The bus rolls south on an April afternoon, skirting the western portion of Missouri on its way to Springfield, where the passengers will play an exhibition soccer match against a college team.
With several hours to kill, Nick Garcia chats with his Kansas City teammates, gazes out the window and reads. He majored in legal studies at Indiana University and usually has a book with him. Being stuck on a bus also provides time for reflection and thought as the voices echo around him.
''I've been a part of teams that have been kind of loud and crazy and kind of kiddish, and others that were more serious,'' he says. ''We definitely have a mix of the two. Our young guys and developmental players are maybe more outgoing, although they're only a couple of years younger than me.''
For Garcia, 24, and the Wizards there is much to ponder. The surprise winners of MLS Cup 2000, when Garcia was a rookie, barely made the playoffs the past two seasons, landing them with the dreaded ''fluke'' designation.
''What we didn't have the past two years that we had in 2000 was consistency,'' says Coach Bob Gansler, who masterminded that title. ''I also want this team to be hungry like that team was.''
What that title didn't do was spark a sharp upsurge in attendances. The 2000 champs averaged just 9,112 fans per game, beating out only the Fusion (7,460). Last year Kansas City bested only one team (San Jose at 11,150) but the numbers rose to 12,255.
On paper, the Kansas City Wizards are one of the most formidable teams in MLS with three national team regulars (Nick Garcia, Chris Klein and Josh Wolff), two former World Cup players (Tony Meola and Preki) and two emerging talents (Francisco Gomez and Jose Burciaga). Their first two home games produced 10 goals, providing plenty of drama for the surprisingly strong crowds Kansas City has drawn at Arrowhead Stadium.
INROADS AT ARROWHEAD. Still, attendances have increased in each of the past four years, and an aggressive marketing push spearheaded personally by operator-investor Lamar Hunt is bearing results in a city far more enamored of traditional sports.
''Kansas City is a big football and baseball town, and that's pretty much the way it is in the Midwest,'' says midfielder Carey Talley, who joined the team last year after four seasons playing for the barra brava at RFK Stadium. ''People grew up on those sports. With all of the work that Lamar Hunt has done and all he expects the Kansas City front office to do, there's been huge strides made if you ask me. Our home opener was the most people they've ever had [22,403].''
The Wizards have topped 6,000 in season-ticket sales, with many corporations and businesses buying up blocks at Hunt's behest. He has merged some of the Wizards' operations with those of his NFL Chiefs, whose coach, Dick Vermeil, bought a season-ticket block in the name of a youth organization he supports.
The teams share Arrowhead Stadium, which in the early days of MLS was notorious for employees who would order fans to sit down and confiscate flags. Hunt had been exploring the possibility of building a soccer-specific stadium in nearby Johnson County (Kansas). A bi-state, four-county commission has initiated several community projects, but talks of a Wizards stadium petered out.
Arrowhead has yet to become a cauldron in which opposing teams fear to tread. Its still way too big (capacity: 79,101). But players no longer have to endure eerie silences either.
''Whenever you came here, it was a one-on-one thing with the crowd,'' says Talley. ''You could hear them talking to you individually on the field. Now it's different. Around the city, there's more awareness. There are billboards up, and radio spots all the time. They're trying, and people are definitely starting to come out.''
Forward Josh Wolff joined the Fire as a Project-40 player, and was traded to the Wizards during the offseason.
''I remember going to Kansas City, it was one of the first places I went my rookie year,'' he says. ''For the most part, they were very vacant games. We've had good crowds our first two games [in 2003]. That's something I definitely don't remember seeing much here, and I'm very excited to see it happening now.''
For a visit by the Hunt-owned Crew May 3, the Wizards adopted the Crew's popular ''Buck-a-Brat'' promotion by which fans can buy bratwurst sausages for a dollar.
NEW PIECES. Wolff is a vital cog in the team's transformation. Gansler has several attackers – Dario Fabbro, Igor Simutenkov, Chris Brown – more suited to playing as the second forward, a role that on the Wizards must also complement the devious magic of Preki as well as the man up top.
''He can fly,'' says Gansler of Wolff. ''He stretches the field for us. We tried to do it with a target player in Fabbro last year, but Fabbro really isn't a target player, either. It's not what he wants to do. He did it very well at times, but he's better underneath as well. He's not as quick as Josh. Josh is ready to go downtown, go all the way, every time.''
First, Wolff must stay healthy. He is coming off his second ACL tear, missed all but three games in 2001 because of a stress fracture in his right foot and underwent hernia surgery in 1998. In the third game of 2003, he tweaked a hamstring.
Trading the SafePlay surface at Naperville on which Wolff suffered his ACL tear last year for a field maintained by NFL groundskeeping guru George Toma wasn't a tough choice.
''That definitely was a factor,'' he says. ''I wanted to come here. The surface here is what you want in a field, and it's a good size.''
The defense and midfield have been revamped. Rugged midfielder Matt McKeon was not re-signed, and veteran defender Peter Vermes, who played every minute of the 2000 season but missed the bulk of 2001 and 2002 because of injuries, retired.
Garcia, who filled a central role the past two seasons when Vermes was not available, has youngster Jose Burciaga on his left and former Quake Jimmy Conrad on his right in Kansas City's three-man back line.
