Welcome Back

Note: Attempted posting this yesterday before leaving Colorado, but Blogger held me up for some reason. Here's what I said...extra apologies now for the lack of posts.

Apologies for the lack of posts over the last two days. Friday, travel kept me busy and there were technical difficulties last night. Tough one to lose yesterday, as Conor Casey turned in an excellent performance for the Rapids. Props to the twenty plus Cauldronites who made the trip and produced more noise than the Colorado supporters' sections. Well done, friends. We head back to KC today, and the Starting 11 have the day off tomorrow. Those who didn't start will take part in a reserve friendly against Michael Kraus' alma mater, Creighton, tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. at our gorgeous Swope Park Training Center. Come out and see the match, if you can find time out of your Monday work schedule.

(On a side note, Hillcrest just watched a quarterfinal water polo match between Italy and the Netherlands. You think stopping PKs in soccer is hard? This match went to a penalty shot shootout. Wow, now that was not easy for the goaltenders.)

Check out below for some notables on last night's match and kcwizards.com for quotes.

· Following the match, Kansas City sits 6-7-7, 25 pts. in a tie for 5th place tie in the Eastern Conference with the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC, who meet one another Sunday afternoon in New York.
· The Wizards are now 19-16-8 all-time in the regular season against Colorado, including a 4-13-5 mark on the road.
· Kansas City is now 3-2-4 in its last nine matches.
· The Wizards concluded the season 1-1-0 against Colorado in MLS play and 2-1-0 in all competitions.
· Kansas City is 3-1-2 against the Rapids in their last six match-ups.
· Colorado last won July 8, 2006.
· Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman and defender Jimmy Conrad are the only Wizards to play all 1800 minutes so far this season.
· Midfielder Michael Harrington recorded his first goal of the season in the 44th minute.
· Harrington now has four career goals.
· Harrington’s tally came off a rebound, the Wizards first rebound goal of the season.
· He is the 10th Wizards player to score a goal this season.
· Hartman recorded five saves on the night to reach 1099-career stops.
· With his next save, Hartman will become just the second goalkeeper in MLS history to surpass 1100 stops.
· Hartman trails only former Wizards goalkeeper Tony Meola on the all-time MLS saves list.
· Meola retired with 1136 stops.
· Hartman needs just 37 saves over the final 10 matches to reach Meola’s mark. He has averaged over 4 saves/game this season.
· Hartman finished the game with 26,235 career minutes played, just seven minutes short of former Wizards midfielder and coach Chris Henderson for second place on the all-time MLS list.