Down the Byline

Kings Schedule is Out

2009-12-02T19:37:00.002-06:00

The Kansas City Kings schedule for the 2009-2010 season is now out. It's a shorter schedule than in previous seasons, with the Kings only playing 9 games. The Midwest division has less teams than in previous seasons, as Fuerza Latina and the Springfield (IL) Spirits are not back, leaving the division with only the Kings, Piasa FC, and the Springfield Demize. To help fill games, the Kings are playing the Texas Outlaws of the PASL-Pro division, and will play the St. Louis Illusion again, this time at the Dome. General admission tickets are $5 for adults, $3 for children, $2 for children in soccer jerseys. The Outlaws will be at the Dome on December 12th for the Kings home opener.

Leading the Star

2009-12-02T19:13:00.002-06:00

Earlier this week I made mention of the good run that the University of Drake is enjoying in the NCAA men's soccer tournament and how they're doing it with the help of players from the Kansas City area. Today the KC Star jumped onto the band wagon as well posting their own article about the team and the KC player's success in the NCAA's. The team will be heading out tomorrow to make their way down to Chapel Hill to take on the Tar Heels.

One thing that both myself and the Star forgot to mention in our articles, though, is the fact that not only are the KC players good on the field (Garrett Webb was MVC player of the year, while Luke Gorczyca and Kevin Shrout also made the MVC first team, with Matt Kuhn and Calvin Clark making the second team), they are also good in the class room, with 3 of the KC players being named as Academic All Americans. Brian Wurst was named to the first team, with Kuhn on the second team and Clark on the third team.

KC World Cup Bid Press Conference Tomorrow

2009-11-30T20:08:00.006-06:00

photo courtesy of Thad Bell

Tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium, the KC World Cup bid committee and Kansas City mayor, Mark Funkhouser will be hosting a press conference. Funkhouser is set to make "a major statement" about the city's bid to host the World Cup in Kansas City. Since the announcement of the press conference was made earlier today, I've been trying to figure out what the "major statement" by the mayor will be. Since the mayor is there, it definitely has to be something involving the city itself. This means it's unlikely to be anything about the World Cup itself or the cities that will be named in the USA's bid, although the USSF is going to be narrowing the bids down to their final 18 in December(slide 6).

I've been doing some research into what it could be, and I found this in my search. What this is, is the Host City Agreement that cities need to sign to be part of the bid process. It breaks down the hosting responsibilities of the city for the World Cup, everything from the selection of the cities, to posters advertising the event, to public transit, to even the base camps for the team (the link above from Hillcrest Road provides a ton of information about KC's bid). It needs to be signed by the city for the city to be considered in the final hosting for the country biding for the World Cup.

I've been able to confirm from a source that this is indeed what the announcement is supposed to be tomorrow, the fact that the city of Kansas City has signed the Host City Agreement. This is a big step for the city and the bid committee in their work to get the city of Kansas City to be one of the final 12 cities that will hopefully host either the 2018 or the 2022 World Cup.

Generation Adidas Team Defeat Pirates

2009-11-30T19:53:00.002-06:00

The MLS Generation Adidas team played their first game of their South African tour today against the reserve team of the Orlando Pirates. The MLSers pulled out a 2-0 win over the Pirates thanks to goals by DC United's Chris Pontius and the Chicago Fire's Patrick Nyarko. Wizards defender/midfielder, Chance Myers played the full 90 minutes at right back for the GA team, putting in an outstanding performance. Roger Espinoza came on as a second half sub and played the final 32 minutes for the GA team. The GA team will play their second game will be Thursday, December 3rd, although their opponent hasn't been named yet.

Local KC Players in the NCAA

2009-11-30T19:39:00.002-06:00

The NCAA men's tournament is down to their final 8 teams, and one of those teams has gotten a big hand from plenty of local KC area players. The Drake Bulldogs came from behind to beat Boston College 6-4 yesterday in Boston to clinch a spot in the Elite Eight against UNC. Five of Drake's 6 goals were scored by 4 Kansas City players. The four KC players, Kevin Shrout, Garrett Webb, Luke Gorczyca, and Matt Kuhn are just 4 of 7 KC players on Drake's roster. This is a great showing for Kansas City itself that a team this far into the NCAA tournament is so reliant on players from the Kansas City area. Congratulations to the team and good luck to the team against the Tar Heels. And for those interested in seeing Drake's come from behind victory, check out the highlights here.

