A Look at the Re-Entry Draft List

MLS released the list of players that are available for the Re-Entry Draft next week. Up until Friday team's can still negotiate with their players and potentially reach a deal that would see the player stay with their current club. So fans of Luke Sassano (sorry I'm not sure Shavar Thomas has many fans in KC at this point) don't have to get worried quite yet that the midfielder will not be back. Both Sassano and Thomas did not have their options picked up by the club. If no deal is reached by Friday, then players will go into the first stage of the draft, which takes place on Monday the 5th. In the first stage, teams pick up a player's option or make them a bona fide offer. Per what was released last year, a bona fide offer is considered the same same guaranteed salary they made this past season if they are 25 years old and at least 4 years experience or 105% of their 2011 salary if they are 30 with 8 years. The other potential is a player under 25 with 3 years experience that could be picked up at their option price if their option wasn't picked up.

The second stage on December 12th, there wouldn't be any specific contract requirements.

Last year in the first stage, only one player, Joseph Ngwenya by DC. This year I think we could see a few more players taken, but I think the majority will go in the second round.

When it comes to KC, it'll be interesting to see which way the team goes. There's not really a guy there that I could see coming in and starting, but there are a few players that I think could add some quality depth to the team heading into the 2012 season. Especially with much of our movement so far this offseason being in the midfield, it's possible KC could try to add depth there or in the center of defense. KC could also use another striker on the bench, but I don't see any of the forwards available as ones that would fit well in KC's system. So here's a few players that I think could potential contribute for KC.

Baggio Husidic - Chicago - M - $82,500 - Maybe more of a second stage option if you can get him to take a lower salary, but I think Husidic could be a good depth edition for KC. Drafted the same year as Matt Besler and Graham Zusi, Husidic made 50 league appearances for the Fire in his 3 years with the club. He graduated from the Generation Adidas program last year. I think he could be a good potential back up for Zusi in the midfield.

Ryan Cochrane - New England - D - $70,000 - The 28 year old defender started 22 games for the for the Revolution last year. He too may be a little more expensive than what KC wants to use in the first stage, but could prove to be decent depth in the center of defense. Of course with Daneil Cyrus, Lawrence Olum, and the possibility of Nick Cardenas and center back may not be a requirement for KC.

Jean Alexandre - Salt Lake - M - $42,000 - A more defensive minded midfielder, Alexandre pulled a Diop this past year for Salt Lake filling it at forward as well. The Haitian international could join his countryman, Peterson Joseph. His salary is definitely appealing for KC.

We'll see if KC goes for any of these, or other players.

Former SKC Wizards Update

Another week of former SKC Wizards updates. The MLS season is over, but there's been a lot of busy stuff going on this week. Today the league announced the players entered into the Re-entry draft, plenty of former players are available, including Adam, Cristman, Taylor Graham, Frankie Hejduk, Jonathan Leathers, Rauwshan McKenzie, Kurt Morsink, Ryan Pore, and Scott Sealy. Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Eddie Johnson
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Michal Mravec
JT Murray
Anthony Noriega
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Davy Arnaud - Montreal - Season is over.
Stephane Auvray - New York - Season is over.
Adam Cristman - LA - Season is over.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Taylor Graham - Seattle - Season is over.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Season is over.
Frankie Hejduk - LA - Season is over.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Season is over.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Season is over.
Mike Jones - New York - Season is over.
Chris Konopka - MLS Pool keeper - Season is over.
Jonathan Leathers - Vancouver - Season is over.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Kurt Morsink - DC - Season is over.
Ryan Pore - Montreal - Season is over.
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Season is over.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Season is over.
Tyson Wahl - Montreal - Season is over.
Josh Wolff - DC - Season is over.

NASL
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Season is over.
Aaron Hohlbein - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.
Amir Lowery - Montreal - Season is over.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.

USL
Stephen Armstrong - Charleston - Out of season.
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Out of season.
Tom Gray - Pittsburgh - Out of season.
Neal Kitson - Rochester - Out of season.
Akeem Priestley - LA - Out of season.
Yomby William - Richmond - Out of season.
John Wilson - Charleston - Out of season.

PDL
Byron Carmichael - Ocean City - Out of season.
Sergei Raad - FC Jax Destroyers - Out of season.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Out of season.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Scored 2 goals in Wichita's 16-11 win over Norfolk. Had a goal and an assist in Wichita's 13-10 loss to Milwaukee.
Nick Garcia - Kansas Magic - Did not have a game this week.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Had a goal and an assist in Baltimore's 26-9 win over Rochester. Had a goal and an assist in Baltimore's 18-10 win over Syracuse.
Neal Kitson - Rochester Lancers - Was waived by the Lancers.
JT Murray - Louisville Lightning - Did not have a game this week.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play for the Comets this week.
Yomby William - Norfolk SharX - Played in Norfolk's 16-11 loss to Wichita. Played in Norfolk's 19-9 loss to Missouri.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Did not have a game this week.

International
Vicente Arze - Diosgyor - Hungary - Started and played 87 minutes in Diosgyor's 3-2 loss to Ferencvaros. Started and played 68 minutes in Diosgyor's 1-1 draw with Gyori.
Sunil Chhetri - Mohun Bagan - India - No game this week, on trial with Rangers.
Eloy Colombano - Ferro Carril Sud - Argentina - Beat Villa Mitre 3-2.
Pablo Escobar - Deportivo Cali - Colombia - Did not play for Deportivo Cali.
Herculez Gomez - Tecos - Mexico - Apertura season is over.
Zoltan Hercegfalvi - Honved - Hungary - Did not play in Honved's game this week.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - No game this week.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Defeated HASK 2-0.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Tied Nistru 1-1.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 74 minutes in San Martin's 2-0 win over Cienciano.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes in Krasnodar's 0-0 draw with Tom' Tomsk.
Matt Taylor - SC Paderborn 07 - Germany - Started and played 65 minutes in Paderborn's 2-2 draw with Frankfurt.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - No game this week.

Sassano, Thomas, Nielsen, and Bravo News

Some quick bits of news on four Kansas City players from this past season. First, with regards to the re-entry draft (more on the draft as a whole later). Kansas City has two players that have been played into the draft, Luke Sassano and Shavar Thomas. Neither one is incredibly surprising. Thomas was 100% expected after he wasn't waived, the Jamaican international made only 3 substitute appearances in MLS play this past season. Thomas, who made $160,000 last year, came to KC last year from Philadelphia via trade and helped KC to stop some of the bleeding in the middle of defense, but fell so far down the depth chart KC wasn't even dressing a back up center back, instead if Matt Besler or Aurelien Collin weren't able to go, Julio Cesar would drop from midfield to defense. Sassano, who started off on a 3 month contract, earning a contract for the rest of the season after impressing enough, finished the season making $51,600. He played in 9 games, starting 5 after coming to KC last year via trade LA in a trade of re-entry draft participants as KC sent Frankie Hejduk the other direction. Sassano scored his first goal in the team's 4-1 win over Dallas.

Last week it was announced that Jimmy Nielsen has signed a contract extension with Sporting KC. Word out of Denmark is that Nielsen will see a pay raise of about $76,000 over his $200,000 last year (1,530,000 Danish Krone equals $276,000 US). A decent pay raise for the Dane, one that he has probably earned over the past two years with his play. (H/T to The Front Men)

Finally, some Omar Bravo news, also courtesy of The Front Men originally. Bravo's agent, Ruben Perez told ESPN Deportes that Bravo is not going to be going to Mexico on loan during the offseason. There had been rumors of Tecos and Atlas both being interested in bringing in the former Mexican international on loan. But all that talk all died down a few weeks ago when Tecos said that they were going to be unable to do a deal because of KC's demands. With KC wanting Bravo back for the beginning of the 2012 season, Bravo would have only been able to play 7 games in Mexico, which wasn't worth it to Tecos. At that point you expected that Bravo wouldn't be going anywhere, but this confirms it.

Date of 2012 Home Opener Announced

Today MLS announced the dates for all teams' home openers for the 2012 season. Sporting Kansas City will have their first home game on March 17th, St. Patrick's Day. That's certainly going to make for a fun day for the Cauldron enjoying St. Patrick's Day and a game at the same time. KC will open home season the same weekend as 3 other teams, Montreal, Salt Lake, and Philadelphia, which means that any of the other 15 other teams could be KC's first opponent.

The weekend of the 17th is actually the second weekend of the MLS season, so unless Sporting KC is the lucky team that gets a bye in the first weekend, the 17th will be Sporting KC's second game of the season. On the 10th, 11th, or 12th, KC could open the season against one of 9 opponents. They could be making a trip to Colorado, DC, LA, San Jose, Seattle, Vancouver (all Saturday), Chivas, Dallas (all Sunday), or Portland (Monday) for First Kick. Certainly could make for some good road trip opportunities to start the season.

The actual opponents and the rest of the schedule will hopefully be out by the end of the year at the latest.

Sporting Trade for Nagamura

The final of the three announcements for yesterday was finally made earlier today with the announcement that Sporting KC had acquired Chivas USA midfielder, Paulo Nagamura. In return, Sporting KC sent the 1st round Supplemental draft pick that KC originally received from Chivas in the Ryan Smith trade. To make things not as confusing, let's put it this way, Sporting KC traded Smith to Chivas for Nagamura and a 3rd round Supplemental draft pick.

