Peter Vermes = Technical Director: After 3 seasons in this position I feel Vermes has done a less than stellar job. Yes, the hires, drafts and the team depth are done with the coach, but truth be told he should have had the final say. His final say should have been “Nay” when it came to Colombano (who I personally liked), Trujillo, Marinelli, Thompson, and his failure to have a fully competitive team that not only had a stable heavy presence on the field but have a pool of trusted and established set of backup players that could step up and could be worked into the starting lineup.

Truth be told, although he did score some positive points with players like Claudio Lopez and to some extent Santiago Hirsig (Zoltan and Kamara look positive but it’s still too early), and I think KC has a nice pool of young players that at times have stepped up when given a real chance, Vermes as a Technical Director has done a sub-par job and I believe he does not deserve to keep his position. Three years on the job and KC seemed to have peaked in mediocre year one and gone down after that.

John Pascarella = Goalkeeping/Fitness Coach: Although at times it looked like the team was a bit out of gas, fitness was something that seemed to be a strong point for KC. Also, Kevin Hartman looked superb this year keeping the team in games that under normal circumstances should have been losses. He is a definite keep in my book.

Peter Vermes-Coach: I personally don’t like his style and at times it looked like he was slow to react, especially in those games where at the end of the season we needed a win but we still finished playing with 4 or 5 defenders and would either go play 3 defensive midfielders one game and then would play 4 offensive midfielders in another; interesting to say the least but I will acknowledge that it seemed that the team started to respond to his coaching style. I will also say that I believe he lost a great chance at the end of the year to give some younger players a chance to prove their worth and evaluate talent. I won’t buy the “we were still in it” excuse (yes we might have been mathematically alive but there was no way it was going to happen.

If the Front Office wants to give Vermes a shot at a whole season as a coach they need to go look for a capable and experienced Technical Director because very few (in any sport) have done a good job when performing the GM/Coach double duty. I’ll give Vermes the Coach a maybe with a short leash attached to his stint so that if the team does not show a significant turn around I would cut his coaching career short.

Kerry Zavagnin-Assistant Coach: Zavagnin is an interesting case and is someone that I can see as a possible future coach for the Wizards if they prepare him well. I think the first step to prepare him well is to get him out of KC; the FO needs to flex some diplomatic muscle and get Kerry a job as an assistant coach (paid by the Wizards) either in England, Scotland, or Holland for example, so that he can learn from other coaches and assistants and get a feel of how teams in better leagues do things. He knows the MLS, now he needs to know other leagues and systems.

Call it enrichment, call it internship, but the Wizards need to help get Zavagnin prepared if they want to see him as a successful future MLS coach for KC. Add to that the fact that there is a reason that institutions like the military move their Soldiers away to other units when they get promoted up the chain to a position of power; because the line of respect and camaraderie sometimes gets blurred when you are in charge of your ex-peers and as a coach you want that line to be there. If Zavagnin moves out for a few years on some kind of internship it will serve both for his preparation as it will allow for a roster turn over and help avoid any problems.

What’s your take on it? Who should stay, who should go?

The future of Peter Vermes the Technical Director(polls)

Kerry Zavagnin’s future(survey)

Should John Pascarella stay with KC ?(answers)

Peter Vermes as a Coach(answers)

A boring first half where it seemed that Seattle had the run of things generating more chances and completely dominating our midfield. Lopez and Zusi helped KC move forward, but it just seemed that we were physically pushed around by a bigger, more compact Sounders team. During one of their advances they were able to produce a corner off Hartman’s right side; the cross came in low and no one was placed on the near post, allowing the rebound to be knocked in through the position normally occupied by the shortest guy on the field (from later corners it seemed to be Zusi). Whatever the reason for not having someone there it was either the specific player’s fault or Hartman’s for not physically placing someone there; Mistake #1. Still, at the end of the half the game was pretty balanced and KC was generating a few chances.

The second half started with KC on the attack using both Michael Harrington and sub Chance Myers (in for an ineffective Leathers) off the wings (Wow, did Myers seem comfortable back there or what? so much for playing him in the middle; it reminds me of another coach who playerd one of his back out of position for most of the season… I’m sure it will come to me).

The tie came off a pretty bad Harrington shot on goal that just crossed the box and was redirected in by a streaking Zoltan who came in from behind Leo Gonzalez. KC kept up the pressure and a few minutes later they took the lead when Davy Arnaud skipped a poor cross from the right side that no Sounders defender cleared (and at least one missed), which allowed Josh Wolff to knock the ball in past Cassey Keller.

