Hillcrest here checking in from cloudy Columbus, Ohio. Yesterday while in transit, we learned that Davy Arnaud has been named one of 10 finalists for the Sierra Mist Goal of the Year Award. Congratulations to Davy...he smiled big when told of the feat. Weather for this afternoon calls for temperatures in the 60's and rain, so training should be nice and soggy. Click to continue reading...

Hillcrest had the chance to make it out to training today for the first time in a while. Saw some pretty intense back-and-forth during the 11-v-11 portion of the day and some fun stuff afterward. Herculez Gomez jumped in goal and fielded some penalty kicks from Davy Arnaud, Jack Jewsbury, Eric Kronberg, Asst Kris Kelderman and Kevin Souter. Click to continue reading...

Recently quite a few San Jose supporters made the trip down to LA to support the Quakes vs Chivas USA. Well it appears that Chivas USA supporters plan to return the favor:

THE UNION ULTRAS WILL BE TAKING A ROAD TRIP TO SAN JOSE TO SUPPORT OUR BELOVED GOATS! WE WILL BE LEAVING ON SATURDAY 10/11/08 @ 8 AM FROM THE SAN FERNANDO VALLEY AND RETURNING RIGHT AFTER THE MATCH. Click to continue reading...

Bears players Vania, Demarzi and Dryden surround Kyle Patterson in the box

Missouri State Bears - 0
St Louis University Billikens - 3
As I continue my birthday road trip home to STL, to spend time with my mother, sisters, niece and nephews, I still found some time to check out some soccer.

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Bears players Vania, Demarzi and Dryden surround Kyle Patterson in the box

Missouri State Bears - 0
St Louis University Billikens - 3
As I continue my birthday road trip home to STL, to spend time with my mother, sisters, niece and nephews, I still found some time to check out some soccer.

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Congratulations to Real Salt Lake, who enjoyed their first ever practice at their brand new stadium. Hopefully that distracts them from their upcoming road trip to face the Earthquakes at Buck Shaw. At least they'll have something nice to go... Click to continue reading...

The Wizards are two-thirds of the way through this MLS season. And with only 10 games left, the Wizards currently find themselves outside the playoff picture right now. Bob Rusert had a column out yesterday talking with Onalfo about the last third of the season and what Onalfo expects. In it, Onalfo mentions that he wants to make home a fortress the rest of the season, as well as picking up 6 points from the teams final 4 away games. Click to continue reading...

Well I first off would like to say what a joy it's been for writing these previews. But alas they must come to an end and tonight I conclude with the final four teams. If you've read up until now, you know I see the big four ending in the top four spots. So how do I see it playing out, let's take a look.

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Okay, not for the Wizards - they are at home tonight against Chivas. The road trip is for me. Being from out of town I don't get down to too many of the games, so I am excited at the prospect of giving a more personal report on the game when I return tomorrow. Go Wizards!

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I'm back from my quick road trip ... which was very successful and included a drive through the Delaware Water Gap region - an area I haven't visited in years. It was quite beautiful - more so than I remembered (from driving through in my childhood). Much of it has been reclaimed as [...]SHARETHIS. Click to continue reading...

Hey everyone, if you know any college-aged students who attend a school in the KC area and might want a fall internship, we still have a few spots available. We offer internships for class credit only, so don't expect to make a killing working for us in that capacity. On the good side, five current full-time employees (including yours truly) began their Wizards careers as interns, so there is definite upward mobility. Click to continue reading...

MLS Commissioner Don Garber announced today that two more teams will be added by 2011, bringing the number in the league up to 18.

Ownership groups and/or markets have until Oct. 15 to apply. MLS will make a decision on the chosen pair in either the last quarter of this year or the first quarter of 2009.

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Running late today so just time to pass along a couple of items:

*Chivas USA goalkeeper Brad Guzan finds out next Friday whether he can complete his move to England's Aston Villa.

*Fed up with waiting for Lawndale's Kei Kamara to find the net on a regular basis, the San Jose Earthquakes have punted the Cal State Dominguez Hills product to the Houston Dynamo where he will hook up with equally productive (ahem) former Galaxy forward Nate Jaqua.

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Midseason Player Grades

After Thursday night's game against New York, the Wizards are now half way through their season. Through 15 games, the Wizards are 5-5-5 and tied for 6th place in the Eastern Conference. Overall, it hasn't been a great start to the season, after starting off with a 4 game home stand, the Wizards went on a two month road trip of 6 games. Click to continue reading...

What is this call to glory ? goes that commercial over and over. Too bad that glory is on hold until TFC learns how to handle these road games. What new way to raise and then dash hopes will the team create tonight ? -could be the opener for the next commercial . I guess the call to glory involves patience and wisdom. Click to continue reading...

So here we are.  Our beloved Quakes are on a sad, sad road that could lead us to a new record in offensive futility, even making the tepid Toronto side of a year ago look like an attacking juggernaut.  The good news is that I've seen encouraging signs during this grueling road trip.  The midfield [. Click to continue reading...

After the disappointing result last night, the Wizards will go back to league play tomorrow night when they take on Red Bull New York. Both teams have been struggling as of late, with both teams sitting at the foot of the Eastern Conference. KC can actually get even with New York on points with a win tomorrow. Click to continue reading...

Getting ready to leave to head on my second road trip of the year, this time down to Dallas for the Wizards 4th of July encounter with FC Dallas. Both teams are coming into the game on short rest, as they each played in the US Open Cup Tuesday night, where both teams won. Dallas should be the fresher team from that, though, as they were at home, and pulled off their win in regulation, while the Wizards had to travel to Carolina and went into extra time against the Railhawks. Click to continue reading...

The Timbers were not shut out of the win column in the month of June, rallying for a big 2-0 win against Atlanta, making this difficult, four-day whirlwind a success. Matt Bobo must have nightmares about Chris Bagley at this point.

We had a 4:30 a.m. lobby call today at the hotel and flew out of Atlanta at 7 a. Click to continue reading...

The Demize lost the second game on their road trip to Colorado on Sunday 1-2, narrowing the gap significantly compared to Saturday's match. Zach Prince sparks Rapids U-23 in win according the the Boulder Daily Camera, who noted:

Springfield broke through for its first goal in the weekend series in the 71st minute when substitute forward Nebossa Osaic flicked the ball into the goal after a Demize corner kick.

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It looks like we may be waiting on a bit more then just the governor's signature, like I had thought we were for the stadium. A few of the KC city council members presented the redevelopment to the Missouri Development Finance Board yesterday. While the group got a good vibe from the meeting, the article does has some pretty sobering news for Wizards fans. Click to continue reading...

The Atlanta Silverbacks Women extended their 2008 W-League campaign to a perfect 8-0-0 with a 2-0 win over the Carolina RailHawks Women Friday night in Atlanta. The RailHawks, who faced Atlanta once again without star forward Casey Nogueira, were also missing captain Thori Bryan. But the RailHawks were able to improve considerably over the 5-0 home loss from their previous meeting with the Silverbacks. Click to continue reading...

There are exciting 0-0 ties, like USA-Argentina, and then there are scoreless draws like Real Salt Lake-Kansas City Wizards.

It wasn't pretty, and fans probably didn't leave Rice-Eccles excited about a match they'll remember for a long time, but the result was a fair one for two teams struggling to find consistency and keep pace with the league's better teams.

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There are exciting 0-0 ties, like USA-Argentina, and then there are scoreless draws like Real Salt Lake-Kansas City Wizards.

It wasn't pretty, and fans probably didn't leave Rice-Eccles excited about a match they'll remember for a long time, but the result was a fair one for two teams struggling to find consistency and keep pace with the league's better teams.

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Ah yes, the old cliche that always appears after any long trip away from home. And after six games, two months, one win, three losses, and two ties, the Wizards come back to play a home game at Community America Ballpark (or as I affectionately call it, the CAB) this weekend against the Crew.

The road trip hasn't been pretty.

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Well, I'm finally feeling a bit more rested after the weekend Supporters Road Trip to LA. We had eight people fly into LAX and we met up with another Rapids fan, who brought an LAG fan (but Jose was cool,... Click to continue reading...

G'day to you back in KC (and wherever else our loyal readers reside), Albuquerque is a pretty scenic city. We're staying in a hotel called the Nativo Lodge. As you might guess, it is Native-American themed, and it's definitely something to see. We arrived around 8 local time last night and started our stay with an excellent dinner. Click to continue reading...

Some of the Cauldron members are putting together a trip to the FC Dallas away match on Friday, July 4. The game takes place at 6 p.m. CT and will be broadcast on HDNet. To get involved with the trip contact Down the Byline author Mike Kuhn at mike@downthebyline.com or post on the Big Soccer thread here. Click to continue reading...

Hillcrest Road checks in from its first road trip of the year. The flights from KC to CHI and CHI to CLB were a little bumpy, but we arrived in one piece. The landing in Chi-town had a nice little hop and skip to it, but the pilot did what he gets paid to do. The layover in CHI was a little lengthy, but it made for some quality reading time for some and card-playing time for others. Click to continue reading...

...from RSL winning the RMC last weekend. I'm just really tired. And have had a bit of a wonky week at work (yay Team Alliteration!).

And, of course, Blogger is being all wonky as well and won't let me post photos. Lame.

Anyway, after hitting Boulder on Friday and Cherry Creek on Saturday, E and I headed out to Commerce City to DSGP. Click to continue reading...

DCU 1 CHF 1

So much to say but not much of it has to do with the match itself. We squeaked a point out of the match with the miraculous cross/strike by Jaime. Our backup midfield is about as good as our backup strikers and that is to say, not that good. I will report on the trip itself later but time prohibits me at this point.

Facts and Reality for Match 2. Click to continue reading...

Coming to you from downtown Chicago. The weather has been beautiful for the last few days and Chicago is a fantastic city.

After a two hour delay at Dulles we got to our hotel in Chicago just in time to catch the last ten minutes of MLS Prime Time Thursday . Chicago looked slow and tired but consistent. Let's hope they are still tired today. Click to continue reading...