Because of the wonderful things

Sometimes the beautiful game connects with people in a beautiful way.

Aww, the little guy's hero

Sometimes I misplace emails, organizing stuff to read later and then find them. So it was with this one from a North Carolina reader, Dean. I actually watched the U.S. Open Cup match he refers to (the Wizards won, coming back from a two-goal deficit) and noticed a very young ball kid on the broadcast. He was dwarfed by the official T-shirt and he had only a vague idea of fetching the ball.
Anyway, I'll let Dean's email tell the rest of the story.
I'm just a reader from North Carolina who
had to pass on a story to you about a great sight from last night's KC
Wizards-Carolina Railhawks game (and a great game it was!). Anyhow,
one of the ballboys on the touch line beside the KC bench couldn't
have been much more than 4 or 5 years old -- he was really too young
to be out there, as he didn't know what to do, and I thought he was
going to get hurt. As regulation time started to wind down, the boy
started to rock back and forth, and then march in place. You know
what I'm talking about -- the ol' "potty dance." Who happened to
notice this? None other than Claudio Lopez, who had seen the boy's
"discomfort" a couple of minutes prior to the end of regulation time,
but he couldn't get the attention of anyone to help the kid out.
Finally, as the whistle blew, Lopez immediately ran over to the
sideline and escorted the boy toward the tunnel toward the locker
rooms. It was hilarious seeing this world class player doing such a
humble thing, while still maintaining focus on the game.

Ahead of the crowd

After listening to the Wizards in the post-game presser, I made a quick dash to their locker room. I had enough time to talk to one KC player, so I talked to the one I knew would give me some good stuff. Here's my little chat with Jimmy Conrad.

I thought about sticking around and saying hi to Kevin Hartman but he was in the middle of an interview and I wanted to make it over to the Galaxy locker room before everyone left. Sometimes the guys linger but other times it clears out rather quickly.

I was actually one of the first reporters there. While most had stayed behind to listen to Ruud Gullit, I was in the locker room with maybe two other reporters. David Beckham was still there. He was tidying himself up and getting ready for his trans-Atlantic jaunt while his three boys played in the locker room. It was a regular day care center in there as Chris Klein, Joe Franchino and Becks all had their kids in there. It's not like I'm not used to little ones scampering around so it didn't exactly faze me. I actually thought it was kind of cool for the players to have their kids down there.

Anyway, I got the chance to talk to Greg Vanney and Chris Klein before the hordes descended upon the locker room for Landon Donovan.

Here's audio of my one-on-one with Greg Vanney, some of which I'm using for my Tuesday column in The Press-Enterprise. I'll probably post the Klein stuff at some point as well.

KC Kyle

I didn't get a chance to make it to the Wizards locker room (where it would have been nice to interview the new DP, Claudio, say hi to 'El Gato' and collect a pithy quote from my fellow espn.com writer, JC), but this morning's email from Kansas City media dude Kyle Rogers contains more Wizards trivia than I could ever hope to collect in one post-game visit.
It's interesting, too, unlike a lot of press releases the league puts out.

Goalkeeper Kevin Hartman made six saves on the night, his second-best save performance of the season.

· In the 3rd minute, Hartman surpassed former teammate and current LA assistant coach Cobi Jones for 4th place on Major League Soccer’s all-time minutes list.

· In the 88th minute, Hartman surpassed current Real Salt Lake Head Coach Jason Kreis for 3rd place on the all-time list.

· Kreis and Real Salt Lake are the Wizards next opponents in MLS play.

· Hartman ended the game with 25,245 career minutes.

· He trails only New England midfielder Steve Ralston and former Wizards assistant Chris Henderson in career minutes.

· Hartman now has 1050 career saves, trailing only former Wizards standout Tony Meola on Major League Soccer’s all-time list.

· Hartman and defender Jimmy Conrad are the only Wizards to play all 810 minutes so far this season.

· Forward Claudio Lopez sits just behind Conrad and Hartman with 806 minutes and has played the entire 90 in six matches.

· Lopez recorded his 3rd goal of the season with a moment of individual brilliance in the first half.

· He is now tied with Conrad for the team lead in goals scored.

· It was the Wizards 3rd goal scored in open play this season.

· Midfielder Davy Arnaud made his first start of the season.

· With the appearance, Arnaud surpassed Matt McKeon for 6th place on the team’s all-time games played list.

· Five Wizards were born in the state of California: Myers, Victorine, Conrad, Kronberg and Wahl.

· Three Wizards formerly played professionally in the state. Hartman and Victorine both played for Los Angeles. Conrad played for San Jose before joining the Wizards.

· Former Wizards standout Chris Klein played 90 minutes at right back for LA.

· Four Wizards played collegiate soccer in at UCLA: Hartman, Conrad, Victorine and Myers.

· Hartman attended Cal-State Dominguez Hills for his first two seasons. Home Depot Center sits on the campus of CSDH.

· Conrad had 150 friends and family in attendance.

· Kansas City was without reserve defender Jonathan Leathers, who is in Toulon, France with the U.S. U-23 National Team

Highlights, KC - LA

Hey, that successful goal pose of Beckham's looks familiar.

Ruud post KC

Sasha