The 28 year old Brazilian, Nagamura was a member for both Sao Paulo and Arsenal's youth systems but never played for either side. In MLS he has spent time in the league with 3 teams, LA, Toronto, and Chivas. He spent 2 years with LA before being selected by TFC in the expansion draft. Nagamura only spent a short period of time with Toronto before being traded to Chivas. He spent 3 years with Chivas, scoring 8 goals before moving to Mexico to play with Tigres. After half a year in Mexico, playing 14 games he came back to Chivas. His time back with the Goats though has been marred with injury as he only made 26 appearances in the season and a half back with the club.

Depending on the situation this could be a good move for KC. The first thing to keep an eye on is how much Nagamura's salary ends up being. Last season, Nagamura made $225,000. Not exactly the bigger cut in salary that most people (myself included) were hoping/expecting after the team traded Davy Arnaud away. Not sure at this time if Nagamura is going to be able to break the starting lineup in the midfield for KC, at that salary I'm not sure you want that sitting on your bench though. So hopefully we could see him take a bit of a pay cut. But we'll see.

Zambrano to Colombia Official

Word out of Colombia earlier today stated that Sporting KC assistant, Octavio Zambrano, had accepted the position to coach Colombian second division side, Deportivo Pereira. Throughout the day there was word that nothing was quite official and that Zambrano was just on personal leave from the team. But late today, the team officially announced the departure of Peter Vermes top assistant. Zambrano came to KC after Vermes was named the permanent head coach during the offseason after the 2009 season and had spent two years as his assistant. It'll be interesting to see who, if anyone, Vermes will replace Zambrano with before the 2012 season. Currently he still has Kerry Zavagnin, Zoran Savic, goalkeeping coach, John Pascarella, and fitness coach, Mateus Manoel, so Vermes may not look to add another assistant. But it'll be interesting to see how KC does next year. When Zambrano was a head coach in the league his teams were fairly high scoring, and KC had turned into a high scoring team this year. It'll be interesting to see how much of that was due to Zambrano this next year. Good luck to Zambrano in Colombia.

Thank You Davy Arnaud

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson

So one of the longest careers in Sporting Kansas City Wizards history ended today with Davy Arnaud being traded from Sporting Kansas City to the Montreal Impact for Seth Sinovic and allocation money. I've never been good at eloquently writing down how good a player was for this team or how much I'll miss seeing them in a Kansas City jersey. I've learned that the best way for me to show my appreciation for that player is to look at what I enjoy, some stats and share some of the highest points for that player.

So here's a look at Davy Arnaud's Sporting Kansas City Wizards career.

Arnaud scored the 300th competitive goal at home on 6/25/2005 against Chivas USA. He also scored the 200th league goal away from home, against Colorado on 5/19/2007, and the 300th competitive goal away from home on 8/28/2010 against the LA Galaxy.

He finished his KC career tied with Josh Wolff for the second most league goals in team history with 43. He had sole possession of second place in all competitions. In his career he scored 43 league goals, 4 playoff goals, and 5 Open Cup goals for Sporting KC.

The 2011 season was only Arnaud's second in a KC uniform that he failed to score, the other, his rookie year in 2002 when he only appeared in 6 games.

Arnaud finished 3rd all time for assists in both league play and all competitions with 34 and 39 respectively behind Preki and Chris Klein.

He has the 4th most game winners in league play behind Preki, Klein, and Wolff with 10. He's tied for second with Klein, behind only Preki in all competition game winners with 13.

We all loved Davy's fire as well, although it occasionally got the better of him, he finished with the 2nd most yellow cards in league and all competitions, behind only Kerry Zavagnin. He also is in second for most red cards all time in league and all competitions with 4 and 5 respectively, behind only Nick Garcia.

Arnaud finishes his career with the 3rd most league minutes, with 19,399 minutes played for KC. In the same position in all competitions at 21,607, behind Zavagnin and Garcia.

He finishes his career with KC as the all time league in league appearances with 240, and tied for second with Garcia for all competition appearances with 273.

In terms of starts, he finished in 3rd in both categories with 213 in league and 234 in all competitions.

A career that certainly will make him known to Sporting KC fans for years to come. Davy thank you for your service to the club, and good luck to you in Montreal.

Arnaud, Sinovic, and Nielsen

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson

Sporting KC was busy today, making one trade, another player announcement, and talk of a second trade taking place. It started during the weekend with a Tweet by Robb Heineman stating that there would be an announcement today. At 1:30 we got the first of the announcements, a surprising trade.

Sporting KC sent team captain, and longest tenured player, Davy Arnaud to the Montreal Impact for Seth Sinovic, who the Impact had selected in the expansion draft last week and allocation money. Arnaud, the club leader in league appearances heads to only his second professional club. Honestly this is a good move for both sides. KC bring back a local kid who had become a solid starter for KC this past season. On top of that they get allocation money from the expansion Impact. The Impact on the other hand get a veteran presence in the midfield and potential captain to help coach Jesse Marsch lead the side. I've said previously that I thought Arnaud would be the type of player that Marsch would want. KC protected Arnaud in the draft, Montreal took another left back in Sinovic, and the two were able to work out a deal.

It sucks because KC loses one of the faces of the franchise, a guy that had typified what seemed to be a blue collar feel around the team. Arnaud is the favorite of many players on KC and combined with losing Jimmy Conrad and Josh Wolff last year in the re-entry draft, and Jack Jewsbury via trade and many of the players that people personified with the old Kansas City Wizards are now gone. The team's longest tenured player is now back up goalkeeper, Eric Kronberg followed by Michael Harrington.

Still in the end, I really think both teams made out really well in this trade with KC continuing to get younger and Montreal getting a veteran leader.

In other news today, Sporting KC announced that they have reached a contract extension with goalkeeper, Jimmy Nielsen. Nielsen has signed a contract extension through the end of the 2013 season, with an option for the 2014 season. I like this move in some ways and not in others. I think Nielsen can still be a top level keeper in this league for a few more years, but would have also liked to see KC start to hand the reigns over to Kronberg, who I think can start in this league. Kronberg will be 30 by the time the option on the contract comes up. And while that's young in goalkeeper years, Kronberg may not look to stick around that long.

During the announcement regarding the trade, Peter Vermes mentioned that the team was looking to make another trade that would help to make the Arnaud trade more focused. To me that would seem to point to KC picking up a midfielder, but we'll have to wait and see until KC makes the announcement for us to know who KC picked up and what they gave up.

Comets Beat Sharx

I didn't make it out to the Independence Events Center for the game last night, but watched the majority of the game on the league's website. The Comets let the Norfolk Sharx stick around for a half, in fact the Sharx grabbed only their second lead of the season when they went up 5-2 in the first quarter. The Comets though immediately tied it up to close the first quarter 5-5. A goal for each side made it 7-7 at the half. An 12-0 run in the 3rd and 4th quarter though gave the Comets separation, it was lead by 3 point goals from Vahid Assadpour and Geison in the 3rd. Here's the full release from the Comets:

(Independence, MO) The Thanksgiving weekend was good to the Comets after a convincing 19-9 win over the visiting Norfolk SharX. Five different players had goals and nine players scored a point overall on the night. Leading the way was Geison with two goals (one of them a three pointer) and an assist for six total points. Right behind him was Stefan Stokic with five points and Vahid Assadpour with four. League MVP Byron Alvarez also kept his 10 game point scoring streak alive with four points of his own…and a halftime marriage proposal to boot.

The Norfolk SharX came into the Independence Events Center still looking for their first win of the season and the Comets were determined to make sure it didn’t happen here. Byron Alvarez got things started only a minute into the game after collecting a cross-field pass from Coady Andrews, putting the Comets up 2-0. Gersen Dos Santos tied things up a few minutes later and Brady Bryant’s three pointer actually gave the SharX a 5-2 lead. That was only the second lead the team had held all season and it would be their last of the night. Stefan Stokic collected an errant defensive clear outside of the arc and buried his first goal of night to tie the game at 5-5. Dos Santos and Stokic would trade goals again in the second quarter and the two teams went into the locker room at half tied 7-7.

Fans were treated to a special surprise at halftime as forward Byron Alvarez and the Comets staff planned an elaborate scheme to bring his girlfriend, Jenni, on the field. Thinking she was participating in a halftime contest, she was led blindfolded onto field and, with the help of fans, directed to the midline. There, the blindfold was removed and she saw Alvarez on one knee with flowers and a ring. Fans cheered as she answered with a resounding “OF COURSE!”

Whether it was the halftime engagement or Coach Kim Roentved’s motivating halftime speech, the Comets came out for the 3rd quarter firing on all cylinders. Geison added to his team leading goals total with a two-point and a three-point goal in the third quarter. Another three-pointer from Assadpour gave the Comets a 15-7 lead. Overall the Comets outshot the SharX 15-0 in the quarter.

The Comets cruised through the 4th quarter, controlling play throughout. Neto and Byron Alvarez added two-point goals. Norfolk’s Cecil Lewis was able to get the SharX on the board in the second half, but it was not nearly enough as the Comets walked away with a 19-9 win.

