddie and Jimmy both gone for Copa America

Well good think Eddie Johnson scored a hattrick in his last game with the Wizards, cause it'll be the last memory Wizards fans have of Eddie in Wizards blue for a little while longer. Johnson, and Jimmy Conrad were named to Bob Bradley's 22 man roster for the Copa America that is set to start June 28th in Venezuela against Argentina.

Looking at the roster, I don't see the US doing very well, which is a good sign for Wizards fans, as if the US goes 3 and out, Johnson and Conrad will only miss 3 games for this tournament. The duo will miss the game on July 1st against Toronto FC, July 4th against DC United, and due to travel, will likely miss the July 7th game in LA. Toronto will be without Marvell Wynne for the game in KC, DC will be without Bobby Boswell and Ben Olsen as well as Bryan Arguez for U-20 duty, and LA will be without no one, as Landon Donovan cried his way out of going to South America, but that is another debate entirely. The most matches they'll miss, is 4 if they happen to make the final or third place match. The fourth game they'd miss would be against Real Salt Lake on the 14th, who also had no one called up to Copa, but will be without Nathan Sturgis, Freddy Adu, and Chris Seitz as they'll be with the U-20s in Canada.

The US opens with Argentina in Maracaibo on the 28th, play Paraguay July 2nd in Barinas, and finish group play against Columbia July 5th in Barquisimeto. Should the US advance as either the one or two finisher in their group, or the best or second best third place team, they'll play July 7th or 8th. But with this roster and the way the US has been playing as of late, I don't think the US advancing will be a problem.

US into Gold Cup Final

The US advanced to the Gold Cup Final yesterday with a 2-1 win over Canada. Frankie Hejduk and Landon Donovan had the goals for the US.

Throughout this Gold Cup, the US has shown an extreme lack of form in the tournament, they've never really played an opponent off the field, they've played down to their opponents level most of the time. Last night was no exception. While Canada has improved, the US should not have made the game this close. Canada domindated for long portions of the game, and probably deserved more then the loss that they got.

If you read any other soccer blogs you've undoubtably heard or seen the offsides goal that was called back on the Canada. Yes, it probably should have been a goal, even if you interpret Oguchi Onyewu's header to be a deflection and not an actual play of the ball, Atiba Hutchinson was onside when the original ball was played through. That said, you can't say how Kasey Keller or the rest of the defense would have played had the flag not gone up.

On another note, yes the referee's in CONCACAF have left much to be desired in this tournament, but as a person that's refereed soccer in the past, I'm not gonna harp on them too much, and besides, the US has had plenty of crappy calls go against them over the years, it's about time a game decided crap call happened in our favor.

As for the Wizards player, Eddie Johnson, he played 80 minutes before being subbed out of the game. Johnson did well with his runs, although again he started some too early, getting caught offsides 3 times. The US will now play Mexico in the Gold Cup Final

Wizards Linked with Another Attacker

It's been a busy few days for the rumor mill when it comes to the Wizards. In the past week, they've been linked with Eloy Colombano, Daniel Osorno, and the continued link with Idan Shriki. Now they've been linked with a current MLS player. According to Steven Goff with the Washington Post, the LA Galaxy are shopping Santino Quaranta to make room for Chris Klein's salary. According to Goff, the Wizards appear to be the target location, for draft picks.

Personally this isn't worth it in my opinion. Quaranta doesn't bring anything different to the table then we already get out of Aranud, Harrington or Sealy.

Defensive Woes Continue for Wizards

The Wizards defense continues to have trouble, and up until tonight, the offense had been pulling them out of that trouble. Tonight, though, the Wizards offense was not able to over come the problems in the Wizards defense. The Wizards back line, which supposedly got an upgrade at keeper this offseason, is pretty much the same that it was last year, when the Wizards defense seemed to be stronger. Yet this season, that same defense has looked poor most of the time. Center backs Jimmy Conrad and Nick Garcia are not looking like the force in the back they have been. Jose Burciaga Jr., after some shinning defensive moments earlier in the season, seems to be slipping back into his old habits. And Jack Jewsbury, while better than the platoon that played right back last season, is NOT the answer at that position.

Until tonight though, the Wizards high powered offense has bailed them out. Tonight, the Columbus Crew's defense was able to shut down the Wizards attack, and hand the Wizards a 2-1 loss. A late Jack Jewsbury strike kept the Wizards from being shut out for the first time this season. The Wizards seemed to play slow, uninterested soccer. If that's because they over looked Columbus, then that's shame on the coaching staff for letting that happen. If it's because it's their 2nd game in 5 games, then I'm really dreading Sunday when they play their 3rd in 9 days. This was the worst performance of the season I've seen out of the Wizards.

With them losing, it also brings out another point that has been apparent the last 4 games, but since they've ended up with points out of those, it's gone rather unnoticed. With the loss now, it's on the surface. The Wizards last scored first in a game, back on May 5th at home against the Crew. Since then the Wizards have started down 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, 1-0, 2-0, and 2-0. The offense can not always be bailing out the defense. I love the Wizards new attacking style, but some times I long for a well grounded out 1-0 win. Or at least a time where the Wizards don't have to play from behind.

As for tonight as a whole, Carlos Marinelli, was invisible for much of the game, Scott Sealy's touch is still not back yet, Yura Movsisyan's touch is still terrible, Davy Arnaud needs to whine a bit less when he doesn't get calls.

We can complain about possible hand balls before Gaven scored, or Ezra using Victorine as a ladder on the second goal, but in the end the Wizards didn't deserve to win this game.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Stefani Miglioranzi - Columbus - Shut down Arnaud on the wing all night, and scored a goal as well.
2. Danny O'Rourke - Columbus - Completely marked Marinelli out of the game. Never let him get into the game, got him frustrated, and in the end he was subbed out early.
3. Guillermo Barros Schelotto - Columbus - Proved to be the better of the two Argentine's tonight played well, and combined well with the other forwards.

Yes I did not give a single Wizard a mention tonight. If you think any Wizard deserved to be on the list over these 3, please feel free to make a case for any of them. The only one that comes close in my opinion is Michael Harrington, the rookie was our best player tonight, which isn't saying much, but does say a lot about the rookie's play this season.

Update on Argentine

Robb Heineman has apparently let posters on bigsoccer know who the Argentine is that I posted about earlier today. The name of the mystery Argentine is Eloy Colombano. His profile up on the Defense and Justice site says he's a 24 year old, 5'9" forward. He joined Defense this past season from Estudiantes, where he'd played since 2001. Unfortunately, he does not have a wikipedia page, and I can't find much other information about him.

Robb Heineman

Robb Heineman, the Wizards President, has quickly become a huge fan favorite, as have the rest of the OnGoal ownership group. From their drinking out of the keg at the Colorado tailgate, to Heineman's posting, and hint dropping on bigsoccer.com, OnGoal is quickly setting a standard for ownership relations with it's hardcore fan base.

It's Heineman's latest post on bigsoccer that I'm interested in talking about today.

I'm not the one flying, but a flight does land Thursday. Not a designated player, but what I think will be another really nice piece of scouting by the guys. With as well as all these guys are playing in the midfield and up-front it will be tough for this young kid. We'll see....He's a real Defender of Justice.

This first paragraph is laced with hints on the new Argentine that was mentioned in a recent MLSnet article that I mentioned here. It looks like the player is definitely on his way for at least a trial. Combine that with Idan Shriki and Daniel Osorno, the Wizards could have 3 new attack minded players coming in soon. Judging from the hints, it looks like the player is from Argentine club, Defense and Justice You can find a list of the current forwards and midfielders for Defense and Justice on this site. The question is, which of these players is the one that is coming to KC? The midfielders and forwards range in age from 30 to 21, but I'd venture to guess that it's one of the 3 or 4 guys born between 80 and 84 that we are interested in. The question is though, which one? I'm looking around the net for any mention of the move, but so far I haven't been able to find anything.

Competition is always a good thing, so it'll be interesting to see how this goes down. Personally though I'd like to see someone brought in to challenge our defenders for their position, but that doesn't fit with Onalfo's attacking style system.

I wish I could tell you more about the stadium, but all I can say is we feel really good about the three sites. From a design perspective, it's an evolving thing, but expect something in the neighborhood of 18,500, 30 suites, some really cool fieldside seating, a great area for the Cauldron and all the other supporters' groups that are spawning, a dedicated youth soccer area, a design that's very integrated to the surrounding retail and if all things come to fruition, a really cool roof design.

This was the other part of his post I wanted to talk about. In a later post he did say that the 18,500 seat stadium would be expandable, so that it could go to nearly double the size. I think 18.5K is a good size for a soccer specific stadium in Kansas City, Kansas City has never shown the ability to constantly pull in 20K, so I think it's a good idea to keep the capacity below that for the foreseeable future.