Jimmy Conrad's Latest

2009-11-29T12:16:00.003-06:00

I've read basically all of Jimmy Conrad's ESPN/CNNSI articles over the years and have thoroughly enjoyed the humor that Conrad has brought. It's one of the things that's made him a favorite not just among Wizards fans, but fans around the league, they see him as a potential play-by-play guy after his playing career is over. But his latest entry is a little different as it doesn't appear to have the usual humor that Conrad brings, unless it is very subtle. Conrad comes up with 3 ideas for changing MLS so that the "teenage league" can break away from it's "American sports brethren".

NUMBER 1
His first point reads like it could be from any one of the numerous new posters on Bigsoccer who post these types of ideas daily it seems. He speaks of breaking away and telling our "parents that we hate them and 'what do they know about anything,'" yet his first point is to go ahead and move in with our "best friend's parents" because they have the "cool entertainment center" known as promotion and relegation. Conrad comes up with the idea of splitting a 20 team MLS into two 10 team leagues with no inter mixing games between those two teams (except for the Open Cup). Basically the same set up as our "soccer brethren" around the world. Remember as a kid how you always wanted to live at your best friend's house cause you thought it was cooler there? This is the same premise basically, dump your American sports style parents for your European sports parents. So instead of running with our own identity as Conrad said, we'd just be conforming our identity to that of our "best friend's parents".

While his point on MLS 2 create a bitter feeling is correct, he glosses over the bigger point of owners investing in an American franchise system suddenly not having the ability to market their team as "major league". He down plays the issue of the lower league and getting "engaged owners". While having engaged owners is nice, you bring yourself to the problem of those "engaged owners" over spending their ability to get the glory of winning the league, and maybe it happens, but then the owners will depend on that happening yearly to offset the losses they take. See Leeds' failing to get into the Champion's League being the start of their downfall, or teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, etc relying on making the Champion's League group stage and those money makers to help them break even.

His possible positive side affect is also off. He talks about it making the US Open Cup into a hotter ticket and hotly contested. I fail to see how making an MLS 2 would make the Open Cup more hotly contested, it'd be a similar situation as we currently have with USL-1. Those match ups between MLS and USL-1 aren't exactly hot tickets, especially in MLS markets.

And while promotion relegation adds drama at both ends of the table, that's not any different than how MLS was this year, where 14 of the 15 teams in the league were still fighting for a playoff spot with 2-3 weeks left in the season, I mean the MLS Cup champion Real Salt Lake got into the playoffs thanks to other results going their way after they started the day outside the playoff picture.

NUMBER 2
His second idea is to make MLS a monopoly by buying up the USL and the MISL and use them both as places for players who don't get minutes for the first team to get some competitive games. Let's ignore the obvious anti-trust issues that could occur if MLS were to do this and focus on the rest. While I am a big proponent of the reserve league and really want it to return, I'm not sure I'm a big fan of having a minor league like baseball. Unlike baseball, many rookies that come to MLS out of college are ready to contribute right away (he discusses the draft in his third point, but we'll focus on a world where the draft still exists here). Guys like Michael Harrington, Jonathan Leathers, and Matt Besler or just some of the Wizards players over the last 3 years who have contributed in their first season. I've always considered MLS more like football or basketball where players contribute right away.

If this was even a half way potential idea, it would have to be a situation similar to the loan system in the rest of the world, which many MLS teams already utilize with the way the USL already is. This also brings in potential problem with his first point on the Open Cup, as making the system like minor league baseball would hurt the idea of the Open Cup with teams having most of their minor league team being made up of players from the parent club.

Overall I don't find much fault with this idea other than the aformentioned anti-trust issue, but other uses of the minor league and indoor system would not be a bad idea at all. More use of loans and use of an indoor league in the winter could certainly help younger players like a Matt Marquess, a Boris Pardo, or a Rauwshan McKenzie get more playing time. In fact plenty of USL-1 and lower players have pulled double duty playing indoor in the winter as well (although that's more of a job/money issue).

