Applause, ticker tape, confetti, streamers… (Upon further review, please hold the steamers during the excitement, remember, we had an incident with streamers a few weeks ago, so to avoid any issues with security do not use them, even if handed out by FO personnel…)

We need to celebrate!!! Forgotten are the times where he and Curt Onalfo brought failed international players. Forgotten are the times where we could not field a potent and steady squad that we could count on to either score constantly or at least make our home field advantage count. Forgotten are times where we scored only one goal in 8 games. Forgotten are the times where players were penciled into the lineup because of their name and not for how they actually did on the field. That is all forgotten.

Seriously. The day after many of us rejoiced that a professional team in KC finally had the balls to make the right personnel decision and get rid of a locker room cancer, the Wizards give us the news that one of the guys who could not make us competitive is given yet another shot. It’s bad enough our baseball team is full of Atlanta Braves rejects (you doubt this? Pena, Pena, Davies, Chen, Mahay (gone), Colon, Cruz, Farnsworth, Lerew, and Anderson) now we decide to let this “experiment continue”?

Yes, the team showed the slightest of attitude improvements with Vermes, but definitely not enough to warrant this. Were there just no other candidates available? Is it because the expansion draft is close? and if so, don’t we all really not have an idea of who we are protecting? The Wizards President could have put that list together. I know, it’s a 2 for 1 deal: take 2 positions: technical director and head coach and only get paid for one. I know what you must be saying: “it’s the economy, stupid”, don’t you get it? Well, I guess you’re right, I should have seen it.

Three wins, 6 losses and 3 ties means that he earned 12 points out of a possible 36: 33.3% (counting all his games Onalfo actually had a 35% production this year) Can I petition to get a job where I am only right 1/3 of the time? Add to that the fact that according to the KC Star there will be “a roster overhaul” this offseason. This of course means that after a 2 week analysis Vermes has figured out that it was the players who took us down this path of failure.

I knew it!!! It wasn’t Vermes or Onalfo, it was the players; it was all their fault; but wait, wait a second… aren’t these the players THEY brought in when they cleaned house in 2007? I’m just saying…

Oh, well. I know the truly hardcore faithful will be there with their Season Tickets, but honestly I will be hard pressed to convince the economic leaders of my home that the financial effort is worth it for season tickets since it seems that the on the field product will probably be about the same (and yes Sam, I know there are those season ticket perks you have spoken about that try and offset the goal-less streaks and the sucky play and the indecision of whether we will have a stadium in the next decade and the occasional screwups from the FO when it comes to stadium experience which could make up for the fact that my money was paid in advance, regardless of how the team does). Still it’s a tough sell.

Still, for those of us who will now probably only be the occasional once a month stadium fan there’s always Metro Sports, the kid’s projector and the dark basement; throw in some FIFA 10 background team chants to try and make up for it and we can give it a try. Yes, it’s not the same thing but at least I can change the channel if the opposition puts in the 4th or 5th goal.

So, am I pessimistic about next year? Like Sarah Palin would say: “YOU BETCHA”

Peter Vermes = Technical Director: After 3 seasons in this position I feel Vermes has done a less than stellar job. Yes, the hires, drafts and the team depth are done with the coach, but truth be told he should have had the final say. His final say should have been “Nay” when it came to Colombano (who I personally liked), Trujillo, Marinelli, Thompson, and his failure to have a fully competitive team that not only had a stable heavy presence on the field but have a pool of trusted and established set of backup players that could step up and could be worked into the starting lineup.

Truth be told, although he did score some positive points with players like Claudio Lopez and to some extent Santiago Hirsig (Zoltan and Kamara look positive but it’s still too early), and I think KC has a nice pool of young players that at times have stepped up when given a real chance, Vermes as a Technical Director has done a sub-par job and I believe he does not deserve to keep his position. Three years on the job and KC seemed to have peaked in mediocre year one and gone down after that.

John Pascarella = Goalkeeping/Fitness Coach: Although at times it looked like the team was a bit out of gas, fitness was something that seemed to be a strong point for KC. Also, Kevin Hartman looked superb this year keeping the team in games that under normal circumstances should have been losses. He is a definite keep in my book.

Peter Vermes-Coach: I personally don’t like his style and at times it looked like he was slow to react, especially in those games where at the end of the season we needed a win but we still finished playing with 4 or 5 defenders and would either go play 3 defensive midfielders one game and then would play 4 offensive midfielders in another; interesting to say the least but I will acknowledge that it seemed that the team started to respond to his coaching style. I will also say that I believe he lost a great chance at the end of the year to give some younger players a chance to prove their worth and evaluate talent. I won’t buy the “we were still in it” excuse (yes we might have been mathematically alive but there was no way it was going to happen.

