I walked into my first training session of the 2012 MLS season today and scoped out the field for unfamiliar faces. There were not any. The primary feature of this pre-season compared to the last couple of years appears to be the division between guys that are heavily in favor and those that are looking to push into the squad. The days of having a strong starting eleven and nothing to back them up are in the past for Sporting Kansas City and while there are likely to be a surprise or two along the way Peter Vermes seems to have a pretty good handle on who fits where in his plans. I am labeling these two groups ‘probably staying’ and ‘cut bait’.

There wasn’t any real scrambling through the cheat sheets to figure out who players were. I referred to them once while trying who to figure out who the ‘Paul Bunyan-sized tank’ was training with the rest of the team … Lawrence Olum is a big man. Absent from training altogether was the beaming smile of Birahim Diop. The speculation from basically anybody was that we’ll never see him bang in unexpected doubles again in the future. I believe this also disqualifies us from winning the MLS Cup, I had just said this week if we ever do win it, Diop would score the winner so I guess we are out of luck. I think that we have probably seen the last of him.

Was that a premature and without concrete fact statement of opinion? Yes.

You are welcome.

So what about the new guys? Eh .. if they are still here in a few weeks I’ll actually watch them. In that secondary group was Kevin Ellis and “The Haitian Xavi” Peterson Joseph. I somehow doubt they will stay there, especially in the case of Ellis who doesn’t count towards the cap. We’ll see.

Early season drills are slow drills – last year at this time Peter Vermes confessed that he simply wanted to get the team through their drills at Arrowhead uninjured and everything about today’s practice suggested that this has not changed at all. That said, the division of personnel into the two camps has ensured that the senior ‘probably staying’ group were broadly familiar with each other (if not very) and that they also had experience running drills and practices – meaning that they could simply get on with working, rather than having to teach new guys what to do. This means we actually got to see some real drills taking place today, attacking from defense to forward positions with short sharp one touch passing from the center backs through midfield, down the flanks and culminating in shots on goal. It was fun to watch .. probably because I am starved but ..

Bobby Convey … looked good. If we lost a natural born finisher in Omar Bravo we have simply gained another on Convey who looks to have the same cool calm and collected manner in front of goal. He simply passed the ball into the net effortlessly whenever he was presented with the opportunity, and it was hard not to note his efficiency in light of some of Kamara’s booming efforts and Teal Bunbury’s play last night for the US Men’s National Team. I think he will have as much if not more impact as Bravo did and I am looking forward to seeing him in our lineup.

Michael Thomas was also an eye catching addition while being unspectacular – he simply looks to be another player with good control and technique who plays the game in a simple way. If my first impression is correct he will be a quality addition to the squad. It really is too early to judge these guys in terms of actual first team potential but you can spot a rotten egg a lot of the time and Thomas has some game about him.

Soony Saad isn’t new, but hell the boy can play. His finishing was everything Convey’s was with the addition of the ability to finish in the air. He has an unteachable, intangible knack of being in the right place at the right time that is going to be exciting. I would not be surprised at all if he snuck into the match day squad next year… if we simply need a guy that can put the ball in the back of the net when presented with an opportunity, then Saad can do that. Right now he is ahead of Bunbury for me in terms of potential.

The final real word goes to Michael Harrington who has clearly come into camp fired up. He looks slimmer than last year, and he was flat out sprinting at times – he is fast. He looks like his attitude is all about competing and proving a point which is good, because he needs to step up and prove himself to get back in the starting eleven.

Nagamura wore a beanie … indoors …. he has now claimed the skinny girl who is unreasonably cold on warm days prize from Craig Rocastle. I would not bank on him at all if I was stranded in Alaska or somewhere really cold like Florida.

There are two guys in camp shorter than Korede Aiyegbusi which is amazing. I didn’t know that made people that small without the word dwarfism being used. Lawrence Olum is going to use one for a toothbrush.

Scuttlebutt was that the pre-season games from Florida may be streamed live. Don’t hold me too it, if this sentence disappears you know it is happening.

More tomorrow … think my wife is about to shoot a baby out of her vagina, she is on the couch groaning and stuff.

It is very distracting.

