Yesterday we learned the rules for this year's expansion draft, where the Philadelphia Union will select 10 players from the 15 current MLS teams to help to begin their process for building their roster. The Wizards are allowed to protect 11 players and 3 of the team's 4 international players will have to be protected. Click to continue reading...

Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff will certainly be protected in the upcoming expansion draft. (WVH Photo Correspondent Brian Stevens)

Staying with the two-a-day structure for the expansion draft lists, earlier in the day we looked at the Houston Dynamo now we turn our focus to the Kansas City Wizards.

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For those clubs already in the thick of the offseason -- and after last weekend, the tally grew to 11 -- there are plenty of issues to wrestle with. Some clubs, like D.C. United, New York Red Bull and Toronto FC, high on the list is finding a head coach for next season.

One club checked head coach off the list, as the Kansas City Wizards named Peter Vermes as their top man.

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A few of the Wizards players had career years this year. Here's a list of the players that are in at least their second year in the league and the career highs they hit this year.
Josh Wolff reached a career high in goals (11), games started (27), and minutes played in league play (2,348). Click to continue reading...

The Wizards have handed out their year end awards, and it's now time for me to hand out my end of the year awards to Wizards players. I'm going to hand out the same awards I did last year, I'm also adding a Performance of the Year award to the best single game performance by a player this season.
Rookie of the Year
Matt Besler
Not really a surprise, it was either going to be Besler or Graham Zusi getting this years award, and I don't think that Zusi got enough time this year to be considered for the award. Click to continue reading...

Yeah I'm almost a week behind on this, but was thinking the team may actually announce more winners than just MVP, Golden Boot and Humanitarian of the Year. Anyways, this year, the award winners consisted of 2 players, Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad.
Wolff won both the MVP award and the Golden Boot. Click to continue reading...

Let's just post the press release:
Kansas City Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman received MLS Save of the Week honors for the final week of the 2009 MLS regular season for an outstanding save to deny D.C. United's Ben Olsen. Hartman won two MLS Save of the Week awards on the season, taking home the honor in Week 11 and Week 32. Click to continue reading...

Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff lead the way in 2009 for Kansas City. (WVH Photo Correspondent Brian Stevens)

The bandwagon was getting bigger for this club going into 2009. Many folks had hoped this was the year the Kansas City Wizards would get over the hump and make a big splash in the eastern conference.

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The Wizards held their season end media session Tuesday. There was way too much info to transcribe and too much for my poor video camera to hold so I am posting the audio of the interviews for everyone to hear. Each interview was long enough that I broke them into two files.First up is Josh Wolff, he set a career high for goals and possibly nose bleeds. Click to continue reading...

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.

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Kevin Hartman made his 100th start in all competitions for the Wizards. He's the 19th Wizard to hit that mark.
The 33 goals scored by the Wizards in league play, ties for the lowest goal output in team history. The 1999 and the 2001 Wizards both scored 33 league goals.
Claudio Lopez's goal was his 13th in league play for the Wizards, moving him into a tie for 12th place all time with Matt McKeon, Jose Burciaga, and Sasha Victorine. Click to continue reading...

This is my favorite time of the year to blog. Not because it's playoff time, but rather because the regular season is over and I can get into the business of comparing this year's teams historically. I'll have plenty of material in the coming weeks, so check back often.
However, there's still two more games to play today. Click to continue reading...

Giants Stadium's clumsy run in MLS comes to a merciful conclusion Saturday

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Today will be one of the really memorable days in Major League Soccer's 14 years.

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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.

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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.

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One of the final weeks of the regular season has come and gone but the goals were definitely spot on for week 31 in Major League Soccer. Below are some of the best.

Order: George John, Maykel Galindo, Brandon McDonald, Justin Braun, Josh Wolff, Nate Jaqua, Luciano Emilio, Jim Brennen, and Fabian Espindola.

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Kansas City dropped a 3-2 result to Seattle Sounders FC tonight at CAB after falling behind early and surrendering a late lead. The Wizards had been eliminated from playoff contention earlier in the day by other results but could have put Seattle's playoff future in question with a win. As it turned out, Sounders FC clinched a playoff berth after a great performance from Designated Player and #10 Freddie Ljungberg. Click to continue reading...

Lots of stuff for Wolff again this week, who is having a career year in terms of goals and minutes played.
Josh Wolff's goal was his 11th of the season, a career high in MLS play for Wolff.
Wolff's goal was his 73rd in MLS play in his career, tying him with Edson Buddle for 13th all time. Click to continue reading...

It took a lot longer than I think many people expected it to, but the Wizards are now officially eliminated from the playoff race. The Wizards were eliminated before they even took the field against Seattle after Toronto's win over Salt Lake yesterday. Still it wouldn't have mattered, as the Wizards blew another lead and once again lost at home, this time to Seattle, 3-2 last night. Click to continue reading...

The Wizards are back home to close out the MLS season with 2 home games against Seattle and DC. They start tomorrow against Seattle. While they are extremely slim, the Wizards are still barely in the playoff picture. By the time they take the field, though, KC could be eliminated if either Toronto or Salt Lake win. Click to continue reading...

Will Wolffie get another look from Bob Bradley now that Charlie Davies is injured?
Grahame Jones of the LA Times blogged a couple of days ago about the loss of Charlie Davies for Bob Bradley's National Team setup. One of the names he throws out there? Our own Josh Wolff, veteran of the 2002 and 2006 FIFA World Cups. Click to continue reading...

Today, the Wizards first teamers wrapped up the training session with a finishing drill led by Interim Head Coach Peter Vermes. The last one to finish a cross would have to do something embarrassing, so everyone put their game faces on. The last one to finish? It was Josh Wolff. Sources tell us that the balls played to our leading scorer might not have been as easy to finish as balls played to some of the other players, but you can never trust sources completely, can you? Click to continue reading...

In the second minute last night, Jack Jewsbury moved past Tony Meola and into 9th place for the most minutes played in MLS play for the Wizards, Jewsbury finished the game with 11,420 minutes played.
Josh Wolff made his 110th league start for the Wizards, tying him with Jose Burciaga for 11th on that list. Click to continue reading...

It'll take a full on miracle, but some how the Wizards are still alive in the race to get into the playoffs, but after last night's performance in LA, those hopes are basically gone. Needing a win, KC laid an egg and lost 2-0 to Chivas USA. On a night when Columbus even gave KC a helping hand by defeating New England (that win is what is keeping the Wizards faint playoff hopes alive). Click to continue reading...

Tomorrow night in LA the Wizards will be facing a must win as they take on Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center. Should the Wizards lose, their playoff chances go to almost none existent (and will be completely gone if New England beats Columbus. Basically, there are two ways the Wizards can be eliminated from the playoffs this weekend. Click to continue reading...

If you missed the Jimmy Conrad Show last night, Robb Heineman joined Dave Borchardt for the first two segments with Jimmy away with the U.S. National Team. Robb and Dave discussed a wide variety of topics, including the proposed stadium project in KCK, the potential of hosting an MLS All-Star Game once we're in our own home and some tidbits on players such as Josh Wolff and Kei Kamara. Click to continue reading...

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.

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Here's your stat fix for the week. Lots of land mark appearances this week.
Claudio Lopez made his 50th start for the Wizards in MLS play.
Lopez's assist on Zoltan Hercegfalvi's goal was his 15th for the Wizards in league play, tying him with Chris Henderson for 13th place on that list. Click to continue reading...

It's getting close to just saying "let's prepare for 2010". After today's result down in Houston, the Wizards playoff hopes get even more faint. Up a man for over 70 minutes, the Wizards had to fight back from a goal down to salvage a draw against the Houston Dynamo this afternoon.
KC came out and tried to push the game from the start getting into Houston's end multiple times early on. Click to continue reading...

FC Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham was voted MLS player of the month for September after his seven goals and three assists helped FC Dallas post a 3-1-1 record during the month.

Cunningham edged out a group of players including Shalrie Joseph, Josh Wolff and Eddie Gaven.

The award is the second player of the month honor of Cunningham's career.

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FC Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham was voted MLS player of the month for September after his seven goals and three assists helped FC Dallas post a 3-1-1 record during the month.

Cunningham edged out a group of players including Shalrie Joseph, Josh Wolff and Eddie Gaven.

The award is the second player of the month honor of Cunningham's career.

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The Wizards are done playing for the month of September, which means it's time to decide who is this month's player of the month. The Wizards went 3-1-1 in the month of September. Much better than the team's winless September. This month there are a few players that are certainly in the conversation for player of the month. Click to continue reading...

For the first time this season, Herculez Gomez did not appear in a game for the Wizards. Up until last night, Gomez had appeared in all 25 league games and all 5 in the Wizards other competitions.
Kei Kamara appeared in his 100th game in all competitions in him MLS career last night.
In the 38th minute, Claudio Lopez hit the 5,000 minute mark in all competitions for the Wizards. Click to continue reading...

Random notes from the Colorado Rapids' third draw in nine days, a 0-0 tie with the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday night at Community America Ballpark:

SIZE MATTERS: The official dimensions of the pitch at Dick's Sporting Goods Park are 120 yards long by 80 yards wide. In contrast, the fields surrounding Dick's are 110 by 70.

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After outshooting Colorado 18-12 and controlling most of the possession, the Wizards tied the Rapids tonight 0-0 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark. Mixed results around the League in terms of our playoff hopes, as the late NE win doesn't help, but the late Chicago tie does. Chivas has scored at the beginning of the second half at home to NY. Click to continue reading...