The Comets have two games this week. They make their first trip of the season to Milwaukee on Friday night at 7pm. Fans can catch all of the action at the Official Watch Party Location of the Comets, the Brewtop Pub and Patio in Lee’s Summit or on MISLLiveSoccer.com. The Comets return home Sunday December 4th to take on the Syracuse Silver Knights at 3:10pm. The US Marine Corp will be on-hand collecting new & unwrapped toys for their annual Toys 4 Tots program. Tickets are available by calling the Independence Events Center Box Office or going to Ticketmaster.com

For more information about the Comets, Season Tickets or Group Outings please call Jeff Husted (816-478-7870) or email jhusted@cometsindoorsoccer.com.

MLS 2011 Average Attendance

photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

It's amazing what a new stadium, with a capacity over 10,385 can do for a team's average attendance. Combine that with a team that is doing well on the field and an atmosphere that has vaulted the Cauldron up into the upper echelon of supporters' groups and you'll see a massive increase in attendance. That's what happened for Sporting KC this year. As I documented throughout the season, KC easily set a new all time high in attendance this past year, finishing the season with 17,810 for their average attendance. In the 5 previous seasons, KC had finished last 4 of those seasons, the only exception was last year when KC finished ahead of San Jose who also played in a small temporary venue.

This season though, KC finished in the top half of the league in average attendance, finishing 8th behind Portland and Philadelphia, but ahead of Houston and Salt Lake. Here's the average attendance rankings

1. Seattle - 38,495
2. LA - 23,335
3. Vancouver - 20,408
4. Toronto - 20,267
5. New York - 19,691
6. Portland - 18,827
7. Philadelphia - 18,280
8. KANSAS CITY - 17,810
9. Houston - 17,694
10. Salt Lake - 17,594
11. DC - 15,196
12. Colorado - 14,838
13. Chivas - 14,830
14. Chicago - 14,273
15. New England - 13,222
16. Dallas - 12,861
17. Columbus - 12,185
18. San Jose - 11,858

Hopefully next year KC can increase their attendance since they won't have a 2 and a half month home stand.

English Press Strike Again

Photo courtesy of Jarred Donalson

Teal Bunbury didn't even make it to England to begin his training stint before transfer rumors started this year. Last year while training with Stoke City, the English press jumped on it and said that Bunbury was trialing with the EPL side and that the Potters were interested in buying the KC forward.

This year with his training stint at Bolton the English press have already turned it into rumors of buying. Reports are that Owen Coyle is interested in "swooping for the US international". We learned last year how the English press exaggerates these types of stories, and we're seeing it again with Bolton.

Speaking of Bunbury and his training with Bolton (and possibly Newcastle), word now is that he might not go. According to Greg Seltzer, there might be a US Olympic team camp in December which may keep Bunbury from going to England. Bunbury missed the last Olympic camp in Germany because of his ankle injury, but is expected to play a role in qualifying.

Former SKC Wizards Update

Here's your former SKC Wizards update for this week. Lots of news, including 6 new former Wizards. Jeferson, Scott Lorenz, Craig Rocastle, Seth Sinovic, Ryan Smith, and Milos Stojcev are all now classified officially as former Wizards. Also in the news is the movement of Tyson Wahl, who was traded from Seattle to Montreal for allocation money. Also congrats to Adam Cristman and Frankie Hejduk on winning MLS Cup. Here's the rest of your update.

Active without a club or unknown
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Eddie Johnson
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Michal Mravec
JT Murray
Anthony Noriega
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Stephane Auvray - New York - Season is over.
Adam Cristman - LA - Started and played 57 minutes in LA's 2-1 win over Houston in the MLS Cup final.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Taylor Graham - Seattle - Season is over.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Season is over.
Frankie Hejduk - LA - Dressed but did not play in LA's 2-1 win over Houston in the MLS Cup final.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Season is over.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Season is over.
Mike Jones - New York - Season is over.
Chris Konopka - MLS Pool keeper - Season is over.
Jonathan Leathers - Vancouver - Season is over.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Kurt Morsink - DC - Season is over.
Ryan Pore - Portland - On loan to Montreal.
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Season is over.
Seth Sinovic - Montreal - Season is over.
Ryan Smith - Chivas - Season is over.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Season is over.
Tyson Wahl - Montreal - Season is over.
Josh Wolff - DC - Season is over.

NASL
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Season is over.
Aaron Hohlbein - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.
Amir Lowery - Montreal - Season is over.
Ryan Pore - Montreal - Season is over.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.

USL
Stephen Armstrong - Charleston - Out of season.
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Out of season.
Tom Gray - Pittsburgh - Out of season.
Neal Kitson - Rochester - Out of season.
Akeem Priestley - LA - Out of season.
Yomby William - Richmond - Out of season.
John Wilson - Charleston - Out of season.

PDL
Byron Carmichael - Ocean City - Out of season.
Sergei Raad - FC Jax Destroyers - Out of season.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Out of season.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Scored 2 goals in Wichita's 12-6 loss to Baltimore.
Nick Garcia - Kansas Magic - Played in Kansas' 8-7 win over Waza.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Played in Baltimore's 10-8 win over Missouri. Scored a goal in Baltimore's 12-6 win over Wichita.
Neal Kitson - Rochester Lancers - Did not play in Rochester's 22-13 win over Syracuse. Did not play in Rochester's 22-13 win over Syracuse on Wednesday.
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Sockers - Did not play in San Diego's 7-6 win over Anaheim.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in either of Missouri's games this week.
Yomby William - Norfolk SharX - Did not play in Norfolk's 21-7 loss to Milwaukee.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Had an assist in Anaheim's 7-6 loss to San Diego.

International
Vicente Arze - Diosgyor - Hungary - Started and played 90 minutes in Diosgyor's 1-1 draw with Zalaegerszegi TE.
Sunil Chhetri - Mohun Bagan - India - Started and played 90 minutes in Mohun Bagan's 1-0 win over East Bengal. Started and palyed 90 minutes in Mohun Bagan's 3-2 loss to Prayag United.
Eloy Colombano - Ferro Carril Sud - Argentina - Lost to Grupo Universidad 4-1, tied Liniers 0-0.
Pablo Escobar - Deportivo Cali - Colombia - Did not play for Deportivo Cali.
Herculez Gomez - Tecos - Mexico - Apertura season is over.
Zoltan Hercegfalvi - Honved - Hungary - Did not play in Honved's game this week.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - No game this week.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Beat Croatia Sesvete 1-0 in league. Lost 2-1 to Cibalia in the cup.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Tied Academia UTM 0-0. Beat Sazan Ceadir Lunga 6-0.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - Started and played 75 minutes, scoring a goal in San Martin's 4-0 win over Sporting Cristal.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Krasnodar's 3-2 win over Spartak Nal'Chik.
Matt Taylor - SC Paderborn 07 - Germany - Came off the bench and played 13 minutes in Paderborn's 2-1 win over Karlsruher SC.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - No game this week.

Sporting KC Waive Four

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson

Sporting KC made 4 more roster moves today, waiving four players before today's waiver draft. KC waived Jeferson, Craig Rocastle, Milos Stojcev, and Scott Lorenz. Jeferson Rocastle, and Stojcev all three take up international spots that are now open to be used next year. Those 3 also are the only 3 that count against the salary cap, Lorenz was an off budget player making around $32,000. Those 3 though make about $550,000 against the cap (Jeferson $350,000, Rocastle $110,000, Stojcev $90,000). It certainly gives Kansas City some cap space to work with this offseason to sign potential players. In today's waiver draft none of the four were selected, in fact, only 1 player, Nizar Khalfan of Vancouver, was selected today in the draft by Philadelphia (he's best known to KC fans as the guy that had two assists in the 3-3 draw with the Whitecaps this year).

Jeferson played in 9 games, starting 8 of them since arriving in the summer. He looked really impressive in the first few games, specifically against Newcastle and then Toronto in league play. His pass to Omar Bravo for his first goal was what we expected to see plenty of throughout the season. Unfortunately that was the only instance of that we got from the Brazilian DP. This move was not at all surprising, in fact was really expected by most.

Rocastle appeared in 29 games over his two seasons with the team, but only 6 times this year after suffering an injury during the Gold Cup with Grenada. That combined with the emergence of Julio Cesar and Roger Espinoza in the midfield left Rocastle on the outside looking in. In 2010 though, Rocastle played in 23 games and helped to settle the midfield with Stephane Auvray and looked set to contribute a lot to KC this year. In the end though he had a skill set similar to Cesar and as a whole Cesar was just the better player.

Stojcev came in and started 6 of the first 7 games for KC, but appeared only sparingly the rest of the way. His last appearance for KC in a real game was in August against Portland. He did had 2 assists in league play, both in the draw with Vancouver, and a goal in KC's 3-0 win over the Chicago Fire PDL in the Open Cup. Unfortunately though Stojcev proved to be incredibly one footed. And not good enough to bring back visions of Preki.

Lorenz made one league appearance for Sporting KC, starting the team's 3-2 loss in Chicago in the second game of the season. He did appear in both of KC's Open Cup games this year as well, starting both of them. Lorenz, who was signed this offseason after spending the previous season with Minnesota. Lorenz returned to Minnesota during the season on loan, appeared in a number of Minnesota's games before returning back early from his loan.

