Watch the Juniors Today

Don't forget, the KCW Juniors U-16s and U-18s face St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro today at 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. CT at our Swope Park Training Center. Come on out and see the players who are striving to become the next Kansas City Wizards stars!

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Support Kansas City's Bid

As you all know, we're running a petition to get as many supporters as possible by the time the USA Bid Committee picks 18 cities next month to be part of their official bid to FIFA due in May of 2010. We've been on the rise for some weeks now, but we still need your help to climb higher toward the top to show everyone how much Kansas Citians support the effort. If you haven't already, visist www.goUSAbid.com/kc and sign the petition. If you have, invite your friends. If you've done both, invite different friends and tell them to invite friends. Every signature helps!

Watch the KCW Juniors Sunday

The Juniors will return to action Sunday with games against St. Louis Scott Gallagher Metro at Kansas City’s Swope Park Training Center. The U-16s from each club will face off at 10 a.m. CT, with the U-18 teams playing at 12 p.m. CT. The matches are open to the public free of charge. Feel free to come on out for either game or both games. As Jon Parry says below, everyone is welcome!

“Our first and foremost priority is player development, and I was very pleased with our performances last weekend in Texas,” KCW Juniors DOC Jon Parry said. “We had only trained together for a short period of time due to high school soccer, so that says a lot about the nucleus of players we have returning. We have our first-ever U.S. Soccer Development Academy home games this weekend, and I encourage fans to come out and watch the matches.”

Happy Thanksgiving!

Have a very wonderful turkey day! Be thankful that no Wizards were taken in yesterday's expansion draft and that the weather in KC has been lovely, among other more personal things.

Philly Takes 10, None from KC

Today, the Philadelphia Union selected their first 10 players in team history in the expansion draft. Philly took no players from the Wizards. Former Wizards defender, Shavar Thomas, was selected in the draft from Chivas USA. The list of 10 selected players is below:

Player (Pos.) Former Club
Jordan Harvey (D) Colorado Rapids
Andrew Jacobsen (M) D.C. United
Brad Knighton (G) New England Revolution
Sebastien Le Toux (F) Seattle Sounders FC
Stefani Miglioranzi (M) LA Galaxy
Alejandro Moreno (F) Columbus Crew
Dave Myrie (D) Chicago Fire
Shea Salinas (M) San Jose Earthquakes
Shavar Thomas (D) Chivas USA
Nick Zimmerman (M) New York Red Bulls

UEFA Champions League Play

There are some fun match-ups today in the UEFA Champions League, including Juventus-Bordeaux and FC Porto-Chelsea. Follow along live at Soccernet's MatchDay Commentary. Otherwise, just pull up their live score page and watch the action there.

Watch the Expansion Draft results live on MLSnet.com at 2 p.m. CT.

A Pair of Drafts

Today, the Expansion Draft for Philadelphia Union will take place. There will also be a waiver draft later in the day. While there usually isn't a lot of turnover in waiver drafts, one never knows. The list of 10 players taken by Philly is expected to come out around 2 p.m. CT. Check back here to find out if any Wizards players were selected. We'll also let you know if any movement takes place in the waiver draft. Enjoy your Thanksgiving Eve! There's some good Champions League action later on. More on that later.

Hillcrest Road a Finalist for Best Soccer Blog

U.S. Soccer announced the finalists today for the 2009 Best of U.S. Soccer Awards. Hillcrest Road is one of 10 blogs still in the running! Thank you to everyone out there who nominated us for this great honor. We are extremely humbled! The competition is stiff, but we would appreciate every vote for Best Soccer Blog!

The other categories include:

• Best Goal
  
• Best Assist
  
• Best Performance: Player
  
• Best Performance: Team
  
• Best Video
  
• Best Soccer Bar
  
• Best Soccer Blog
  
• Best Fan Photo
  
• Best Photo
  
• Best Clutch Moment
  
• Best Academy Story
  
• Best Soccer Specialty Store.

To vote on all the awards, click here. To skip straight to Best Soccer Blog, click here. Everyone can vote once per day. Voting ends on December 13.

Now let's take a look at the competition for Best Soccer Blog:
duNord - Bruce McGuire compiles a daily (unbelievable) list of soccer stories from the U.S. and abroad. A true must-read for soccer fanaticos.

The Shin Guardian - A newer blog on the block that has put up a good deal of content and advertised itself well via Facebook and other methods. Did an in-depth interview with Peter Vermes when he became Interim Head Coach during the season.

Soccer by Ives - Well known and widely read, Ives Galarcep and company provide great content each and every day on soccer in the U.S. and abroad. A very good one.

Match Fit USA - A relatively new blog that is updated constantly and provides quality links and analysis from around the soccer world.

Soccer Insider - The lone finalist run through an official news organization, Steve Goff's Soccer Insider from the Washington Post dishes out insight not only on D.C. United, but anything within the world of soccer.

No Short Corners - Amazingly in touch though located oversees, Greg Seltzer and Sean O'Conor cover all aspects of American soccer, most notably American abroad. These two are top-notch.

This is American Soccer - Adam Spangler does some seriously in-depth analysis on the beautiful game from an American perspective. Sponsored by Nike since 2005.

Pitch Invasion - Offers up a little bit of everything from MLS to the EPL. They do a great job of finding interesting reads and offering up sound opinions.

Women's National Team Blog - The lone finalist from U.S. Soccer's lineup of quality blogs, the Women's National Team blog offers inside info on each WNT camp and the regular players as they play club ball.

Hillcrest Road - That's us. We offer the latest on the Wizards and try to keep everyone in the know on significant happenings throughout MLS and the international game. Thanks again to everyone who nominated us!

Wizards Announce Protected Players

The players protected from Wednesday's expansion draft for Philadelphia Union are:

M Davy Arnaud
D Jimmy Conrad
D Michael Harrington
M Jack Jewsbury
F Kei Kamara
D Jonathan Leathers
M/F Claudio Lopez
M Kevin Souter
F Josh Wolff
M Graham Zusi
F Zoltan

Juniors Teams Win to Open DA Play

Check out the full information over on the KCW Juniors blog.