Hillcrest Responds to Cause for Alarm

Posted on February 10, 2008 by kcwizards

I thought it worth bringing attention to the response of Hillcrest to Tony Felich’s post Cause for Alarm. It gives some insight into the team this year that any basic fan would be interested in and not sure you’d catch in the comments. You may wish to read Cause for Alarm as well if you have not yet. If you don’t know Hillcrest is part of the front office staff  and so his post comes with true insight. His comments are below.

  1. A couple pieces of food for thought:

    Last year we lost 3-0 in our first pre-season match and went to the semifinal. Crew won all their pre-season matches, yet finished behind us in the standings.

    A major priority for our coaching staff was adding speed and versatility during the draft. They did not evaluate any of the forward prospects more highly than either Chance or Roger in the first round, so we acquired two very talented young players who are hardworking AND Generation adidas, so we control them for an extended amount of time without having to expose them to the expansion drafts that are coming soon.

    Coach Onalfo (I heard him tell TelaFutura this yesterday) believes that be successful in MLS, the best strategy is to stock your team with hard-working, talented defenders, goalkeepers and holding-type players from the USA and to invest in foreign players for the final third of the field (Marinelli, Colombano, Sealy already). This strategy will take time to develop fully.

    Also don’t forget that Davy has not yet trained. He automatically improves the team when he steps in.

    Coach and PV are, in my mind, the best pairing of coach/GM/TD/Personnel guy in the league because they have an exact plan in place and will not stray from that. I have no doubt in my mind that they will bring a championship club to Kansas City. To do that, we need fans. Coach asked me yesterday how season tickets are going. They care very much about putting an exciting team on the field that entices fans to come and watch. I would ask that you reconsider and buy season tickets. Not only will we entertain you this year, but you will have priority for seating in 2010 when we open Hillcrest Road, the stadium. I’ll personally introduce myself to you if you do and ask you after the season if you’ve regretted your choice. You will not.

    Oh, we don’t have the home games for two months due to T-Bones schedule and field re-surfacing. Think of it as a second opening day when we get back in town! (I hope there weren’t any typos, I wrote more than I intended to.)

  2. Forgot to mention. Marinelli looked brilliant yesterday. He is now fully comfortable and has better relationships with his teammates than he did at any time last year.

Filed under: Off the field info, Rumor, player(s)

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6 Responses to “Hillcrest Responds to Cause for Alarm”

  1. dtb, on February 10th, 2008 at 6:19 pm Said:

    Actually we lost our preseason opener last year 3-1.
    http://web.mlsnet.com/news/team_news.jsp?ymd=20070213&content_id=83642&vkey=news_kcw&fext=.jsp&team=t105

  2. Hillcrest Road, on February 10th, 2008 at 8:13 pm Said:

    Ha, my bad. I knew I should have looked that up.

  3. mm, on February 10th, 2008 at 9:06 pm Said:

    details, details, details :-)

  4. AJF, on February 10th, 2008 at 9:27 pm Said:

    Hillcrest,

    Thanks again for your personal address of my article. Such an action deepens my respect for the organization.

    The Wizards are my team, being skeptical of the proposed plan you partially reveal does not change that. I am hoping that you are right and I am WAY wrong concerning this year.

    I do think the draft and basic stock up of defensive players/Midfielders can make long term sense, but I stick by my belief that a 3-5-2 requires an extremely effective middle “row” of players. The formation is my personal favorite- when personell is right. Any plan to not add a few more parts to this current roster makes me nervous.

    I’ve said my piece and you have been gracious in response. I will be at as many of the first games before the April-June “gap” as possible. I look forward to seeing how the plan works out.

    Also, I promise to publically retract, recant, and otherwise eat humble pie if I’m way off on this- I definitely want to be.

    Take care!

    Tony Felich

  5. kopiteinkc, on February 11th, 2008 at 11:03 am Said:

    I still think we are very thin up top, no matter what spin is put on it by the front office.

    Johnson is gone, Arnaud is injured, so who are our first choice forwads?

    We have Sealy, Pore, Colombano and Trujillo. Forgive me for being skeptical about Trujillo but he is completely unproven in MLS. Colombano looked ok last season, but he played more as winger than forward. Pore hasn’t shown much at all in the first XI and so we are left with Sealy.

    I like Sealy a lot and he can be very effective, but someone has to step up and partner him and quickly. We have a lot of early home games before the six game roadtrip. I cannot see Arnaud being healthy enough for those early home matches, so who is it gonna be?

    I want to go into the season with optimism, but our off season moves have left me unconvinced. We need a quality forward, now!

  6. szazzy, on February 14th, 2008 at 8:48 am Said:

    what’s the deal - 3 days with no updates? What kind of free blog is this? :)

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