I was just arriving at Church last Sunday night when I flicked on the radio, I am tuned in 810am by default and the news the the mighty Green Bay Packers where losing to the New York Giants just before the half made me smile, even though the the lead was a paltry three points. I kept listening as I parked and proceeded to gather the trappings of a long day outside into what is known in my home as “Daddy’s man purse”, my DSLR, diapers, phone, wallet, glasses, baby wipes and then it happened. Eli Manning launched a Hail Mary, Hakeem Hicks made the catch, and I sat in my car in Westport cheering a touchdown for the Giants.

I have no love for the New York Giants at all, but I have an ever growing hatred for the Green Bay Packers that is fueled by the actions of one individual, who lives right here in Kansas City. He detests the home town Chiefs and is of course a Packer fan. His belligerent, disrespectful and ungraceful attitude towards the Chiefs has gotten my back up to the point that it has made rooting for the Chiefs a lot easier to handle, and rooting against the Packers second nature. He is simply obnoxious and my dislike for him is now matched equally by my dislike for his team.

His actions have solidified everything I need to know about the Chiefs and my blossoming support for them, and have underscored the dislike I have harbored for the Packers. I doubt I will ever not want them to lose again. This is of course a fairly regular occurrence between sports fans, people will choose to root for a team because of a buddy that did, because their grandpa took them to games there, because a player they enjoyed was on the team. They will choose to vilify a team because they have lost to them a few too many times, because a quarterback is a bit too Christian or because a hateful little prick was a bit to much to handle after a while. It happens every single day, and by and large it is a healthy thing within a sport. A little hatred fuels rivalries and heated games, big crowds and TV coverage.

It got me thinking though, as soccer fans the trash talking between sets of fans is no problem at all, but as advocates of the sport who are looking to help the sport grow within a culture that is hostile to its very existence at times we cannot afford to be both militantly pro-soccer and anti-everything else at the same time. Of course we aren’t all exclusively soccer fans but there is a large element amongst us who if you mention the NFL will groan about it simply being a vehicle for advertising, or start rattling off humdrum statistics about there only being 12 minutes of real action in an hour long game that winds up taking three hours or more.

It is this kind of sentiment that will really make an NFL fan mad, and potentially hostile to soccer and it is the kind of thing some soccer fans will drop in conversation due to their enthusiasm to convert the uninitiated. We are not going to win fans over to the beautiful game but pointing out the flaws in the things they love no matter how glaring they may seem us. It was just a thought – a powerful one which will probably prevent me from crapping all over MISL in the future – I would hate to think that anything I said about MISL caused an Indoor soccer fan to think of Sporting Kansas City or MLS badly. As much as we are fans, we are also representatives of Sporting Kansas City, MLS and soccer and it is worth thinking about that. In a country where we do not have blanket coverage and networks queuing up to make soccer stories prime time news, word of mouth and the image we project of our game is the most prominent outreach tool we have.

That makes us a powerful marketing force … for good or for bad. How we use that power is up to us.

One of the things that defined the first two seasons with Peter Vermes managing Sporting Kansas City was the heavy emphasis on foreign players. The worm seemed to turn in the 2011 season as Kevin Ellis and Jon Kempin where signed as homegrown players, and Kansas City native Seth Sinovic joined old high school team mate Matt Besler in the first team. The word round the campfire tonight is that the ranks may soon be swelling as another hometown player returns to Kansas City.

Michael Thomas is the name, and attached to him is a shared history with Matt Besler, the two having played together at Notre Dame, no doubt the Olathe native also crossed paths with Seth Sinovic on the local scene. Thomas was drafted 19th overall by the San Jose Earthquakes in the 2010 MLS Superdraft, instead of joining San Diego he opted instead to travel to Sweden where he ultimately joined Halmstads BK before moving onto Ljungskile SK in the second tier of Swedish football. He finished the 2011 season with five goals and four assists from midfield. Thomas was contracted to Ljungskile through the 2011 season which concluded in October.

He certainly fits the profile, young with some experience, and uncommitted. Given the quality of the facilities in this highlights video that his European experiment might have been something of a disappointment. I am not sure what kind of rights San Jose may have to claim on Thomas, no doubt if he is headed to Kansas City that has already been resolved. Take it for what you will, this is unconfirmed but I would at the very least expect Thomas to be coming in on trial.