The other big hint dropped in this paragraph is the end of the first sentence. The fact that there are 3 sites for possible location of the stadium. Everyone knows that Bannister Mall is one of the possible locations for the stadium, that's been public knowledge for a while now. But what are the other 2 locations that Robb is referring to? Overland Park? Riverside? The Great Mall of the Great Plains? Downtown? The West Bottoms? Drop me a comment letting me know where you think the other 2 locations are that Robb is referring to in his post.

Wizards-Atlas Partnership about to Show Results?

Thanks to a tip on bigsoccer.com in the Wizards forum about Atlas player, Daniel Osorno, it looks like the Wizards may soon reap the benefits of their new partnership with Mexican club Atlas. Thanks to that tip, I found this article on Mundo Hispano. From a weak attempt at a translation, it looks like he had a fall out with one of the coaches at Atlas, and due to that fall out, he does not want to play for the club again. Atlas apparently couldn't reach a deal to send him to any other Mexican First Division Club So with Atlas' recent partnership with the Wizards, the prospects of him coming to Kansas City became an option.

The 28 year old Osorno has played for Atlas his entire career, except for a loan spell at Monterey. According to his wikipedia page, he's played 228 games at Atlas scoring 44 goals. He also has 73 caps and 12 goals for the Mexican national team, as well as being on the 2005 Mexican Gold Cup team. After looking on youtube.com, I found that apparently Osorno has an active social life, running a club called "Danny Boy" as well as DJing and playing in a band.

Wizards Continue Busy Week

The Wizards continue their string of 3 games in 9 days tomorrow, as they will be in Columbus to take on tomorrow night. Both teams are coming in off of 3-3 ties, Kansas City with New York, and Columbus with New England.

This match should be a different game than the 1-0 game back in May in Kansas City. Both team's are scoring goals on a regular basis now, as well as leaking goals. Both teams are still going to be missing their US National Team Gold Cup members, Eddie Johnson for the Wizards, and Frankie Hejduk for the Crew. The Crew, though, will be missing 4 other players who took the field against New England on the weekend. Tim Ward, Robbie Rogers, and Danny Szetela will all be with the U-20 USA Men's National team as they prepare for the U-20 World Cup. The Crew will also be missing Rusy Pierce, who is suspended due to yellow card accumulation.

The Wizards starting 11 will probably be the same as it was for the game against New York.

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

The one change that could be made to the lineup, is that Sealy could be replaced by the hot hand, Yura Movsisyan.

Prediction
While I think the Wizards should be able to take the full 3 points off the Crew tomorrow, I still have some worries about this game. The Wizards leaking goals is worrisome. The last 3 games, the Wizards have allowed, 3, 2, and 3 goals. For a defense that got a keeper upgrade from last season, that's rather worrisome. I'd like to see the Wizards score a few and keep the clean sheet tomorrow night.

KC - 2 (Arnaud, Movsisyan)
Crew - 0

Down the Byline on Internet Radio

I will be the Wizards' fan representative on the internet radio show, Around the League in 90 Minutes tomorrow at noon. You can listen to the show on this site, by clicking on your media player of choice under the How to Listen section on the main page. The show has a fan from each of the league's 13 teams that come on and discuss the latest match, and upcoming match for their club. I will be discussing last weekends game in New York, as well as the upcoming games against both Columbus and Houston. It looks like I will be likely coming on some time in the second half of the show, after discussion of the DC-Chicago game this past weekend, and after the New York fan gets to have his say on the game. The show will actually be 2 hours this week, instead of the 60 minutes it had been in the past. The first and last 15 minutes of the show will be for discussion between the hosts. It's a good show, and gets some good perspective on the league and the games from a fan perspective, you can listen to some of the past shows in the archive section of the site.


UPDATE:

The show just finished up. An enjoyable first time being on the show, the show is now archived on The 2 G's website, in the archived section of the site for you to listen to.

Jimmy the Joker

Ask almost any Wizards or US Men's National team fan who the funniest player is, and they'll likely tell you Wizards defender, Jimmy Conrad. Jimmy's done articles on CNNSI.com and now ESPN.com for a few years now, as well as doing his radio show on MLS.net and 97.3FM here in the KC area. He's added another gem to his comedic genius on the US National team's blog.


Let me set the stage. Saturday the 16th, the blog posted a question from a fan Lindsey that took the writers by surprise.

Kudos to the boys for last night's win. More importantly, I was wondering if you could shed some light on the matter of Taylor Twellman's jersey. That [thing] was tight! And by tight, I don't mean cool. It was nipple city out there for Mr. Twellman. I looked at the other players, including those with muscular physiques such as Gooch, and sure, his sleeves were tight on his arms, but nowhere near the second skin look modeled by Twellman. Did they run out of jerseys or something, and Twellman had to wear a Youth Large from the gift shop?

Then today's entry came out, and since reading that, I haven't stopped laughing. I'm just gonna repost the entire entry and let people bask in the humor that is Jimmy Conrad

Sources have revealed to ussoccer.com that the now infamous fan e-mail questioning the size and fit of Taylor Twellman's game jersey was secretly written and submitted by U.S. national team defender Jimmy Conrad. The item, which appeared in an earlier blog entry on the website suggested that Taylor was wearing a "Youth Large" and was purposefully trying to show off his body. The crafty defender authored the controversial e-mail under the pen name Lyndsey. Documents reveal that Jimmy's beautiful wife is named Lyndsey, and hails from California. When told of Conrad's deception, Twellman simply smiled and replied "It's on." Attempts to reach Mr. Conrad were never made.

Jimmy's made jokes about Twellman and his tight jersey, shorts, and big head before, but this is a whole new level of humor for Jimmy. Hats off to Mr. Conrad.

Hey Yura, Yura

The Wizards came from 2 goals down, but then gave up a late PK to split the points with the New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

The Wizards came out very slow and lazy to start the game, and the Red Bulls made them pay for it with 2 goals inside the first 15 minutes. First, Juan Pablo Angel scored in his 7th straight game in the 6th minute off of a cross from former Wizard Dave van den Bergh. In the 15th minute, the Wizards defense was again caught being lazy, as Dane Roberts dribbled across the top of the 18 yard box, before playing in Clint Mathis, who slid the ball underneath Kevin Hartman to make it 2-0.

After that, it looked like the Wizards finally woke up, they actually started playing their game, and were creating chances against the New York back line. Unfortunately, Ronald Waterreus came up with some good saves to keep the score at 2-0. Then 2 minutes before the half time break, a clever back heal to Kerry Zavagnin, who took a touch and ripped a shot into the net, catching Waterreus a bit off his line, to give the Wizards some hope heading into the halftime break.

In the second half, the game continued to go KC's way, and the introduction of Yura Movsisyan added another spark to the game. Movsisyan ran at the Red Bull back line, but there were times when his touch would let him down, or he was unable to hold off his defender. The introduction of Ryan Raybould also helped to change the tempo of the game. One minute after his introduction, Raybould's run down the right wing, and cross into the box, found Movsisyan who's little touch beat Waterreus and tied the game at 2. The Wizards started to absorb more of the pressure now, and were getting more of their attacks on the counter, Carlos Marinelli, Davy Arnaud, and Movsisyan all had some chances to put the Wizards into the lead. Finally in the 79th minute, a ball from the back by Sasha Victorine, found Movsisyan who was able to hold off his defender and chip Waterreus, who had come out to challenge Movsisyan, to make the score 3-2 Wizards.

For the final 11 minutes, the Wizards tried to absorb the pressure and get out with the full 3 points. Unfortunately, a rather dubious penalty by referee Abbey Okulaja gave Angel a chance to tie the game. Hartman guessed right on Angel's PK, but the shot was placed too well and we were tied at 3. While the PK was a bad call in my opinion, Jose Burciaga Jr. has to be smarter then that in those situations, the ball looked to be going over John Wolyniec's head, and Burciaga went clumsily into the challenge, even if it was a bad call you can't go into the challenge like that.

Overall, I thought a draw was a fair result for the game, both teams had their chances, and both teams took their chances well. This game turned out to be just as entertaining as myself and many others thought it would be. While I would have loved to have gotten out of New York with the full 3 points, the MLS East lead, and the season series with the Red Bulls, I'll take the draw, as the Wizards still have 2 games in hand on the Bulls.

3 Stars of the Match
1. Juan Pablo Angel - NYRB - All this man has done since coming to MLS is score goals, he scored his 8th and 9th goals of the season, tying him with Eddie Johnson for the most in the league this season.
2. Yura Movsisyan - KC - I've given Yura crap for a while now, I didn't think he was worth the 4th pick in the draft when Gansler took him, but tonight I have to eat crow, as Yura played well, he took defenders on and finished well. His chip over Waterreus was pure class.
3. Michael Harrington & Dane Richards - KC & NYRB - I thought the top rookies on both teams played very well tonight, Harrington was matched up with Taylor Graham, a mismatch in the rookie's favor that he was able to exploit during the match. Richards drew a harder assignment with Burciaga, but was able to give him and Nick Garcia fits, especially before the Wizards settled into the game.

