As the Sporting Kansas City World Turns – Part 1 – Losing Players

By: SombraAla | January 14th, 2011

Alright, so the SuperDraft has now come to a conclusion and the Kansas City Wizards, er, Sporting Kansas City (Wizards) have said goodbye to a few players, hello to others and managed to prevent goodbyes to a few as well. So it’s about time that I get some writing done… you know, because all of you have been deprived of my brilliant thinking and analysis.

Ok, ok, so perhaps ‘brilliant’ is a but of a stretch… ok… a lot of a stretch, but perhaps you all could just play nice and pretend like you agree.

Anyway, so what all has happened in the SKCW world? (or SKC(W)? – I kinda like how that looks)

Losing Players

It is an unfortunate part of the business of professional sports that players end up leaving – esp. to rival teams. I’d love for every SKCW player to be like Zavagnin, retiring and joining the org in a non-playing capacity, or even Victor Sasharine (a.k.a Sasha Victorine) – unfortunately playing outside of KC for a stint before coming back. Obviously it isn’t feasible to keep everyone until they retire and then keep them around afterwards, and maybe I just get too attached the individual players… but I do find it somewhat sad when it has to happen.

So who did we lose (so far): Jonathan Leathers was picked up by Vancouver in the expansion draft and Aaron Hohlbein, Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad were all lost to the new re-entry draft. Also seems that Nick Kounekakis was released… oh yea, and Jamar Beasley now plays for the new Missouri Comets. Before I go any further, I want to make sure to wish each of these players all the best in all their future endevours and that we appreciate their time (short or long).

Leathers and Hohlbein

I’ve been a fan of Leathers, even though he seemed to struggle a few times in his last few appearances. I tend to blame most player regression on the lack of a reserve league and therefore a lack of game time against equally matched opposition, so I have high hopes that Leathers, and for that matter Hohlbein as well, can make some improvements now that we have a reserve league back. Regardless, it’s been enjoyable to watch them play, esp. in the games at Swope, and again I wish them all the best.

Nick the South African Greek and Jamar Beasley

I didn’t really get attached to Nick or Jamar, mostly since they were never seen in league matches and I never saw them at Swope (most of the reserve matches I saw were earlier in the season). There was an unconfirmed rumor that Nick was having some health troubles, so I obviously hope that everything is ok there.

Wolff and Conrad

But the two bigger names in the list of players not returning are obviously Josh Wolff and Jimmy Conrad.

Joshua David “Josh” Wolff – ‘03-06, ‘08-10

Wolff was not a huge surprise – his playing time was on a downward trend throughout 2010. Some would say he’s spent, with a number of those people arguing that he has been for a year or more, and I don’t think he’d argue that he is the same player that he was 10 years ago, but I tend to think that he still has a bit in the tank. Sure, the warning light is on and it’s hard to say how many miles he’ll go, but he provided a spark when he came on as a sub last season and I expect that he can fill that role for another before hanging up the boots. That said – I don’t think that SKCW was wrong in letting him go; when it comes down to it, it wouldn’t make sense to keep him with the amount of salary cap space he was using. When you consider negotiating his salary down – well, sure, there’s a point that he would be worth keepig, but then from his perspective, there are other teams which have a bigger need for him and therefore would be willing to pay him more.

Wolff was not always the most popular player at KC; in fact, he was villified at times by some of his harsher critics. I think that many were very harsh on him and was very pleased with his work rate in the 4-3-3 early in last season. I wish him the best personal success at D. C. United, but can’t bring myself to actually wish anything positive upon DCU as a team. I guess I hope that he gets traded to a different team and then has success (though less than SKCW) against everyone but SKCW.

James “Jimmy” Conrad – ‘03-10

Finally, there’s Jimmy Conrad. As far as pure on-field/salary cap reasons behind the move, I would have to say I agree. Again, much like Wolff, I don’t think he is void in terms of usefullness and whatnot, but his utility has definitely decresed over the years. He really never seemed to be the same Jimmy Conrad after that horrible concussion in the Gold Cup in 2009, which is a huge shame, really. It’s no secret that we had some trouble with our backline in 2010, especially with giving up soft goals, and unfortunately Jimmy seemed to be losing a step (I feel the red cards in the USA/Honduras USMNT friendly and vs. Manchester United games are telling). That said, I don’t think Conrad deserves even most of the blame for the soft goals, and I prefer a defender that isn’t afraid of a call going against him when defending his goal (that doesn’t mean he should be wreckless or that getting reds and giving PKs away is a good thing, just that he isn’t so worried about these that he plays timidly). I expect him to contribute solidly at Chivas USA.

However there is another side to Jimmy Conrad that, in my opinion, could never be replaced by any young, athletic, talented acquisition – or anyone at all, for that matter. That would be the off-the-field stuff. If you’ve ever seen or heard interviews with the man, read his writings for ESPN or met him in person then you know what I’m talking about. More than just being very funny (which he is), he’s just a very great person in general.

There is no replacing Jimmy Conrad. I know I’m not the only one who hoped he would finish his career in KC and immediately move on to make our television match commentary so entertaining that even the most ardant of soccer haters would secretly DVR the games and enjoy them secretely. There was some speculation that he would move back to California after his career was done anyway, or it’s entirely possible that he comes back to the organization after his playing days are over, a la Sasha, so all may not be lost (or would’ve been lost anyway). No matter which way you look at it, though, he will be missed.

<Insert names of players leaving the team in 2011 here>

Surely there will be other losses as we approach the start of the season, though the roster size expansion will mitigate the losses to an extent. Ultimately, though, all these changes are great – surely there are no teams which couldn’t make changes to get better in some way. The willingness to make changes and make tough decisions means that the team is trying to improve – let’s all just hope that they are successful in these attempts.

Coming soon: Enough about who we lost, let’s talk about who we’re getting! a.k.a. As the Sporting Kansas City World Turns – Part 2 – Incoming Players