NUMBER 3
His third point is to do away with the MLS college draft, which I know plenty of soccer purists in this country would love. I do like his idea for players that go to college for less than 4 years, giving the team that brought them up having first right of refusal for the player. It allows teams to keep the players they helped to develop. Although MLS already this type of deal in place in some form. For instance, Matt Kassel at the University of Maryland came through New York's youth system, should he decide to turn pro, New York has first right to him before he goes into the draft. It's the same for any player in any teams current system.

As for the 4 year graduates, that can go either way, I think the draft is a "fair" way to divide up the talent that has come through college to avoid the "fly over country" getting the lesser talents after the more glamorous teams have made their selections. I do understand letting the players choose where they end up going as well.

The one point that Conrad does not touch on really are those players that weren't part of a teams' youth academy before they went off to college, do they follow the same path as 4 year graduates, are they able to choose where they go? If not, how to do they get onto a team when they decide to leave? That'd be point in Conrad's idea that needs to be addressed.

In the end Conrad, in places, brings up some interesting points that could be good jumping off points for discussion, but some seem very out there in their ideas and extremely unlikely to happen. Still, it looks like he's accomplished his Linux idea if I'm spending time adding to/changing his ideas

Swope Park Rangers Stats

2009-11-26T21:02:00.004-06:00

I meant to post this sooner than the end of the season, but it slipped my mind. Anyway, this season without a reserve league, the Swope Park Rangers played games against local colleges (UMKC, Creighton, and Missouri State), regional PDL teams (Brass, Meance, Demize), and other teams (Thunder, US U-17 team) throughout the season to get games. The Rangers played 12 games (one against Minnesota being only a half) this season, putting together a 10-0-2 record, the only draws coming in their first two games against the Minnesota Thunder and Crieghton. The Rangers scored a total of 54 goals (an average of 4.7 per game) while allowing only 7 goals for a GAA of .61.

Five players appeared in all 12 games for the Rangers; Michael Kraus, Kurt Morsink, Matt Marquess, Boris Pardo, and Rauwshan McKenzie, while Abe Thompson appeared in 11. The leading scorers for the Rangers were Thompson with 12, Kraus with 9, and Morsink and Graham Zusi with 5.

The Rangers closest games were their 2-2 draw with Creighton and 1-1 draw with Minnesota, while their largest win was an 11-0 blow out of the Springfield Demize. They played the Brass 4 times during the season, and Creighton twice, the other 6 teams they only played once. Hopefully in the near future we'll see a return of some kind of reserve league so that the Rangers can get more games against better competition than college kids.

Former Wizards Update

2009-11-25T21:46:00.006-06:00

The MLS season is over so there are fewer players now, and it also means that some players start to move to new teams. Two former Wizards made moves today. First, Shavar Thomas was selected by Philadelphia in today's expansion draft and will be heading east to play for the Union. The other former Wizard to move today, was Abe Thompson, who was waived by Houston, but in turn was picked up by Real Salt Lake in the waiver draft. Meanwhile, two former Wizards picked up winners medals this past week. Yura Movsisyan in his last game inn MLS won MLS Cup with Real Salt Lake, while Chris Konopka was on the bench for Sporting Fingal in the FAI Ford Cup.

MLS
Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Came off the bench and played 41 minutes in LA's 1-1 (5-4) loss on penalty kicks in the MLS Cup final, Klein made his penalty kick in the shoot out.
Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Started and played 75 minutes in RSL's 1-1 (5-4) penalty kick win over LA in the MLS Cup Final.

Indoor
Pat Healey - Baltimore - Played in Baltimore's 19-8 win over Philadelphia.
Vicente Figueroa - California - Played in both of California's games last week, they're 5-4 loss to San Diego, and the team's 6-4 win over Revolucion Tijuana, where he scored a goal.
Paul Wright - San Diego - Played in both of San Diego's games this past week, had 3 assists in their 5-4 win over California and played in their 15-2 win over Las Vegas.