Wizards Hope to Cut Off Red Bulls' Wings

The Wizards are back in action this week after a week off. Kansas City will take on the New York Red Bulls. The last time these 2 teams met, Eddie Johnson went off for his second straight hattrick to lead the Wizards on to a 3-2 victory and the top of the East. Since then, New York has retaken the lead in the East. Kansas City will have to do their work this time without leading scorer Johnson, as he's still off with the US National team at the Gold Cup.

To win this game, the Wizards are definitely gonna have to get more offensive support. Johnson has scored the Wizards last 6 goals for the team. The Wizards will need Carlos Marinelli, Davy Arnaud, and Scott Sealy to step up and pick up Johnson's offensive slack. New York will just as hard as when the Wizards played them 2 weeks ago. The Red Bulls lost no players to the Gold Cup, and they are beginning to get healthier by the week. Starting goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus is back in the net for New York. Jeff Parke, who's half time substitution was part of the reason for the Wizards second half come back, is listed as probable for this game. Their left back Todd Dunivant is also listed as probable, meaning that the slower Dave van den Bergh may not be playing at left back again.

As for the Wizards, here's my predicted lineup this week:

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

Prediction
This will be a big game for both teams, a win here by the Wizards and they take the season series. A loss by the Wizards, while it'll hurt a little won't be the end of the world, as they will still have 2 games in hand on the Red Bulls. Either way it should be an exciting game.

KC - 2 (Marinelli, Arnaud)
NY - 2 (Angel, Altidore)

Brass Cup Run Over

The US Open Cup run for the Kansas City Brass is over. The Brass fell tonight to the Cleveland City Stars 4-0. The score line was flattering to the visiting Stars though. The game was very even for much of the game, and both teams had some decent chances on goal. The Stars though were able to finish their chances, while the Brass' shots were saved the Stars keeper Caleb Patterson. With the win tonight, the Stars advance to take on last seasons USL-2 Champion, the Richmond Kickers, who beat the Michigan Bucks 4-2 tonight. You can see the rest of the results from tonight's first round of the US Open Cup on the Open Cup's website.

In other soccer news, the US Men's National team finished off group play tonight with a 4-0 win over El Salvador. Kansas City Wizard, Eddie Johnson did not play tonight due to his knee sprain that he picked up in the match against Trinidad on Saturday. Johnson is still day-to-day with the knee injury though. The goals tonight were scored by DeMarcus Beasley with 2, Landon Donovan, and Taylor Twellman. The US will now play one of the 2 third place teams that advance to the quarterfinals. That match will be on Saturday.

US Advances in Gold Cup

The US clinched their advancement into the Gold Cup quarterfinals with a game to play, after their 2-0 win today over Trinidad and Tabago. Both Brian Ching and Eddie Johnson found net for the US.

Unfortunately, due to family stuff, I was in St. Louis today, and was unable to find a bar or restaurant around the area that had FSC or Telefutura so that I could watch the game. So I have no other opinions on the game. From what I heard though, it was a rather uninspiring performance again from the US. Although they were not given any help from the referees. From what I've been told, the Cuban referee blew 3-4 offsides calls that were not offsides.

The one main thing I do know, is that Johnson suffered a knee injury in the second half and had to come off. According to the article, it's a mild knee sprain. So I'd likely expect him to miss the next game, but have a chance of playing in the knockout round. While it's a little worrisome, I'm not overly worried just quite yet about his return to the Wizards.

Ballot Stuffing

I really didn't want to write this but I just find the topic too funny to avoid. For those of you that don't read MLS Underground, the author of the blog recently posted about Toronto FC fans stuffing the ballot for the upcoming all star game giving votes to all their players.

While I completely disagree with most of the posters from Toronto trying to justify their voting for their players, (The funniest being the guy that said that Maurice Edu was by far the best rookie in the league. In my book he's a distant third behind both Dane Richards and Michael Harrington this season.) they're entitled to their opinion, as misguided as many people may think it is. If you don't like it, then feel free to stuff the ballot for your own team. If TFC fans think this shows their "superior" support for their team, or if they think they're players truely are deserving of being on the all-star team, that's their call.

It's funny how much this is like the situation a few years ago with Real Salt Lake, they came in the same way TFC did, bragging about how they were gonna make the playoffs and take the league by storm. They both had good home support for their matches, and both sets of fans ballot stuffed to no end for any of their teams goals of the week.

Besides, the fan voting is only 25% of the total vote, the majority of TFC's players won't get many votes from the other categories. If you don't like the ballot stuffing they're doing, either get over it, or start doing it yourself.

Wizards Bringing in a New Forward?

The Wizards are gonna be without leading scorer Eddie Johnson for at least the next 2, probably the next 3 matches, as he's on national team duty for the Gold Cup. There's also a chance he could get called up to also compete in Copa America that starts right after the Gold Cup ends. With that in mind, the Wizards are looking to find a way to cope with his absence.

With that said, this article was on MLSnet today. In it you get the typical pumping up of the other strikers on the roster, Coach Onalfo says that Scott Sealy, Ryan Pore, and Yura Movsisyan are all gonna have to step up now.

The interesting part of the article is after that, where Onalfo says this; "I don't know the exact dates, but we are looking at a player from Argentina. We have established a real network of people we have worked with in Argentina, and there is a player that we liked when we were there in preseason. We want to see how he does with our guys, see if it's a good fit for him, and a good fit for us. We're always looking to enhance our team."

So the Wizards are looking at another striker to come in. This one from Argentina. This is along with the trial coming up for Idan Shriki, which was pushed back due to visa issues.

I like either or both of these moves, it shows that while the Wizards are in first place, Onalfo is not completely satisfied with his team and is still willing to make changes. With Johnson's play so far this season, European teams are sure to come calling, inquiring about the striker. So getting another striker in can definitely not hurt the team.

Uninspired US Get Opening Win

The US kicked off defense of their Gold Cup title in fairly weak fashion last night against Guatemala, winning 1-0. While the match was more entertaining then the last time these 2 teams met, it was still a poor game to watch.

The US came out with Taylor Twellman and Clint Dempsey up top, which was the first surprise to me. I had expected Bob Bradley to go with the hot foot, Eddie Johnson to start this game. Over the first portion of the game, the US controled, and in the 26th minute, Clint Dempsey scored to make it 1-0 US. After the goal though, it seemed like the US completely backed off. The rest of the game seemed to be Guatemala going at the US, who looked timid and weak going up against the Guatemalans. Oguchi Onyewu will miss the game against Trinidad & Tabago due to him picking up 2 yellows last night. Johnson came on as a second half sub, but really had no impact on the game. He looked scared at times on the field and not up to the level, which is stupid considering the Guatemalan defense is probably as good as most MLS defenses, who Johnson has torn up the past few weeks.

Overall this was a poor performance by the US and they'll definitely need to pick it up. They allowed way to many free kicks within 30 yards of goal, you can't do things like that, it's a good thing Carlos Ruiz couldn't strike a good free kick last night, or the US woulda been in trouble. Hopefully a better team will come out against Trinidad on Saturday.

Matches Played for the Wizards

I'm continuing to use the Wizards media guide to my full advantage this year. What I got this time, is the Wizards all time league appearances list. Saturday against the Red Bulls, Kerry Zavagnin became only the 4th Wizards player to play 200 games for the Wizards, Preki, Nick Garcia, and Chris Klein are the other 3. Also this Saturday, Jose Burciaga Jr. played in his 100 game for the Wizards, the 16th Wizard to accomplish that. Here is the list of players who have played at least 100 games for the Wizards.

Preki - 218
Nick Garcia - 204
Kerry Zavagnin - 200
Chris Klein - 200
Mo Johnston - 149
Matt McKeon - 144
Tony Meola - 125
Davy Arnaud - 123
Chris Brown - 123
Diego Gutierrez - 119
Uche Okafor - 119
Francisco Gomez - 114
Sean Bowers - 111
Jimmy Conrad - 106
Digital Takawira - 103
Jose Burciaga Jr. - 100

The next closest current Wizard, is Jack Jewsbury with 90 appearances. Of those 16 players, 12 of them have started over 100.

Nick Garcia - 204
Preki - 199
Kerry Zavagnin - 195
Chris Klein - 183
Mo Johnston - 142
Matt McKeon - 126
Tony Meola - 125
Diego Gutierrez - 108
Uche Okafor - 107
Jimmy Conrad - 105
Davy Arnaud - 104
Sean Bowers - 104

Other News
So I had a message put on one of my older blog entries, asking what is going on with Bo Oshoniyi, is he retired, is he waiting for a team to pick him up, what? Today I was able to get a little bit of information, according to my friend he is still living in Kansas City but is looking to move to Florida. He wasn't sure exactly what Bo was doing though.

