Wednesday, July 28, 2010

 Our Schedule...


The fields have been sloppy (see exhibit A above) with sitting water and a lot of mud and more mosquitoes than I have ever seen in my life.


So I have been asked what the heck we actually do all day. With our games being at 8pm each evening it leaves a lot of free time. We are staying in the hotel with 14 other MLS teams as Houston is not staying in a hotel and Galaxy is staying some where else. So it is an overload of players especially with a lot of meals being here.

We usually have breakfast around 9:30am and then head for a jog/stretch or a pool workout around 11:30am. Lunch is late, 3pm, since our game is so late,we eat later.(not ideal but has worked out) During down time the boys will play video games, watch movies, or we will get really wild and crazy and go to the grocery store. The drive to the fields has been about 1hr with traffic so we head out about 6pm for an 8pm kick-off and then return for dinner around 10:45pm. Then it is wind-down time and ice-bath time. Today we are headed to the MLS All-STAR game which should be pretty exciting. Kick off-7:50pm.

 Tough Times in Houston


Chris Tuso a day after surgery. He had six screws, a plate and one VERY large screw put in his ankle. His injury happened in the first match against Galaxy.


We have now played 4 of our 5 games here in Houston and lets just say Kansas has never looked so good. We have had two major injuries, Chris Tuso and Emilio Quezada, and 1-3 players sick per day. There is an awful bug going around the team and hotel and has affected us greatly.

We have had trouble coming together as a team and being organized on the field the last few matches. This, along with injuries and illness has contributed to three loses against Real Salt Lake, NY Red Bulls and NE Revs.

As you may or may not know the team we did put together was a mix of our U18, U16 and players who just made the Juniors so the SUM Cup team had about three weeks to prepare. The bright side is we realized we have a few amazing players coming into the program for the 2010-11 season. Clay Stewart, Cameron Wallace and David Leichty are just a couple of players that have been showing well this week and we are excited to welcome to the Juniors.

Although we are very frustrated after 6days in hot, humid Houston we need to remind ourselves that it isnt always about results and more about development. And we will continue to develop our players in a professional environment.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

 SUM CUP is in Full Swing


Derek Schrick scores on a free-kick against Galaxy for the game winner.



The KCW Juniors created a U17 team to participate in the annual SUM Cup tournament. We composed a team of current U18 and U16 players and then a few new players who just made the DA teams. The SUM Cup is a tournament that only MLS Juniors team participate in. This year it is in Houston, TX surrounding the ALL-STAR match.

We are in a difficult group with Galaxy, Red Bulls and Real Salt Lake. We were able to find success in our first game last night against Galaxy. We went down 0-1 in the first half and then game back to tie and then win the match 2-1 with both goals coming from Derek Schrick. All three goals, ours and Galaxy's goal all came from free-kicks

Unfortunately, one of our new players, Chris Tuso, got tackled and broke his ankle. He is in a splint right now and will be getting surgery in Houston on Monday. Lets hope for a speedy recovery as we need him back on the field.

We play Red Bulls tonight at 8pm. For updated info click here and for photos here!