International
Eloy Colombano - Ferro Carril Sud (Olavarría) - Argentina - Ferrocarril lost 5-0 to Grupo Universitario on the 21st. Ferrocarril drew with Liniers 0-0 today.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Harbour View defeated Boys Town FC 1-0 on the 22nd. They played St. Georges SC tonight.
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - England - Dressed but did not play in Fulham's 1-0 loss to Birmingham. Did not dress in Fulham's 3-0 win over Blackburn.
Chris Konopka - Sporting Fingal FC - Did not play in Fingal's 2-1 win over Sligo Rovers in the FAI Ford Cup Final.
Akeem Priestly - FK Mughan - Azerbaijan - Started and played 90 minutes in Mughan's 1-0 loss to Baku.
Matt Taylor - FSV Frankfurt - Germany - Dressed but did not play in Frankfurt's 3-1 win over RW Oberhausen.
Diego Walsh - Wellington Phoenix - Australia - Started and played 90 minutes in Wellington's 1-0 win over the Newcastle Jets.

Philly Leaves KC Alone

2009-11-25T14:29:00.002-06:00

The Philadelphia Union have finished up with their expansion draft, and all the worry from Wizards fans turns out to be for not. The Union did not take Kevin Hartman, Matt Besler, Herculez Gomez, or any other player on the team. The Wizards were one of five teams, along with RSL, Houston, Dallas, and TFC to not have a player selected in the expansion draft.

Here is Philadelphia's 10 picks in the draft: Brad Knighton (New England), David Myrie (Chicago), Shavar Thomas (Chivas USA), Jordan Harvey (Colorado), Shea Salinas (San Jose), Stefani Miglioranzi (LA), Andrew Jacobson (DC), Nick Zimmerman (NY), Alejandro Moreno (Columbus), Sebastian LeToux (Seattle).

There is also a rumor from Steven Goff that the Union has traded allocation money to RSL for goalkeeper Chris Seitz, which could explain why RSL lost no players in the expansion draft to the Union.

Draft Day Thoughts

2009-11-25T11:35:00.003-06:00

So in less than half an hour, Philadelphia is going to be putting in their list of players that they are selecting in this year's expansion draft. With all the talk the last two days about it, and reading everything that people are saying, it's been interesting. A lot of Philadelphia fans are thinking that Kevin Hartman would be a great pick up for them, an immediate starter, which is most definitely true. Hartman would come in and possibly immediately be handed the captains arm band depending on who else is picked up by the Union. He's been the most consistent Wizards player over the past two years and has been my MVP pick the last two years. Losing him would be a massive blow for the Wizards.

My original thought for Philly's pick, Herculez Gomez hasn't gotten a lot of mentions, Gomez would be an immediate starter in Philly's team, but the lack of mention certainly has shaken my thought in who would be taken. Another name being mentioned a lot by bloggers and pundits, is the Wizards first round pick in the 08 draft, Matt Besler. He'd give Philadelphia a versitile defender who can play both centrally and on the left.

My thought, and worry, now is that the Union will go and grab Besler with their pick. He offers youth with some starting experience in the league that would give them something to work with. His ability to play as a wide defender and centrally gives Peter Nowak the potential to play him as a left back in a 3 man system that he liked to use when he coached DC. We'll find out what happens soon, but I also wouldn't be surprised if the Wizards have already worked out some under the table deal with the Union on who to take, if anyone.

Conrad and National Team Caps

2009-11-24T22:32:00.003-06:00

A note about Jimmy Conrad's appearance against Denmark last week that I forgot to mention. The cap was Conrad's 27th appearance for the US team as a member of the Wizards. This put Conrad all alone in second place on the list of capped players while with the Wizards. Conrad passed Preki and his 26 caps. The team leader is Josh Wolff with 38. I will say though that I am missing a lot of caps for Wizards players that played for countries other than the United States, including national teamers like Uche Okafor, Digital Takawira, Gary Glasgow, Scott Sealy and others.