Eddie Does the Trick or We're on Top of the League

Eddie Johnson went off for another hattrick to help lead the Wizards past the league leading Red Bulls, 3-2. With the win, the Wizards are now on top of the MLS table with 19 points. The hattrick by Johnson, his second in as many games, is an MLS record.

The game started out very well for the Wizards, they tested Red Bulls keeper Jon Conway inside the first 2 minutes. Things though did not continue to go well, a poor clearance by Jose Burciaga was gathered up by Claudio Reyna. He chipped it into the box, where it was flicked on by John Wolyniec to Juan Pablo Angel who one timed it into the net to make it 1-0. The Wizards came back down, and Johnson had a header saved by Conway's trailing leg. The Wizards were starting to control the game. Then Clint Mathis got himself red carded for violent conduct after he elbowed Kerry Zavagnin in the throat. The severity of the elbow and the card will be debated by Red Bull and Wizard fans for the next few weeks. The Wizards continued to control the game for the rest of the first half, but were unable to find the net.

Less then a minute into the second half, though, the Wizards finally found the net. Taking advantage of the slower back line of New York, KC started playing more balls over the top to let guys like Davy Arnaud, Johnson, and Michael Harrington to run onto them. Johnson ran onto a long ball from Harrington, and with a deft touch, lifted it over Conway and into the net to tie the game. It was Johnson's 7th goal of the season, tying him with Taylor Twellman for the league lead. The Wizards continued to use their man advantage, and speed advantage to test New York's backline, Harrington almost gave the Wizards the lead a few minutes after Johnson, and Arnaud had 2 good opportunities to put the Wizards in front.

In the end Johnson was gonna be the hero again. a great low cross by Bruciaga made it through the Red Bull box all the way to an unmarked Johnson on the back post who calmly beat Conway to put the Wizards in front. Johnson completed his hattrick in the 85th minute on a 2v2 with Sasha Victorine. Victorine pulled one defender, and Johnson split the 2 to run onto the ball, take a touch, look up, and place it in the corner past Conway. Major celebrations had to hold out for a little while when Dema Kovalenko scored in the 88th to make it 3-2, but the Wizards were able to hold on and move on top of the league.

You could tell how much this game meant to the players after the game was over, the excitment on their faces as they thanked the Cauldron, and Arnaud's intensity on his face as he came over and thanked the group. The Wizards now have next week off to heal up completely before going to New York to take on the same Red Bulls.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Eddie Johnson - KC - All this man does is score hattricks. The Wizards though will need to find other scorers for the next few weeks, as Eddie is gone to the Gold Cup with the US team.
2. Jon Conway - NY - The game could have been a lot worse last night, but Conway stood on his head and made some great saves to keep New York in the game.
3. Michael Harrington - KC - Battled on the same wing as fellow rookie of the year nominee, Dane Richards. In my opinion, Harrington won the battle between the two of them tonight, putting him in the poll position for ROTY at the moment.

Battle at the Top

The number 1 and number 3 teams in all of MLS meet tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium, when the Kansas City Wizards host the New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls are in first place in the East with 17 points, ahead of New England on goal differential. Kansas City is one point behind New York heading into this match.

The Wizards are still suffering from the injury bug, and will be looking forward to a week off next week to help the players with knocks to heal up. But the Wizards can't look to that off week yet, with the match this weekend in front of them. The injury report almost reads like a Wizards starting 11 almost. Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga, Aaron Hohlbein, Jimmy Conrad, Scott Sealy, Davy Arnaud, and Kerry Zavagnin are all listed on the injury report for tomorrow's game. Each of those players has started at least 1 game this season for the Wizards. All but Hohlbein are probably in the Wizards best starting 11 this season.

Now will all these players not play tomorrow? I doubt it, Arnaud and Zavagnin are both probably they'll start. Conrad seems to be positioning himself to start after listening to his radio show on Wednesday. Nick is also pushing himself to start this game I think. Also you can't always trust these reports, as a few weeks ago, Sealy and Carlos Marinelli were not listed on the injury report, but neither even made the bench.

So who starts this weekend for the Wizards? This guess is gonna be completely off with the injuries, but here we go.

Hartman
Jewsbury - Wahl - Conrad - Harrington
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Morsink - Victorine
Johnson - Pore

Prediction
This should be an exciting game, and if you're reading this and aren't already planning to come to the game, get out to Arrowhead. This should be an exciting one. Will the Wizards move atop the East though? I wanna say yes, but my gut is telling me now, New York looks like the best team in the league, and they aren't even fully healthy. Of course neither are the Wizards. That said I think this'll end up a tie.

KC - 2 (Johnson, Arnaud)
NY - 2 (Angel, Mathis)

Capped Wizards

Another statistical entry from me today. I don't really remember where I got this idea from, but it's one that I liked so I thought I'd research it.

With the Gold Cup starting, Eddie Johnson will have the chance to add more caps to his resume. When the roster came out, I started to wonder what Wizards player has the most caps for his national team. So I began to look around seeing what info I could find. Using US Soccer.com I was able to get pretty much every single US player that has played a game for the US. It was then a matter of searching for other federations and wikipedia pages to find the information on Wizards who had represented countries other then the US. Through my research, I found that Wizards players have represented 14 different countries. While I was not always able to get exact numbers, or some times even numbers at all, all these current and former Wizards have represented their national team.

USA
Tony Meola - 100 Caps
Alexi Lalas - 96 caps, 9 goals
Chris Henderson - 79 caps, 3 goals
Mike Burns - 75 caps
Peter Vermes - 67 caps, 11 goals
Mike Sorber - 67 caps, 2 goals
Josh Wolff - 48 caps, 9 goals
Frank Klopas - 40 caps, 12 goals
Brian Bliss - 34 caps, 2 goals
Roy Lassister - 30 caps, 4 goals
Eric Eichmann - 29 caps, 4 goals
Preki - 28 caps, 4 goals
Mark Chung - 24 caps, 2 goals
Eddie Johnson - 24 caps, 9 goals
Chris Klein - 22 caps, 5 goals
Kerry Zavagnin - 21 caps
Jimmy Conrad - 21 caps, 1 goal
Mark Santel - 8 caps, 1 goal
John Debrito - 6 caps
Nick Garcia - 6 caps
Yari Allnut - 5 caps, 2 goals
Kevin Hartman - 5 caps
Sasha Victorine - 4 caps, 1 goals
Steve Pittman - 3 caps
Alan Prampin - 2 caps
Diego Gutierrez - 1 cap
Curt Onalfo - 1 cap

Cameroon
Samuel Ekeme - 32 caps

Canada
Alex Bunbury - 65 caps, 16 goals

Denmark
Miklos Molnar - 18 caps, 2 goals

Finland
Antti Sumiala - 38 caps, 9 goals

Jamaica
Onandi Lowe - 65 caps, 19 goals
Wolde Harris - 25 caps(at least), 3 goals (at least)
Khari Stephenson - 21 caps, 3 goals
Shavar Thomas - 12 caps
Jermaine Hue - ??? caps, 2 goals (at least) (I was unable to find any good evidence of how many caps he has, if you know of a location, let me know)

Netherlands
Dave van den Bergh - 2 caps

Nigeria
Uche Okafor - 34 caps

Russia
Igor Simutenkov - 20 caps, 9 goals

Scotland
Richard Gough - 61 caps, 6 goals
Mo Johnston - 38 caps, 14 goals

Serbia and Montenegro
Vuk Rašović - 10 caps

Trinidad and Tabago
Gary Glasgow - 49 caps, 11 goals
Scott Sealy - 21 caps, 2 goals

Yugoslavia
Refik Šabanadžović - 8 caps

Zimbabwe
Vitalis Takawira - 26 caps, 12 goals

With that done, who is the most capped while a member of the Wizards? Here's the list of players and their number of caps while wearing Wizards blue.

Josh Wolff - USA - 38 caps, 6 goals
Preki - USA - 26 caps, 4 goals
Kerry Zavagnin - USA - 21 caps
Jimmy Conrad - USA - 21 caps, 1 goal
Chris Klein - USA - 17 caps, 3 goals
Gary Glasgow - Trinidad - 16 caps, 1 goal
Scott Sealy - Trinidad - 15 caps, 1 goal
Eddie Johnson - USA - 13 caps, 1 goal
Tony Meola - USA - 9 caps
Nick Garcia - USA - 6 caps
Mike Sorber - USA - 3 caps
Mark Chung - USA - 2 caps
Chris Henderson - USA - 1 cap
Steve Pittman - USA - 1 cap
Miklos Molnar - Denmark - 1 cap

The rest of these players I know or am pretty sure have played for their national team while with the Wizards but can't find exact numbers
Onandi Lowe - Jamaica
Vitalis Takawira - Zimbabwe
Wolde Harris - Jamaica
Khari Stephenson - Jamaica
Shavar Thomas - Jamaica
Uche Okafor - Nigeria
Jermaine Hue - Jamaica

Former Wizards

I was cruising bigsoccer.com the other day, and was on the Revolution board on there looking at their pregame thread for last weekends game against KC, and came across this thread. It got me thinking of the former Wizards that are not only playing in MLS and the USL now, but also those that are playing around the world. With me being a lover of stats stuff like this, I took on the challenge.

