First of all, go vote for the AT&T Goal of the Year and Degree Men Save of the Year awards. Both Arnaud and Lopez are up twice for the Goal of the Year honor and Hartman is up three times for the Save of the Year award. You can find links to the highlights of these plays at previous posts below. Click to continue reading...

'Beckham and kid' via Kickette
'Bent's twitter boots' via The Spoiler
'Brazilian love' -- via Futbolita
'Beckham's footie art' -- via Dirty Tackle
'Kai Rooney's twitter' -- via Off the Post
'Dempsey is back' -- via The Original Winger
'Nasty KC throwback' -- via Hillcrest Road
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Got this from over at Hillcrest Road, and figured I'd pass it on cause it's pretty cool. The Wiz(ards) are one of 3 soccer teams nominated in the poll on the ESPN blog, Uni Watch, for the worst soccer uniforms. While the Wiz(ards) have plenty of potential nominees (as seen by the photo below), it's the 96-97 jerseys that are nominated in this competition. Click to continue reading...

If you can't make it out to Swope Park tonight (or aren't going to due to the weather), check out our official Twitter page for in-game updates. Visit www.twitter.com/hillcrest_road for more information.
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The US U-17s are playing the Wizards reserves tonight at the Wizards Swope Park Training Facility. They will be on the turf field with the lights. Open to the public, free of charge and a good chance to see some of the future stars. Hillcrest Road has the U-17s roster. See you there!! Click to continue reading...

The Kansas City Wizards first played in Arrowhead Stadium (home of the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs in Kansas City, Missouri), and created quite the echo chamber with attendance barely in five figures in a stadium holding 80,000. Then in 2007, they moved to a stadium that barely holds five figures, CommunityAmerica Ballpark (home of minor league baseball team the T-Bones in Kansas City, Kansas), an oddly angled fit for soccer and too small for the Wizards.

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We've been pretty busy giving lots of information on upcoming events here at Hillcrest Road lately. In light of all the news, we figured it was time to put together a to-do list for area soccer fans. Here it is:
1. Buy your tickets to this Saturday's Wizards contest against Real Salt Lake if you haven't already. Click to continue reading...

Though it's a little blurry, here is a picture of Michael Kraus scoring the game-winning goal against his former club.
Our Swope Park Rangers topped the Creighton University Bluejays 4-2 this morning on the strength of goals from Adam Cristman (2), former Creighton standout Michael Kraus and Aaron Hohlbein. Click to continue reading...

Jimmy Conrad heads the ball in front of the GOUSABID.com field board.
We told you Friday about the Field Boards you would see Sunday at our match against Chicago. The initial response from the U.S. Soccer community has been great, as there are over 28,000 folks (watch the total climb on the widget in the right-hand column here at Hillcrest Road) already on the petition. Click to continue reading...

GO USA!!! Go watch and cheer on the US!!!Hillcrest Road has a roundup of all the watch parties and viewing methods. Thanks Kyle. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards (and probably the Swope Park Rangers at some point) will face the Brass today at Swope Park at 10:30 a.m. If you can't make it out to the friendly, follow us over on Twitter (or look at our "tweet roll" on the right side of this page often) to see how it's going. http://www.twitter.com/hillcrest_road. Click to continue reading...

Azteca.
Hopefully this suffices as a little more cheery after post #999. Welcome to the 1000th post here at Hillcrest Road. We are focusing on the upcoming World Cup Qualifier at Estadio Azteca between the United States and Mexico, CONCACAF's two biggest powers and two biggest rivals. The match takes place next Wednesday at 3 p. Click to continue reading...

That one sure stings. Not the way we wanted post #999 at Hillcrest Road to go. Hopefully post #1000 will be a little more cheery. Well, you guys saw the result. It was 6-0 to FC Dallas. Take a look at the notables below, and feel free to use the comment section. That's what it's there for. Highlight of the night is that Kevin Hartman made his 100th consecutive MLS start. Click to continue reading...