Although leading, KC could not hold the midfield and the Sounders’ attack kept pressuring the backline. Another corner kick brought the tying goal when the cross came to the near post, Hartman missed the punch-out, leaving the goal open for Roger Levesque to knock it in easily (Mistake #2). A few minutes later came another KC mistake, this time by Matt Besler who got outsmarted and outmuscled by Freddie Ljungberg on a ball that should have been cleared (Mistake #3) near the KC box. Ljungberg stole the ball and fed Nate Jacqua for an easy goal.

The story of our season in a nutshell; 3 plays we gave away, 3 goals.

Commentary: I was impressed with rookie Graham Zusi who, with Zoltan, was one of the best Wizards on the field (interesting that the KC mls website has Besler on the POTG poll, even with his huge mistake, and did not Zusi; I guess I must have watched a different game; that and of course the fact that Zusi is not from the KC area). It seems that playing a few games as a starter has Zusi’s confidence. His understanding with Lopez seems to be growing, although with Arnaud and Jewsbury he did seem out of sync which may not be his fault after all. (I’m anticipating hate e-mails from people wearing their blue tinted glasses and for whom these 2 players can do no wrong ).

Too bad Zoltan didn’t get a start with Kamara. I guess Vermes will stay with his boy Wolff who again scored but overall has been doing pretty poorly in the last few games. It would be nice to see Kamara so he can show us what he has and if he’s worth the money he’ll be looking for next year. Oh well, I can only hope our new coach (and our new Technical Director? need to remember to include that on my Xmas list this year) will have some MLS coaching experience and have a better eye at evaluating talent than our current one.

By the way, I know Seattle won, but Freddie Montero was horrible; he missed 2 EASY sitters in the second half. I know he’s good (he’s shown it most of the year) but I wonder if trying to get some payback for “Punk-Gate” weighted a bit too heavy on his little frame. Also I would love to know what the deal is with Cassey Keller’s anger, the guy was really going at it with the ref, the linesman, and even Kei Kamara. He needs to chill and double up on the Metamusil before the game because anger like that MUST be derived from constipation and bowel irregularity. Still, you can’t deny the guy still has it as a keeper and a leader.

I have no highlights yet but they will be posted when available.

KC seemed to dominate a lot of the run of play on Sunday but it translated into absolutely nothing. A Kamara shot off the post (which isn’t considered a shot on goal) and Zoltan’s goal were the only dangerous plays that translated into something. Meanwhile, Brian Mullan and a 10 men Dynamo squad managed the game as they needed to, and actually took the lead when Mullan danced around Michael Harrington for what seemed to be hours before sending a cross from the right side that was missed by at least 3 KC defenders before Luis Angel Landin just tapped it in for the lead. Landin, who Jonathan Leathers forgot existed, scored his first MLS goal.

KC continued to move the ball but with little success against the 10 man Houston. We had little attacking power, where Josh Wolff looked his age, and Kamara looked alone up front. Add to that the fact that “The Coach” still has a man crush on Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury who are in line to the “where are they now” award since their real selves have not been sighted since around week 8 of this season. They have had poor form, have contributed little, and at this point I see them as players taking a spot from youngsters that cannot do any worse. Maybe the time off will do them good and will lead to a better 2010.

Back to the game: In the 73rd minute a very nice cross from Lopez to Zoltan (who will not stop running while on the field) finally ended in the equalizer, which still “keeps us in the playoff hunt”, as some MLS writer I’m sure will make note of. The truth being that the slight glimmer of hope that was left from last week has now been extinguished, and we can now start looking towards 2010. Also, I don’t know about you guys, but the fact that we have “a 4 game unbeaten streak” as the KC Wizards website says, really does not make me feel any better about missing the playoffs; of course I could be suffering from the “glass half empty” syndrome but who could blame me at this point in the season.

It’s noteworthy to mention that Vermes again brought Chance Myers into the game for a brief appearance that reminded me why I think “Ryan Leaf” when I see him, since it appears that he has also lost the power to make semi-decent crosses (passes?), which in my book was all Vermes was asking for when he started using him a few weeks back. We also saw a glimpse of Roger Espinoza on the bench, which quashed the rumors of him running away from KC, while we still have no news on why, steady starter Hercules Gomez did not make the trip to Houston. Three defenders, 2 midfielders, and one forward on our bench; good to see we were going all out to win this game.