At this point Jeferson is on his way back to Vasco where he will likely be loaned out again, or sold to another Brazilian club. Rocastle I expect to go back to England, possibly catching on with a League 2 side over there. Stojcev I expect will find his way back to Serbia or another Eastern European country to play. Lorenz can probably make it in the NASL or USL-Pro if he can't catch on with another MLS club. Good luck to each of them.

Sinovic to Montreal in Expansion Draft

During today's expansion draft I just about thought that Sporting KC would get out of the draft without losing a player. Montreal made 9 picks and a Sporting KC player had not been selected. Then with the 10th and final pick the Impact ripped the hearts out of many Sporting KC fans by selecting Seth Sinovic. Sinovic started 20 games for Sporting KC in league play this year upon returning to his home town team. The Creighton grad was picked up off of waivers after he was waived by the Revolution early in the season. Sinovic's first game with the club was a US Open Cup qualifier against his former club where he shined, even though it was against what would be no where near New England's first team. Sinovic got his chance to really step up during the Gold Cup after Roger Espinoza left to play with Honduras. Sinovic did so well that when Espinoza came back, he slotted into the midfield where he'd done well at the Gold Cup because he wasn't needed at the wingback position. He also kept Michael Harrington on the bench in a reserve role. In the end though Sinovic was the favorite to be taken as he was a consistent starter for a quality playoff team and was making $32,604.

It really does suck to lose him, he'd been a solid contributor, and combine that with the fact that he's from KC and it hurts just a little more. The one good thing in all of this is that KC does have some depth in this position. Harrington and Espinoza will likely be two candidates to take over the starting spot with Sinovic gone. Harrington can start on either wing back, and depending on the midfielder that is brought in, Espinoza could look to slot back into the left back position. Other options include Korede Aiyegbusi and even Kevin Ellis.

As of right now there appears to be no potential deal in place to try to bring Sinovic back to KC. But many fans are hoping that the team will work out some deal. It certainly sounds like KC is open to a deal as long as they don't have to give up the farm to bring him back.

Bunbury to Train with Bolton

photo courtesy Jarred Donalson

The offseason news has been coming along pretty quickly the past day or two. Like last year, Teal Bunbury is going to spend some time in England training with a Premier League side. Bunbury is going to apparently go train with Bolton.

Bunbury's supposed to spend two weeks in December with the Greater Manchester club. Bunbury apparently turned down the opportunity to train with Bundesliga side Hoffenheim to go to Bolton to train. There's apparently also rumors that he'll train with another English club.

Last year when training with Stoke, Bunbury scored a goal in the club's reserve league loss to Wigan during his training stint.

As last year, no matter what the press in England may say, this is NOT a trial.

Expansion Draft Unprotected List Out

Today the league released the list of players that have been exposed by their teams for Wednesday's expansion draft for the Montreal Impact. Plenty of arguments are made about how bad the expansion draft is. Teams do work to develop players than have to lose one of those players to an expansion team. Kansas City's list was what most people expected except for one exception. Kansas City protected Davy Arnaud, Matt Besler, Teal Bunbury, Julio Cesar, Aurelien Collin, Roger Espinoza, Kei Kamara, Chance Myers, Jimmy Nielsen, CJ Sapong, and Graham Zusi.

That leaves Korede Aiyegbusi, Omar Bravo, Daneil Cyrus, Birahim Diop, Jeferson, Michael Harrington, Eric Kronberg, Scott Lorenz, Lawrence Olum, Peterson Joseph, Craig Rocastle, Soony Saad, Luke Sassano, Seth Sinovic, Milos Stojcev, Shvar Thomas, and Konrad Warzycha.

The one surprise for most people was the inclusion of Arnaud on the list over someone like Sinovic. Sinovic had become a starter basically around the Gold Cup basically leading to Espinoza's move to the midfield. Arnaud on the other hand lost his starting spot as the season went on with Espinoza's emergence along with Cesar and Zusi holding down the midfield. Arnaud is the club's captain though and the all time leader in appearances. But I would have thought his salary of $250,000 would have been enough to keep Montreal from taking Arnaud.

I can also see the reason for the way things were done as well. With both Sinvoic and Harrington left available it would certainly seem those two would be the favorites to be taken. Both have proven that they can be starters in the league, neither is incredibly expensive, although Sinovic's $42,000 is much lower than Harrington's $110,000, but Harrington has made over double the appearances that Sinovic has. It would appear to be similar to the situation a few years ago when KC left both of their young center backs, Tyson Wahl and Aaron Hohlbein, available for the Seattle Sounders in the expansion draft. Unfortunately that move doesn't appear to have worked out as the Sounders selected Wahl, he's still with them, while Hohlbein is currently in the NASL. Hopefully if this same scenario plays out KC ends up on the good side of this move.

The other potential worries some people have is losing the team's young striker, Soony Saad in the draft. The fact that both Sinovic and Harrington can and have started in this league combined with Montreal likely looking for a few starters in the draft, Sinovic and Harrington seem to be much more likely to be selected than the 19 year old. The other one is leaving designated player, Omar Bravo, exposed. It's not totally surprising, despite what the salary said on the players' union website I guarantee he's not making that amount and Montreal knows it. Does it speak to Bravo and Vermes relationship? I doubt that as well.

Plenty of other surprising players have been exposed by their teams. Looking through the list I have to question what Chivas (Blair Gavin and Zarek Valentin) and Colorado (Kosuke Kimura) were thinking exposing those 3 guys, Montreal certainly has some decent selections that they could choose from.

Sporting Trade Smith to Chivas

Sporting KC started a busy day today by announcing a trade with Chivas USA. Kansas City sent midfielder Ryan Smith to Chivas USA for 2 supplemental draft picks in the upcoming draft. Both sides can see this as a win for them. From Kansas City's perspective, they get something for nothing. Smith's time in Kansas City was over. Most people were really unable to see Smith returning to KC after leaving the team for family reasons in return. So similar to the Stephane Auvray situation, KC picked up a couple draft picks in exchange for the Englishman. The picks are the 5th pick in each round, the 43rd and 81st overall when you factor in the 2 round Superdraft. In the past, the 43rd pick has brought about one really good pro that most Sporting KC fans will know, Jack Jewsbury. As for the 81st pick, you have another former Wizard who is currently playing in Europe, Vicente Arze.

For Chivas, they get a player that is dynamic and can be a difference maker when he's healthy and his head is on straight. Unfortunately it didn't seem to be, especially this past season. For his sake I hope he can turn it around, you can see all the talent that is there that got him a contract at Arsenal. But it's not doing it consistently that sees him in MLS instead of the EPL.

In his year plus in KC, Smith appeared in 32 games scoring 4 goals and 7 assists. He missed much of his time with KC this season due to injury, recovering from offseason knee surgery.

Disney Preseason Announced

Disney today announced the other teams and the format for the Disney Pro Soccer Classic this coming preseason. Sporting KC and Orlando City SC had already been announced as competing, but the other 6 teams were announced today. Joining those two in Orlando in January are the Houston Dynamo, Vancouver Whitecaps, Montreal Impact, Toronto FC, FC Dallas, and BK Hacken out of Sweden. KC is guaranteed 3 games in the tournament. They open on the 24th in a rematch of the Eastern Conference final against the Dynamo. On the 26th they will take on the Impact before finishing up with a game against the Whitecaps on the 29th. The championship and consolation games will take place on March 3.

Comets Fall to Wave

Maybe I need to go back to my Sporting KC recovery stage for the Comets to win games. Since I finally "recovered" and started really covering the Comets again this year, the team has gone 0-2. When I wasn't, they were 3-0.

Yesterday afternoon at the Independence Event Center, the Comets fell to the defending MISL Champions, Milwaukee Wave 11-6. The Comets scored the first goal of the game through Bryon Alvarez who finished off a scuffed shot from Cristiano, burying it into the net to give the Comets the 2-0 early lead. The Comets held the lead through the end of the quarter as the Comets had the better of play, holding Milwaukee to only 2 shots in the first period and nothing late in the quarter.

The second quarter was a different story though. The Wave got on the board off of a restart as Marcio Leite played a short pass to Joe Hammes who fired the ball past Danny Waltman and tied the game at 2-2. The Wave continued to pressure the Comets, creating a few chances, but Waltman was up to the task making the needed saves. With less than a minute left in the half, the Wave took the lead. Jonatan Santos dribbled across the yellow line before firing a low shot that a shielded Waltman didn't see until late and the ball rolled into the net for a 3 point goal, giving the Wave a 5-2 lead.

In the third quarter the Comets made a comeback and retook the lead. The play started with Alvarez getting the ball, turning and firing into the net to pull the Comets to within a goal. Late on in the quarter, the Comets grabbed the lead through Geison. A Bryan Harris shot hit off the wall and bounced back into the middle where Geison hit it on the side volley into the net giving the Comets a 6-5 lead. Unfortunately late in the quarter a stupid challenge by Alvarez won him a blue card and put the Comets down a man.