MLS/Players Union Update

2009-11-24T21:33:00.003-06:00

After tomorrow's expansion draft, the main focus for MLS will turn to the league's collective bargaining agreement which is set to expire in January. A little bit of news on the issue has come out in the past day. Today FIFPro asked FIFA to step into the potential labor dispute because MLS doesn't follow FIFA's Regulations on the Status and Transfer of Players. FIFPro has a long list of complaints against the league; there are players without a guaranteed contract, player contracts are routinely terminated by the league, MLS acts as a cartel, there is no freedom of movement for any MLS player, and virtually any player can be transferred to another club in the league without his consent.

The players' union and FIFPro were dealt a blow later in the day, though, as Grant Wahl with Sports Illustrated received word from FIFA that it will not interfere in the collective bargaining negotiations. FIFA's statement in part said, "FIFA understands that this domestic issue is being resolved in accordance with U.S. labor laws and does not involve the U.S. Soccer Federation. FIFA will not interfere in the process. We have been assured that FIFA's regulations have been and will be respected."

This is definitely an important issue to watch as the next few weeks go by.

Expansion Draft Protected List.

2009-11-23T18:32:00.004-06:00

The Wizards have released their list of protected players for this week's expansion draft for the Philadelphia Union. Most of the players on the list are not that surprising, but there are a few minor ones, and a big one in my opinion. Here is the list:

Arnaud, Davy
Conrad, Jimmy
Harrington, Michael
Hercegfalvi, Zoltan
Jewsbury, Jack
Kamara, Kei
Leathers, Jonathan
Lopez, Claudio
Souter, Kevin
Wolff, Josh
Zusi, Graham

There are a few deviations from my list earlier in the week, namely, Kevin Souter being protected over Santiago Hirsig, and Jonathan Leathers and Josh Wolff being protected over Matt Besler and Kevin Hartman. The biggest surprise in my opinion, is Wizards rookie, Matt Besler being left unprotected. Besler played in 28 of the Wizards 30 games this past year. The minor surprise is Souter being protected over Hirsig, but I have a feeling there is more to this than has been published. Also, despite was Ives says on his blog, Roger Espinoza and Chance Myers have NOT graduated from the Generation Adidas program according to the Wizards so they will be protected automatically.

As for who is available to be drafted, aside from the previously mentioned Besler, Hartman, and Hirsig, the Wizards have also made available Adam Cristman, Herculez Gomez, Aaron Hohlbein, Michael Kraus, Eric Kronberg, Matt Marquess, Rauwshan McKenzie, Kurt Morsink, Boris Pardo, and Lance Watson.

My opinion on who I think Philadelphia will take hasn't change though. While Besler being exposed is definitely an appealing option and I wouldn't be surprised if Philadelphia did take him, I still think Gomez is the leader to be taken. His salary, leadership, and work ethic make him extremely appealing even though his output hasn't been the best with Kansas City.

You think I'm right? Is Gomez still the favorite? Or you think Besler is now? Who are you surprised was protected/exposed?

Juniors News

2009-11-21T20:42:00.002-06:00

The KC Wizards Juniors opened their play in the US Soccer Developmental Academy today outside Houston, as the 16's and 18's both took on Texas Rush AJ Auxerre. Both the 16's and the 18's came away with 1 goal wins over their Texas counterparts. The 16's took took their game against the Rush 1-0. Meanwhile, the 18's twice came from a goal down to win their game 3-2 over the Rush side. Both teams play again tomorrow against Texas SC DTH. They open their home season on the 29th against St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro.

Also coming up, the Juniors will make a trip down to Phoenix with the rest of the Developmental Academy teams from around the country for the Winter Showcase December 4th through the 8th. The 18's will play Seacoast United out of New Hampshire on the 4th, the Richmond Kickers out of Virginia on the 6th, and Crossfire Premier out of Washington on the 7th. The 16's will also take on Seacoast United and the Richmond Kickers, but will play Real So Cal out of California on the 7th.

Kings Begin Season tonight

2009-11-21T16:56:00.003-06:00

While the Kansas City Kings tryouts for the upcoming PASL season have yet to occur, the team's first game of the season is tonight in St. Louis. Tonight, the Kings will take on the St. Louis Illusion of the PASL-Pro division. While the Illusion are in the Pro division, the Kings are in the PASL Premier division, the larger of the two, but a lower division. Good luck to the Kings tonight and this season, they keep moving one step forward every season, if so, this year they'll hopefully bring home the title.