Thomas is represented by Libero Sports as is Matt Besler and Nick Cardenas.

The typical swings and roundabouts of post season MLS kicked into high gear this week. The expansion draft, that somehow feels so long ago left large segments of the fan base melancholy, after losing Seth Sinovic to the Montreal Impact. The question raised by many (but not myself admittedly) was simple: Will Peter Vermes trade with Montreal to get Seth back? The answer turned out to be a surprising yes and while Seth Sinovic is now destined to be with Sporting for the foreseeable future the melancholy hasn’t lifted much.

Getting Seth back from Montreal cost the last great Wizard and Captain Davy Arnaud his home in Kansas City and the Impact an undisclosed amount of allocation money. This is good business, Sporting freed up over $250,000 under the salary cap, received a received an invaluable chunk of allocation money which can be used for paying down contracts, signing players and sweetening deals with other teams and ultimately retrieved a quality young player in place of one that is starting some would have you believe is getting old.

We should be happy right? Logically yes, and if I don my cap of pragmatism the trade is good business but Davy Arnaud is never going to appear in a Sporting KC shirt again and that unsettles me. Jimmy Conrad and Jack Jewsbury left Kansas City last close season, and while Jewsbury was popular it was the departure of Conrad that got the wistful juices flowing. He was the face of the Kansas City Wizards, and Davy Arnaud stepped into his shoes, assuming the captaincy before Conrad was traded to Chivas USA and the mantle of the senior veteran leader in the eyes of fans and management alike.

My ‘relationship’ with Davy has been tumultuous affair. He was the standout player in my early days following the Wizards when they were still mired at Arrowhead, a fiercely passionate and busy player who had the ability to keep pushing and fighting when all those around him seemed to be deflated. To say that he was the heart and soul of the team might overstate things, but he was at times a seemingly tireless and unyielding piston who would drive the team onwards out of pure stubborn will to win. It wasn’t all grit however, Davy Arnaud could strike a ball, could make goals and finish them he was for me the finest player in a Wizards shirt and the first player on the team who I thought was worth remembering.

As a morphed from a casual occasional tourist into a fan and started writing this blog my stock in Davy dipped. An incident which I deemed to be spiteful, classless and vicious during a pre-season game had me wondering for many a month if I would ever like Davy again. It was a moment of hotheadedness that I held against him for what seemed like an eternity until I actually got to know him a bit. Little interactions here and there at training revealed Davy to be quite a captivating personality, fun, with an impish and cheeky sense of humor. He won me back in many ways and as he was named captain and the organization also began its own astonishing metamorphosis Davy became the man once again.

Everything was changing, Conrad was gone, Hartman, Jewsbury. With them Community America Ballpark, the Arrowhead days had one last nostalgic visit as we beat United, Conrad was dismissed and Davy Arnaud once more got a bit excited and tried to wrestle the referees arm down as if it would somehow reverse the red if it wasn’t in the air – it didn’t work, but we still won anyway and the Wizards got to be heroes for day. Good old Davy, always going at a million miles an hour even when he was standing still. I was amazed he stayed on the field.

That said my fondest memory of Davy will be sitting down on some bleacher seats at Community American Ballpark talking, just chatting. Callum Williams was with us, maybe Mike Kuhn and we sat around like regular guys joking around and telling stories about our school days. He turned out to be a great guy, fun, but also direct and sincere, fun and more charismatic than you’d imagine based on interviews. You could see why he was made captain in amongst the shrinking violets that fans would make candidates. He was a natural leader, at least that was my impression, and I don’t think I could doubt a word he said.

He was impressive.

And I’ll miss him … not just because he is a good guy but because I am so used to seeing him play in a Kansas City shirt that somehow it seems a bit less without him. How can it not? A game, one solitary game lasts for 90 minutes, Davy Arnaud has clocked over 20,000 minutes for us. 90 vs 21,607 .. it seems to defy logic. He has been as much as a servant during his decade here as anybody has been in the history of this team and up until the 2012 season his body of work will have been under the banners of the Kansas City franchise.