Here’s a suggestion, since it’s over, why don’t we play Kamara and Zoltan up front and use a couple of youngsters in the middle and give that a try. Will we really miss Arnaud, Jewsbury and Wolff that much? Wolff hasn’t scored in 2 games so probably his hot streak has come to an end again and it will take him about 6 or 7 games to get on another one so just for fun let’s see a change.

All in all we tied a game we should have won leaving 3 games in this disaster of a season. All I can hope from On Goal is that they actually shed some dead weight from the team and maybe start by getting someone in the front office that can make some good player-personnel decisions, because, honestly Peter Vermes is not the man. I know he’s well liked here in KC, I know he won a title here in KC, but that means nothing when it comes for finding talent and running a team, and his 3 years here and the players he has brought in prove that. Hey, if those were the only creditials to get a front office job imagine all the players the Yankees would have working with GM Brian Cashman.

While 2007 was a year to remember, 2009 is a year to forget. But lets face it, this is KC, where Chief’s GM Carl Peterson was finally fired after stinking up the place for years, and the Royals are the Royals; do I really expect that On Goal, a business with few soccer people at the head, will fire their top soccer man after this season? The answer is no. Too bad though, since the mess that we are in is mostly Vermes’ fault because his stint as a coach has proven that Curt Onalfo really didn’t have that much to work with.

No highlight available. Sorry.

The night started with the Wizards trying to win their first game at home since June 12th (yes, a 3 month drought, including Superliga). They came on to the field playing 4 in the back, 2 in the holding midfield, 2 in the attacking mid at the wings and 2 up top. By the 10th minute KC seemed to be controlling the game and was already up with a Santiago Hirsig goal off a Lopez corner. Dallas quickly figured out that their attacks through the middle would run into the double team of Hirsig and Morsink, so they decided to go after KC’s more vulnerable wings, where Lopez and Gomez, although primed for the attack, bring little if any, defensive help.

Still, as the half came to a close, the game had gotten pretty even, with KC giving up some of its attacking control by relying too much on the Hartman and Conrad long ball. In the 44th minute Jimmy Conrad decided that it was the right time to play one of his first passes up the middle to Santiago Hirsig, but left his try short, giving Dax McCarthy a running start to come in unmarked and shoot from outside the box, beating Hartman and ending the half with a tie.

The second half brought Kei Kamara to the field for Gomez and dropped a very ineffective Arnaud to his midfield position. On the 54th minute, as KC started to put more pressure on Dallas, a long ball that should have been cleared turned into an adventure for Conrad again as he tried to dribble it out and got dispossessed by David Ferreira who ran into the box and set up an easy finish for Jeff Cunningham’s fifth goal against KC this year.

Peter Vermes at that point decided to sacrifice defense for attack by bringing in Graham Zusi for Kurt Morsink and a few minutes later Zoltan for Arnaud. Zoltan paid dividends right away as he volleyed a Lopez corner back on goal, where Josh Wolff back healed it in for the tie. With the score tied it seemed that both teams gave up marking and defense for attacking soccer. During this back and forth across the field, a Claudio Lopez low cross was re-directed by George John onto his own goal forcing a great save by Dario Sala to keep the ball out, but leaving it close enough for Jimmy Conrad to dive in and put KC ahead.

The last 10 minutes where a bit stressful for the KC faithful since the very offensive team on the field now had to hold off the brunt of the Dallas attack, with players like Lopez and Zusi, great for the offense, became little help when it came to stopping the Dallas attack. At the end, the KC defense and a couple of nice stops by Kevin Hartman kept the score 3-2 and gave the KC faithful another weekend where they can waive the “We Believe” banner out in the stands.

Player of the Game: Lopez. He was involved in every goal; granted 50% of his passes it seems are made with his eyes closed, the other 50% are on the money.

Ratings:

Kansas City Wizards — Kevin Hartman (7) Jonathan Leathers (6), Matt Besler (6), Jimmy Conrad (5), Michael Harrington (5), Herculez Gomez (5) (Kei Kamara (6)), Santiago Hirsig (7), Kurt Morsink (6) (Graham Zusi (6)), Claudio Lopez (7), Davy Arnaud (4), (Zoltan Hercegfalvi (6)), Josh Wolff (6).

On the ref: Nice work by the second year man for this game. I will say that the McCarthy yellow for lifting his shirt was a bit harsh since he really didn’t take it off, but oh well.

Next Up: The Rapids. I would like to see a similar lineup for the next game but with Kamara up top with Wolff and someone else taking Arnaud’s spot. He is not himself and hasn’t been at all good for the last 3 months. He either needs some time off or a stint on the bench. I know that Vermes (and Onalfo during his stint) rarely pull out the fan favorites Jewsbury and Arnaud, but they have not been playing their best soccer, and maybe a Zoltan sighting on the right wing could be a nice change.

Here are the highlights:

I did watch the game against NE but did not really get overly excited because KC really needed to get a streak going after the string of goaless games before one could cheer wholeheartedly and think about a turn around. Against DC we again forgot about scoring and got caught looking at the ball during our opponent’s goal, which led to another loss.

KC on Wednesday started moving the ball well against a sluggish and slow DC team that gave Claudio Lopez a lot of room to roam the left side of the field. His runs generated a lot of chances that KC attackers could not put in goal time and time again. DC then started to come out of its shell using Chris Pontius on the left side and giving the KC defense something to worry about. Still, KC had the brunt of the chances.

On the 39th minute a short corner found KC napping which resulted in a short cross to Bryan Namoff who beat a slow to react Hirsig, redirecting the ball to the back post, where Pontius dove in for the header that went off the post and right to Luciano Emilio who just blasted it in from in front of the goal. Kind of a pinball type goal, but well played while most of the KC players looked on.

KC tried to react but just could not do much. An interesting group of changes from Peter Vermes really didn’t help; he pulled a dangerous Herculez Gomez for Chance Myers who basically managed to do what he’s been doing since coming back into games: cross the ball into the box time and time again and then added to that getting ejected on a stupid play. Vermes also brought in Zoltan for a HUGELY ineffective Davy Arnaud who should earn a stint on the bench after missing 3 sitters and then a timid Graham Zusi in the last 10 minutes of the game. I like Zoltan, but playing a goal down and trying to salvage the playoffs would it kill him to play 3 forwards (I know Lopez was there but he was on the wing)? What is there to lose?

At the end KC fell short and the playoff train seems uncatchable. Peter Vermes still hopes to reverse the trend, but with this team he’s fielding I seriously doubt it. Unless our last 7 games are against a 10 player New England team that spots us an own goal it’s just not going to happen.

Player of the Game: Lopez

Goat of the Game: Arnaud

On the ref: I really don’t like Terry Vaughn as a ref. He makes the game choppy by not allowing players to play fluidly and letting them play on more; hopefully his style won’t get him killed when he goes somewhere in Central America to ref a game and he makes a mess of things. There’s a reason he’s called “Terriblon” (Terrible) everywhere he goes south of Mexico. That being said he did not affect the result; KC lost because of all the missed opportunities. Myers is a dunce who, with a yellow, playing away from home, decided to trip the DC mascot from behind; according to FIFA rules a trip from behind can be considered a yellow card offense; 8 out of 10 just call it and let it go, but you can’t take that chance with Terriblon.

Now on to NY.

Here are the highlights from Saturday. The High!!

And the let down from last night. The Low!!

Hope springs eternal and it was with hope that I went to the game on Saturday: hoping for a win, hoping for a goal, hoping at least not to lose…. Was it too much to ask? It appears so, because Peter Vermes and the group of players he started seemed to lack interest, effort and quality when confronted with a RSL team that still had something to play for but at the same time knew the quality of their opponent and decided to rest some starters. Not that KC was eliminated at that point but the odds were against us. Be that as it may I was hoping for a good showing that never happened.

KC started with some game control but quickly Kyle Beckerman took over and started pulling the strings of the game. In the 18th minute Pablo Campos slid through the defense, caught Jimmy Conrad out of position (and lost) and scored the only goal of the game. KC as always tried to react but to little avail; even when RLS went down to 10 men with the Ned Grabavoy ejection. Of course being a man up just spelled disaster for KC, that time and time again this year has failed to capitalize when their opponent goes a man down.

Not much else happened for the rest of the game. KC missed a few clear scoring opportunities, RSL hunkered down in the back and by the end of the game the Wizards were only 3 minutes away from setting a new KC record in scoring futility; according to the Hillcrestroad Blog they currently have not scored in 424 minutes of MLS play. We also caught a glimpse of the Peter Vermes attack tactics that can be summarized as playing 5 defenders on the field when losing 0-1 and a man down. I can only imagine that if RSL had all 11 players we would have seen a couple of more defenders in the mix so that they could hold that 0-1 score. Pathetic to say the least, and just one more reason for On Goal to help him pack his bags at the end of the season.

Player Ratings:

Everyone gets a 3 except Watson who gets a 5.

Commentary:

I know people say we should not play our Reserves or young players because they “suck” but here is my argument. Have we really seen them play regularly? It’s time to stop the Conrad, Arnaud, Hirsig, Wolff, Jewsbury, Lopez, Gomez love affair; these players (and the coaches) have the team where it is now. We need to know what we have in Reserve and see what we want to keep in the Reserves. The key to victory of teams like Houston is that they have those players that can step in when Ching, or Clark or DeRosario(last year) leave the team. Their pool of young talent goes hand in hand with their good coach. We lack that here in KC.

How do we know that our Reserves are good or bad when you see them for a few games or a few minutes here and there after not playing the whole year? We expect them to come in and take Arnaud, Conrad or Jewsbury’s spot without even flinching? That is utterly stupid. If a player needs to see the bench or worse after a few bad games, a lot of those “senior” players mentioned before should have been there long ago. Arnaud has been absent since week 3 or 4, Hirsig has given up 6 or 7 plays that have led to opponent goals, Jewsbury disappears for long stretches of the game, Lopez can’t cross a ball worth his life, Gomez has a track record of missing open shots, Wolff…, well enough said. If a few bad games mean the end of your MLS career, I’m sorry to say that these guys should call it quits. The only reason they are where they are is because someone gave them the chance to move through the ranks, take the hard knocks and learn from them. What better opportunity that now, with 9 games left to play at least half a team of youngsters and see if they need to be here next year taking up a roster spot; if they can live up to some of the hype and hope.

It might sound stupid but I believe we have some talent here and there have been players that when given regular starts have shown quality, but are quickly moved off to the side when they have a bad game. If this is the rule to be followed I don’t want to see Conrad on the pitch next Saturday since the last 2 goals we have given up have been on him.

I can only hope for a change. I for one can go watch a game where the players on my team are fighting for a roster spot next year, and a chance to something more, instead of watching a bunch of stiff showing up at the game thinking that whatever happens they’ll be penciled in every time. By the way, let’s not look back because the Red Bulls are closing in; at least if we play the “youngesters” we have an excuse if they catch up to us.

Here are the highlights of the game:

On the game.

Not much to say. Pretty boring and we made a mediocre (at best) team look pretty good and we were incapable of scoring. Enough said, the highlights are down below.

On the lineup.

I had seen some sparks the previous weekend vs. Chicago, but Vermes went back to the team that Onalfo shoved down our throat week in and week out with little or no results; the big changes Michael Harrington going back to his natural position in the back and McKenzie taking Holhbein’s spot next to Jimmy Conrad. The Harrington move was way over due but the McKenzie switch was almost a disaster since he seemed to have been bitten by the often seen Hirsing bug which makes players give away the ball on the KC side of the field to aid the opposition when it comes to goal scoring; luckily his case was mild and San Jose missed on every chance he gave them.

In the midfield the return of Lopez to the left and Hirsig to the middle gave little positives to KC. I know a lot of people “LOVE” Hirsig and his “touch” but honestly I cannot see it as anything more than mediocre and risky and at least when he played on the wing (which was his natural position in Argentina according to my research of Argentinean newspapers) he moved up and down the field. In the middle he neither fills me with confidence nor does he push the team forward much. Lopez kept moving up on the left and would join the attackers which was OK but he did miss easy early goal that was a sitter and painful to watch during this run with no goals. Jewsbury, one of my favorite players had another off game; one of many in a season that has not been his best, while Herculez Gomez had some nice runs early but disappeared after the 20th minute in each half.

Upfront the drought continues, and it is becoming clear that Josh Wolff needs to see the bench and Davy Arnaud needs a strong man up top with him; 2 lightweight forwards do not have the push to be serious threats game in and game out; hopefully a Zoltan-Arnaud combo might be in the works, at least until he chops down someone else while tries to adjust to the whims and tempers of our refs in the MLS.

So the song that came to mind whilewatching the team play, with that lineup, was “Justify my Love” by Madonna, not because of Madonna (although the video is quite unique), but because I was trying to figure out why Vermes would use a lineup that Onalfo tried constantly with little results. Then it hit me. Vermes is not coaching this team with the intent of coming back as a coach, but on trying to stay as a technical director. If he wins with Onalfo’s “base team” and his “discoveries” (players he brought in) the blame of the season goes to Onalfo for not having been able to make it work; if he can’t it, shifts mainly falls back to Vermes for bringing in those players because neither Onalfo nor Vermes were able to win with them. So this lineup was Peter Vermes saying to the On Goal and the fans, “I’m trying to “Justify my (Job) Love” (either word works). I believe it goes something like this:

I’m open and ready
For you to justify my love (job)
To justify my love (job)
Wanting, to justify
Waiting, to justify my love (job)
Praying, to justify
To justify my love (job)
I’m open, to justify my love (job)

After thinking about the lineup in the pre-game show I turned to the game itself and whatever progress and effort I saw here at home a week ago slowly died since we again tried to rely on the long ball, abandoned passing for long stretches of the game and made silly mistakes in the back that could have (and should have) give San Jose easy goal. We ended up doing that at the end but it was only a matter of time. Stupid as it might seem I saw us taking a step back after what seemed to be step forward in our style of play. Staying with the 90s music theme I quote Paula Abdul on the progress of this team by saying:

I take-2 steps forward
I take-2 steps back

Yes it was so bad that these songs not only were in my brain during the game but stayed with me all through my lawn mowing on Sunday. I should have known after the first 30 minutes and gone online and to watch the video for Madonna’s song, at least for me, that would have been more entertaining.

Hopefully, if we do take another “step back” out of playoff contention, we ditch some of the old guys and play the kids to see what they got, at least then we’ll see some spirit in the team.

Player Ratings:

Kevin Hartman (5), Lance Watson (6), Jimmy Conrad (5), Rauwshan McKenzie (3) (Matt Besler (N/R)), Michael Harrington (5), Santiago Hirsig (4), Herculez Gomez(6), Jack Jewsbury (5), Claudio Lopez (5) (Adam Cristman (N/R)), Davy Arnaud(5), Josh Wolff (4)

Man of the Match:

Slim pickings, but once again reliable and mostly error free Lance Watson gets the nod. I still don’t think that is his position, and I hope that once the season is mathematically over we’ll get to see him as a right mid with a bit more freedom

Here are the highlights:

Here they are. Tell me which one you like more. I’m a biased KC fan, but I think the one Saturday was better even with the Gonzalez mistake. I also think Ricketts’ effort made it look a bit better. He is of course nominated (and should win) goal of the week.

Valencia:

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Kansas City:

Which one is your favorite? Vote here.

Which Lopez goal was better?(polling)

Saying that the Lopez goal and his 2 free kicks were the most exciting thing that KC had going on Saturday basically sums up the game offensively for KC. The team again lacked the punch and again did not win.

Be it luck, Donovan Ricketts being out of position, just sheer quality or a combination of all 3, the amazing Lopez shot found the top corner and KC, without really deserving it was up by one. Up to that moment it had seemed to me that LA actually was controlling the game with more chances, and the Wizards’ attack, true to recent form, was being kept under wraps by a strong (and big) Galaxy central defense. Although only a few threats came in those first 25 minutes from the teams, one had the feeling LA would eventually open the scoring. Then came the Lopez goal and LA reacted by pushing forward even more trying to secure the tie which was gifted 8 minutes later.

Hirsig lost the ball in KC territory to the Beckham, a player not usually known for his defensive prowess. His effort found an open Donovan who took off towards goal, and outside the box took a hard low shot that beat Hartman (5th giveaway for #10 that has led to a goal this year). The goal did not wake KC from their offensive funk and another Hirsig lost ball in KC territory a few minutes later allowed a deep pass Beckham pass to Donovan who was stopped by Hartman in a great save. It seemed that he entire KC midfield struggled to keep possession and feed the attack with anything dangerous.

Half time came and went and LA slowed the pace allowing for more midfield play from both teams and even less goal scoring opportunities (Total shots on goal KC 3 ; LA 5). The Galaxy opportunities game mainly from Beckham or sub Chris Klein crosses into the box that Hartman was able to control or punch out; while KC lived by the set pieces of Claudio Lopez who forced a nice save from Josh Saunders and then hit the crossbar.

After that the main excitement came from Beckham who again showed how much he hates playing in the MLS when he exchanged words with a fan who commented on his wife. In my opinion Spice boy needs to grow up; in MLS stadiums people can actually get thrown out for using vulgar language and insulting players and refs; I honestly cannot understand what is it with his whining, since except for racist remarks everything is pretty much fair game when it comes to what fans yell out in Latin America and Europe. If he doesn’t want to hear people talk about his wife he can stop playing soccer now.

Back to KC. We still can’t score, we haven’t won in a while, and although some might argue that we have 2 games in hand with the first 4 teams in the East, the truth is they have won those games and we haven’t. Even if we were to win those games, we would only catch Toronto and move to 4th place, which is not a playoff certainty; add to that the fact that New England has 3 games in hand, which if they were to win or at least get 6 points out of them, would push everyone but Columbus down a place. It reminds me of the whole ½ game theory in baseball; if you are tied in the lost column but ½ a game down it means that your opponent has played AND WON his game, the pressure is now on you to do the same. That is the case for KC; a team that is struggling to win, struggling to score and sadly seems to need to play error free football since their attack gets worse by the week; that is the team that has 2 games in hand that it needs to win to keep pace.

Solutions? With Onalfo and Vermes in charge I expect little to no change, since I believe that their definition of accountability or how they applies responsibility when players make game changing dumb plays would seem to be rooted on the principle of the player’s salary. Big signings rarely see the bench regardless of their mistakes while others who make tens of thousands less will be relegated to oblivion when they screw something up. I’m not sure if that is his coaching style or something dictated from above.

I’ve been critical before of the attitude of changing the team on a loss and leaving it put on a win that is sometimes seen in KC regardless of the quality of play. I want to be clear regarding the fact that I believe there should be stability with the team if the play is good even in the rare loss during a string of good games; this is not the case now since the play is pretty bad and the scoring is worse. I would say change would be good NOW. No one on this team should be safe from the bench except Kevin Hartman and maybe Claudio Lopez.

Regardless of opinions out there on Hirsig’s quality and the “pause and control” he brings to the team, I would like to see him benched for a game, he has gotten careless and cost us one goal and almost another on Saturday (in addition to a few others). Maybe play Jewsbury at holding mid now that Davy’s back and give Hirsig a “time out” to think things over. I doubt we will see that next weekend and he’ll get to start again, but it should be food for thought for the Coach who I know once in a while reads this blog.

Whatever they decide to do, they need to do it now.

I do want to make one additional note on Rauwshan McKenzie who I think played his best game last Saturday. The goal was not his fault and he had at least 4 one on one situations against Donovan and he beat Landycakes every time. Great job.

Also, I’d like apologize for the lack of post (not that I’d expect anyone to miss me) but I was on a job a assignment out of town for 2 weeks and time was short and due to the location scoops were scarce. All that is done and the posts should hopefully increase (in variety, not length).

Here are my player ratings:

Kevin Hartman (6), Jonathan Leathers (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5) , Rauwshan McKenzie (6), Matt Besler (5), Herculez Gomez (5) (Adam Cristman (4)), Santiago Hirsig (2), Jack Jewsbury (5), Roger Espinoza (5) (Abe Thompson (n/a)), Josh Wolff(4), Claudio Lopez (6).

Here are the highlights.

By the time the game kicked off the Wizards knew that a tie would get them into the next round since New England had beat Atlas. One would expect a more ball controlling, possession style game from KC so as to force Santos to open up and look for the goal; in other words, control the tempo, avoid the mistakes and take advantage of the openings Santos was leaving. Well, I can say without a doubt that it didn’t happen that way. A punchless KC could not hold the ball, just had a few REAL chances to score and if the soccer gods were fair, would have ended the game with 5 or 6 goals against them. A Hercules Gomez shot and a Jack Jewsbury header were the only real threat that the Santos goal faced, while poor Kevin Hartman was getting peppered with shots clanging off his goal posts (twice), multiple saves and close calls; all in all not a very inspiring half of football for the Wizards.

The backbreaker for KC was losing Jimmy Conrad to an injury right before the half and putting pressure on an inexperienced Rauwshan Mckenzie to try and hold back the Santos attack that Conrad himself struggled to do while in the game. As the half ended I was hoping that KC was going to strengthen the midfield so as to control the game a bit more, keeping in mind the score was tied and all KC needed was a tie. Regardless of what Coach Onalfo wanted to do, it was clear that his defense had weakened and the constant loss of possession was going to put the line under more pressure.