So I pulled out my 2007 media guide, which is already showing wear and tear from all the times I've looked through it, and started researching through the Wizards all time player registry. From google searches, wikipedia searches, and looking through USL and MLS websites, I came up with at least 23 and as many as 27 former Wizards that are currently still playing the beautiful game. Here are the players in order of the number of appearances they've made with their current club.

Vicente Figueroa - California Cougars (indoor), 23 appearances, 23 goals and 9 assists.
Josh Wolff - 1860 Munich (Germany), 10 appearances, 2 goals.
Chris Klein - Real Salt Lake, 8 appearances, 1 goal, 1 assist.
Dave van den Bergh - Red Bull New York, 8 appearances, 1 goal, 3 assists.
Matt Taylor - Chivas USA, 8 appearances, 1 goal.
Carey Talley - Real Salt Lake, 7 appearances.
Jay Alberts - Vancouver Whitecaps, 7 appearances, 2 goals, 2 assists
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota Thunder, 7 appearances.
Andrew Gregor - Portland Timbers, 6 appearances, 4 goals, 1 assist.
Diego Gutierrez - Chicago Fire, 6 appearances.
Diego Walsh - Adelaide United FC (Australia), 6 appearances.
Alex Zotinca - Chivas USA, 5 appearances, 2 assists.
Antti Sumiala - Porin Palloilijat (Finland), 5 appearances, 1 goal
Stephen Armstrong - Charleston Battery, 5 appearances, 2 goals, 1 assist
Chris Brown - Real Salt Lake, 4 appearances, 1 goal
Brandon Prideaux - Colorado Rapids, 3 appearances
Shavar Thomas - Chivas USA, 3 appearances
Taylor Graham - Red Bull New York, 1 appearance, 1 assist
Will Hesmer - Columbus Crew, 0 appearances
John Wilson - DC United, 0 appearances
Khari Stephenson - AIK (Sweden), 0 appearances

The following players I've found information on where they are playing now, but have no clue on their current stats with those teams.

Gary Glasgow - Joe Public FC (Trinidad)
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View FC (Jamaica)
Dustin Branan - Minnesota Thunder (does not appear on team's website roster)
Onandi Lowe - Miami FC (although he does not appear on team's roster)
Wolde Harris - Winnipeg Alliance (indoor) (he does not appear on team's roster)
Igor Simutenkov - Dynamo Voronezh (Russia)

DTB Wizards Player of the Month & the US Open Cup

So the month of May is winding down and it's time to announce Down the Byline's Wizards Player of the Month. I didn't do April's player of the month, because you can't really argue when the league picks a Wizards player to be MLS player of the month.

So we are on to May and for me this month comes down to 2 players. Either Eddie Johnson or Davy Arnaud. Stat wise, Eddie scored 3 goals and had 1 assist in the month of May to up his season total to 6 goals and 3 assists, both of those are 3 times his stats from last season when he finished with 2 and 1 respectively. As for Davy, he finished the month with 2 goals and 2 assists. His first points of the season.

While Eddie's stats are overall better then Davy's for this month, I have to give the award to Davy this month. Eddie's 3 goals all came in the game against New England and while that is fantastic and great, over the course of the whole month, I think Davy has had a better month. He played his ass off in the second half against Dallas after everyone had played a poor first half. He scored the game tying goal in Colorado, and he scored the first goal that helped get the Wizards back into the game in New England after falling behind 2-0. So with that said, I name Davy Aranud, Down the Byline's May Wizards Player of the Month.

US Open Cup
Onto Brass news. It looks like the Brass will get to play their first match of the US Open Cup at home, at William Jewell College. According to US Soccer, the pairings for the first round of matches was released today. The Brass will open their US Open Cup run against USL-2 side, the Cleveland City Stars. The Stars are in their first season of USL-2 play, but are currently 3-1-1 in league play. The Brass will play down in Springfield this Friday, but their next game after that will be the match against the Stars. So everyone, be prepared to get out and support your local team in the US Open Cup.

Trialist from Israel working out with Wizards

According to a poster on bigsoccer, the Wizards will be having a trailist from Israel training with them, starting June 4th. The original article can be found here, but don't expect me to be translating it for you.

The trialist, Idan Shriki, just finished his season in Israel with F.C. Ashdod. For Ashdod he played in 33 games, starting 32 of them, scoring 11 goals and 3 assists. According to his wikipedia page, he is one of Ashdod's brightest talents. According to the poster on bigsoccer, he's a national team caliber, but has not received a call up as yet. Shriki is the second player from Israel to be linked with the Wizards this year, earlier this year, the Wizards were linked to Hapoel Tel Aviv player, Luciano De Bruno.

This is an interesting move for the Wizards in my opinion, it's another forward being brought into the team. With Scott Sealy having been out for a good month now with his injury, and with Eddie Johnson getting ready to leave for national team duty at the Gold Cup, it seems that Coach Onalfo is looking for some extra support up top other then Ryan Pore and Yura Movsisyan. Which makes sense, Pore and Movsisyan are not ready to be full time starters in my opinion, Movsisyan has tons of potential, but he's still not reading the game well enough in my opinion, the raw talent is there but it needs to be worked. Pore has always reminded me of a bench, fringe forward on the Wizards roster, he's there, but not much is expected of him. This is something that probably needed to be done, to put pressure on all the forwards, bringing in what looks to be a capable forward is gonna create competition and get the best players on the field.

Brass Qualify for US Open Cup

While the Kansas City Wizards fell to Real Salt Lake in the first round of MLS qualifying for the US Open Cup, Kansas City's other team, the Kansas City Brass qualified tonight to play in the oldest soccer tournament in the United States, by defeating the St. Louis Lions 3-1 at the Tony Glavin Complex in St. Louis.

To qualify for the Open Cup, the Brass first defeated 2005 PDL Champs, and the Heartland's US Open Cup representative the past two years, the Des Moines Menace 3-1 at William Jewell College, which I mentioned in this entry. The Brass then went up to Sioux Falls, and beat the Spitfire 2-1. Then last night they defeated the Springfield Demize in KC, to set up today's match in St. Louis. A win or a draw by KC would have put them in the tournament, and thanks to goals by Garret Guthrie, Joshua White, and Joshua Howard, the Brass went through 3-1.

The team will now wait to see who they get paired with in the first round of the tournament and where the game will be played at. The match though will be played on June 12. The Brass will either be paired against a USL-1 or a USL-2 team, the second and third tier of US soccer. This is the Brass' first appearance in the US Open Cup since 1998 when they lost in extra time to the Central Jersey Riptide. So while the Wizards did not make the actual tournament this season, the Brass will be representing Kansas City in the US Open Cup in 2007. Go Brass.

Wizards get GREAT road win

The Kansas City Wizards pulled out a fantastic win on the road tonight in New England against the Revolution, thanks to a hattrick from Eddie Johnson. The Wizards, playing without 3 starting defenders, started the game pressuring the Revs higher up the field. Pressure by the midfielders and the forwards allowed there to be less pressure on the Wizards back 4, which was starting 2 rookies, a second year player, and a converted midfielder. Even though the Wizards went down 2-0, the high pressure was working effectively, as the Revs had only a few chances, the problem was, they converted those first two chances to put the Wizards in a hole. Then results changed, only 2 minutes after Taylor Twellman made it 2-0, Davy Aranud equalized, bringing down a cross from Sasha Victorine sweetly off his chest and then one timed it past Matt Reis to cut the deficit in half. Less then a minute later, the Wizards found themselves level thanks to Johnson's fourth of the season. Johnson received the ball from Jack Jewsbury, turned Jay Heaps, then beat him and placed the ball under Reis to tie the game at 2 with only 25 minutes played. The Wizards made it 3-2 in the 38th, with Johnson again being the goal scorer. Johnson beat Heaps again, as he cut across the face of goal, and finished between 2 Reves defenders to give the Wizards a shocking 3-2 lead as the teams headed into the half time break.

The Revs were able to draw level in the 69th minute thanks to a Jewsbury handball that lead to a PK, which was buried by Shalrie Joseph. The final goal of the game in the 82nd minute, was probably the best of them all. Carlos Marinelli played a fantastic through ball, splitting the Revs defense. Johnson was able to run across the field, and his first touch was excellent, as it allowed him to round Reis with the touch and then bury it into the net to make it 4-3, and complete his first ever hattrick. It was the Wizards first hattrick since Davy Arnaud back in 2004. The win was preserved a few minutes later off of a great save by Kevin Hartman on Twellman.