If the Front Office wants to give Vermes a shot at a whole season as a coach they need to go look for a capable and experienced Technical Director because very few (in any sport) have done a good job when performing the GM/Coach double duty. I’ll give Vermes the Coach a maybe with a short leash attached to his stint so that if the team does not show a significant turn around I would cut his coaching career short.

Kerry Zavagnin-Assistant Coach: Zavagnin is an interesting case and is someone that I can see as a possible future coach for the Wizards if they prepare him well. I think the first step to prepare him well is to get him out of KC; the FO needs to flex some diplomatic muscle and get Kerry a job as an assistant coach (paid by the Wizards) either in England, Scotland, or Holland for example, so that he can learn from other coaches and assistants and get a feel of how teams in better leagues do things. He knows the MLS, now he needs to know other leagues and systems.

Call it enrichment, call it internship, but the Wizards need to help get Zavagnin prepared if they want to see him as a successful future MLS coach for KC. Add to that the fact that there is a reason that institutions like the military move their Soldiers away to other units when they get promoted up the chain to a position of power; because the line of respect and camaraderie sometimes gets blurred when you are in charge of your ex-peers and as a coach you want that line to be there. If Zavagnin moves out for a few years on some kind of internship it will serve both for his preparation as it will allow for a roster turn over and help avoid any problems.

What’s your take on it? Who should stay, who should go?

The future of Peter Vermes the Technical Director(polls)

Kerry Zavagnin’s future(survey)

Should John Pascarella stay with KC ?(answers)

Peter Vermes as a Coach(answers)

KC seemed to dominate a lot of the run of play on Sunday but it translated into absolutely nothing. A Kamara shot off the post (which isn’t considered a shot on goal) and Zoltan’s goal were the only dangerous plays that translated into something. Meanwhile, Brian Mullan and a 10 men Dynamo squad managed the game as they needed to, and actually took the lead when Mullan danced around Michael Harrington for what seemed to be hours before sending a cross from the right side that was missed by at least 3 KC defenders before Luis Angel Landin just tapped it in for the lead. Landin, who Jonathan Leathers forgot existed, scored his first MLS goal.

KC continued to move the ball but with little success against the 10 man Houston. We had little attacking power, where Josh Wolff looked his age, and Kamara looked alone up front. Add to that the fact that “The Coach” still has a man crush on Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury who are in line to the “where are they now” award since their real selves have not been sighted since around week 8 of this season. They have had poor form, have contributed little, and at this point I see them as players taking a spot from youngsters that cannot do any worse. Maybe the time off will do them good and will lead to a better 2010.

Back to the game: In the 73rd minute a very nice cross from Lopez to Zoltan (who will not stop running while on the field) finally ended in the equalizer, which still “keeps us in the playoff hunt”, as some MLS writer I’m sure will make note of. The truth being that the slight glimmer of hope that was left from last week has now been extinguished, and we can now start looking towards 2010. Also, I don’t know about you guys, but the fact that we have “a 4 game unbeaten streak” as the KC Wizards website says, really does not make me feel any better about missing the playoffs; of course I could be suffering from the “glass half empty” syndrome but who could blame me at this point in the season.

It’s noteworthy to mention that Vermes again brought Chance Myers into the game for a brief appearance that reminded me why I think “Ryan Leaf” when I see him, since it appears that he has also lost the power to make semi-decent crosses (passes?), which in my book was all Vermes was asking for when he started using him a few weeks back. We also saw a glimpse of Roger Espinoza on the bench, which quashed the rumors of him running away from KC, while we still have no news on why, steady starter Hercules Gomez did not make the trip to Houston. Three defenders, 2 midfielders, and one forward on our bench; good to see we were going all out to win this game.

Here’s a suggestion, since it’s over, why don’t we play Kamara and Zoltan up front and use a couple of youngsters in the middle and give that a try. Will we really miss Arnaud, Jewsbury and Wolff that much? Wolff hasn’t scored in 2 games so probably his hot streak has come to an end again and it will take him about 6 or 7 games to get on another one so just for fun let’s see a change.

All in all we tied a game we should have won leaving 3 games in this disaster of a season. All I can hope from On Goal is that they actually shed some dead weight from the team and maybe start by getting someone in the front office that can make some good player-personnel decisions, because, honestly Peter Vermes is not the man. I know he’s well liked here in KC, I know he won a title here in KC, but that means nothing when it comes for finding talent and running a team, and his 3 years here and the players he has brought in prove that. Hey, if those were the only creditials to get a front office job imagine all the players the Yankees would have working with GM Brian Cashman.