Conrad helped the Quakes win a championship in 2001. He played both right back and central defender in the 4-4-2 formation used by Coach Frank Yallop the past two seasons.
''I don't understand how you can let him go,'' says Klein. ''He's great in the locker room and is a very good defender.''
Gansler is convinced Burciaga, 21, would have played a lot of minutes in 2002 if he hadn't suffered an ACL tear just days before the season opener. As it was, he played none.
''Every time he's gone away with the Under-20s or Under-23s, we get glowing reports,'' says Gansler of the Duncanville, Texas, native who signed as a P-40 player in 2001. ''He's just a very good defender. He has very good defensive instincts and he's been an attacking player all of his life. Of our back three, he might be the best passer of the ball.''
Burciaga has worked zealously in the wake of his injury.
''He was very young and I think it took him a while to learn how to be a good pro,'' says Klein. ''I tell you, he works now, and he's very serious and knows soccer is his living.''
Burciaga brings more Latin flavor to the Wizards, an element Gansler believes can be incorporated successfully if the blend is right. Burciaga, who lists his favorite players as Mexican forwards Luis Hernandez and Cuauhtemoc Blanco, is one of the Wizards' four Hispanic-American starters – the most in MLS – along with Garcia, Francisco Gomez and Diego Gutierrez. But as Gansler points out, such flair isn't confined to certain countries or regions.
''When you talk about skill and stuff on the ball, you have to mention Preki right off the bat,'' says Gansler. ''Maybe it's that Serbian blood. He has to rank pretty highly as well. The Latins aren't the only ones who can bring it.''
Preki began the season as the league's all-time leading scorer with 65 goals and 93 assists and picked up a goal and two assists in the first three games.
''His career is probably four times as long as mine,'' says Talley of the former U.S. international. ''When he's talking in the locker room, a lot of people are listening. This guy's 40 years old, and he wants it more than almost anybody. You have to pick up your slack and catch up with the older guy.''
Gansler has moved Talley, a midfielder at North Carolina but a defender for most of his MLS tenure, to defensive midfield. One of his partners will be Gomez, a native of Watsonville, Calif., who spent some time at the Tahuichi Academy in Bolivia before coming to MLS as a P-40 player in 1999.
Gomez set up Klein for the tying goal in a 3-2 comeback win over D.C. United by spinning in midfield to evade a defender and hitting a perfect ball up the right flank. When Preki, 40, is feeling his age, Gomez will be asked to spark the attack.
''Technically, he's a very good player,'' says Wolff of Gomez. ''He plays kind of a defensive role with some ability to go forward. He strikes the ball with both feet extremely well and can spray the field from sitting in the middle. That's something that gives this team another threat because you can find seams.''
Gansler points out that European teams, too, are always searching for that spectacular player who can do the unexpected as well as work within a system.
''Look at Bayern Munich, where I'm from,'' says Gansler, whose heritage is German-Hungarian. ''They have a Brazilian [Giovane Elber] and a Peruvian [Claudio Pizarro] up front, and a Paraguayan (Roque Santa Cruz) comes off the bench. It's been happening all over.
''I think Jose and Cisco are on the verge of blossoming. Diego [Gutierrez] has that Colombian influence as well, and Fabbro has that Argentine mix. They can be entertaining but realize they've got to be effective as well as attractive.''
THEN AND NOW. The championship team of 2000 had one main threat in Danish goal-poacher Miklos Molnar, but it also had Preki, Chris Henderson and former Scottish international Mo Johnston to cause panic in the other team's penalty area. MVP keeper Tony Meola anchored a defense that conceded just 29 goals, a figure only two other teams have tied in league history, and none has surpassed.
Meola, Preki, Klein and Garcia are still around, but early in 2003 leadership has been lacking as the team conceded six goals in its first three games.
Kansas City leaked leads in each game. It led D.C., 1-0, and fell behind, 2-1, before rallying to win the opener, 3-2. It squandered a 1-0 lead in San Jose and tied, 1-1. It collapsed in a 3-2 home defeat to Chicago after leading, 2-0, at halftime.
''Obviously, we had some deficiencies and we were punished for it,'' said Garcia. ''There is no excuse for that. We just need a better effort from everybody. We don't have a lot of veteran experience. It's Tony and me in the back as far as leaders. When Preki's out there, he's vocal at times, but more importantly, showing us how to get it done on the field.''
Like many teams this season, the Wizards may not have a clear picture of what they are until August. Wolff, Klein and Garcia could see fairly extensive national team duty in June (Confederations Cup) and July (Gold Cup), and more will be known about Gomez and Burciaga as well.
One month into the season, Kansas City ranks in the middle of the pack, rebuilding from sub-.500 seasons (9-10-9 and 11-13-3) in which it finished as the No. 8 seed and was knocked out of the playoffs in the first round.
Says Wolff, who won an MLS title as a rookie with Chicago, ''The pieces are there. I wouldn't call us a sleeper, I wouldn't call us a frontrunner. I just think we have a good amount of talent, and if things can sort themselves out, we should be looking pretty strong at the end of the year.''
by Soccer America Senior Editor Ridge Mahoney