This is a fantastic result for the Wizards, they went into New England undermanned and came out of there with the full 3 points. The Wizards are now only 1 point out of first place with a big game against Red Bull coming up at Arrowhead next weekend.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Eddie Johnson - KC - Eddie's best game I think I've ever seen him play, he was physical, he used pace, he used skill, he looked dangerous, he looked like the striker that the Wizards and the US National team need.
2. Davy Arnaud - KC - Davy has now gotten a point in 3 straight games now, and a goal in his last 2. His first touch on his goal was world class.
3. Steve Ralston - NE - The Revs best player tonight, scored their first goal and had a shot off of a free kick hit the cross bar.

Undermanned Wizards to take on New England

The Wizards have not been able to field their full first team yet this season. First Marinelli was not up to fitness yet, then Scott Sealy went down with an injury. The closest the Wizards have come to a full first team, was in the second half of the US Open Cup against Salt Lake, when Marinelli subbed in the game.

The Wizards will continue to be without their full first team this weekend in New England as they take on the Revolution. According to the preview on MLSnet, and from his radio show on Wednesday, Jimmy Conrad is ruled out for the match due to his hamstraing strain. Sealy is also listed as being out for this match, but according to a poster on bigsoccer who went out to practice yesterday, Sealy was at least practicing. Also from his observations though, was that Jose Burciaga did not practice, neither did Nick Garcia. Which left the converted midfielder, Jack Jewsbury as the only starting defender that practiced. Not a good sign when you are going to be taking on the league's leading scorer, Taylor Twellman. From his observations and overhearing Coach Onalfo talking, this is apparently what the lineup will look like in New England:

Hartman
Jewsbury - Hohlbein - Garcia - Wahl
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Victorine - Harrington
Movsisyan - Johnson

That defense scares me quie a bit, especially with Steve Ralston on the wing for Tyson Wahl to contend with. I'd probably feel more comfortable with Michael Harrington moving back to left back and playing Kurt Morsink in the middle in front of him. While that takes away Harrington's attacking ability, it at least gives us a player who has played left back more then Wahl, who is more of a center back.

Prediction
I'm not to optimistic about this game, the Wizards are playing well below full strength right now.

KC - 1 (Johnson)
NE - 2 (Twellman, Ralston)

US Gold Cup roster announced

US Men's Head Coach, Bob Bradley, announced his roster for the upcoming Gold Cup. There is one Wizard on the roster, Eddie Johnson. Jimmy Conrad had to rule himself out of the running for the Gold Cup, due to his hamstring injury that he picked up in Colorado this weekend. Jimmy though seemed to be more interested in going to Venezuela for the Copa America, judging by his comments on his radio show. The hamstring injury will keep him out of the match against New England this weekend.

The MLS players will be reporting to camp on June 3, so Eddie will play this weekend against New England, and next weekend at home against Red Bull New York, before missing possibly the next 3 matches (@ New York, @ Columbus, and Houston) while on duty with the national team. The US will be taking on Guatemala, Trinidad and Tobago, and El Salvador in group play, June 7th through June 12. Should the US advance, which if they don't would be a major upset, they'll play either June 16 or 17, in the Quarters, a semifinal date on June 21, and the Gold Cup finals are June 24.

The Wizards could also be without Scott Sealy if he happens to get called up by Trinidad's national team, although with his current injury problems, that seems unlikely.

As for the Wizards opponents while Eddie is gone with the national team, the Wizards will play a full strength New York side, who is losing no one to the Gold Cup. They will then play at Columbus against a team that will be without captain Frankie Hejduk, who was called up. Finally if they make the finals they'll face Houston, who will be without Brian Ching and Ricardo Clark. They could also be without Dwayne De Rosario, if Canada happens to make the Gold Cup finals as well.

An interesting note about the roster for the Gold Cup though, as according to Ives, injuries forced a lot of changes to be made to the roster (Jimmy having to be dropped, etc). One name that was apparently being floated as getting a call up for the cup, was Wizards rookie Michael Harrington, who has had a fantastic rookie season so far.

Cerner Takeover?

I heard an interesting rumor from a friend of mine today, he was asking if I'd heard about the possible takeover of Cerner. I told him I had not and immediately went to my computer to see what I could find. I was able to find this article online in the Kansas City Star's business section.

Apparently Cerner is being eyed by General Electric. Co. and McKesson Corp. Although an analysis dismisses these rumored takeovers, it's still an interesting topic.

Why you might ask in a blog about soccer, would a rumored takeover being interesting? Well, when one of the owners of the Wizards is the chairman of the board, chief executive officier, and co-founder of Cerner, Neal Patterson, and another is currently vice chairman of the board of Cerner, Clifford Illig, that's when.

The takeover could have and immediate impact on the current state of the Wizards, depending on what happens if/when the takeover occurs, do Patterson and Illig stay on in some way or do they leave the company?

The main question though is how a move like this would affect the Wizards. That I do not know, I don't pretend to be a business savvy person. I'll leave the answers to those questions to people that know more about the topic, but I thought this was something worth mentioning to my readers.

Weekend in Colorado

Getting up at 5 am on your day off isn't normally something that you look forward to, but when you're a Kansas City Wizards fan, and you're getting up so that you can meet up with a van to ride out to Denver to watch the Wizards play, it's something you definitly look forward to. By plane and automobile, 40 plus Wizards fans made the trip out to Denver this weekend to watch the Wizards take on the Colorado Rapids. 18 of us traveled in 2 12 passenger vans. As anyone that has taken the drive from KC to Denver will tell you, it's one of the most boring drives in the US, but when the closest MLS team to you is 8-10 hours away, sometimes you gotta make the long boring drives.

Once in Denver, with the realization that another Kansas City team was in town to play as well, a group of us made the trip to Coors Field to watch the Royals come from 2 down in the 8th inning to win the game 5-2. Coors is an amazing stadium, and it's situation near downtown Denver, and within walking distance of the Breckenridge Brewery, almost makes me change my mind about a downtown baseball stadium in KC.

Saturday was another early morning for many of us, as we got up to go to a local pub to watch the FA Cup final between Manchester United and Chelsea. A rather dull encounter only avoided penalties thanks to a late Didier Drogba goal to give Chelsea the 1-0 win, and a "double" as they'll call it. For me personally winning the league cup and the FA Cup is in no way a double, but I digress.

It was then on to a supporters match between the Cauldron and a mix of the Colorado supporters groups, which was won by the home fans, 7-3. After that is was on to the parking lot to tailgate with the Rapids supporters. From the fans I've met, that have come to KC or from going to other teams stadiums, the Rapids supporters are right up there with the Dallas fans as some of the friendliest in the league, they welcomed us, fed us, and gave us beer, in my book, that's a trifecta.

As for the game, the Rapids took the lead in the first half thanks to an iffy handball call that he switched from being outside the box to inside giving the Rapids a PK. The Wizards equalized in the second half, thanks to Davy Arnaud who received a great cross from Eddie Johnson, as he beat Pablo Mastroeni to the ball and beat Colorado keeper Bouna Coundoul. The Wizards level of play picked up remarkably in the second half, thanks to the introduction of Carlos Marinelli into the game. Marinelli, who was thought to still be a few weeks away from returning, was able to change the make up of the game, and add a stronger punch to the Wizards attack. The traveling support of the Cauldron were great, and also got some props during the HDNet broadcast crew according to fans back in KC who watched the game, the quote apparently in the broadcast was "what a subdued crowd.... well except for the KC fans."

You can see pictures from both the Wizards-Rapids game, and the supporters match here, thanks to Yellow Card Journalism.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Davy Arnaud - KC - Scored the tying goal and was working his butt off all night, it was about time he earned himself a goal this season.
2. Terry Cooke - CO - Was giving Jose Burciaga a lot of trouble down the week and was creating a lot of chances that CO, specifically Roberto Brown numerous times, was unable to finish.
3. Eddie Johnson - KC - Created numerous chances, and probably should have had a goal, his great cross into Davy in the box was brilliantly placed, he also had another few crosses later in the game from almost the same position that no one was just able to finish.

On the road again

The Wizards are back on the road this week, in Colorado. They'll have company on the road as well, because the Cauldron has a good sized group of fans traveling to Colorado this weekend to cheer the Wizards on at The Big Dick, as Jimmy Conrad calls it. Kansas City is coming off their tough 2-1 loss at home against Dallas. Colorado is coming in off handing New York their first lose of the season.

Kansas City got some good news last night, as on the Jimmy Conrad Show on 97.3 FM in Kansas City, Jimmy announced that his jaw break this time was in the same place as last year. And that last year's break did not heal properly. The good news is though that he said he would be playing this Saturday in Colorado. Carlos Marinelli though is still out for at least another week or two before he comes back. Scott Sealy is also likely still going to be out this week. This means that Yura Movsisyan is going to be starting up top with Eddie Johnson again this Saturday. Kansas City has been getting fouled quite often lately, as the last 3 games they've been fouled over 20 times in each game. This choppiness is slowly down the Wizards attack and playing into the hands of the other team. Will be interesting to see if Colorado picks up their number of fouls as teams have done against the Wizards. The Wizards will likely field a lineup similar to the game against Dallas, except for Conrad replacing Aaron Hohlbein.

