Tough Loss

The Kansas City Wizards 2008 MLS season is over. It's been a fun one. Thanks for reading all year. We look forward to some updates and innovations of Hillcrest Road over the offseason, so keep on reading. Read the quotes and notables from tonight's match below. We'll post pictures either tonight or tomorrow. There are some quality ones from the Cauldron coming into the stadium.

· Kansas City is now 12-15-5 all-time in MLS playoff games.
· The Wizards have scored 44 goals and allowed 46 goals in post-season play.
· Kansas City concluded the season 11-11-10 in MLS matches.
· Including the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and two international friendlies, Kansas City was 15-12-10 on the season.
· This was the first-ever postseason series between Kansas City and Columbus.
· The Wizards finished the year 0-3-2 against the Crew, including three regular-season games.
· Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made one save on the night to extend his MLS postseason record to 155 career saves.
· Hartman also leads in postseason wins (22) and shutouts (14).
· He became the first player in MLS history to surpass the 4,000-minute plateau in postseason play.
· Hartman now has 4,042 career postseason minutes.
· Hartman surpassed Cobi Jones for the all-time lead in games started (44).
· He is one behind Jones for the all-time games played lead.
· Forward Michael Kraus made his first appearance for the Wizards in a first-team MLS game.
· Kraus scored one goal and added four assists this year in 11 MLS Reserve Division matches.
· He also scored the game-winning goal in a 2-1 victory over Mexican First Division club Atlas AC.
· Kraus attended Creighton University and was drafted by the Wizards in the 4th round of the 2007 MLS Supplemental Draft.
· Kansas City had four rookies and two second-year players appear in Saturday’s match.
· Rookies Jonathan Leathers (90 minutes), Kevin Souter (90 minutes), Roger Espinoza (77 minutes) started the game and Matt Marquess came off the bench for the final 13 minutes.
· Second-year defender Michael Harrington started and played all 90 minutes, while Kraus came on and played the final 31 minutes.

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS HEAD COACH CURT ONALFO
His thoughts on the season:
“Obviously, we knew that it was going to be a difficult challenge but we believed that we were going to be able to do it and we just fell short. We have a lot to be proud of. Our team finished two points better than what we did last year. We did that, quite frankly, as a very, very young team. Similarly to what Sigi did here the last couple of years; playing young players and letting them get experience. We’ve been able to do that as well. This is another step in our progression as a group. Obviously, it stings; it hurts. We look forward to getting better as we move into next season.”

KANSAS CITY WIZARDS GOALKEEPER KEVIN HARTMAN
His thoughts on tonight’s match:
“They’re [Columbus] a good team, no bones about it. We also believe that we’re a good team, but unfortunately they got the result. It’s one of those things where maybe if we were able to come in with a goal advantage that we coughed up at home; but you’re always going to say what could have been at the end of the season. I have a ton of respect for the guys I played with this year. Even when we were down two-nil tonight we continued to fight, there weren’t guys arguing with one another; I think it’s a really class act and I’m proud to be a part of this organization.”

On Kansas City’s outlook for next season:
“I think it took us a while to figure out exactly what was going to work. Hopefully, now that we’ve found guys that can continue to do it on a consistent basis, next year will be a situation where we can accumulate more and more points and there’s not necessarily a feeling out period like I think we went through for a while this year.”