I should probably mention this trade: Herculez was sent to Kansas city in exchange for early draft picks. Not to say that I won't miss the first player to score at Dick's; he has a lot of fans, but as it stands now, this probably comes out in the "win" column. We don't NEED him. He helps to have around, but we don't need him.

Click to continue reading...

Pierce
Marples
Pelletier


According to Michael Bullock of the Patriot news (click here for the full article), midfielder Jason Pelletier, central defender Nigel Marples, and fullback Ryan Pierce will be on loan to D.C. United for a short stretch early next week. They will report to D. Click to continue reading...

S.F., the superstar at The Offside Rules, found some great material as always.

This time some promotional stuff by Kansas City, re-doing some famous spots from 1980s films.

This one's my fav, but there's also more. Click to continue reading...

Kansas City in this case. The Colorado Rapids today traded Herculez Gomez to the Kansas City Wizards. I am personally gutted because Herc was always approachable and a damn fine footballer to boot. More details to follow. Click to continue reading...

NEWS: Dynamo defender Eddie Robinson, who left Sunday's 2-1 win over Chicago with a left hamstring strain late in the second half, is questionable for Sunday's match against Kansas City. If you missed it, here is what Robinson said about... Click to continue reading...

And your MLS leaders are...

(drumroll)

The Columbus Crew!

Who woulda thought?

Other than that, not a very noteworthy week in domestic soccer. For me, at least. It might've been thrilling for some of you. On to the scores and standings.

Sunday
Houston 2-1 Chicago (A: 22,554)

Saturday
NY Red Bulls 0-0 D. Click to continue reading...

Actually, I won't be home to fire up the grill and cook up some tasty burgers or skewers for anybody today... but it sure does sound good.

Some teams deserve a day off today based on performances from the weekend. Others deserve extra work for their own putrid effort.


1. Columbus (12-6-4). Click to continue reading...

A colleague shouted this out as the "statistic of the night" after the Chivas USA match on Saturday:

With David Beckham and Landon Donovan in tow, the LA Galaxy has the same exact record of the expansion San Jose Earthquakes.

The Galaxy almost had their first win in quite a while on Saturday. Click to continue reading...

This week, The Jimmy Conrad Show will take on a new look, as usual play-by-play voice Sean Wheelock will be out of commission. In his absence, Conrad's usual fill-in Davy Arnaud will join
Captain Kansas City for a little footie banter. Head down to McFadden's in the Power and Light District for the show from 7-8, or listen to it live at kcwizards. Click to continue reading...

There are only 9 games left for each team in the regular season. Since each team (finally) has the same number of games played, it makes it easy to compare the schedules for all 14 teams. Going by the total number of points, here is the remaining strength of schedule for each team:

1 New York 279 2 Columbus 278 3 Los Angeles 275 4 Colorado 263 5 DC United 259 5 Kansas City 259 7 Chicago 257 7 Dallas 257 7 Toronto 257 10 New England 256 11 Chivas USA 251 12 San Jose 250 13 Real Salt Lake 243 14 Houston 234
New York, Columbus, and Los Angeles face the toughest schedules, while Houston has the easiest followed by RSL. Click to continue reading...

FC Dallas midfielder Victor Sikora has suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee and will miss 4-6 weeks of action, according to club officials. The injury occurred during FCD's 1-1 draw against Kansas City on Saturday when the former Ajax star was tackled by the Wizards' Sasha Victorine just minutes into the second half. Click to continue reading...

Full respect and props to the intrepid Inferno crew who road tripped up to Kansas City in support of FC Dallas. Well done. Click to continue reading...

San Jose is unbeaten in six games... but still in the cellar.

Regardless, Huckerby's boys are giving it quite a go, even though the points probably aren't quite there to be had to make the playoffs.

But that's all the praise I'm giving the 'Quakes, I have to learn to hate them as a Seattle boy. Click to continue reading...

Captain Kansas City now has five goals on the year. Not bad. His latest effort, our last-minute equalizer Saturday against FC Dallas has been nominated for Sierra Mist Goal of the Week. Come on Wizards fans...go vote and get Jimmy on the end-of-the-year ballot!

Take a look at the goal here, if you don't remember it:



He is now our leading scorer with a new career-high. Click to continue reading...

I got an e-mail earlier today from a faithful reader asking me to help stick up for the Western Conference.

Now, as much as I would like to defend the West, I just can't do it. Not right now.

The Western Conference is clearly the weaker of the two conferences. There's no debating that. Click to continue reading...

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Good morning everybody. It is Monday morning and time to bring back my weekly series 'Monday Morning Centerback', where I will focus on some topic in the soccer world, be it in MLS or abroad.

Click to continue reading...

Last week's match at Columbus set a precedent for FC Dallas, giving up a lead and then going on to lose. This Saturday's match at Kansas City continued a worrying trend of losing leads, although the circumstances were quite different. Wizards' defender Jimmy Conrad scored a tap-in goal in stoppage time to share the points with Dallas and keep both teams alive in the race for the MLS playoffs. Click to continue reading...

For the second straight year, the Wizards will partner with the Kansas City Irish Festival, coming up next weekend at Crown Center. Some Irish-Fest themed events will take place at our match tomorrow night. The Gaelic Athletic Association will be out in a tent, showing off the sport of "hurling" for all to see. Click to continue reading...

Hey there, just got an update from Exec VP Greg Cotton on the Wizards-specific beer that the fine folks of Weston Brewing Company have helped us create. Cotton and Experience Development guru (read: dude that makes sure fans have fun at the stadium and at our events) Adam Meloan went up to meet with the WBC peoples last week with good results. Click to continue reading...

Fernando Clavijo, the head coach of the Colorado Rapids, has resigned with immediate effect from his position. Like the death of a sick loved one, the news comes as a shock but not exactly unexpected. Rumors had been flying for some time, especially after the recent meltdown at the Los Angeles Galaxy when Ruud Gullit and Alexei Lalas said goodbye. Click to continue reading...

A lot of crazy stuff going on around the league. Jeff Cunningham (top left) became the 4th player in league history to get 100 goals, which is one helluva feat for an often maligned player.

Also we saw the debut of Brian McBride (top right) for the Fire. Unfortunately, Chicago might have a racism issue going on. Click to continue reading...

The top six shuffled around but stayed unchanged. And the two local teams slipped to the bottom two spots.

Why? Because they aren't any good right now.

1. Columbus (10-6-4). Could the Crew be poised for a run at the top spot in the East?
2. Chicago (9-6-6). Positives: McBride and Blanco together on the field. Click to continue reading...

The guys earned a solid, grind it out win in Chicago tonight, topping the Fire 1-0 on the strength of Fred's 27th minute goal. In his debut, goalkeeper Louis Crayton made two saves to preserve the shutout - United's second of the year. Coupled with the win in Chicago on June 7, it is the first time in club history that United has taken six points from the Fire on the road in a single season (the two teams have played twice in Chicago in five different seasons, not including the current one).

Click to continue reading...

A quick stadium update. The Wizards, OnGoal and Lane4 only have 1 hurdle left in getting the funds to begin construction of the Bannister Mall area, that includes building Hillcrest Road for the Wizards. That last hurdle was to petition the release of those funds from the Department of Economic Development. Click to continue reading...

Bouna Coundoul, Pablo Mastroeni and Omar Cummings have all been called up for their respective national teams for international fixtures next week. Bouna will be off to Tripoli for a Senegal friendly against Libya while Cummings and Mastroeni will represent their countries in World Cup qualifiers against Canada and Guatemala respectively. Click to continue reading...