Zoltan Hercegfalvi has officially been added to the Kansas City Wizards roster with the receipt of his P-1 Visa and International Transfer Certificate. Zoltan, which will appear on the back of his #20 jersey, will be available for selection immediately as soon as he is deemed fit enough to contribute according to the Hillcrest Road blog.

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Zoltan Hercegfalvi has officially been added to the Kansas City Wizards roster with the receipt of his P-1 Visa and International Transfer Certificate. Zoltan, which will appear on the back of his #20 jersey, will be available for selection immediately as soon as he is deemed fit enough to contribute according to the Hillcrest Road blog.

Click to continue reading...

Americans Abroad / USMNT
World Cup Cities - USSoccerPlayers.com
USA-Mexico Qualifier To Be Aired In English On mun2 - Soccer By Ives
USA-Mexico TV Update - Soccer Insider
Video: US Soccer At The ESPYs - The Offside Rules
Conrad Feeling Better - Hillcrest Road
'Keeper Change - The MNT Blog
A Tale Of Two Trainings - The MNT Blog
Parkhurst Recalled For Semifinal - The MNT Blog
USA 2, Panama 1: A Look Back - Soccer By Ives
US v Panama Player Ratings - Soccer365
Beckerman, Holden, Marshall Earn Top Marks - Soccer America
United States Soccer: What To Do Now? Click to continue reading...

The Wizards lost the Open Cup game with Seattle Tuesday night. You can read Mike's write up or Hillcrest Road's post for some details. The key play that night was a PK awarded to Seattle for Kevin Hartman tripping Montero in the box. Since there was not a lot of video there (why?) we only have 1 or 2 angles to review the play. Click to continue reading...

With a late-game PK (Hartman says he didn't touch Montero), Kansas City is eliminated from the 2009 Open Cup. We'll return to action quickly, heading to Gillette Stadium where we are 6-1-4 all-time against the Revs in the MLS regular season. If you didn't listen to the game, you can see the full Twitter recap at www. Click to continue reading...

We continue the run toward the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup tonight with a quarterfinal match against Sounders FC at the Starfire Sports Complex in Tukwila, Wa. The game kicks off at 9 p.m. CT. While there is no TV/video feed from the game, you can listen to an audiocast here. Also, we will provide semi-regular updates via our team Twitter account. Click to continue reading...

Rauwshan McKenzie's first MLS appearance.
Kevin Hartman's 75th league appearance and start for the Wizards.
With his 75th start, Hartman ties Digital Takawira for 20th on the list of most MLS starts for the Wizards.
From Hillcrest Road, Hartman made his 318th regular-season appearance in MLS play, moving into 2nd place behind only New England's Steve Ralston. Click to continue reading...

Tonight, the Kansas City Wizards take on the Minnesota Thunder at the National Sports Center in Blaine, Minn. The game kicks off at 7:35 p.m. CT and can be seen live online at www.USLlive.com. We will also be providing a live running commentary from the match here at Hillcrest Road. With just over an hour before kickoff, the lineups are now in. Click to continue reading...

photo by altRego

SuperLiga 2009 - Matchday 3 Group A Game Score Pts Chicago 1 6 Chicago - MLSNet Tigres UANL 2 6 Tigres UANL - Wikipedia San Luis 1 4 San Luis - Wikipedia Chivas USA 1 1 Chivas USA - MLSNet Group B New England 1 7 Revolution Soccer Atlas 0 2 Atlas - The Offside Kansas City 1 2 Kansas City - Hillcrest Road Santos Laguna 3 4 Santos Laguna - Wikipedia

Chicago and Tigres advance from Group A.

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Just a few hours after The Sporting Blog (blog on the Sporting News' website) called out ESPN for not sending announcers to the Confed Cup, ESPN responded (well, probably more like announced on their own without regard for being called out) by laying out some details for next summer's coverage of the World Cup. Click to continue reading...