Verbal Agreement on Assistant Coach

2009-11-20T21:07:00.005-06:00

Twitter has brought us plenty of breaking news since it's become one of the quickest ways to spread news, and the Wizards have done their fair share of it. Wizards President Robb Heineman has given fans some news today as he announced "verbal agreement on assistant coach. hopefully announe soon, after contract signed". During the announcement of Peter Vermes as the new head caoch, the team had said that they were interested in bringing in another assistant coach. It looks like they're close to naming that new assistant. We'll see who ends up in the new position very soon. The hiring of a 4th assistant coach (with Zoran Savic, Kerry Zavagnin, and John Pascarella) will make the coaching staff the largest in team history.

KC's World Cup Bid

2009-11-20T20:18:00.003-06:00

Last night the Wizards hosted a presentation on their World Cup bid for the 2018 or 2022 World Cup for members of the "new media" aka blogs. Due to other commitments, I was unable to attend the event, but Thad over at The Back Post did attend and has TONS of great information about the bid over on his blog. I'm not going to repost all the stats and facts, but check out his blog for tons of information about the Wizards bid.

Who to Protect?

2009-11-19T21:21:00.007-06:00

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. So let's start breaking down the roster and try to figure out who will be protected.

First, the team's two Generation Adidas players, Roger Espinoza and Chance Myers will be protected automatically. Barring a shocking graduation for either Espinoza or Myers both will not need to be among the 11 protected players.

So let's start looking at the rest of the roster. Starting with the internationals, the Wizards have to protect 3 of Zoltan Hercegfalvi, Santiago Hirsig, Claudio Lopez, and Kevin Souter. To me the choice of which 3 is fairly easy, Hercegfalvi, Hirsig, and Lopez are the 3. Souter's lack of playing time this year makes him the easy one to leave out.

So 8 of the remaining 20 players will be protected. Jimmy Conrad seems certain to be protected, as does his central defense partner, Matt Besler. Besler appears to have jumped ahead of Aaron Hohlbein for the starting spot in the center of defense with Conrad. Michael Harrington, Davy Arnaud, and Jack Jewsbury also seem certain to be protected. That puts us up to 8 protected players.

Unlike last year, when Seattle had already signed Kasey Keller, Philadephia has no players at all. Without that keeper, Kevin Hartman has to be considered a favorite to be protected. While he's on the back side of his career, he's been too important to the Wizards to be left off the protected list. I think the Wizards other rookie, Graham Zusi played himself onto the protected list late in the season. His youth and salary would make him a prime candidate for selectionn, so I would protect Zusi.

That leaves 1 spot left, and there are two candidates for that spot, forwards Josh Wolff and Kei Kamara. While Wolff is coming off a career year, he is starting to get a little older, he'll be 33 by the time the 2010 season starts, not to mention that he's the teams third highest player. Kamara is younger, but is out of contract and is likely to want a salary around Wolff's I would guess. For me I'd protect Kamara over Wolff, his age and salary makes Wolff less appealing to Philadelphia.

So here are my 11 protected players, the remaining exposed players, and those exempt from being draft.

Protected	Exposed	Exempt
Davy Arnaud	Adam Cristman	Roger Espinoza
Matt Besler	Herculez Gomez	Chance Myers
Jimmy Conrad	Aaron Hohlbein
Michael Harrington	Michael Kraus
Kevin Hartman	Eric Kronberg
Zoltan Hercegfalvi	Jonathan Leathers
Santiago Hirsig	Matt Marquess
Jack Jewsbury	Rauwshan McKenzie
Kei Kamara	Kurt Morsink
Claudio Lopez	Boris Pardo
Graham Zusi	Kevin Souter
	Lance Watson
	Josh Wolff

So who's likely to be selected? I think the most likely from this list is Herculez Gomez. Gomez's salary is fairly low for his experience ($54,408) and seemed to be on the outs with Peter Vermes after he took over as coach. If Gomez is exposed I think he's definitely a favorite to be selected, if anyone is taken from KC.