While 2007 was a year to remember, 2009 is a year to forget. But lets face it, this is KC, where Chief’s GM Carl Peterson was finally fired after stinking up the place for years, and the Royals are the Royals; do I really expect that On Goal, a business with few soccer people at the head, will fire their top soccer man after this season? The answer is no. Too bad though, since the mess that we are in is mostly Vermes’ fault because his stint as a coach has proven that Curt Onalfo really didn’t have that much to work with.

No highlight available. Sorry.

So the Wizards, in their typical “must win” situation, playing a team on their 3rd game this week, which was missing at least 4 starters, finished the game with 4 defenders and a holding mid and not getting a goal. This tie basically means the same as if we had lost; it’s sealed our fate out of the playoffs.

Although I can try and explain why I hate the way we finished the game, with an ineffective (since game 8 or so this season) Davy Arnaud who should not have even started and with few offensive options off the bench, I will let good old ex-Chief coach Herm Edwards explain to Peter Vermes how we should have played this game.

Granted KC dominated and had most of the chances, we lacked the punch that shows up only once in a while this year but that has honestly eluded us most of the season. Colorado came in looking tired and trying to slow the pace of the game and held us at bay. Hirsig managed the midfield but with little options moving forward; Jewsbury and Arnaud seem to linger in the stupor that has not left them for the last 15 or so games; Conrad and the defense did their job; Kamara brought some excitement but that was about it. Zoltan did a nice job off the bench, but missed a great opportunity at the end of the game. It all added up to a nice effort and that was it.

All in all, another typical Wizards game where we just couldn’t get it done and now the playoffs are most likely done for 2009. I’m not saying that we cannot win out, but we have 4 very tough games left and can only reach 43 points. Miracles do happen, but too many things have to fall into place for the Wizards to advance.

I’d have to agree with Jim Mora on this one (you knew it was coming):

Here are the game highlights:

Hope springs eternal and it was with hope that I went to the game on Saturday: hoping for a win, hoping for a goal, hoping at least not to lose…. Was it too much to ask? It appears so, because Peter Vermes and the group of players he started seemed to lack interest, effort and quality when confronted with a RSL team that still had something to play for but at the same time knew the quality of their opponent and decided to rest some starters. Not that KC was eliminated at that point but the odds were against us. Be that as it may I was hoping for a good showing that never happened.

KC started with some game control but quickly Kyle Beckerman took over and started pulling the strings of the game. In the 18th minute Pablo Campos slid through the defense, caught Jimmy Conrad out of position (and lost) and scored the only goal of the game. KC as always tried to react but to little avail; even when RLS went down to 10 men with the Ned Grabavoy ejection. Of course being a man up just spelled disaster for KC, that time and time again this year has failed to capitalize when their opponent goes a man down.

Not much else happened for the rest of the game. KC missed a few clear scoring opportunities, RSL hunkered down in the back and by the end of the game the Wizards were only 3 minutes away from setting a new KC record in scoring futility; according to the Hillcrestroad Blog they currently have not scored in 424 minutes of MLS play. We also caught a glimpse of the Peter Vermes attack tactics that can be summarized as playing 5 defenders on the field when losing 0-1 and a man down. I can only imagine that if RSL had all 11 players we would have seen a couple of more defenders in the mix so that they could hold that 0-1 score. Pathetic to say the least, and just one more reason for On Goal to help him pack his bags at the end of the season.

Player Ratings:

Everyone gets a 3 except Watson who gets a 5.

Commentary:

I know people say we should not play our Reserves or young players because they “suck” but here is my argument. Have we really seen them play regularly? It’s time to stop the Conrad, Arnaud, Hirsig, Wolff, Jewsbury, Lopez, Gomez love affair; these players (and the coaches) have the team where it is now. We need to know what we have in Reserve and see what we want to keep in the Reserves. The key to victory of teams like Houston is that they have those players that can step in when Ching, or Clark or DeRosario(last year) leave the team. Their pool of young talent goes hand in hand with their good coach. We lack that here in KC.

How do we know that our Reserves are good or bad when you see them for a few games or a few minutes here and there after not playing the whole year? We expect them to come in and take Arnaud, Conrad or Jewsbury’s spot without even flinching? That is utterly stupid. If a player needs to see the bench or worse after a few bad games, a lot of those “senior” players mentioned before should have been there long ago. Arnaud has been absent since week 3 or 4, Hirsig has given up 6 or 7 plays that have led to opponent goals, Jewsbury disappears for long stretches of the game, Lopez can’t cross a ball worth his life, Gomez has a track record of missing open shots, Wolff…, well enough said. If a few bad games mean the end of your MLS career, I’m sorry to say that these guys should call it quits. The only reason they are where they are is because someone gave them the chance to move through the ranks, take the hard knocks and learn from them. What better opportunity that now, with 9 games left to play at least half a team of youngsters and see if they need to be here next year taking up a roster spot; if they can live up to some of the hype and hope.

It might sound stupid but I believe we have some talent here and there have been players that when given regular starts have shown quality, but are quickly moved off to the side when they have a bad game. If this is the rule to be followed I don’t want to see Conrad on the pitch next Saturday since the last 2 goals we have given up have been on him.

I can only hope for a change. I for one can go watch a game where the players on my team are fighting for a roster spot next year, and a chance to something more, instead of watching a bunch of stiff showing up at the game thinking that whatever happens they’ll be penciled in every time. By the way, let’s not look back because the Red Bulls are closing in; at least if we play the “youngesters” we have an excuse if they catch up to us.

Here are the highlights of the game:

A new midfield and a defense with a returning Jimmy Conrad looked initially like a positive step for KC early in the game since the passing and the hustle seemed to be showing up and the ball was being moved forward, especially on the right side where Hirsig (in a new position) moved freely up and down the line; the downside of course was that neither he nor Lance Watson could come up with a cross that was met by the KC forwards.

Still, the Fire played the system they needed to play to exploit the weaknesses in the KC defense and used the long ball to overcome the absence of their playmaker Blanco. Although Chicago did have some early opportunities it seemed that the effort by the Wizards of trying to move forward by passing the ball (instead of cracking a long pass every time) might lead to something, but the KC defense again let one slip by. A long ball was not cleared but let go out of bonds near the KC left side corner flag; Chicago brought pressure in on the KC throw in which forced a mistake by Matt Bessler and left the door open for a quick give and go that found Chris Rolfe with the ball in the box and firing it past Kevin Hartman who seemed to have been outguessed.

After that KC continued to try and move the ball with short accurate passes while the Fire kept using the long crosses which were almost successful twice, once on the left side finding Bessler out of position, and then a long high ball exploiting the size of Watson who could not reach it. Honestly, both should have been put in but were horribly missed by the Chicago forwards. On the other side a couple of plays brought the Wizards close, especially a through pass by Kurt Morsink to Josh Wolff where the KC attacker turned and shot but was denied by Jon Busch and a shot by Hirsig who seemed to slow down just a bit and let the Fire defense close down on him just getting a corner off the play. All in all, less long aimless balls by KC and more moving and passing by the midfielders had me in OK spirits for the second half.

The 2nd half started and KC pressured the Fire a bit more trying to get close to the area. The team started to move the ball more, especially when the Hungarian born striker Zoltan made his debut. He brought energy and a desire to impress the new coach. On one of his first plays he was able to slip by the left side of the Chicago defense and send a nice cross to a charging Roger Espinoza, who although shadowed by a Fire defender, could have knocked it in, but instead saw the ball go by him. While the Wizards kept pressuring, Chicago was playing the counter attack hoping for a KC mistake, which came in the 79th minute when a corner clearance allowed for Mike Banner to break free and move towards Wizards’ territory. As he ran he was tackled from behind by Zoltan who earned a straight red and brought his KC debut to an end.

At that point short handed and a goal down KC again got sloppy on another throw in and the Fire countered for their second goal of the game.

Player Ratings:
Kevin Hartman (4), Lance Watson (6), Jimmy Conrad (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5), Matt Besler (3) (Michael Harrington (5)), Santiago Hirsig (6) (Herculez Gomez (5)), Jack Jewsbury (5), Kurt Morsink (6), Roger Espinoza (5), Josh Wolff (5), Adam Cristman (5)(Zoltan Hercegfalvi (5) He deserved a 6 but that tackle was an automatic -1).

Comment: Like I said before, I liked this team more than the one that had been playing for Onalfo recently (not only the Dallas debacle one). The passing seem better, the effort and teamwork seemed better and the chances to score were there. Granted, against Dallas we hit rock bottom and anything else looks better, I think I’ll give the Vermes experiment a few more weeks to pass final juddgement. I think the defense let the team down yesterday, and the left side of the team (Bessler/Harrington and Espinoza) had an overall bad day. Our forwards need to put the clear chances in the net, the 2 Josh Wolff had, and the Espinoza and Hirsig chances should have at least landed us one goal. At least our total shots and the ones on goal did increase which I guess could be considered a step in the right direction.

On the Ref: I like Jorge Gonzalez but it did seem that he let some Fire players get away with a few things, especially the Justin Mapp “delaying a restart play” which he did by clipping Hirsig from behind when he was going to take a free kick (granted the math isn’t always clear cut but according to FIFA it’s a yellow for delaying a restart and as far as I know it’s also a yellow for a tackle from behind; how he only gets a yellow escapes me). Also, while I do agree on the Zoltan red card, Michael Harrington took a stud slide to knee 5 minutes later (which is far more dangerous) and it got the Fire player only a yellow. Still my biggest gripe with Gonzalez was allowing the Fire players to just waste time, especially Jon Busch who took as long as he wanted every time there was a goal kick. After all that I will say that I don’t blame him for the loss, if we don’t score we are not going to win.

Now it’s out to California to meet the Earthquakes. Here are the highlights:

I can understand in part the idea that Vermes wants to live and die by the players he has brought to the team in the last 3 years with the hope that somewhere he can show OnGoal and the Kansas City faithful that he can actually scout for players (and that not all players but Lopez are busts) but I also believe that if this approach blows up in his face and he doesn’t make the playoffs and have some success there, he will be gone, and deservedly so.

I could be wrong (and hope to be) but unless Hungarian import and Vermes “discovery” Zoltan can renew a stagnant office and the return of Jimmy Conrad can plug the gap in the defense that allowed 6 goals, we might be seeing more of the same from KC when an offensively strong Chicago visits this weekend. It looks like Vermes will play Harrington in midfield (where he has seemed lost), Hirsig will be trying to control Blanco and hoping not to play him on for a score like he did Donovan and Blanco in consecutive games, and the KC offense will try and lead the team to its first win in more than one month. All with very similar personnel, meaning that either Vermes can work magic, or the players weeks back really just quit on Onalfo.

Whatever happens I just hope (sadly) that we can at least pull off a point but I doubt it. I expect Chicago to come in hard and fast and with a midfield that will give us fits and with an offense that, contrary to ours, can score goals in bunches.

With the Western Conference seemingly breaking the trend this year and taking 5 playoff spots, losing these points at home might be (and pardon the cliché) the first nail in the Wizards’ playoff coffin.

My prediction: CHI 3 – KC 1

What do you think?

Who wins this Sunday?(trends)

From the e-mail you can really feel the passion the man has for the team and how much he cares for the players he coaches; too bad circumstances as a whole (Coach/Technical Director/Players) did not produce a winning combination in KC since Mr. Onalfo as a person was very respectable and well liked and one can only hope for good things to happen to someone like that.

Don’t get me wrong, I have been advocating change for a long time and I do believe his firing was justified, but I just don’t think that he and his assistant were the only ones that should have gone through the door. He was responsible for what happened on the field: the handling of the players, the tactics, the decisions, etc, but he is only partially to blame on who is in the team and the players that were brought in. For this I also blame the Technical Director now coach Peter Vermes, and baring a great run for KC I believe he should be out the door at the end of the year, since he and Onalfo are responsible for the crop of players that are in KC today.

That being said, here is the e-mail from the Coach.

Herschel,

Curt Onalfo
Head Coach – KC Wizards

Good Luck Curt and Kris. You both take care.

Possible Scenario #1:

Possible Scenario # 2

Possible Scenario #3: NOTE: THIS CLIP DOES HAVE CRUDE LANGUAGE

Possible Scenario #4

To make a long story short (since I’m traveling for work) the Wizards again seemed to dominate the run of play but with little or no impact when moving forward. The only real chances came from KC, mainly on plays from Harrington and Lopez but were controlled by Matt Reiss who was able to keep his injury plagued team from allowing a goal.

Luckily New England never really threatened the Wizards goal, since one goal probably would have been enough to win the game the way KC’s offense is playing nowadays. Although much more solid in the back, the KC midfield did little to create scoring chances, and the few that were created were wasted.

At this point I would like to see a change in the midfield for the LA game since more than likely Arnaud and Espinoza won’t be back, but it seems Onalfo in enamored with Michael Harrington in midfield instead of his more natural position in the back. Still, whatever he decides to do we need more playmakers in the middle to feed our forwards so they can play a bit further ahead instead of having to come back for balls in the midfield.

Now KC has 2 weeks before the next game against LA. It would seem we’ll still be shorthanded and won’t have Watson in the back. Hopefully our attack will somehow improve and we can at least start scoring again.

Here are the highlights: