KC will be missing defensive leader and captain Jimmy Conrad, as well as midfielders Davy Arnaud and Roger Espinoza due to Gold Cup call ups, while Kevin Souter will not be available due to injury. The Dynamo also has its share of vacancies in the starting lineup, missing Brian Ching, Stuart Holden and Andrew Hainault because of the Gold Cup, while Wade Barret, Eddie Robinson, and Craig Waibel are out injured; Ricardo Clark missed his US Cup game due to personal reasons and I am unsure of his availability.

It will be a scrappy battle for tired teams who just got off playing US Cup games and, who after Saturday’s match will again continue to play for the Cup midweek. I do wonder how much offense will be generated from teams that regardless of their mid week results have struggled to score recently and are missing key offensive players such as Ching and Arnaud.

I really can’t predict what the KC lineup might look like with the defense having been exposed against Santos last Sunday and with a midfield that could not contain the fast passing Mexican team. Some posters and bloggers have suggested moving Matt Besler to his more natural center back position instead of struggling Rauwshan McKenzie and slotting Michael Harrington to his natural left back position instead of continuing to place him in the right side of the midfield where he has produced some terrible performances. Also the attacking midfield could see either Kurt Morsink or Graham Zusi there if Harrington does move back to defense. The Morsink/Hirsig midfield does have the interesting option of having them rotate the d-mid position so that Hirsig can move forward and do some more vertical passing like he did in his first game vs. Toronto where he got an assist.

Coach Onalfo might consider Houston’s weakened attack and leave Hohlbein with McKenzie in the middle hoping that they can control the dangerous and speedy Kamara but if Vuoso from Santos gave us fits a faster Kamara could spell trouble. I expect this to be a low scoring affair with either a tie or KC winning by one.

I’m going to throw out 2 possible lineups today:

Hartman
Watson—Hohlbein—McKenzie—Besler
Jewsbury—Hirsig—Morsink/Zusi—Gomez
Wolff—Lopez

OR

Hartman
Watson—Hohlbein—Besler—Harrington
Jewsbury—Hirsig—Morsink/Zusi—Gomez
Wolff—Lopez

KC-2 (Lopez, Wolff)
HOU- 1 (Kamara)

On a side note: Not much going on this holiday weekend and looking to watch a classic movie? Here’s the trailer to one of my favorites; the one and only original Die Hard. If you haven’t seen it (where have you been?) you have to watch it; if you have, watch it again, you can’t get tired of watching John McClaine kill terrorists.

Have a great 4th of July weekend and always keep our guys in gals in the military serving throughout the world in your prayers this Independence Day and every day.

Yesterday’s KC and NE game had the tough task of following the US National Team’s historic victory vs. Spain. Although I’m sure none of us expected the same level of soccer, we were treated to 2 teams that must have been suffering from their exhausting Sunday matches. While NE tried to exploit the speed of their forwards Mansally and Dube, KC lived and died by trying to control the ball and limit the time their opponent had the ball in their possession. The result was one team excessively using the long ball while the other team passed the football easily up to midfield and then did not know what to do with it. Although there were a few plays that brought danger to both goalkeepers, the truth is that most of the game was played in midfield with no real threat.

After the red card it seemed that NE had more space on the field and their runs down the wings got a bit more dangerous until they finally opened the scoring in a play in the box where KC failed to clear the ball and where Rauwshan McKenzie lost his man Dube, who slotted the ball by Kevin Hartman.
At halftime Claudio Lopez came in for a very ineffective Michael Harrington in an effort to get more offense by moving the team to a 4-3-3. This allowed for KC to put pressure on the NE that seems to have decided to pull back and play only one man forward trying to hold the lead. Even with a man up KC could breakthrough the NE defensive effort, so Curt Onalfo went ahead and brought in Hercules Gomez for Abe Thompson to open the play down the wings and try and find the equalizer by forcing crosses into the box. Finally, in the 85th minute a Gomez cross looking for Wolff found the outstretched leg of Darrius Barnes who put the ball in his own goal for the KC tie. A few minutes later Matt Reis saved the Revolution by pushing wide a nice Josh Wollf header. The game ended 1-1

Commentary: A boring game, where KC once again could not take advantage of their extra man by falling behind and then struggling to finally tie the game. In their last game against NE the Wizards were able to buck the trend of not being able to take advantage of being a man up. In this game they again struggled, even to the point of conceding a goal. Something needs to change either tactically or from a personnel point of view so that they can take advantage of these situations. They don’t seem to play good soccer when they have the man advantage..

Hopefully we can see another mixture of starters and reserves for the next game, especially in the back line and in midfield so that Curt Onalfo can look for replacements for the 3 players (Conrad, Arnaud and Espinoza) the team will lose for the Gold Cup.

Player Ratings:
Kevin Hartman (6), Jonathan Leathers (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5)(Michael Kraus (N/A)), Rauwshan McKenzie (6), Matt Besler (5); Jack Jewsbury (5), Santiago Hirsig (5) (Kurt Morsink (N/A)), Davy Arnaud (5), Michael Harrington (3) (Claudio Lopez (5)); Josh Wolff (6), Abe Thompson (3) (Herculez Gomez (6))

On a side note: I will reiterate that the game was painfully boring most of the time, it was even more painful to listen to the New England commentators complain about the Videira red card. At one point I was waiting for them to start playing a violin to go with their crying. Look, Videira jumped and swung his arm up in an effort tot hit the ball with his head; unless you have never watched soccer you know that FIFA has been cracking down on those plays where elbows fly on headers since the 2006 WC because they consider it a “use of excessive force that can result in the injury of a player”. These “journalists” must have decided to ignore the cut under Holhbein’s eye that came from the elbow and that had to be bandaged. Come on, I know you guys need to be homers but to keep going on this topic for the rest of the game was a bit excessive. For your next Superliga game make sure your producers have a nice cheese to go with your whine.

On another side note: This was the Wizards press release after yesterday’s game: Kansas City Wizards Remain Undefeated in SuperLiga with Comeback Draw Wednesday at New England Revolution. I’m not even going to comment on it.

Here are the highlights:

The Game:
Columbus was missing 2 of their best players in Alejandro Moreno and Frankie Hejduk while KC was missing part time started Roger Espinoza. The lack of leadership mattered little to the Crew since Guillermo Barros picked up the slack for his missing teammates and ran a Crew attack that when moving forward caused serious pains for the KC defense. It was in one of these long kicks down the middle that Aaron Holhbein, Jimmy Conrad and Kevin Hartman converged. Although Hartman called for the ball it was too late and they all collided right in front of the penalty spot in a typical baseball follies play. This collision gave Mr. Barros, who was close by, an open shot on goal and an easy 1-0 lead.

KC tried to react but nothing came of it. Their midfield was uninspired (again!) and they did little to disturb the Crew’s keeper. With this really bad back and forth long passing the half came mercifully to an end (there was so little soccer that neither team had a corner kick in the first half). Yes, that bad.

I expected to see some changes in KC since they could do little to muster an attack but no subs came. KC continued to pressure the Crew defense, but Columbus just sat back and with the one goal lead just counterattacked the Wizards. And counter attack they did; Columbus put pressure on the KC defense and started getting corners and free kicks off these long runs on the wings, where both Matt Besler and Lance Watson were over matched. It was on one of these free kicks (on an Ekpo run) that Chad Marshall earned a straight red card for giving Holhbein a knee in the groin while jostling for position. It was the 51st minute, and KC again, for the second straight game, was a man up.

Down to 10 men the Crew now really bunkered down and just left Barros up top harassing the KC defenders, and of course the harassment paid off. The Crew got a throw in on the left side of the KC defense that was headed out to the edge of the box to Matt Besler who decided to chest it and then clear it but had the ball stolen from him and his late clearance kick missed the ball and took down a Crew player in the box. A penalty was called, which Barros calmly put in for a 2-0 advantage. After that KC just kept sending floaters into the box off crosses and corners which were easily cleared. They also tried long distance shots that were either off the mark or stopped by the ocean of Crew defenders stuck in the box. With the exception of a nice save by the C-bus keeper off a Jewsbury shot and a Wolff try from outside the box that hit the crossbar, the Wizards were timid and punchless.

The game thankfully came to and end since it was the Crew, during this time of pressure by KC, that could have padded the score even more had Hartman not saved the team again on a couple of breakaways.

Player Ratings:

Kevin Hartman (6), Lance Watson (4) (Michael Harrington (4)), Jimmy Conrad (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5) (Graham Zusi (3)), Matt Besler (3), Jack Jewsbury(5), Davy Arnaud (4) , Santiago Hirsig (4), Herculez Gomez (3)(Abe Thompson (5)), Josh Wolff (4), Claudio Lopez (4).

My Tally: (+3)
Starting lineup: Got it to a “T”
Score: I said 2-1 KC; it was 2-0 Crew
Subs: I said (Harrington, Thompson, Zusi); Got them all
Hartman: I said he’d have a busy game; Got that one right

Man of the Match: Hartman. Regadless of the mistake with his defenders he still kept the game close. Plus no one else deserves it.

The Ref:

Toledo was good. Some calls could have gone either way but nothing noticeable. The red: kudos to Toledo, it took me watching the replay twice to see the Marshall dirty knee. The penalty, although I’ve seen it called both ways, was by the book; there was contact by Besler; anyway, KC was not going to score anyway on Saturday, plus Besler should have cleared right away. The ref did his job.

My thoughts:

There needs to be some urgent changes in the KC lineup (and higher?). I’ll take some time during the week to give my overall opinion on Onalfo and the players, but right know, and since the win at Salt Lake, the team has looked flat, uninspired and leaderless. Yes, Jimmy Conrad is the Captain, but there are no leaders after that. Fan favorites Arnaud and Jewsbury are not at their best (especially Arnaud) and the team is in a winless streak that it needs to pull up from before it’s too late.

Here are some of the highlights, judge for yourselves.

From my visits to the practice facility I would assume that the starting 11 will be the following:

————-Hartman————-
Watson – Conrad – Hohlbein – Besler
—————Hirsig—————
Arnaud——————–Espinoza
————-Jewsbury————
——Wolff———–Lopez——–

I really don’t like this lineup, and with the exception of Lopez starting in place of Michael Harrington and moving Arnaud to the right side of the midfield it’s the same group that got beat in Columbus. I fear that the result this weekend will not be positive since the coach is failing to address the main problems for this team which I see as:

1. Up and down defense: Ex Wizard Yura Movsisyan will keep the KC defense on their toes and either Robbie Findley or Javier Morales coming in behind him will need to be kept out of the box. Still I think the biggest problems will come with the RSL wingers who love to run up the field, which means that Besler and Watson will have their hands full with the overlapping runs of Mathis and Co. I feel their weaknesses, especially Lance’s, will be exposed. Conrad is not having his best year and Hohlbein, Besler and Watson (out of position) cannot make up for it.

2. Mid-field needs to hold it when it needs to be held and play it fast when you need to give and go: I am not sold on Santiago Hirsig in the middle. I have yet to see him play a one touch ball. He will hold the ball forever and the MLS has figured this out and will collapse on him (he’s responsible for at least 1 goal because of this already); he also tends to be slow to react at times. Davy Arnaud needs to again move to the wing (and show up for the whole game) and Jack Jewsbury needs to man the other side of the field; his assists against DC and against C-Bus show how well he moves on the wing; I hope he is not the Attacking mid.

3. More punch up front. The Wolff and Lopez combo scares no one. If Wolff plays, he needs to do it up front; Lopez could also back up to the A-Mid or come in off the bench. Adam Cristman get healthy now.

4. The same subs over and over and over: I have been able to guess what the Wizards subs were going to be by half time of every game after the Colorado match. Onalfo surprises no one. Here’s my take on the sub situation: Harrington is in a slump and is lost when not in the back 4 (he is better than Watson); Kraus, with the exception of his goal in Colorado has given tons of effort but little when it comes to soccer and making the team better and has no weight in a featherweight attack; Espinoza has his moments but I feel he get confused at times and doesn’t play the smart ball; Gomez has been very unreliable both as a starter and a sub. I feel that bringing some change into the top with a physical Abe Thompson on a tired defense might make a difference and bringing another holding mid like Kurt Morsink might our transition to 3 defenders a bit easier on Jewsbury and give him more chances to move forward and help the attack.

So, now back to the game. RSL will attack and KC will be pushed hard. They are a stronger and more physical than KC and that is something KC has struggled with (see Connor Casey, Brian McBride and Danny Dicchio). KC is a slow starting team and we’ll be back on our heels for most of the game. We’ll be lucky to be tied at the end of the first half. The relentless pressure from RSL will eventually lead to a couple of goals, with KC waking up and scoring in the second half. Javier Morales should have a good game for RSL since Hirsig offers little pressure at D-Mid and Josh Wolff will score again off a cross from either Jewsbury or Lopez.

Final Score KC-1 (Wolff) RSL-2. (Movsisyan, Morales)

Here’s my sub guessing game: Coming in:Harrington, Gomez and Kraus. Out in no particular order: Holhbein/Besler, Espinoza, Watson

I really hope I’m wrong. Feel free to comment or participate in our online poll.

The Wizards started with a lot of purpose against RSL, controlling the game in the first ten minutes of the match. They came out organized, and seemed comfortable on the ball, making smart passes along the turf. Davy Arnaud has an early chance, hitting the crossbar in the seventh minute. From there, the Wizards remained in control, looking like a team with a good direction, knocking the ball around with ease in the midfield. The turnovers that had plagued them in previous games was hardly present.

However, RSL settled and took control of the second half of the opening period. Kenny Deuchar was giving the backline fits, as his size allowed him to get to knockdown crosses, fortunately there wasn’t anyone in support to create any danger. He did get his head on the ball off a corner in the 29th minute, only for a great reaction save from Hartman keeping the game scoreless. The midfield looked less sharp as the first half went on, turning the ball over on a number of occasions. To their credit, RSL was putting great pressure, as they were really pressing. Harrington and Jewsbury had turnovers that were almost converted into goals. Halftime couldn’t come soon enough as Deuchar and Findley were giving Jimmy Conrad and Aaron Hohlbein a headache.

The second half brought more of the same. Even with a couple of changes, the midfield still was inconsistent in the second half, and the defense gave up too much room to shoot, as RSL was able to tee off on a couple of occasions. Things opened up for both sides in the final 25 minutes as players began to wear down, although neither side could convert. RSL had the bulk of the chances, finishing with a total of 19 shots and seven on goal. Hartman was equal to everything they could throw at him, in the process earning his 71st career shutout.

Anything short of a win at this match can be considered a disappointment. I knew before the season started that the defense would be key, and while they weren’t at their best, a shutout is a shutout. The problem has been with the midfield, as against they struggled to keep possession consistently to try and build attack towards the opposing net. Bottom line, the road trip is now over, and time to regroup back at home.

Final thoughts:

1. Winless streak now at five games. Not a good sign in the challenging East.
2. Neither team will make the playoffs if they continue with their respective away records: RSL 0-5-0, KC 1-3-2.
3. A win at home next weekend is a must. After a difficult road trip, losing at home simply can’t happen.

Next weekend the struggling Crew comes to town. A good chance to grab three points, as Columbus hasn’t scored in four straight games. More on that to come later. For now, I’ll leave you with Jimmy’s post game comments about the turf, which is a must read:

“What is funny about turf is that every turf field plays a little different. You hit long balls, sometimes they chuck straight up and sometimes they skip out of bounds. You just got to be ready for the unexpected out here. That is what turf does though – the ball doesn’t slow down on turf when it is on the ground. We have turf to practice on at home, but the turf here is still a different turf than we practice on at home. Both teams are playing on it though.”