The penalty carried over to the fourth quarter, where the Wave took advantage of the man advantage, retaking the lead through Hewerton Moreira off a pass from Santos he slotted the ball past Waltman to make it 7-6. Less than a minute later, the Wave scored again this time as Leite fired a hard shot from a tight angle past Waltman to make it 9-6. The Wave looked to have really put the game away a short time later, as Greg Howes jumped on the field on a quick sub and beat Waltman 1v1, but the goal ended up being called back as the Wave had too many men on the field. Still, the Wave would find another goal, through Ian Bennett after he beat John Sosa. The loss drops the Comets to 3-2 on the season. But good news for them is that they play the Norfolk Sharx on Saturday. In their two games so far the Sharx have been out scored 44 to 14.

Schedule and Playoff Changes for 2012

MLS has come out today with the schedule and playoff format for the 2012 season, and already the Twitterverse has blown up about it. As expected, gone is the balanced schedule of playing each team home and away. Back is the conference heavy schedule designed to cut down on travel for most teams (save Houston who is still separated from Dallas and will now play their closest rival only once next year). Sporting KC and the Eastern Conference have the more complicated of the two schedules. In the West they'll play each team in their conference 3 times (4 with 2 home games, 4 with 2 away games), and one game against the 10 teams in the East to get them to their 34 games. The East, as I mentioned is much more complicated. Sporting KC will play 7 teams from the Eastern Conference 3 times (21 games) and will play the other 2 teams in the East twice each (4 games). Sporting will play each team in the West once (9 games) to get to their 34 game schedule.

As I said originally, the MLS world has blown up since this announcement has come out. People are mainly upset about the loss of the balanced schedule. I can't say I'm happy about that change either, I like the balanced schedule it made things equal for all teams. But it a way it certainly makes sense to do this, especially for the coastal teams. The example I saw was that Vancouver traveled over 55,000 miles for their league games last year, while Manchester United traveled just over 3,500 for their 19 away league games. That mileage is a huge reason for the change from a balanced schedule.

The playoff format for next year was also announced. The league will stay with the 10 playoff teams, but now there will be 5 guaranteed spots for each conference. There will be no cross over between the two leagues in playoffs. So gone (at least for the time being) of the New York Red Bulls representing the Western Conference in the MLS Cup finals. The 4th seed will host the 5th seed in the wild card round in a single game, with the winner playing the highest seed in each conference. The Conference semifinals will remain the same as they were this year, a two legged series. The Conference finals though will now become a 2 legged affair with each team getting a chance to host.

The other big change to the playoffs is that MLS Cup will now be hosted at the highest remaining seed. This will guarantee a better crowd for the final instead of what was a mostly an apathetic crowd last year in Toronto for Dallas-Colorado. It will put a wrench in many of the events outside the game itself that the league and fans put together, like the league's meetings and big time sponsor events, but I think MLS is looking more towards having an active crowd at the final.

As I said earlier, I'm not a fan of these changes as a whole, but they were coming. The league wasn't going to expand the schedule to 36 games, it would have made an extremely tight schedule for the time frame (especially if MLS is going to avoid FIFA dates next year as rumored). And would also bring in more midweek games, which is still a struggle for the majority of MLS teams attendance wise. The part that really bothers is the messed up scheduling of in conference games and the fact that now two of KC's closest road trips (Colorado and Dallas) will now not happen every year. But again this was coming, the league wasn't going to keep the balanced schedule.

Sporting Interested in Sporting's Lobaton?

Confused a little?

Thanks to The Front Men for tipping this off. Word out of Peru is that Sporting Kansas City is after Sporting Cristal's midfielder, Carlos Lobaton. Lobaton is a Peruvian international with 20 caps for Peru so far. He's played 220 games for Cristal since 2005. Before that he'd for 5 other Peruvian clubs since beginning his professional career in 1998. Lobaton is being linked with both KC and Chivas USA.

Lobaton obviously doesn't fit the description of the Spanish designated player that Robb mentioned, but that doesn't mean he's not on the radar for the team. Lobaton does fill a position that KC was looking to upgrade, at least during the season with Jeferson but that move didn't turn out well. But that doesn't mean KC is going to stop looking for that upgrade. It also doesn't necessarily mean that Lobaton is going to be a designated player either. The draw back is that Lobaton will be 32 before next season even starts for KC, and the trend by the team has seemed to be to try to go younger.

Here's a video of Lobaton's lone international goal for Peru this past July in the Copa America.

Bravo Not Going on Loan To Tecos

Well it sounds like you can rule another team out of the running for Omar Bravo's services during the MLS offseason. Previously Atlas had ruled it out due to lack of funds. Although Bravo moving there was unlikely due to his history with their main rival Chivas. But today from ESPN Deportes comes word that Estudiantes Tecos is now out of the running as well. Word from the Tecos board is that this is because of the amount of time they would get the former Mexican international on loan. According to the article, Tecos would only get Bravo for seven games before he returned to KC. Carlos Briones, the sporting the director for Tecos, said that under those conditions (only being available for 7 games) the club is not interested.

More than the loan deal I think this speaks greatly to KC's plans for Bravo. The fact that they're not willing to budge on the amount of time he'll be away from the team tells me that they expect him to play a major role in the 2012 season.

Comets Fall in OT

The Missouri Comets lost their first game of the season tonight at home against the Baltimore Blast 10-8 in overtime. The Blast started the game off getting the first goal, 2:16 into the game. After a wall pass, there was a bit of a scramble in the box. In the end, Max Ferdinand touched the ball to Pfah Myers who was able to poke the ball past Danny Waltman and into the net to give the Blast the early lead. After the first goal, the Comets really pushed the game, and both Vahid Assadpour and Geison both forced kick saves out of Sagu in the Baltimore net. Late on in the half, the cards started to come out. First Pat Healey received a blue card for boarding with 10:12 gone in the quarter putting Missouri on the power play.

Unfortunately only 30 seconds into the power play, on a break by the Blast, Lucas Rodriguez picked up a blue card for tripping putting the game at 4v4. during the time the game was 4v4, the game really opened up and Missouri found an equalizer about 30 seconds in the 4v4 game. Leo Gibson won the ball in the Comets end and dribbled into the open space, he went at his defender going towards the middle then cut back outside on his defender, leaving him stranded and giving Gibson the space to shoot. Gibson's shot beat Sagu to the far post, tying the game.

The tie game didn't last long though, as the Blast found a goal while they were on their part of the power play. After the Blast penalty ended, they had too much possession in the Comets half. Adauto Neto found Mike Lookingland, who fired a shot that made it past Danny Waltman who appeared to be shielded from being able to see the shot.

Baltimore added to that lead before the first quarter was over. With the Comets pushing to get back into the game, they had a few chances to get back in, but weren't able to finish. Sure enough with them pushed forward, the Blast were able to counter with Ferdinand and Machel Millwood. The two had a 2 on 1 break. Millwood fed Ferdinand who beat an on rushing Waltman and fired the ball into the empty net, make it 6-2 at the end of the first quarter.

Early in the second quarter, the Comets pulled themselves back within a goal on a free kick after the Blast had played the ball out of bounds. From the top of the box, Assadpour fired a blast that beat the wall and Sagu make it 6-4. As the second quarter wore on, Waltman was called on to make a few saves, the biggest in a 1v1 situation after a header from Brian Harris landed at the feet of Myers, 1v1 with Waltman. A nice kick save though kept Missouri within a goal. Unfortunately after 8:30 of the second, Matt Watson scored that goal. Watson dribbled across the top of the box, avoiding a few challenges and firing a shot past Waltman.

The third quarter became a physical and defensive battle, inside the first few minutes, Scott Buete ended up getting his jersey torn. The Comets were able to create a few chances, but Sagu was able to keep them out of the net. As the quarter wore on though, the Blast started to control the game. The entire defense for the Comets had to come up over the course of the half, Waltman had to make a few saves, and he got assistance from his defense, including Harris who saved one off the line after Waltman was beat. The Blast though did a very good job of shutting down the Comets attack, giving them possession, but not giving them much that they could do with it.

In the fourth quarter the Comets really started to push to get back into the game. They were assisted by a blue card for tripping to JT Noone. With the man advantage, Missouri took advantage of it. On the power play, Baltimore got caught up field on a counter and it allowed the Comets to take advantage. Rodriguez led the attack with Byron Alvarez and Geison. Rodriguez fed Alvarez who fired a shot on goal that Sagu saved, the rebound went into the air, Rodriguez headed the ball to Geison, whose bicycle kick beat Sagu to the far post. Geison didn't make great connection, but it was enough to pull Missouri back with in a goal. Three minutes after Geison's goal, the Comets were level. The play started when Ryan Junge intercepted a pass. The ball went to Harris who raced up the field and played the ball to an open John Sosa. Sosa fired a shot that was going wide of the goal, but Alvarez was making a back post run and knocked the ball in tying the game. The Comets continued to pressure, and looked the more likely team to find a winner in regulation, but the post and Sagu saved Baltimore.

The two teams went to overtime and Missouri continued to be the stronger side, but Missouri couldn't find a winner. Sagu also got some help from his defense as on one play the ball got played to the back post for Tanner Hunjak who had an open net. but As Hunjak's header was going on, a Baltimore defender got his foot up knocking the ball out. The Comets ended up losing Gibson during the overtime on a foul early in the period.

