Mid-Year Wishes Update

Back in December I wrote my yearly wishes for this coming year. Now that we are over halfway through the year, it's time to look at my wishes and see how they're coming.

1. Save Bannister Mall Petition Fails - Well that failed in January/early February. So that looks to be taken care of. We haven't heard from Richard Tolbert in a while, so it looks like that may be out of the way. With the governor signing the budget, there is only 1 step left for the stadium construction to begin.

2. Public Ground Breaking for the Wizards SSS in Early 08 - This one hasn't happened. It looks like they won't begin construction until August at the earliest. From looking at the situation in retrospect, this idea was almost impossible with the needing for the budget to be signed for it to go through.

3. Eddie Johnson Stays in KC - Left in January, and signed with Fulham. Bought out his contract and has played fairly sparingly for Fulham last season.

4. More Consistent Goal Scoring - This one is a no as well. The Wizards don't really have a consistent goal scorer so far this season. We have both Claudio Lopez and Jimmy Conrad leading the team in league goals with 3. Ivan Trujillo and Lopez have 4 goals in all competitions. More consistent goal scoring is going to be needed to compete this season.

5. Good Start to US Qualifying for South Africa 2010 - Beating Barbados 9-0 on aggregate is a good start, although the away leg was only 1-0. Things kick off again in August.

6. Some Silverware - Well the way the league has gone so far this season, the team likely isn't going to be getting the MLS Cup or Supporters Shield. After the game last night, the Wizards are into the US Open Cup Quarterfinals. That right now has to be the team's best bet for silverware.

7. A Friendly Against a Foreign Team for the Wizards - I'm not excited about the timing of the game, the day after a league game, and right after a stretch of 5 games in 13 days, but we have a friendly, against sister club, Atlas. I don't like the timing, it's going to be basically all reserves, and the reserves bench players for the most part in the game. But still, I probably can't complain since the team did bring Atlas in.

8. Sell Outs at CAB - Three sellouts in the six home games so far this season. Not a terrible stat for the Wizards. This is especially true with the fact that the three non sellouts were: a moved game time (for KU's Final Four appearance), a Wednesday night game, and a chilly Saturday evening game. Hopefully the majority of the remaining games for the Wizards will be sellouts.