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.

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Kagisho Dikgacoi on life in England.

Life's all about opportunities isn't it?  Sometimes you get them, sometimes you don't.  Kagisho had a debut at a time when the team's usual defensive midfielder, Dickson Etuhu, was out injured.  The Scott Parker incident meant Chris Baird has been given the nod, and hardly put a foot wrong.

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The Wizards season is over, but the Player of the Month for October needs to be handed out. My year end awards will also be coming out soon as well. In October the Wizards went 0-2-2, scoring 5 goals and allowing 8 goals during that time frame. Here are a few candidates for October.
Claudio Lopez - Lopez had a goal and an assist in October, setting up Zoltann Hercegfalvi's goal in Houston and scored the game tying PK against DC. 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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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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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...

The U-17s shaking hands with the Wizards prior to today's match.
Scoring Summary:
KC – Roger Espinoza (unassisted) 32'
KC – Herculez Gomez (unassisted) 47'
KC – Kevin Souter (unassisted) 88'
(October 13, 2009) – The Kansas City Wizards topped the United States Under-17 Men's National Team 3-0 Tuesday night in rainy weather at Kansas City's Swope Park Training Center. Click to continue reading...

That's how you score your first MLS goal! Nice ball over the top from Claudio Lopez and a great one-time finish from Zoltan. As Robb Heineman said on Twitter..."zolie goalie!!!". Go vote for Zoltan for the MLS Goal of the Week here.
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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...

Our boys came back from a 1-0 deficit to tie Houston today at Robertson Stadium, but three points were really needed to put us back into the picture for the MLS Cup Playoffs. We're six points behind New England with three games remaining, but there are four teams between us and the Revs. Zoltan scored a beautiful goal for his first in a KC uniform, and Lopez recorded his 8th assist of the season on the play. Click to continue reading...

Vito Mannone. New kid in goal. He looked sober, calm, businesslike, confident. He wore a turquoise top and turquoise shorts, his black hair shiny in the evening sky, his eyebrows visible from distance. He looked like a guy who had learned to roll with the punches. He looked about as inconspicuous as a tarantula on a slice of toast.

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It was a fun one Saturday at CAB, as a sellout crowd watched our boys fight back to win 3-2 over FC Dallas. Hirsig and Conrad scored their first goals of the season. Hirsig's strike was his first in MLS. Lopez recorded assists 6 and 7, moving him into a tie for 6th in MLS. Josh Wolff scored the other goal, his 10th of the season. Click to continue reading...

This weekend, the Wizards welcome FC Dallas to Kansas City in what is a must win for both teams if they want to make the playoffs this year. Both teams can only barely see the playoffs and getting 3 points tomorrow night out at CAB will be big for either team. Dallas comes into this game having put another half a dozen on the board, this time out in LA against the Galaxy. Click to continue reading...

One of the nice things about Damien Duff is that he appears willing to try things in the final third.  Poor old Zoltan Gera thoroughly lost his way in the end, but as the diagram below shows, Duff got the ball into the box a fair amount on Sunday. Gera (I've got the Chelsea game here simply because I've shown his Portsmouth board before) wasn't doing this.

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We told you earlier about the trip to the Embassy of Hungary today by Peter Vermes (or Vermes Peter, as he would be called in Hungary) and Zoltan. The Embassy staff and diplomats were extremely welcoming and hospitable. It was a great experience. The Embassy is very large inside, though from the outside you wouldn't be able to guess it. Click to continue reading...

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.

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This morning, those that played the fewest minutes in last night's game trained for about 60 minutes at American University in D.C. They went through some passing, individual defense drills then played a small-sided game with goalkeepers and concluded with a finishing drill. Kurt Morsink, as the last to finish a cross, then had to summer salt to the halfline as the rest of his teammates cheered. Click to continue reading...

