A World Cup year. His MLS club up for sale. A hamstring injury. A collapsed deal with an English club. A wife and two young sons living in the family home a thousand miles away from his Kansas City apartment.
It's been a tumultuous season for Josh Wolff, who in the Wizards' seesaw 3-3 tie with Real Salt Lake last weekend scored the superb goal that ignited a spectacular match, and assisted on the Wizards' other two goals.
The tie left the Wizards in a fourth-place deadlock with Red Bull New York. Both teams have two games to play, and they meet on the final weekend of the regular season to determine the East's final playoff qualifier.
''It's really frustrating to be in that same situation again with two games to go and, of course, we'll play New York and that will probably be for everything,'' Wolff says. Last season, Kansas City went winless in its last eight games and missed the playoffs a year after finishing MLS runner-up.
The goal and assists earned him MLS Player of the Week honors. Of far greater importance to him was the point gained against Salt Lake and the hectic yet welcome presence of wife, Angela, and sons, Tyler and Owen, who are living in in Atlanta this season and came to town for a week's visit.
''It's been pretty much chaotic since December,'' says Wolff, who missed more than a month of MLS play for World Cup duty and sat out several games with a bad hamstring afterward. ''I remember the last World Cup [2002] with Chicago, we were in a temporary stadium in Naperville [Ill.] and it was just a bizarre year. Any time with the World Cup it becomes chaotic.''
A move to Derby County last month broke down when an appeal for a work permit was denied. Another attempt is likely at the end of the MLS season, when his contract expires. ''Being 29, there's not going to be that many more opportunities to get over there, so there's some urgency to it,'' he says of a move overseas.
Despite the roiling year he's endured, there's some semblance of stability in Kansas City. Nearly two years of rumored moves and ownership uncertainty ended with the team's purchase by a powerful local consortium, OnGoal LLC, which has already implemented a marketing push and stadium proposal.
''I think everyone is genuinely excited now,'' Wolff says. ''That's a good thing.''