In a move that probaly shows that the Wizards Front Office might know money but doesn't really know that much about soccer, KC has removed the title of "interim" from Peter Vermes and now he is officially..., wait for it..., wait for it... the new head coach of Your Kansas City Wizards.

So now that the passion/disappointment has simmered a bit after a below mediocre season, I figured I's sit and look at the team as a whole and write about what I thought should happen for 2010.

Peter Vermes = Technical Director: After 3 seasons in this position I feel Vermes has done a less than stellar job.

In what can be conservatively called a Bad season, Kansas City came back to tie D.C. United and kill their chances of moving into the playoffs.

Kansas City started with a different look using Kamara and Zoltan at the same time but kicking Kei off to the wing and leaving Zoltan up top with Josh Wolff; yes an improvement but not by much since Wolff did look slow on a couple of breakaways.

After a season of many disappointments the Wizards close out the season against D.C United Saturday night at the CAB, in a game that means nothing to us but a lot to them.
They are playing for their playoff life, while we keep playing the retread game lining-up players that are in a slump, are old or who have already proven their value to the team.

It's bad enough we have had a horrible season. It's bad enough that we played basically the same lineup that has given us little to cheer about throughout the season (with Zusi and Zoltan being the exceptions). Saturday we decided to give the Sounders some help by giving away 3 goals on big mistakes.

I decided not to comment on our 2-0 loss against Chivas since my arguments are the same as the Houston tie except for the Zoltan goal. This week we didn't even score and it would seem that playing those players in a slump (Wolff, Arnaud, Jewsbury) has brought nothing good.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Here's a little math for those who still have faith.

Here's how we stand now:

KC 32 points with 3 games left; can reach 41 at most
New England 38 with 3 games left; can reach 47 at most
DC 36 points with 2 games left; can reach 42 at most
Toronto 35 points with 3 games left; can reach 44 at most

Playoff hopes:

KC must win all points AND:
NE must lose at least 6 out of 9 points (we have the tie breaker)
DC must lose at least 4 out of 6 points (tie breaker up in the air since we have 1 game left vs DC)
Toronto must lose at least 4 out of 9 points (they own the tie breaker)

If KC loses one game they are out of the playoffs.

Yes Kansas City played better yesterday than their last game against Colorado; yes they could have won to keep the slim playoff hopes alive. But NO we didn't win; no we didn't finish off a team that played almost 70 minutes a man down and missing one of their best players; no, we aren't that much better with Peter Vermes than we were with Curt Onalfo; and no Peter Vermes should NOT survive the house cleaning that should take place in KC this offseason.

Needing a win against a depleted Colorado team on their 3rd game in one week the Wizards earned a point at home and basically kissed their playoff aspirations good bye. Only winning out and getting a lot of help will keep KC from watching the MLS playoffs from home.

So the Wizards, in their typical "must win" situation, playing a team on their 3rd game this week, which was missing at least 4 starters, finished the game with 4 defenders and a holding mid and not getting a goal.

I caught this story from one of the Big Soccer forums and thought it was worth looking into. I've always been a big supporter of a team's loyalty to its fans, regardless of the sport and I hate it when they get screwed.

In this era where the MLS struggles to grow its fan base; where we can stay home and watch superb soccer on 4 different channels; and where the only way that soccer as a sports league will survive in this country is with the passion of its fans, teams need to be very careful on how they treat those who visit their stadiums.

Jimmy Conrad had a night to remember, and at the same time a night to forget. At the end the Wizards kept their hopes alive with a come from behind win against Dallas that puts them 7 points behind the last playoff spot with 5 games left.

The night started with the Wizards trying to win their first game at home since June 12th (yes, a 3 month drought, including Superliga).

Last time KC and Dallas faced each other the Wizards took in 6 goals, alot of embarrassment and Curt Onalfo lost his job. Today, KC is looking for payback.

KC will be missing Jack Jewsbury who in all honesty needs a timeout since his level of play, just like Davy Arnaud's has been sub par.

In a battle of teams sitting at the bottom of the Eastern Conference the Wizards made the most of a huge Jorge Rojas mistake to score the only goal in a game where the winning team just made one less mistake than the loser.

A Josh Wolff goal that came off a Claudio Lopez breakaway rebound allowed the Wizards to come home with 6 points out of a possible 9 in this 3 game East coast swing.

The Wizards are traveling to New York on Saturday to close out their one week/3 game road trip that has had split results. One nice win against the Revolution where they broke out of the scoring funk, followed by a game where they were held scoreless by DC United.

The Red Bulls are on a 2 game winning streak and playing pretty well after the departure of Coach Juan Carlos Osorio.

Back again. I missed out on commenting about our victory last Saturday against New England which brought some renewed enthusiasm to the KC faithful. This was mainly due to the fact that there was way too much soccer to watch with the WC qualifiers over the weekend. A good dose of soccer overload which was great

I did watch the game against NE but did not really get overly excited because KC really needed to get a streak going after the string of goaless games before one could cheer wholeheartedly and think about a turn around.