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

Prediction
These two teams have split their season series the past 2 seasons, with each team winning at home. The Wizards last won in Colorado in 04. The Wizards have also not won while the traveling Cauldron has been in attendance in a while, games in Dallas, Chicago, and Colorado last season were losses, the season before was a loss in Chicago and a tie in Dallas. The hope is that the Wizards will finally break it, but I think we'll see a tie.

KC - 1 (Arnaud)
CO - 1 (Gomez)

OTHER NEWS
The KC Brass won their season opener last night, coming from a goal down to defeat the Des Moines Menace 3-1 last night. With goals by Michael Thomas, Keith Gorczyca, and JD Warman.

I will be with the traveling Cauldron this weekend and will try to give reports on all the goings on, including the Royals-Rockies game Friday night, the FA Cup final at Fado's Irish Pub in Denver Saturday morning, Supporter's Match against the Colorado supporters Saturday afternoon, and the match on Saturday night.

Wizards Youth System

As MLS Commissioner Don Garber stated a few months ago, all MLS teams will be starting a youth system to help develop home grown players, that would be tied to the parent club. This way players that develop in each teams youth system would not be put into the draft, but rather would could be called up to the reserve team and then the full team of the MLS team.

Today the Kansas City Wizards announced their plans for their own youth system that will start to be put together this summer, to begin playing next fall. The Wizards will start by having U-15, U-16, and U-17 teams, these teams will compete in the Super Y League and the Midwest Regional League, as well as tournaments, although they will not be playing in the 2007 State Cup. The technical staff, that will be overseeing the youth teams, will be looking to pull in players from Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Oklahoma for the team.

It's good to see the Wizards starting to comply with this part of Garber's plan for the youth system. While the Wizards have got 2 local products on their team right now (Will John and Ryan Raybould), John came to the Wizards after a trade, while Raybould was drafted by the Wizards. Under this new youth system, both John and Raybould could have retained the "professional" rights of those 2 players, meaning that they'd have come to KC a lot easier.

The major question that will remain, is will the best players from MO, KS, IA, NE, and OK come to play for the Wizards youth team? Each of those states have some very good club teams already in exsistence. The Wizards will be joining that already crowded club soccer landscape. This will be a problem that I'm sure will take quite a while to get settled, players in the U-15-U17 age divisions who are already on good teams will probably be reluctant to switch to the Wizards new system. These teams will not be affliated with any current club in KC, so they'll be starting from scratch.

Kansas City's OTHER Team

Kansas City's other soccer team, the Kansas City Brass will be opening their season this Wednesday night at William Jewell College up in Liberty against the Des Moines Menace at 7 pm. This match is also the beginning of their US Open Cup qualifying schedule. While the Wizards dropped out of the competition to Salt Lake a few weeks ago, the Brass' qualifying cycle is just beginning.

The Brass is a semi-pro team that have been around for almost as long as the Wizards have, the team was founded in 1997. They play in the Premier Development League. Their most notable former player is former US Youth international, Will John, who now plays for the Wizards. Current Wizards Ryan Raybould also played for the Brass in the past.

Get out this Wednesday and support Kansas City's other team, the Brass.

Wizards lose at home to Dallas

For the first time since 1998, Dallas won a game in regulation in KC (they won in a shootout in 1999). Thanks to goals by Kenny Cooper, Juan Toja, and some questionable refereeing, Dallas was able to walk out of Kansas City with a 2-1 win. Playing without Scott Sealy or Carlos Marinelli even on the bench, is a major concern, that was not even noted in the preview for the game. Without those 2 in the lineup, KC's high powered offense has looked rather pedestrian. That said the Wizards did have their chances, as Eddie Johnson went off the wood work, Davy Arnaud shot right at Dario Sala, and Yura Movsisyan missed about 4 good chances, including a break away that he didn't even put the shot on goal for.

Overall in the first half, the Wizards were ran around too easily by Dallas, a looping header from Kenny Cooper gave Dallas the lead. They doubled their lead right before halftime, when a long ball from Ramon Nunez was brought down on the hip of Toja, the ball then bounced up, hit Toja's arm and went right back into his path. Toja then placed the ball to the far corner past Hartman. No call was made and Dallas was up 2-0.

In the second half, KC came out and dominated the game, but were unable to find the back of the net as Sala played extrodinary in his first game back from his 6 game suspension to start the season. Finally the Wizards got on the board in second half stoppage time thanks to a Michael Harrington goal. Harrington's performance as a whole was great, he's gonna be a star in this league.

Teams have learned how to stop Kansas City's high powered offense, they're playing a hack-attack approach, it was seen last weekend against Columbus and again this week against Dallas, as the Wizards suffered over 20 fouls for the third straight game. Team's come in and hack, kick, and chop down Wizards players to stop the team from getting into their flow, which helped them to get goals early in the season.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Dario Sala - Dallas - Had 9 saves, many of them in the second half to help preserve the points for Dallas on the road.
2. Michael Harrington - KC - The Wizards goal scorer last night continues to impress and to make his early case for Rookie of the Year. He's worked his ass off every game this season.
3. Juan Toja - Dallas - His handball and hacking aside, he did exactly what was expected of him, he stopped the Wizards attacks, and slowed down their tempo, exactly what he was suppose to do.

Wizards vs FCD

Kansas City continues their season tomorrow night against FC Dallas at Arrowhead Stadium. The match is also a tribute match to the late owner of both the Wizards and FC Dallas, Lamar Hunt. The Cauldron has made a special banner for the match to honor Lamar's memory.

As for the match, the Wizards will be without captain Jimmy Conrad after he broke his jaw against the Crew last weekend. Taking his place will be either second year man Tyson Wahl, or rookie Aaron Hohlbein, who played in place of Nick Garcia against DC United the first game of the season. The good news for the Wizards is that the preview for the game lists neither Scott Sealy or Carlos Marinelli on the list of injured players, so both those players stand a good chance of starting on Saturday. With those 2 starting the Wizards attack looks as dangerous as it can be, and could be the first time those 2 will be on the field for a long period of time with Eddie Johnson. The question though is who goes to the bench so both of them can start. In all likelihood Marinelli will come off the bench this game.

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

Some interesting news came out of Dallas this week as well. Apparently Carlos Ruiz took an unexpected extended vacation and missed practice earlier this week. According to Buzz at 3rd Degree, Ruiz will not be starting this weekend in KC due to his missing practice.

PREDICTION
KC is coming in on a 3 game winning streak, 2 of those games have been at home, while Dallas is coming off 2 loses at home. Dallas hasn't won a game in regulation in Kansas City since 1998, and while Ruiz hasn't been playing great the last few it's' good news that he won't be starting on Saturday. As for the game, Kansas City is playing the better soccer right now, and their speed up top should create a ton of problems for Dallas' slow back line.

KC - 2 (Sealy, Arnaud)
FCD - 0

Lamar Hunt Tribute

The Kansas City Wizards will honor their former owner, Lamar Hunt this Saturday as the Wizards take on another team owned by Hunt Sports Group, FC Dallas. For the game, the Wizards will be wearing commemorative jerseys for the game. The team will also have a commemorative logo as well for the game. The logo was seen in the Wizards media guide for this season, which was passed out to Season Ticket Holders this past Saturday against the Crew. Here is a picture of the logo that will be on the Wizards uniforms on Saturday. The logo is a throw back to the Wizards original Wiz logo from back in 1996, which apparently was a logo that Lamar really liked. The jerseys of both the Wizards and opponent, FC Dallas will then be auctioned off on the Wizards website.

Conrad breaks jaw

Jimmy Conrad will now miss more time this season, thanks to another broken jaw. This Saturday against the Crew the challenge by Ricardo Virtuoso that earned him a yellow card has broken Conrad's jaw for the second time in less then a year. Last year when Conrad broke his jaw, he missed over a month of play. This injury will likely rule the center back out of the Gold Cup for the US Men's National team this summer that starts in June.

Jose, Jose Jose Jose

Kansas City continued their good form as of late, as they downed the previously unbeaten Crew 1-0 at Arrowhead Stadium this afternoon. The Wizards were able to control much of the flow of the game, carrying possession and keeping the Crew of mounting many attacks in the first half. Kansas City for it's efforts though had nothing to show for it. They did have a few chances, particularly Eddie Johnson who had a shot destined for the corner cleared away by a defender in the first half. The first half was also marred by some vicious challenges. Both Ricardo Virtuoso and Danny O'Rourke saw yellow for hard challenges on both Jimmy Conrad and Kerry Zavagnin.