With just over 6 minutes left in over time, Baltimore got their winner. Once again on a scramble in front of goal, the post and Waltman both made saves, but Noone knocked the ball home giving the Blast the win. The Comets head back into action on Sunday afternoon against the Milwaukee Wave.

Comets vs Blast Play by Play

Here's the play by play for tonight's game. Comets are out for warm ups now.

Galaxy Girls dancing now, starting line ups are out, Comets have Waltman, Harris, Gibson, Assadpour, Rodriguez, and Neto. Baltimore have Sagu, Lookingland, Buete, Ferdinand, Watson, and Neto, A.

We're ready to go here in Independence.

1 - 15:00 - Blast kick off, goes down and to Waltman.

Comets control after the kick off, lots of good pass, Assadpouor fires just wide of the near post.

Sustained possession for each side but neither side is able to create chances from it so far/

Baltimore goal. pass off the wall and a scramble in front of goal is turned in by 7 Path Myers 2-0 Blast.12:33 left in the first.

Foul on Rodriguez, Baltimore possession, another small scramble in front of the Comets goal is cleared.

Comets possessing again, and a foul inside the 3 point arc. MO restart.

Shot by Sosa off the restart is blocked. Comets keep possession.

Foul on the Comets, Blast restart. Blast holding possession in Comets half now.

Shot by the Blast wide, under 10 left in the 1st.

Give away in their own end by the Blast, Gibson shot is high and wide off the glass.

Foul against Baltimore in the corner. Gibson to restart

Gibson to Assadpour from the top of the box, but Sagu saves.

Comets possess, though, Geison is played in by Alvarez, but Sagu again with the kick save.

Comets loss possession and Blast slow the game down.

Given away, Comets attack, but then Junge with the foul

Blast restart

Blast with some good opportunities, hit one off the post and they can't turn in the re-bound. Timeout on the floor, Baltimore will have a restart at the top of the box.

Waltman with the save off the restart as it was played wide to Waltman's right. Comets then get the restart.

Substitution warning to the Blast.

Comets hold possession in Baltimore's half, get ball down deep and Sagu collects.

Blast loss possession and Comets attack again.

Comets can't create a clear chance and Blast win possession.

Comets break and Alvarez tries to play Geison, but the pass is broken up.

2 min penalty on the Blast for a foul on Gibson. Blue card to Pat Healey for boarding.

Rodriguez with a shot off the restart saved. Geison with another shot, Sagu saves and holds.

And on the break the Comets pick up a blue card as Rodriguez tripped up the Baltimore attacker, 4 on 4 for 1:30

GOAL. GIBSON!

Gibson won the ball at midfield and dribbled at his defender, cut back inside beating his defender and fired a shot past Sagu, 2-2. 1:30 power play for Baltimore now.

Timeout by the Blast. And the Blast players are having a discussion with the referees during the timeout

Nevermind, still 4v4 right now. Thought the goal ended Baltimore's penalty.

Baltimore possessing, their penalty expires and on the power play the Blast score. 4-2.

too much possession in the Comets half on the power play. Waltman was shielded, Lookingland with the goal.

Comets come right back and Harris fires a shot off the wall and the Blast possess.

Goal Blast. Comets won the ball back shortly, but Blast win it back and counter 2 v 1. Defender commited and Ferdinand collects the ball and slots it past Waltman 6 to 2 Blast.

1 min left in the 1st.

Baltimore possessing again, long ball from Sagu is headed on goal as Waltman got caught between staying and claiming, but he makes the save.

Rodriguez hurries a shot that is easily saved by Sagu.

And that's the end of the quarter 6-2 Blast.

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Second quarter

Comets kick off

Quickly won by the Blast.

Comets win a free kick but put the free kick immediately out of bounds and the Blast possess.

Blast play it out of bounds and the Comets take over.

Neither team can keep it in bounds right now.

Free kick at the top of the box for Baltimore.

Blocked by Assadpour.

Baltimore possess for a short while but Comets win it back and then a foul in the Blast's half.

Comets restart

Holding possession but Baltimore's line is holding well as the Comets can't get a shot. Free kick at the top of the arc though for MO.

GOAL Assadpour!


Off the restart, Assadpour powers it past Sagu.

6-4 Blast now, 12 left in the half

Blast possess off the restart and then a foul on the Comets in the Blast's half.

Comets win possession off a long ball.

Possession given away needlessly by Waltman though and the Blast take possession.

HUGE SAVE by Waltman. An attempted headed clearance by Harris went right to Myers 1v1 with Waltman but Waltman makes the big kick save.

Blast hold possession though.

Comets win it back shortly but it's given away to the Blast who possess.

A quick counter by the Comets is broken up but then they win it back in their own end.

Comets shot is headed clear, Waltman collects and the Comets attack again.

Nice ball across the middle, but no one is on the back side.

Baltimore in possession now in the Comets end.

GOAL Blast Watson. dribbles across the top of the box and fires it into the far corner 8-4 Blast.

Timeout Comets, 6:27 left in the half.

Comets kick off again.

Long ball to Alvarez who turns and fires a shot that Sagu collects.

Geison with a volley from the top of the box goes over the goal.

Comets break, Assadpour feeds Alvarez who fires to the back side, but Sosa is a little late arriving and can't put the shot on goal.

Gibson 3 point attempt is blocked and eventually Sagu collects.

SAgu with a good save 1v1 with Geison.

Gibson is fouled just outside the yellow line.

Free kick comes to nothing, Blast possess.

Ball in along the walls, Waltman collects and MO possesses wtih 3 left in the half.

Comets in possession now in the Baltimore half.

Baltimore though is keeping MO from getting deep in the end.

Under 2 and a foul on MO

Baltimore possessing, Junge wins it and almost gives it away but is fouled.

Waltman collects and MO will attack with 40 seconds left.

MO give the ball away though and Baltimore get possession.

And that's the half, 8-4 Blast after 2 quarters.

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3rd quarter

Baltimore kick off

torn jersey for Buete for Baltimore after some holding in the box.

Baltimore possessing now, but play it out of bounds. Both sides alternating the playing the ball out again.

3 v 1 for the Blast, but a poor touch allows the Comets to take over for a short time before giving the ball back.

Foul on Baltimore, Comets restart in their end.

Possession for MO.

Baltimore wins a free kick and take possession.

Harris wins the ball back and fires just over the cross bar. 11:40 left

Comets with possession in their own end. And a tripping foul on Baltimore.

Ball played to Alvarez who heads it towards the glass and Sagu collects.

Comets break, Geison with a blast that Sagu knocks down and a foul on the Comets.

Baltimore win possession and then a free kick in their end.

Comets can't clear their own end, and play the ball out of bounds.

Baltimore possess again and win another free kick. 9 left

Lots of possession for the Blast right now, Comets not seeing a lot of the ball.

And when the Comets are getting the ball it's due to a foul, just like now.

Waltman collects a loss ball and the Comets try to break. but it's broken up and Baltimore control again.

And another foul on the Comets.

Comets get a call their way and get possession.

Harris with a 3 point shot that is knocked down by Sagu, Harris follows it up but Sagu covers the rebound. 8-4, 6:19 left and a timeout on the floor.

Comets with the restart.

Waltman tries to pick out Alvarez but the ball is too high for him and Sagu collects.

Comets trying to hit quickly and aren't getting many chances too, they're not getting much on the long ball.

Comets win a free kick in their own end.

Comets offense seems to run out of ideas when they aren't doing a quick counter right now.

Shot by the Blast is high and wide, Waltman collects loose ball, but then it goes out of bounds and Baltimore possesses with just under 4 in the quarter.

And Harris saves one off the line after Baltimore fires one just wide, Waltman got caught out and Harris saved the rebound shot.

Comets free kick, but they're unable to test Sagu on it.

Comets in possession in their own half now.

Baltimore peppers Waltman's goal with a few shots, but all end up going just wide.

1 minute left in the 3rd, Comets and Blast trading possession.

Shot off the wall, Waltman saves it. Ball gets played out of bounds again by the Comets, 27 seconds left.

Sosa fires a shot from long range off the glass, and the Comets have a few late opportunities, but don't get them on goal. Shouts of hand ball on a late shot but the half ends and it's 8-4 still after 3.

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4th Quarter

Comets ready to kick off the fourth, down by 4.

Foul at the yellow line, Comets restart.

Junge fires it over it's a restart for Baltimore.

Comets win it right back and possess

Poor give away and the Blast attack, shot blocked for a corner.

Foul on MO for holding.

MO win possession, but poor pass by Gibson gives it back.

Baltimore in possession, shot across the face of goal, no one on the back side for Baltimore. Still they possess though.

Comets in possession now, and a restart in the Baltimore half. Harris fires the shot over though.

Waltman with a nice body save on a bouncing shot.

Another free kick coming for MO.

MO possess and win another free kick.

Comets are going to have to get some shots off some time soon.

Substitution violation on the Comets before the Baltimore restart.

Missouri loss possession, but a heavy touch allows waltman to collect.

and Comets counter and a foul from behind on Geison brings out the blue card.

Comets keeping the ball in Baltimore's end on the power play. But only shot is one wide by Geison.

GOAL! COMETS. Bicycle kick by Geison. A 3 on 1 break for the Comets, Rodriguez fed Alvarez whose shot was block. Rodriguez headed the rebound wide to Geison who didn't make great contact but put it into the far corner to bring the Comets within two.

