With the first preseason game of the season under their belts, KC is one step closer to the start of the season. We are only 33 days from the first game of the season at DC United on March 10th. With plenty of people seeming to be fairly in unison on who the majority of the starting 11 is, let's take a look at the depth chart.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

U.S. Soccer released its ballot for the National Soccer Hall of Fame on Tuesday, with 31 former players -- and 12 first-time nominees -- making the final ballot for the Class of 2012.

Among the first-timers are former U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola and captain Claudio Reyna.

Today, US Soccer came out with their list of candidates available for selection to the US Soccer Hall of Fame. On that list are two current coaches of Sporting KC. Head coach and technical director, Peter Vermes is on the list again, as is assistant coach, Kerry Zavagnin, in his first year of eligibility.

Today, US Soccer came out with their list of candidates available for selection to the US Soccer Hall of Fame. On that list are two current coaches of Sporting KC. Head coach and technical director, Peter Vermes is on the list again, as is assistant coach, Kerry Zavagnin, in his first year of eligibility.

For the seventh consecutive year, I'm one of the voters for the National Soccer Hall of Fame, and it's a responsibility I take very seriously. I've made each of my previous six ballots and the rationales behind them public, so there's no need to change now.

There are 12 newcomers on the 31-player ballot for 2012.

Preseason is heating up around the league, so we thought it would be worth checking to see if local papers are taking notice. We'll start in Salt Lake City, where the always excellent Michael Lewis offers up this detailed piece on the roster makeover for RSL. The piece includes interviews and a look at some of the team's injury problems for the coming year.

Late last night, once again Robb Heineman brought us news via Twitter. This time pertaining to the potential designated player that KC was looking to sign. And that news doesn't appear to be good news. Heineman says that "unless something dramatic happens in the next two days, we will not be announcing a DP in this window.

Sporting KC released the names today of their currently trialists that are in camp as the team prepares for preseason training out at the Chiefs indoor training facility. There looks to be some decent talent out there trialing right now, it'll be interesting to see who, if any, travel to Arizona, and which ones potentially make the team.

Over the last year or so, we have discussed MLS' efforts to measure the value of its television exposure through various local and national broadcasts. Through the website criticalmention.com, MLS tries to alert media to the "value" of its presence on various television programs. Since a few weeks have passed since we last checked in on this metric, we thought providing a snapshot of this metric of MLS media exposure.

Player news is starting to pick up a little bit for Sporting KC. The team today made two announcements on player news, and a new rumor has cropped up on another player.
First, after the announcement yesterday of the trade for Michael Thomas' rights, the team today announced that they had signed the Olathe native to a contract.

Today was the second MLS draft, there was no ball room in Kansas City for the draft though. The Supplemental Draft took place on a conference call and took about as long as half the first round of the SuperDraft. After trading for Michael Thomas' rights, KC only had 4 picks, 1 in the first and second, and 2 in the third.

Today at Bartle Hall in Kansas City, Sporting KC added two new players to their roster ahead of the start of preseason next week. Not needing to draft a specific player that would be required to come in and fill a need, KC was able to look a few different directions with their pick at number 16 and even at pick number 30.

After Twitter's recent compilation of Twitter Stories, the good folks at MLSsoccer.com took a moment to reflect on the tremendous impact this social medium has had on Major League Soccer and the American soccer experience. We posted a few of our favorites to the site in December, which you can see here.

Time for another year of wishes for 2012. Here's a look of what I am wanting and wishing to see in 2012.
1. Silverware - Is anything else really that important? I want silverware, as Robb Heineman put it tonight on Twitter, #paintthewall. I want to add more stuff to the wall that shows our accomplishments.

Another new stat for you today regarding Sporting KC. And it's another single season stat. Here's a list of the top ten single season appearances and starts.
Top ten appearances in league play in a single season.
1. CJ Sapong - 34 - 2011
2. Preki - 32 - 1996
2. Mark Chung - 32 - 1996
2.

Continuing with the statistical updating that I've been doing, here's another new stat that I hadn't previously done. Here are the top 10 single season minutes for players throughout the team's history. As I mentioned a few times late in the year this year, Matt Besler ended up tied for the 3rd most minutes played in league play in team history.

A day after topping one second-division side from the Netherlands, the MLS Generation adidas team dropped a result to another one, falling to Almere City FC, 2-0.

The loss wrapped up the side's 10-day tour of the country, in which it also lost to a team of Ajax Reserves and defeated FC Volendam.

photo by Bill Barrett/ISIphotos.com

The 2011 Generation adidas team began its three-game tour of the Netherlands on Thursday morning, but not in the fashion that it would have liked.

Ajax's reserve team defeated Generation adidas, 4-2, in a friendly in Amsterdam, according to MLS's twitter.

We thought the Omar Bravo rumors were dead, but it turns out that they in fact are not. A Tweet today from Jorge Ramos with ESPN Deportes said "Omar Bravo will not play again in Kansas City problems with the coach." A few days after we heard that Peter Vermes and Bravo had a conversation with what was said to be a good conversation and a week or so after news came out that Bravo wasn't going to go on loan, this news comes out.

Today, MLS announced the coaching staff and roster for the upcoming Generation Adidas trip to the Netherlands. Peter Vermes and the Sporting Kansas City coaching staff have been named the coaches for the trip. Vermes will be joined by Zoran Savic, John Pascarella, and Juniors coach Jon Parry on the tour.

Today, MLS announced the coaching staff and roster for the upcoming Generation Adidas trip to the Netherlands. Peter Vermes and the Sporting Kansas City coaching staff have been named the coaches for the trip. Vermes will be joined by Zoran Savic, John Pascarella, and Juniors coach Jon Parry on the tour.

Word out of Colombia earlier today stated that Sporting KC assistant, Octavio Zambrano, had accepted the position to coach Colombian second division side, Deportivo Pereira. Throughout the day there was word that nothing was quite official and that Zambrano was just on personal leave from the team. But late today, the team officially announced the departure of Peter Vermes top assistant.

Let the Didier Drobga sweepstakes begin.

Drogba's agent said that the player has rejected a one-year contract extension from Chelsea and is prepared to go wherever he is offered the most money. Drogba's contract with Chelsea expires this summer, when he would be able to leave on a free transfer.

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson
Sporting KC was busy today, making one trade, another player announcement, and talk of a second trade taking place. It started during the weekend with a Tweet by Robb Heineman stating that there would be an announcement today. At 1:30 we got the first of the announcements, a surprising trade.

Different angle for a TSG preview here.

Today, we publish a discussion with Sporting KC assistant coach John Pascarella. Pascarella is responsible for much of the technical preparation and tactical work for the Livestronglies. He and head coach Peter Vermes played club ball together and KC front office media man Josh Wisenhunt comments Pascarella is revered by the team, especially goalkeeper Jimmy Neilsen (Pascarella has a big hand in training the goalkeepers during practice.

I'm getting this out later than I had planned to, but it seemed like every night when I sat down to write it there was other news that I wanted to get to first and by the time I was done with those I was ready to be done. But now it's time to take a look at the upcoming expansion draft.
First, here are the rules for the expansion draft and how the rules affect Kansas City.

Los Angeles Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena was named MLS Coach of the Year for the third time, winning the 2011 award after leading the Galaxy to the Supporters Shield as the team with the best record in the MLS regular season. The Galaxy's 19-5-10 record was also the second best record in league history.

Today, MLS announced the Coach of the Year. Unfortunately, Sporting KC coach, Peter Vermes did not win the coach of the year. The award this year went to the coach of the Supporters' Shield winning, LA Galaxy, Bruce Arena. Vermes finished 3rd in the voting behind Arena and Sigi Schmid. A strong season for Vermes taking KC from their 1-6-3 start to the Eastern Conference regular season championship and the conference finals, a job not many coaches in the league could have done.

Today, MLS announced the Coach of the Year. Unfortunately, Sporting KC coach, Peter Vermes did not win the coach of the year. The award this year went to the coach of the Supporters' Shield winning, LA Galaxy, Bruce Arena. Vermes finished 3rd in the voting behind Arena and Sigi Schmid. A strong season for Vermes taking KC from their 1-6-3 start to the Eastern Conference regular season championship and the conference finals, a job not many coaches in the league could have done.

Leave it to MLS to miss a slam dunk. As part of their daily unveiling of award winners leading up to the MLS Cup (an idea that I like that they do), the league announced the winners of the Comeback ...
Visit http://www.majorleaguesoccertalk.com for the rest of the story.

Brek Shea won my MVP vote. (Getty Images)

I've been holding off on posting my year-end picks for all of the MLS awards until this week. The week of MLS Cup seemed to be as good of a week as any to post this material. With nothing else going on (aside from a US game tomorrow) it just seemed like the right time.

Personally I don't see a ton in this story, but it's been a major talking point the past few days. One of the team's designated players', Omar Bravo told Univsion this week that he had "a lot to think about" with regards to next season. Specifically Bravo was talking about last Sunday's conference final against Houston.

Personally I don't see a ton in this story, but it's been a major talking point the past few days. One of the team's designated players', Omar Bravo told Univsion this week that he had "a lot to think about" with regards to next season. Specifically Bravo was talking about last Sunday's conference final against Houston.

Sporting KC could possibly be on the look out for a new assistant coach this offseason along with looking to improve their roster as well. Word from Goal.com is that current assistant coach, Octavio Zambrano is on his way out of KC and on his way to Colombia where he would take over Deportivo Pereira, a team in the Colombian first division.

Ives Galarcep writes of why Peter Vermes stands out among an elite list of top coaches in Major League Soccer this season.
While it certainly can't be argued that standout coaches Bruce Arena, Sigi Schmid and Jason Kreis didn't once again show why they are some of the best coaches in MLS, and among the best in league history, but in terms of helping a team reach new heights and helping multiple players enjoy breakout seasons, it's tough to argue with Vermes as the MLS Coach of the Year.

Yes, I know it's been a week since I wrote. Sorry, school comes first. Here's something to tide you lovely people over till I can write a proper article. Keep in mind that my offer to help contribute to the MLS offside stands, and that if you're interested you should email me at kaufmb@d-e.

Now that the finalist for the 2011 MLS Awards are out, it's time I share how I voted with everyone. I'm a firm believer in the need for transparency in award voting if for no other reason that if you submit a crazy ballot, you should be accountable for your choices.

We were allowed by MLS to select two choices for each category from a pre-selected list.

Still no power, so here is a quick survey of how the local newsapers are covering their team's win or loss in Sunday's compelling Conference Final matchup. We'll start in Utah, where RSL continues to enjoy strong local coverage from both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News. The Trib sports section included a hard news report on the 3-1 defeat as well as an array of stories in the days leading up to the match.

MLS announced the finalists for individual awards today. Three Seattle Sounders graced the lists. Coach Sigi Schmid will battle the only coach with a better regular season record (Bruce Arena) and a worst to first performance by Peter Vermes in Kansas City. There is no surprise to see Kasey Keller on the keeper short list with Kevin Hartman and Faryd Mondragon (maybe surprising).

The ballots have been tallied and we now know the finalists for the various end-of-season awards for Major League Soccer.

Last year it was easy to find some fault in the various finalists but this year, every award was fairly open enough.

2011 Major League Soccer Awards Finalists (Listed in alphabetical order by last name within each award category) Rookie of the Year Finalists – Winner to be announced Nov.