In the second half, Columbus was able to get more of the play, and got 3 good chances for it. The first was on a slow ball through the middle that Hartman called off the defenders to clear. The problem was, he cleared it right into a Columbus player, luckily the ball did not have enough pace on it off the Crew player and Jack was able to pick it off. The other 2 chances came on breaks down KC's right side, one from Eddie Gaven that he put into the post and then off Jack Jewsbury for a corner. The second from new Crew signing Guillermo Barros Schelotto as he picked up a very poor back pass from Jimmy Conrad and forced Hartman into a save at the near post. Finally just before second half stoppage time, Jose Burciaga received a ball in the middle of the field, dribbled to his left, was able to cut onto his left just outside the box, and the ball low and to the left of Crew goalie Andy Gruenebaum to give the Wizards the only goal they'd need.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Kerry Zavagnin - KC - Played hard nosed and tackled well, also had a nice looking shot saved by Gruenebaum in the first half.
2. Jose Burciaga - KC - The game winning goal and a good performance defensively, as his continued work in that area of his game can be clearly seen on the field.
3. Andy Gruenebaum - Crew - The KC product is having a very good season so far, he's playing with confidence and is not allowing many goals, he's gonna do well in this league.

Crew preview

The Wizards are back playing, finally getting a midweek off after having 5 games in 15 days. The Wizards now return home to take on the Columbus Crew. Last season the Wizards swept the series with the Crew, but this season, the Crew have been playing a lot better. They are one of 3 undefeated teams left in the league, and the only team so far to have taken points off of New York. KC local Andy Gruenebaum has had what has been a break out season so far this season in net for the Crew allowing only 2 goals in their 4 MLS games. The problem for the Crew though has been their lack of scoring, in that same time, the Crew have only scored 3 goals. This will also likely be the MLS debut of former Boca Juniors legend, Guillermo Barros Schelotto. While at this time it doesn't seem likely that he'll get the start, chances are good that we will see him play a bit on Saturday afternoon.

For the Wizards, they're coming off their sweep of the home and home with Toronto, including a big win in Toronto. As Davy Arnaud said on The Jimmy Conrad show on Wednesday, many teams are going to struggle to get points up in Toronto this year with the fan support that they have. As for the noon kickoff this Saturday, both Carlos Marinelli and Scott Sealy are listed as probable for the game tomorrow, although Curt Onalfo said last night on the Wizards Weekly that Sealy is more likely to play then Marinelli at this point. If that's to be believed then this seems like the likely lineup for the game tomorrow.

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

If Sealy can't go then I would expect Yura Movsisyan to start with Johnson up top.

Prediction
This is not the same Crew team as last year. They will definitly be tougher to beat this season, I don't expect 3-4 goals at home against them as the Wizards scored last season. That said, they're lack of scoring punch and the Wizards attack ability, I think the Wizards will take this one.

KC - 2 (Johnson, Sealy)
Columbus - 1 (Gaven)

OTHER NEWS
In other Wizards news, congratulations go out to Jimmy Conrad and his wife Lyndsey on the birth of their first daughter on Monday. According to a post on BS, the future women's national team player's name is Julia Rose.

Also, Eddie Johnson was named as the MLS player of the month for April after his 3 goal 2 assist performance of the month. All 3 of the goals were game winners. The goals and assists also pass his performance for all of last season when he only had 2 goals and 1 assist.

Houston, We Have a Problem

Corny title I know, but it's the best I could come up with. So I was going through some blogs I will normally read, and I came across this entry from My Soccer Blog about the Dynamo game this weekend. Apparently there was an incident in one of Houston's 2 supporters sections, El Batallón involving a flag pole, a few cops, a racist comment, and a walkout by both the Batallón and the Texian Army.

There are two stories about the incident, one from the front office and one from the supporters group themselves. Both views can be found in this Houston Chronicle blog about the incident as well. The front office first said they were expelled for throwing objects at stadium security and police, the second said they voluntarily left after an incident with a flagpole hitting a lady. The lady apparently required stiches.

The story from the supporters group is quite different. They say that the lady was only had the fabric of the flag brush her. Security decided to step in and took the flag. Members of the group went and tried to get the flag back, but were unable to and when arrest was threatened, the group left. In that blog entry you will see that one of the responses says that one of the officers threw out a racist comment towards, the mostly Latino, El Batallón.

I'm sure the truth of this story is somewhere in between the front office's version and the version from El Batallón. We'll likely never get the true story out of this.

Thankfully the Cauldron itself has never had an incident of this magnitude take place inside the section. While there's been the odd throwing out and stern talking to, there's never been an incident with Arrowhead security that hasn't been able to be talked out with them. Security and the front office have usually been very accomdating of the section and what it does to bring some atmosphere to the games at Arrowhead stadium.

Spoilers

The Wizards played the role of spoilers today as Toronto FC opened their new soccer specific stadium, BMO Field. Eddie Johnson's third goal of the season in the 81st minute to give KC the 1-0 win. This game was much more difficult for the Wizards then their 3-0 win at Arrowhead on Wednesday.

Toronto came out pumped for this game, and a sell out, boisterous crowd at BMO Field helped to create a fantastic atmosphere for TFC as they opened their home stadium. In the first half, KC looked completely out of the game, as TFC fed off the noise and energy from the crowd to dominate possession. TFC had a few decent chances, including Maurice Edu going close, and Jack Jewsbury saving a goal off the line late in the first half. The first half was marred by fouls as there were 23 combined fouls in the first half, including a rather rough foul on Wizards keeper Kevin Hartman by TFC forward Danny Dichio. Hartman came out of the box to clear the ball with his head. Dichio came into Hartman not going for the ball with his forearms up around his head pushing into Hartman, who hurt his shoulder on the play. As if not playing well in the first half was enough, Carlos Marinelli came out after only 16 minutes with a tweaked hamstring. It doesn't sound serious, but you never know.

In the second half, it was a completely different game, the Wizards came out confident and controlled the possession of the game. Unlike the first half, the Wizards spent the majority of the half in the Toronto end of the field. Johnson throughout the game had a few chances in each half, but put the ball at Sutton's feet on each those chances. Until the 81st when he made it into a box on a cross by Michael Harrington. Johnson cut inside his defender and then beat TFC goalkeeper Greg Sutton near post to make it 1-0. The Wizards were able to hold off a late onslaught by TFC to win their second road game of the season. That second win is the same number of wins the rest of MLS has in away games this season.

The best part of the game was at the end when all the Wizards players got together at the end of the game. Davy Arnaud is then seen on camera motioning for the rest of the team to come join them in this as the team had a conversation. This shows a great team spirit between the team as they look to be really together and ready for the season. And after an intensity filled game in a hostile environment, even if the team isn't that good (let's face it TFC is not that good a team), it shows that the team is together.

3 Stars of the game
1. TFC Fans - Toronto - Can't give it to anyone but them, the entire stadium was loud and active, it was one of the best atmosphere's I've seen for an MLS game, kudos to them.
2. Eddie Johnson - KC - Even though he missed 5 chances, he finished the one that counted and KC took the win. Eddie looked very good today outside the finishing, the main thing he needs to improve on is just not shooting at the keepers feet.
3. Michael Harrington - KC - The assist man on KC's goal, Harrington had a great game for KC. In the fourth week of the season it currently looks like the Rookie of the Year race could be down to Harrington and Dane Richards.

The Away Leg

The Wizards go on the return leg of their home and home with Toronto this week. TFC will be opening up BMO Park at 11:30 central time tomorrow morning when the Wizards take the field against TFC. Not much has changed since these 2 sides met on Wednesday night at Arrowhead, heck even the weather may not change much as there is a chance of rain of up in Toronto tomorrow morning.

Toronto will likely make a few changes now that new forward Danny Dichio is available for them tomorrow, likely knocking Edson Buddle to the bench. Also Toronto will be without Paulo Nagamura due to yellow card accumulation. The other change from Toronto's lineup on Wednesday will likely be Adam Braz moving to the bench as he is battling the flu it seems. I would think Andrew Boyens would take his place. The Wizards, I expect to be fielding the same lineup that they fielded on Wednesday night, when the Wizards beat Toronto 3-0 on goals by Johnson, Zavagnin, and Movsisyan. That lineup looked like this:

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

The Wizards will still be without Scott Sealy who is still battling his ankle problem.

Prediction
The sellout crowd in Toronto will definitely want to play a major role in the game tomorrow, the Wizards will need to come out and do like they did on Wednesday and score an early goal to try and take the fans out of the game. I do expect Toronto to finally get themselves on the board in this game, as the Wizards have allowed 2 goals in each of their 3 away games this season (2 league, one USOC). With that said though, Toronto is still lacking in the back, and while adding Dichio up top will help them some, I still think the Wizards will take this one.

KC - 2 (Johnson, Marinelli)
TFC - 1 (Dichio)