Comets win a free kick shortly after the restart.

9 minutes left.

Sosa forces a kick save out of Sagu on another counter.

Comets holding possession after the restart.

Rodriguez cuts inside and fires a shot but Sagu holds it still 8-6, under 8 left.

Comets still in possession, making Baltimore chase.

Comets should have equalized there. Sosa fed Hunjak at the back post but Sagu did well to get across and palm the ball away and then a foul on the Comets stops play.

GOAL! ALVAREZ!

Junge intercepts a through ball, the ball goes to Harris who races up field, feeds the ball to Sosa who fires a shot that was going wide, but Alvarez runs in and knocks the ball into the net tying the game at 8-8 with just over 6 left in the 4th.

Baltimore is looking a little tired here in the 4th. Comets have taken control of the game.

Alvarez puts one off the post.

Blast did well for 3 quarters in limiting the Comets chances but they're getting them in the fourth.

Junge has a 3 pointed kick saved.

Weak foul on Rodriguez there, I thought he won it cleanly.

Waltman collects the loose ball and the Comets attack again.

With 4 left Comets are holding possession.

Free kick as the ball is knocked out by Baltimore.

Under 4 left now, Baltimore control.

Baltimore shot off the post and then Harris blows the rebound shot.

Looked like a bit of a dive on that foul by Rodriguez.

Rodriguez is sprung on the break but the ball gets caught under him and MO reset the offense.

Comets certainly seem to want it more now with just over 2 left.

Harris gives the ball away, but Waltman with a big save and Gibson clears the second chance.

1 min left in the fourth.

Baltimore holding possession right now.

Comets control and call a timeout with 38 seconds left.

Comets control on the restart, but nothing on goal right now.

And that's the end of regulation, we're going to OT.

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Overtime.

Comets attacking the goal to your left on your computer screen in over time.

Blast kicking off.

Blast immediately on the attack with possession in MO's half.

Waltman collects and distributes to Alvarez but he loses a 1v2.

Comets win a free kick in their own half.

Comets possess.

possession loss, Blast in control now, making a line change.

Foul on Baltimore, Gibson is down in some pain.

12:24 left in the quarter, Gibson still on the ground being tended to.

This could be a big loss for the Comets if Gibson is really hurt. He's being helped off, definitely not good. Unable to put pressure on his left foot.

He is going just to the box though instead of the locker room, so maybe that's not as bad.

Sagu with a big save there.

Harris then puts a 3 pointer off the post.

Baltimore in possession now with 11 left in OT.

Comets win possession back but a poor pass from Harris gifts the ball to Baltimore.

Baltimore with possession now, came close once, but block by Harris.

Comets win a free kick and hold possession.

Alvarez header forces Sagu low to his near post.

Back and forth now between both teams.

Foul on Baltimore, just outside the yellow line.

Hunjak header cleared away. Sagu wasn't getting across but nice kick save by the defender.

Timeout comets

7:44 left in OT.

Junge shot over the bar.

Comets win possession back but Geison tries to turn and can't get around, but Blast give ball away.

Foul on Alvarez.

Nice juggling by Geison, but Blast win possession.

Blast goal.

6:02 left in OT JT Noone scored off another scramble in front of goal. A couple saves by Waltman and the post, but Noone bundles one into the goal to win the game for the Blast.

Comets control much of OT, but it's the Blast getting the goal.

See you all Sunday. I'll likely be with the family, but if not I'll be back here with a live blog again.

Year End Review

One of my personal favorite DVDs, is called "The Treble" the Manchester United 1999-2000 season review DVD. I enjoy putting it in and remembering watching much of that season, especially the Champions' League run while I was in high school.

Sporting KC has done a good job of marketing the team and creating a great following for the team. They've created the Membership site, which is still being developed, but certainly has the best of intentions in place. The next step I'd like to see the team put out is season review DVDs. And I'd like to see step up and make this happen. The 2011 season for KC is one that I think many fans would like to relive. From the rebranding announcement one year ago today, through the draft and preseason in Arizona, to the extended road trip, to the home opener, the long and beaten run, to the loss against Houston in the Eastern Conference final. Sure it's not the ending that we all wanted, but the whole season is one I want to relive over.

For those that don't know, most teams in England at least, put out season review DVDs for fans to purchase to commemorate the season. They have every game and every goal from their team during the season. I'd love to see Kansas City come out with a season review DVD, with commentary from Callum Williams for the games, the goals, the highlights, etc. I think it'd be a perfect way to put a cap on the season for fans. A few years ago when the league had signed a deal with A&E for DVDs I had hopes that would be the start of the season reviews. Unfortunately it only led to about 3 or 4 DVDs being released that I've seen. Sporting KC has shown a knack for creating good videos, the Across the Endline segments and the other videos at half time were really well done and I think the same could be carried over to review DVDs.

Please Sporting KC make this happen.

Year 1 as Sporting

One year ago today, the Kansas City Wizards had an announcement at the Power and Light District in downtown KC to announce their identity change from the Wizards to Sporting Kansas City. Included with the new name was a new logo, new colors, and basically a new identity.

Overall the first year of "Sporting KC" would be classified as a success both on an off the field, on the field the team went from missing the playoffs two straight years to topping the Eastern Conference in the regular season and making the conference finals. Unfortunately it didn't end with a trip to MLS Cup, but a successful year none the less. Off the field it was arguably a much better year. Not only with the opening of LIVESTRONG Sporting Park, but with everything else involved with it. This year the team has gotten press in this city that had been unheard of for the Wizards the previous 15 years of their existence. And it was mostly positive (the Jack Harry belittling aside). Along with the stadium and the press, you had the enormous growth of the fan base as a whole. Over 10,000 season ticket holders for the new stadium, probably at least double what KC had the previous season at Community America Ballpark. The new stadium combined with the fans has made KC an intimidating environment for opposing teams to come and play. It's also put Kansas City and LSP firmly in the conversation for hosting World Cup qualifiers. I would be shocked if the US men's national team does not return here for a qualifier for the 2014 World Cup.

As for the name itself, it's grown on me a bit. Would I still like the team to be called the Wizards? Yes, in my own personal opinion, but I'm selfish like that. The Wizards were the team I spent part of my late childhood going to watch and I didn't want that part of it going away. Many other people agreed with me at the time that they didn't like the name change, reading through the comments about the announcement and even when I leaked the logo are good for a laugh when you go back and read through them now.

With regard to the name change, as much as it disappoints me as a "Wizards" proponent is that I don't think the "Wizards" would have had the off field success that "Sporting" did this year. As much as I love the name, it is kiddy, and it does have the Wizard of Oz connotation to people when they here Kansas and Wizard in the same sentence. The Sporting name gave the front office an almost clean slate to work with for the 2011 season. Sure the stadium was a big selling point, but do people think the same success in the stands occur with the name Wizards? I don't think so.

As for me, I'll continue to refer to them as the Wizards, I still do it in the blog and will continue to. In conversations with my wife and family I still call them the Wizards over Sporting and will continue to do so. The team is still the Wizards to me and will continue to be. And while I'm sure that digs a little at some people in the front office (one of my favorite memories from this year was opening day in LA with Robb Heineman cheering with the traveling Cauldron and trying to insert Sporting wherever we were saying Wizards), I'm sure many of them realize that there will always be a section of fans who will call the team the Wizards. That section of fans is going to grow smaller as the years go by, but it'll be with the team. It is part of their history and will continue to be.

Former SKC Wizards Update

This week's former SKC Wizards is up for you. A couple former Wizards could be on the move. Sunil Chhetri is apparently getting ready to go on trial with Scottish club Rangers. Chhetri's had trials in England previously, but had been unable to earn a work permit. Not sure how that will change this time. The other player potentially on the move is Yura Movsisyan. Movsisyan is currently with FC Krasnodar in the Russian Premier League, but apparently CSKA Moscow is looking to bring in Movsisyan to replace Vagner Love. Here's the rest of this week's update.

Active without a club or unknown
Chris Brunt
Doug DeMartin
Mauro Fuzetti
AJ Godbolt
Willy Guadarrama
Santiago Hirsig
Eddie Johnson
Michael Kraus
Ryan McMahen
Michal Mravec
JT Murray
Anthony Noriega
Ofori Sarkodie
Sam Scales
Ryan Smith
Ivan Trujillo
Lance Watson

MLS
Stephane Auvray - New York - Season is over.
Adam Cristman - LA - No game this week.
Luis Gil - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Taylor Graham - Seattle - Season is over.
Kevin Hartman - Dallas - Season is over.
Frankie Hejduk - LA - No game this week.
Will Hesmer - Columbus - Season is over.
Jack Jewsbury - Portland - Season is over.
Mike Jones - New York - Season is over.
Chris Konopka - MLS Pool keeper - Season is over.
Jonathan Leathers - Vancouver - Season is over.
Rauwshan McKenzie - Salt Lake - Season is over.
Kurt Morsink - DC - Season is over.
Ryan Pore - Portland - On loan to Montreal.
Scott Sealy - San Jose - Season is over.
Khari Stephenson - San Jose - Season is over.
Tyson Wahl - Seattle - Season is over.
Josh Wolff - DC - Season is over.

NASL
Kevin Friedland - Minnesota - Season is over.
Aaron Hohlbein - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.
Amir Lowery - Montreal - Season is over.
Ryan Pore - Montreal - Season is over.
Abe Thompson - Fort Lauderdale - Season is over.

USL
Stephen Armstrong - Charleston - Out of season.
Edson Elcock - Richmond - Out of season.
Tom Gray - Pittsburgh - Out of season.
Neal Kitson - Rochester - Out of season.
Akeem Priestley - LA - Out of season.
Yomby William - Richmond - Out of season.
John Wilson - Charleston - Out of season.

PDL
Byron Carmichael - Ocean City - Out of season.
Sergei Raad - FC Jax Destroyers - Out of season.

NPSL
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Flash - Out of season.

Indoor
Jamar Beasley - Wichita Wings - Had a goal and 2 assists in Wichita's loss to Milwaukee.
Nick Garcia - Kansas Magic - Did not play in Kansas' win over Illinois.
Pat Healey - Baltimore Blast - Recorded an assist in Baltimore's loss to Syracuse.
Neal Kitson - Rochester Lancers - Started for Rochester in their loss to Missouri.
Nelson Pizarro - San Diego Sockers - Did not play in San Diego's win over Anaheim.
Boris Pardo - Comets - Did not play in the Comets win over Rochester.
Yomby William - Norfolk SharX - Did not play in Norfolk's loss to Syracuse.
Paul Wright - Anaheim Bolts - Did not play in Anaheim's loss to San Diego.

International
Vicente Arze - Diosgyor - Hungary - Started and played 50 minutes in Diosgyor's 1-0 loss to Debrecen.
Sunil Chhetri - Mohun Bagan - India - Started and played 90 minutes, scoring a goal in Mohun Bagan's 3-0 win over Churchill Brothers. Started and played 83 minutes in India's 1-1 draw with Malaysia. Started and played 88 minutes, scoring two goals in India's 3-2 win over Malaysia.
Eloy Colombano - Ferro Carril Sud - Argentina - Lost to Bella Vista 3-1.
Pablo Escobar - Deportivo Cali - Colombia - Did not play in Cali's game.
Herculez Gomez - Tecos - Mexico - Apertura season is over.
Zoltan Hercegfalvi - Honved - Hungary - Did not play in Honved's game this week.
Jermaine Hue - Harbour View - Jamaica - Tied Sporting Central 1-1.
Will John - Vinogradar - Croatia - Beat Pomorac 4-2.
Igor Kostrov - FC Tiraspol - Moldova - Had no game this week.
Carlos Marinelli - Universidad San Martin - Peru - No game this week.
Yura Movsisyan - FC Krasnodar - Russia - No game this week.
Matt Taylor - SC Paderborn 07 - Germany - No game this week.
Diego Walsh - TOT SC - Thailand - no game this week.

Looking at the Expansion Draft

I'm getting this out later than I had planned to, but it seemed like every night when I sat down to write it there was other news that I wanted to get to first and by the time I was done with those I was ready to be done. But now it's time to take a look at the upcoming expansion draft.

First, here are the rules for the expansion draft and how the rules affect Kansas City.

- MLS Clubs may protect 11 players between their On-budget and their Off-budget Roster. If the Player’s contract expires at the end of 2011, he will still be considered part of the club’s roster.

We don't have any word on who, for sure, is out of contract. Peter Vermes has been quoted in the past as saying there are not many who are out contract.

- If a club protects a player, it is not obligated to exercise the player’s option. It may renegotiate subject to terms of the new CBA.

Same with above, we're not sure who is entering option years of their contracts at this point.

- If a player retires, he will not be a part of the club’s roster, but his club will lose its right of first refusal to him should he ultimately decide to play.

I'm not aware of anyone that is looking to retire at this point. The majority of the veterans, Jimmy Nielsen, Julio Cesar, Davy Arnaud, etc. all seem interested in at least one more year.

- Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster, other than Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season or Homegrown Players on a Club’s Off-budget Roster, will be part of the expansion draft.

- Generation adidas players who have not been graduated at the end of the 2011 MLS Season and Homegrown Players on a club’s Off-budget Roster at the end of the 2011 MLS Season are automatically protected (Clubs do not have to use a protected slot on them).

Basically this means that Jon Kempin and Kevin Ellis will definitely be exempt from the expansion draft. There's a very slim possibility that Teal Bunbury could also be exempt from the draft, but I fully expect him to be graduated from the Generation Adidas program and therefore have to be protected. Everyone else on the roster is fair game.

- Clubs are restricted in the number of international player(s) that they may make available. Clubs may make available a number of international players equal to their total number of international players minus three, provided that if a club has three or fewer international players it may make available not more than one.

Kansas City has 10 internationals on their roster; Korede Aiyegbusi, Omar Bravo, Julio Cesar, Aurelein Collin, Daneil Cyrus, Jeferson, Peterson Joseph, Jimmy Nielsen, Craig Rocastle, and Milos Stojcev. KC will have to protect at least 3 of those players.

- For purposes of this expansion process, for US-based clubs, any non-domestic US player would count as an International and, for Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps, any non-domestic US player or non-domestic Canadian players would count as an International.

KC has no Canadian players (Bunbury is a US citizen) so this rule doesn't come into play for KC.

- Designated players are NOT automatically protected (i.e., clubs must choose whether to protect such players and if such player is not protected, he will be available for selection in the Expansion Draft). However, if the Designated Player has a no-trade clause in his contract, then his MLS club must protect him and he will count as one of the 11 players who may be protected.

Basically what this means is that KC will have to protect Bravo and Jeferson in the expansion draft if they want to make sure that they keep them. That's because neither one of them have a no trade clause, forcing KC to protect them. I don't think you'll find many people interested in protecting Jeferson. As for Bravo, I discuss that below.

- 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.

Unlike last year where KC could have lost 2 players, we're back to the one and done drafting that existed the past few years.

- Rounds: The expansion draft will be 10 rounds.

I shouldn't need to explain this one to you.


So now that we have the rules, who does KC protect? I think there are quite a few guys who for sure are going to be protected. I'm working under the assumption that Bunbury is going to be graduated from the GA program and therefore require a spot. Bunbury combined with these other 6 I think are the easy names to fill in on the list.

1. Matt Besler
2. Teal Bunbury
3. Aurelien Collin
4. Roger Espinoza
5. Chance Myers
6. CJ Sapong
7. Graham Zusi

That gets us over half way to the 11 protected players. That also gives us one of the 3 internationals. With the last two slots there are 3 players in my mind that you look at for those other 2 international spots, Omar Bravo, Julio Cesar, and Jimmy Nielsen. All 3 of those guys are over 30 (31, 33, and 34 respectively). With the system KC runs you want to have 4 to 5 forwards that can start, and I really don't think KC wants to run the risk of losing Bravo to another MLS side, even if he could possibly be on his way out anyway. So that gets us down to Cesar and Nielsen for the final spot. Montreal has signed the NASL keeper, Evan Bush, to a contract already, but I'm not sold that he's going to be their starter. Of course with LA likely exposing Donovan Ricketts, it might be a moot point. Combine the above with the fact that Cesar is making over $200,000 and is a field player at 33 and I think that scares Montreal off, even if Cesar ended up having a very solid season.

8. Omar Bravo
9. Jimmy Nielsen

That leaves us with 2 more spots for the rest of the roster. For me those spots come down to a few players, Davy Arnaud, Michael Harrington, Kei Kamara, Soony Saad, and Seth Sinovic. I think like Cesar, Arnaud age and salary are going to keep Montreal away even if I think that Arnaud is the type of player Jesse Marsch would love on his team. Harrington lost his starting spot last year and is making over $100,000, but is still a starter in this league in my opinion and fairly young. Kamara has been the team's Golden Boot winner the past two years, finding a goalscorer in the expansion draft would be extremely big for Montreal. Saad is still young and cheap, could be seen as a good development project. Sinovic is the one that beat out Harrington for the starting spot at left back and is making only $42,000, certainly something that Montreal would like.

So of those 5 who gets the last two spots? I think Kamara and Sinovic. You can't teach goals, and 19 in the past two seasons is a very nice total for Kamara. You leave him exposed and he's the first pick, even with his salary over $200,000. As for Sinovic, you have a starting caliber left back making the senior roster minimum, I think that'd be a no brainer if he was left exposed.

So here's my list:

1. Matt Besler
2. Teal Bunbury
3. Aurelien Collin
4. Roger Espinoza
5. Chance Myers
6. CJ Sapong
7. Graham Zusi
8. Omar Bravo
9. Jimmy Nielsen
10. Kei Kamara
11. Seth Sinovic

That would leave Arnaud, Harrington, and Saad as the likely favorites to be taken. Of those 3 I think the most appealing to take would be Michael Harrington. Harrington is still young, he'll be 26, has made over 100 starts in MLS play for KC, giving him an experience factor, and is made $110,000 this past year against the cap. Harrington would give Montreal a guy that could step in immediately and start on their back line.

This is why I hate the expansion draft, KC could lose a guy they've spent the last 5 years developing since he came out of UNC. And they'd lose him for nothing.