Year End Look at 2011 Wishes

With it being New Year's Eve, I figured it was time to take a look back at the 2011 wishes that I'd posted at the end of last year.

1. Return to the Playoffs - This was filled 100%, not only did KC qualify for the playoffs again, but the team won the regular season Eastern Conference crown and had home field advantage. Unfortunately that didn't translate to making the cup finals. Which brings us to the next one...

2. Silverware - Twice KC looked in a good position to make the finals of two competitions, but both times KC failed to make it. Earlier in the season, KC looked to have a good path to the semifinals of the US Open Cup, but couldn't get past the Richmond Kickers. In the MLS Cup playoffs, KC was one step away from the finals, but got outplayed in the Eastern Conference finals, losing to Houston.

3. Re-Sign Michael Harrington - The team got this taken care of, but it Harrington seemed to drop off after a career year last year. He started the year with a small knock that kept him out of action. When he returned he did ok, but wasn't the same player he was last year. As the year went on, he lost his starting spot to Chance Myers and Seth Sinovic. It'll be interesting to see Harrington's role next year.

4. 10-15 points on road trip to start the season - This didn't come true, KC only picked up 6 points on the road trip and looked dead in the water. But after the poor start, KC lost only 3 regular season games the rest of the season. Combine that with a weaker Eastern Conference and KC was able to finish on top of the East.

5. Average over 15,000 in the new stadium - New all time attendance high for Kansas City this year, at 17,810. Over 2,000 over what I was wanting for the new high, and less than 1,000 under LIVESTRONG's capacity.

6. Sell out half the home games - Seventeen home games, of those, KC had 9 games that were at capacity or over. So that was just over the half number. I imagine if KC didn't have most of those home games cramped into about 3 months that total would likely have been a little higher. Still that's a wish that was met.

7. At most 1 home loss - Not quite, Kansas City lost 2 regular season games at home, along with a third in the playoffs to Houston. All 3 of the losses hurt the first two because of the fact that KC let late leads slip away leading to those loses. And the third ended KC's season.

8. Omar Bravo scores 10+ goals - Bravo didn't quite hit the mark, scoring 9 league goals. If he hadn't missed time due to the hernia surgery I figure he likely would have hit the mark. Bravo is now gone and we're likely looking to add another designated player in the upcoming transfer window.

9. US in KC for the Gold Cup and double header sell out - This one came true. KC hosted the final group stage game as the US fought to qualify for the knock out rounds. They did so on the backs of a 1-0 win over Guadeloupe. KC seemed to impress enough to earn the US Olympic qualifying semifinals and finals this year. They also would seem to be at the forefront of earning a World Cup qualifier back at LSP as well.