I'm tired. So tired. I'm tired losing. So tired.
Ok, so it doesn't work out as well as Weezer's "Tired of Sex", but the sentiment is the same, I'm plain tired of losing at this point. It's been over 2 months since the team won a game. It's been over a month since the team scored a goal, and that continued last night back at CAB as Real Salt Lake came in and got only their second road win of the season, beating KC 1-0. Click to continue reading...

It was a bit wet today at practice. They quit early when the lightning got too close. A few shots of players looking a little soaked. Jack, Matt and Zoltan...Aaron...And Michael...After the team went inside Coach Vermes stopped for a couple minutes...Just a short video of one of the scrimmages in the rain before they went inside. Click to continue reading...

Five without a win in league play, 10 in all competitions, the Wizards are struggling mightily. They are current 9 points out of a playoff spot with the Wizards having 11 games to play. Tomorrow the Wizards play the last place team in the Western Conference, San Jose in what is basically a must win for both teams if they have hopes of making the playoffs. Click to continue reading...

That's Kansas City's Zoltan Hercegfalvi (who's just cheating at Scrabble) with a terrible tackle on Chicago's Mike Banner in the Fire's 2-0 win over the Wizards yesterday. Hercegfalvi was sent off (as was David Beckham in LA's first league loss in nearly two months) and his team dropped to sixth in the Eastern Conference.

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The Wizards dropped a 2-0 result Sunday to the 2nd place Chicago Fire at CommunityAmerica Ballpark in Peter Vermes' first game as Technical Director/Interim Head Coach. Chris Rolfe opened the scoring in the 13th minute, with Mike Banner sealing victory in the 89th. Zoltan made his Wizards debut in the 63rd minute, showing some nice touch and high work rate before he was shown a red card in the 85th. Click to continue reading...

After a very slow week off (as the lack of posts show) the Wizards are back in action tomorrow against the Chicago Fire at Community America Ballpark. The Wizards stole a 2-2 draw in Chicago earlier this season, and can win the season series against the Fire with a win or a lower scoring draw tomorrow. Click to continue reading...

On Sunday the Wizards will take on the Fire at the CAB. It will mark Peter Vermes' first game as a coach after taking over the position when Curt Onalfo was fired. From watching some of the practices and reading the reports from their friendly against a PDL team last week, it seems that unless Mr.

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Hello from Dallas, just arrived with the rest of the traveling Cauldron for tomorrow's Wizards game against FC Dallas, and the big news of the day is the fact that Dallas forward, Kenny Cooper will not be playing. Cooper completed a transfer today to German club, 1860 Munich, the former club of Wizards forward, Josh Wolff. Click to continue reading...

Rauwshan McKenzie battles with the Galaxy's Alan Gordon last weekend.
Today, a few stories came out after Zoltan's introduction press conference yesterday. Terez Paylor of the KC Star chimes in, focusing on the language barrier. The Kansas City Kansan's Nick Sloan offered up his version of the story. Click to continue reading...

The MLS transfer window has brought two interesting developments, new players not from South America, but from Western Europe. Hungarian striker Zoltan Hercegfalvi was introduced today as Kansas City's newest, and much needed, footballer.
Earlier this month, New England added a footballer with a very interesting past and storied carrier. Click to continue reading...

Picture courtesy of the Back Post author and photog extraordinaire Thad Bell. Check out his blog and his photo site.
Zoltan was officially introduced to the KC media today at our weekly press conference. It ran on Metro Sports at 3 p.m., but check the listings to see if it replays over the next few days. Click to continue reading...

Zoltán Hercegfalvi (just Zoltán from now on) was officially introduced today. Peter Vermes hands him the number 20 jersey with Zoltan on the back...Peter Vermes translated for Zoltán during the press conference. Zoltán did speak a little english and understood many of the questions without translation. Click to continue reading...

Zoltan
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. Click to continue reading...

Wow, a whole week day without a post? Shame on Hillcrest. With training yesterday morning and immediate departure for New England, we slacked yesterday. Apologies! There's a big secret we can't yet tell you. But it's not much of a secret I guess.
Also, big props to Thad at The Back Post for his new video interviews. Click to continue reading...