Expansion Draft Rules for 2009

2009-11-18T23:36:00.003-06:00

Next week, the Philadelphia Union will have their pick of the current MLS teams' unprotected roster players, today we learned the rules that those teams will use to choose the players that they will protect. The rules are very similar to the rules that were used last year for the Seattle Sounders FC draft. Once again teams will protect 11 players, GA and home grown players are automatically protected, and for the Wizards, they'll have to protect 3 of their 4 internationals. Tomorrow I'll have my protected list for the Wizards this year, but right here, here are the full rules for this year's expansion draft:

2009 MLS Expansion Draft Rules

Senior Roster

• Teams may protect 11 players between their Senior and their Developmental Roster.

• If the Player's contract expires at the end of 2009, he will still be considered part of the Team's Senior Roster.

• If a Team protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player's option. It may renegotiate a new budget number for the player as in previous years.

• If a player retires, he will not be a part of the Senior Roster, but his Team will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.

Developmental Roster

• Players on a Team's Developmental Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2009 season and Home Grown Players, will be part of the expansion draft.

• Generation adidas players (who have not been graduated at the end of the 2009 season) and Home Grown players are automatically protected (teams do not have to use a protected slot on them). If Philadelphia selects a Developmental Player it must offer him a Senior Roster position and he must be on Philadelphia's Senior Roster as of Roster Compliance Date.

International Players

• Teams are restricted in the number of International player(s) that they may make available per the table set forth below.

• For purposes of this expansion process, for US-based teams, any non-domestic US player would count as an International and for Toronto FC, any non-domestic US player or non-domestic Canadian player would count as an International.

Designated Players

• Designated Players do not have to be protected unless the player has a no trade clause in which case he must be protected.

Maximum Player Loss

• Once a player has been claimed from a Team's non-protected roster, that team is eliminated from the expansion draft and may not lose any further players.

Right to Renegotiate

• Philadelphia will have the right to renegotiate a drafted player's salary (either up or down) without having to place such player on waivers or giving his previous Team a right of first refusal.

Priority

• On the first day of the Discovery/Allocation Period, Philadelphia will have priority over players who played professionally in the USL First or Second Division in 2009, subject to another MLS team's right of first refusal.

Rounds

• The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.

INTERNATIONAL PLAYER PROTECTION REQUIREMENT TABLE:

• Teams may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus 3, provided that if a team has 3 or less international players it may make available not more than 1.

Conrad Appears for the US

2009-11-18T23:30:00.002-06:00

Jimmy Conrad got his 27th cap earlier today coming on for Jonathan Spector in the 70th minute of the United States 3-1 loss to Denmark. The US led 1-0 at the half thanks to a Jeff Cunningham goal, but struggled right out of the game in the second half, giving up 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the second half. The game was a poor second half by the US, particularly defender Frankie Hejduk who played a part in all 3 of Denmark's goals. Most US fans hope this is the last time we see Hejduk in a US.

Former Wizards Update

2009-11-18T07:14:00.003-06:00

We're down to only 2 former Wizards still playing in MLS, as Chris Klein and LA will meet Yura Movsisyan and Real Salt Lake Sunday in MLS Cup. Still there was more action around the world this week with FIFA international games being played. Two former Wizards competed with their respective national teams as both Shavar Thomas and Eddie Johnson played for Jamaica and the US respectively. Also a fairwell to former Wizard, Brandon Prideaux, who closed out his career Saturday night against RSL. What a sad way to do it as well, missing your teams final PK in the penalty shootout. Finally, it looks like former Wizard, Preki, is on his way to the Great White North to become the head coach for Toronto FC next season.

MLS
Chris Klein - LA Galaxy - Started and played 63 minutes in LA's 2-0 win over Houston to advance to MLS Cup.
Yura Movsisyan - Real Salt Lake - Started and played 72 minutes in RSL's 0-0(5-4) shootout win over Real Salt Lake.
Brandon Prideaux - Chicago Fire - Started and played 120 minutes, in Chicago's 0-0 (5-4) shootout loss to Real Salt Lake. Prideaux missed Chicago's 7th and final PK on the final kick of his MLS career.
Shavar Thomas - Started and played 90 minutes in Jamaica's 0-0 draw with South Africa yesterday.
Abe Thompson - Houston - Did not dress in Houston's 2-0 loss to LA.

International
Eloy Colombano - Ferro Carril Sud (Olavarría) - Argentina - Ferrocarril Sud lost 1-0 to La Emilia.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Round two in Jamaica kicks off on the 22nd of this month.
Eddie Johnson - Fulham - England - Came off the bench and played 45 minutes in the USA's 1-0 loss to Slovakia. Came off the bench and played 29 minutes in the USA's 3-1 loss to Denmark.
Chris Konopka - Sporting Fingal FC - Ireland - Did not play in either of Fingal's two playoff finals against Bray Wanderers, which Fingal won 4-2 on aggregate.
Akeem Priestly - FK Mughan - Azerbaijan - Did not have a game this week due to the international break.
Khari Stephenson - Aalesund FK - Norway - Aalesund's season is over.
Matt Taylor - FSV Frankfurt - Germany - Did not have a game this week due to the international break.
Ivan Trujillo - Deportes Quindío - Columbia - Started and played 80 minutes in Quindío's 0-0 draw with Atlético Huila.
Diego Walsh - Wellington Phoenix - Australia - Did not have a game this week due to the international break.

New Assistant Coach Rumor

2009-11-17T20:42:00.006-06:00

There's very little in this rumor right now, so take that for what you will. In a post by Ives Galarcep earlier today about the MLS coaching carousel, he makes a passing mention of Octavio Zambrano, who used to coach in MLS but has most recently been coaching in Hungary. Ives mentions Zambrano as a potential new head coach for Chivas USA, but also mentions that Zambrano is "believed to be in the frame for an assistant coaching position within MLS (with Kansas City a possibility)..." In a way this rumor makes sense, with head coach, Peter Vermes' connection to Hungary and his scouting over there, including Ferenc Béres, who played for Zambrano at his last position at FC Tatabánya. On top of that, you have comments that both Vermes and Robb Heineman have made in regards to potentially bringing in another assistant coach. With all that there's certainly enough dots to connect to think that there are some legs to this rumor. We'll see if anything comes of this rumor.

Espinoza and Myers on Way to South Africa

2009-11-17T18:30:00.002-06:00

The Kansas City Wizards 2 Generation Adidas players will be making their way over to South Africa with the rest of an MLS Generation Adidas team. Roger Espinoza and Chance Myers were both named to the team that will leave later this month for a 10 day tour of the World Cup hosting country. Espinoza and Myers will be competing in 3 games against Premier Soccer League reserve teams, including Ajax Cape Town and Orlando Pirates. The team will also visit Nelson Mandela's house and attend the World Cup draw in Cape Town. This is the second straight year that Espinoza will travel with the team. Last year he went with the GA team to England where they played 3 games against English reserve sides.

Hirsig Agreement with San Lorenzo (Over Back Pay)

2009-11-16T22:15:00.002-06:00

Those that remember when the Wizards signed midfielder, Santiago Hirsig, may remember that Hirsig was released from his contract with San Lorenzo due to issues over being paid. Those issues appear to now be resolved as Hirsig and the club have apparently reached an agreement. Instead of the $1,600,000 he originally requested, Hirsig will be paid $1,080,000 over the next two years by the club.

Down the Byline

Kings Schedule is Out

Leading the Star

KC World Cup Bid Press Conference Tomorrow

Generation Adidas Team Defeat Pirates

Local KC Players in the NCAA

Jimmy Conrad's Latest

Swope Park Rangers Stats

Former Wizards Update

Philly Leaves KC Alone

Draft Day Thoughts

Conrad and National Team Caps

MLS/Players Union Update

Expansion Draft Protected List.

Juniors News

Kings Begin Season tonight

Verbal Agreement on Assistant Coach

KC's World Cup Bid

Who to Protect?

Expansion Draft Rules for 2009

2009 MLS Expansion Draft Rules

Conrad Appears for the US

Former Wizards Update

New Assistant Coach Rumor

Espinoza and Myers on Way to South Africa

Hirsig Agreement with San Lorenzo (Over Back Pay)

More Post Season Awards