The guy that I wanted to do nothing but hug after the defeat to Houston, the guy who I dreamed about raising that MLS Cup. Its a cruel game we play and love, yet we all saw the end coming, maybe not so soon and maybe some of us that wished to have Seth Sinovic back now are thinking that maybe the price was too high. Time will tell, and Seth Sinovic seems to have much of the heart and fight that Davy does. That is a comforting thought, as is the idea that this is not a eulogy but a brief goodbye, Davy will no doubt be back in 2012 in an Impact shirt, I have little doubt that he will also be wearing a captains arm band and after he gives the Members Section a wave I am sure that once more he will do everything in his power to win. We may even boo him before the afternoon is out.

I like that idea … too many fans have written him off as over the hill or flagging. He is 31, a child of the 80s, and I think he has a few years to go before he really is staring retirement in the face. I am sure he will have a point to prove, and I would not bet a single cent against him doing so.

Not a single one.

Dear Seth,

1 … Brian Ching – Ha ha!! Montreal stuck it to Ching and Houston. He said he was retiring after this one, now we will see if he values his word over his career, or if he over played his hand entirely… doubt I’ll be laughing when they pick Seth, I hate expansion drafts …

I remember when we signed you. Almost immediately before we did we released Mike Jones who I liked, maybe not as a player because we hadn’t really known him but as a guy I’d spent some time with. I wasn’t really happy. It wasn’t personal, but I didn’t really want you here, I didn’t really care that you were from KC, and … I’d never heard of you. I’d had BBQ with Mike Jones. Sinovic who?

2 …Zarek Valentin …

How good could you have been? I mean seriously the heralded Stevie Nicol dropped you like about as deliberately as he would a cup of hot steam shit and piss if I handed him one. All for a player he then turned around and dumped. Forgive me if I was cynical, even more so when I had heard the Real Salt Lake took a look and sent you packing. Then you signed with us?

3 …Justin Mapp ….

You got your debut finally, on a tiny field, against a fifth string New England Revolution team in the US Open Cup. I am sure you remember. Many of us do, the 1,300 who stood in the soaking rain saw you working hard, hustling, actually impressing while so many of our lads were coasting. Did you have a point to prove or was that just the way you played the game?

4 …Bobby Burling ….

It turned out to be the latter. Which is why Seth Sinovic, is a name all Kansas City Soccer fans know today. It is why you were the value pick of the Expansion Draft. It was why we knew you were probably gone, and why we hoped you would not be. Unprotected as you were? What were we thinking right? But with eleven players to protect and more talent than that in the squad we were always risking somebody. Still by the time the 9th pick had come around, I didn’t think you’d be off – but then you were. 10th pick, Seth Sinovic, proving that it wasn’t just Sporting Kansas City fans that valued you but the Montreal Impact.

5 … Jeb Brovosky …. half way through and Seth is still not picked. Maybe he won’t go? He will.

24 games was all it took for you to become a favorite. 24 games of unrelenting effort, of ceaseless work and no shortage of skill and tenacity made you one of the few players on our team that never had off days. I respect you, I respect the no thrills brand of football you play, I respect that when 8 or 9 of our other guys are ball watching you are hustling down the flanks getting free, I respect that more often than not given a ball in the final third you’ll beat your man and put in a good cross and I loved that that never changed, and you earned every last cent of your playing time and your salary in the Sporting Blue.

6 … Collen Warner….

This simple efficiency and sadly, your low wage isn’t why your no longer a Sporting Kansas City player but don’t think for one second that we don’t appreciate you. 2011 was a memorable season, that helped turn this team from little into something to be hugely proud of and you played more than your part. 24 games for you … and 4 defeats. Not bad Seth .. not bad at all.

7 … Josh Gardner …..

Montreal beckons, its not so bad up there – better than playing in the Kansas City rec leagues. It is still Major League Soccer, even if its going to be cold enough at times that you might wish for a Kansas City winter. Of course we’ll see you again at Livestrong in an Impact shirt, but your still part of Kansas City and always will be, you were born here after all. You still represent us, and if you continue in Canada as you did this year we will continue to to watch follow and call you one of our own with regret that your no longer a ‘Wizard’, but the pride and knowledge that you still are one of us.

8 … Sanna Nyassi … Still not picked … nooo they won’t leave him will they?

9 … James Riley …. Wow! … he’s not going ….

10 … Seth Sinovic ….

That didn’t suck at all.

So long kid, and thanks, seriously thanks for everything.

James