Pre-game is at 1:00 pm and the boys will kick off at 1:25 pm today on ESPN. While the U.S. Men are in their first-ever FIFA tournament final, five-time FIFA World Cup champions Brazil are making their fourth appearance in the Confederations Cup final and looking for their record-setting third title.

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Jewsbury takes a free kick as an Atlas player jumps to block the service. Photo courtesy of Ryan Casey.
Thanks to all the Wizards supporters who made the trek across the Show-Me State to watch the 0-0 tie last Sunday in St. Louis. With the tie, the Wizards and Atlas remain knotted for 2nd place behind New England after the Revs topped Santos 4-2 later on Sunday. Click to continue reading...

Davy Arnaud's give-and-go goal has won MLS Goal of the Week. Props to Davy for the fine passing and finishing (and Lopez and Gomez for the nice vision and passing) and to you fans for voting him often!
Spoke with some folks in Minnesota today. The open cup match will kickoff at 7:35 p. Click to continue reading...

After the outstanding performance in last Saturday's media game, Nate Bukaty of Sports Radio 810 WHB spoke with Hillcrest Road about the goal and his soccer career. Watch the goal and ensuing madness again, then check out the QnA below.
1. What was more gratifying, scoring a goal against Jake or clearing the field boards before "Crashing" the Cauldron? Click to continue reading...

Just wanted to share the photos from the Wizards/Demize game on Monday. Check out Mike's writeup ot the twitter feed from Kyle on Hillcrest Road for more details.One of Abe's 5 goals...Another shot by Abe...Another goal!!!McKenzie heading a corner back across the goal...Rauwshan was close on a couple occasions. Click to continue reading...

Yesterday, our KCW Reserves/Swope Park Rangers crushed the Springfield Demize of the PDL 11-0. Wizards goals scored by: Thompson (5), Zusi (2), Wolff, Kraus, Leathers and Morsink. Boris Pardo was in goal for the full 90, recording the shutout. For a full rundown of the game, visit Down the Byline or go back and read through the Wizards Twitter feed at www. Click to continue reading...

You can check out the write up by Mike on Down the Byline or by Kyle at Hillcrest Road for more detail but I wanted to post a couple observations and a few photos... I am not sure who the keeper was for the Brass in the first half but he did a good job. Yeah he gave up a goal but he was facing the Wizards first team (minus Wolff and Hirsig). Click to continue reading...

You can read Mike's write up on the game or get the official Hillcrest Road post. I just wanted to post some images from the game.Lance Watson taking his position on the near post while Kevin Hartman watches the corner...Santiago Hirsig blocking shot by Jessie Marsch...Jimmy Conrad watches Mariano Trujillo's shot towards Kevin Hartman. Click to continue reading...

Fowlkes during the World Cup final.
We first caught up with local product Lauren Fowlkes last June during the U-20 CONCACAF qualifying tournament. Apparently Hillcrest Road is good luck because Lauren and the U.S. went on to win the U-20 World Cup and Lauren's team, Notre Dame made the NCAA Championship game on the same day. Click to continue reading...

Things are not looking good at the moment for the Wizards stadium at Hillcrest Road opening up in time for the 2011 season. According to the Kansas City Business Journal, it looks like chances are starting to get very slim for an opening in 2011. Due to the current state of the economy it's hard for the developers to sign any retail or office tenants for the project. Click to continue reading...

As we told you yesterday, Hillcrest made the trip this time around. Check out some pictures from pre-match festivities below. It's a gorgeous night in Sandy/Salt Lake City. Check out the Twitter feed to the right for both team's lineups. If you dont' yet follow us, visit www.Twitter.com/Hillcrest_Road and click the "follow" button in the upper-left corner under our logo. Click to continue reading...

We've talked about it here at Hillcrest Road before, but I wanted to take some time this morning to remind you all about the Kansas City Wizards podcast page. One of the most active in MLS, our podcast page features The Jimmy Conrad Show, Inside the Wizards Locker Room and other snippets of fun. One recent clip includes goalkeeper Kevin Hartman being pranked by teammate Herculez Gomez while on the air with 106. Click to continue reading...