The change that took place was for a midfielder, but not someone that holds the midfield but for an attacking mid. Onalfo pulled out Lance Watson from the right back position, mover Jewsbury there and then plugged in Davy Arnaud as an attacking mid. That might have brought a bit more offense, but it left the middle of the field wide open for Santos to move the ball; and move it they did, missing at least 3 scoring opportunities. Neither Arnaud nor a lackluster Santiago Hirsig could control the onslaught and soon enough in the 61st minute Santos opened the scoring through the 4 lane wide gap that was the Wizards defense.

In response to that 3 minutes later Onalfo brought in Michael Harrington into the midfield for Aaron Hohlbein, KC’s most experienced defender on the field at that time (Jewsbury is a mid); the though of what was to come made me cringe since now KC was in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 (wherever you want to put Arnaud) against a team they could not stop with 4 defenders let alone 3. Add to that the fact that last week’s performance proves that Harrington is in a slump and needs a long time on the bench to either resort things in his head or wait for Lance Watson to give him back his spot at right back since he continues to struggle as a midfielder.

Santos’ answer to this change, another goal, this time from a counter after Roger Espinoza did not get a foul call where Santos brought the ball quickly and allowed Mares to cross a nice floater towards Matias Vuoso who just physically abused Matt Besler going over him and leaving Hartman with no chance; 2-0. Down by two KC now pulled Hercules Gomez and brought in Michael Kraus to try and salvage something, but little came of it, and it wasn’t until Arnaud was fouled on a run towards goal that Claudio Lopez to buried the free kick to bring KC closer.

The Wizards continued to pressure trying to find an equalizer but missed on 2 clear chances: first Espinoza was able to get a shot off that hit the post and then in stoppage time a nice cross by Harrington sprung Hirsig free but alone vs. the Santos keeper he got off a very weak shot. Off this last play Santos counterattacked again and scored their 3rd and final goal. A bad loss that sees the Wizards Superliga run come to an end.

Player Ratings: Kevin Hartman(6), Lance Watson (5), Jimmy Conrad (4), Aaron Hohlbein (5) , Matt Besler (4), Herculez Gomez (5) , Santiago Hirsig (3), Jack Jewsbury (5), Roger Espinoza (5), Josh Wolff (34), Claudio Lopez (6); Subs: Davy Arnaud (4), Rauwshan McKenzie (3), Michael Harrington (3) Michael Kraus (1)

Players of the Game: Claudio Lopez & Kevin Hartman: Most of KC’s attacks came from of through Lopez’s feet; he sometimes makes shooting/passing decisions that make me scratch my head but he’ll make up for it a play later with a nice pass or a good play. In Hartman’s case, the man saved KC from finishing the game 5 or 6 goals down; enough said.

Commentary: A few weeks ago I had commented that KC seemed to play the same system regardless of the situation or the team and although there have been arguments to the contrary, this game in my mind proved this. I understand the idea of trying to win a game, but when a tie is all you need I believe that more possession oriented game plan should be used in search of the win. Instead KC, when not able to cross midfield passing the ball then went ahead and started launching long passes which most of the time gave Santos back possession of the ball. I think that when the offense is suffering as it really did for these Superliga games (2 goals: 1 own goal and 1 free kick) possession becomes the key and KC did not possess the ball.

I also don’t understand the insistence in playing Michael Harrington at midfielder. First of all he’s a natural defender, and secondly he is in a horrible slump where he’ll make one good cross (the one Hirsig missed) out of 5 or will get flustered and give away the ball too easily (like he did a couple of times at the end of the game). The Michael Kraus sub also makes me scratch my head since he only provides effort to the attack but little physical presence (he’s done next to nothing after that goal in Colorado); I know Thompson is also in a slump but he does open spaces as a big body.

All in all the Superliga was a super embarrassment. We tied a preseason Atlas team; tied an injury ravage New England team (with an own goal); and lost against a preseason Santos team in a game that if things in soccer were always fair would have ended 7-3. Now KC is going to US Cup play and back to MLS play with holes in the defense and midfield and in a position that if things go badly could see them fall out of contention very quickly.

I know I don’t make the lineup but I would love to see Jewsbury as a central defender on Saturday against Houston; yes we will miss the push forward, but he knows how to defend and can help organize a very young defense; that is if he isn’t too tired from playing every single Superliga game.

On the Referee: Typical CONCACAF mediocre refs. He hurt both teams, but the linesman on the bench side was horrible on his offside call. With a $ 1 million purse one would hope that at least for the international matched the could get better refs.

Here are the highlights: