The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Although we are not mathematically eliminated, only a complete debacle by the teams in front of us and a sudden resurgence of our team would get us through. (OK, not going to happen). This brings up the point of what we should do with these last 2 home games. Keep the mediocrity and try to bust the slump some of the players are in (hey, one more week might do the trick, right?), or use the friendly venue to give some others a shot.

I personally think Zusi did an OK job on Saturday, not any worse than Arnaud (OK, here come all the comments from the ones with the Arnaud blinders). I’d love to see Zoltan in for Wolff, who again got a bloody nose and who is in the scoring drought part of his up and down season. Will this happen? No, because the coach is also wearing his own blinders hoping that all these players he has been partly responsible for bringing in and giving to Curt Onalfo to use (and now having to use himself) will somehow magically show us all their talent. It just seems that it’s his last ditch effort to justify what he has done.

That actually is kind of sad since when the season comes to a close and the cutting needs to start most of the players leaving will be those who never got that chance. Yes, Yes, some have said that those reserve games have shown us who is good and who isn’t. For me that’s a bunch of crap. Players play to the level around them and playing college teams might be good exercise but the only ones really getting the learning are the…(wait for it…) college teams. And judging some of those players on the one or two games they get to play in with no regularity is actually meaningless. Like someone mentioned in another post, the best goals I’ve seen from the Reserves came from players who aren’t starters and I’ve seen a couple of college players make a few of the starters look foolish. Should we go ahead and sign the kid that was able to dribble through Jimmy Conrad? Giving so much credit to these reserve games to judge quality is absurd; unless we actually play teams that are better than us; KC Brass, UMKC, etc, not the case. Two word: Ryan Pore, need I say more?

In my book you judge these players when they are asked to play at that higher level. If players aren’t given that chance at the higher level they don’t get the chance to succeed. Case and point Ricardo Clark for example who I’ve never seen as a great player IN HOUSTON, but when asked to step up with the USNT, at a different level, he has shown that quality that makes him a good mid with a foot in Europe at the end of the season. The same goes for other players who although have a normal or good level in the MLS but seem to step up when asked to do more. I’m not saying we have superstars on our bench, but I do think we have some serviceable ones who might be able to step up and do an OK job when they get on the field filling in for a starter if it’s not their first time in a meaningful game.

So we lose against that “punk” Montero (that one’s for Coach Onalfo), or against DC; so what? there’s nothing on the line. Pride? Really?

I’ll take losing with a new lineup now, than over losing again like we did against Santos, where Jimmy Conrad got hurt and the guy that came in had few or no minutes and got schooled by the Mexican forwards.

I believe in moral victories but beating Seattle and DC would not even be that (that is, if we actually were able to muster the offensive power to do so).

Oh well, I’m sure Peter Vermes has though about the good of the team next year and setting up the next guy for success instead of trying to justify his job and escape failure. The more he coaches the less the blame scale tips against Onalfo and his time coaching with the hand he was dealt. He’s not blameless but he’s sure as hell not the only one to blame.

Since we didn’t see any KC goals last weekend I leave you with a few of my favorite ones. Enjoy.

So the Wizards, in their typical “must win” situation, playing a team on their 3rd game this week, which was missing at least 4 starters, finished the game with 4 defenders and a holding mid and not getting a goal. This tie basically means the same as if we had lost; it’s sealed our fate out of the playoffs.

Although I can try and explain why I hate the way we finished the game, with an ineffective (since game 8 or so this season) Davy Arnaud who should not have even started and with few offensive options off the bench, I will let good old ex-Chief coach Herm Edwards explain to Peter Vermes how we should have played this game.

Granted KC dominated and had most of the chances, we lacked the punch that shows up only once in a while this year but that has honestly eluded us most of the season. Colorado came in looking tired and trying to slow the pace of the game and held us at bay. Hirsig managed the midfield but with little options moving forward; Jewsbury and Arnaud seem to linger in the stupor that has not left them for the last 15 or so games; Conrad and the defense did their job; Kamara brought some excitement but that was about it. Zoltan did a nice job off the bench, but missed a great opportunity at the end of the game. It all added up to a nice effort and that was it.

All in all, another typical Wizards game where we just couldn’t get it done and now the playoffs are most likely done for 2009. I’m not saying that we cannot win out, but we have 4 very tough games left and can only reach 43 points. Miracles do happen, but too many things have to fall into place for the Wizards to advance.

I’d have to agree with Jim Mora on this one (you knew it was coming):

Here are the game highlights:

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:

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.

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:

Due to “scheduling conflicts” Kansas City traveled to Saint Louis to open their Superliga first round in a game against Mexican First Division squad Atlas. Although it was said that Atlas would field mostly youth players, according to the Telefutura announcers, they actually started with a mixture of youth and experienced players. KC on the other hand surprised everyone by playing the same starters they had in their last game, a 3-1 win vs. New England. On paper it seemed like KC would have the advantage because of the experience of their players and the fact that Atlas was basically playing a preseason game. Not true.

From the opening whistle Atlas held strong and complicated KC’s movement of the ball in midfield putting pressure on Santiago Hirsig and Jack Jewsbury, and limited Davy Arnaud’s movements forward. By doing this they forced KC into making mistakes and at points in the game forcing the defense into long clearances or into committing fouls near the Wizards box. It was in one of these fouls that the best scoring chance of the first half occurred when an Atlas free kick cleared the wall of defenders but was slapped out by Kevin Hartman at the far post he was covering. And with that the half ended, not without the Wizards losing Hercules Gomez due to what could be called a “heat injury” and having to be subbed out for Roger Espinoza.

In the second half KC seemed to take the initiative to attack and Espinoza started to make more runs on the left side which lead to a few dangerous plays. Shots from Jewsbury, Wolff and Espinoza came close but did not really threaten the Atlas keeper, while a shot from outside de box from Atlas that Hartman punched out was the only real threat from the Mexican side during the second half. Still, it was sub Abe Thompson who had the best chance who was played into the Atlas box by Espinoza and all alone against the keeper missed wide to the far post as two defenders closed in on him; that was a chance that should have gone in.

In the 91st minute KC’s Roger Espinoza tried to control a ball and take a shot from outside the box but let it go far; in an effort to regain control of the the ball he stomped on an Atlas player that was sliding in for it; result, straight red which means he will miss the next game vs. New England. Regardless of his intention it was a dangerous play, and if there is something we have learned from watching Confederations Cup soccer this past week, is that just because a slide or a play won’t earn you a red in the MLS, it doesn’t mean it won’t earn you one in international play.

All in all a pretty boring and disappointing game. KC went in strong to earn the 3 points but LaVolpe’s system and the heat handcuffed the team into a draw that really feels like a loss, especially considering New England beat Santos Laguna.

Player Ratings: (Everyone but Gomez gets an extra point because it was hot as hell). Starters: Hartman 6, Watson 6, Conrad 6, Hohlbein 6, Besler 6, Hirsig 6, Jewsbury 6, Arnaud 5, Gomez 3, Wolff 6, Lopez 6.
Subs: Espinoza 6, Harrington 5, Thompson 4, Leathers N/A

Man of the Match: Espinoza. Regardless of the red card, I liked how the team started to move better when Roger came in for Gomez and how he made the right side defender from Atlas have to stay back and defend instead of making runs down the flank like he was doing in the first half.

Ref Rating: Not consistent, especially when it came violent plays. There were at least a couple of fouls that were at the level of Espinoza’s tackle that did not even earn a card, plus the shove that the Atlas player gave Jack Jewsbury in the first half would easily be a red card in any league game. The assistant refs seemed to be a bit off when it came to coordinating with the man in the middle and whistles were constantly late on offside calls and a few fouls.

Things that KC should work on for the next game: CROSSES INTO THE BOX. Lopez 4, Jewsbury 2, Espinoza 2, Watson 1, Gomez 1. These were the number of crosses into the box that KC made that either went out, straight to the keeper, over shot the box, or into a box with no players (meaning they did not look up before making the cross).

Things that make you go Hmmm: Leather came in for Lopez in the 89th minute. Leather who is a defender came in for a forward when the score was still tied. I don’t really see the logic in that change when Onalfo could have brought in Morsink, a midfielder, who will take the occasional shot from outside the box and could help control the midfield for the last 5 minutes. Atlas wasn’t really pressuring KC, and KC’s shots from outside the box were pretty bad so that would have seemed the logical change. Hmmmm.

On a side note: to the MLS/Superliga website people a special and loud YOU SUCK. Although it was announced that the games were going to be streamed live on the site they were not (I stopped refreshing the page at the half). Like someone once told me, if you can’t deliver it don’t go ahead and say you can. Lucky for me the game was on Telefutura (and rojadirecta.com).

On a second side note: Atlas was delayed from landing in Chicago because of weather; their plane was diverted to Milwaukee where the players HAD TO STAY ON THE PLANE for quite sometime until the plane could fly to Chicago because Milwaukee’s main airport DOES NOT HAVE AN IMMIGRATION OFFICE. Come on Milwaukee, get with the program.

Here are the highlights (proof that it was a pretty boring game is the fact that the highlights last 1:21; when most MLS games run more than 3 minutes).

Add to these games a June 30 US Cup game vs. the Minnesota Thunder up in Minnesota (will we ever play a US Cup game at home?) and a 4th of July MLS game vs. the Houston Dynamo. All in all a busy schedule for KC who, according to Mike Kuhn from Down by the line will be missing Davy Arnaud and Roger Espinoza who have been called up for US and Honduras National Team duties for the Gold Cup and Scotsman Kevin Souter due to injury.

I’m on the fence with the Superliga since we are getting the Mexican teams just starting preseason (Atlas started on June 3rd) and they don’t seem to be taking this too seriously (A few days back Mike also reported that Atlas is bringing a B-Team for the match to give their younger players, hungry for a position with the first team, a shot with this game.), but at the same time I think that it gives our team some national/international exposure and some of the Reserve might get a chance to shine (that is why I hate seeing Espinoza leave since he would have surely played SL and US Cup, while I think he most likely will be on the bench during the Gold Cup; hopefully I’m wrong). Still, like I said before, if we do make it to the SL finals, there is some good money involved so that’s always a plus.

On a side note, I really hope KC takes the US Cup seriously and that Portland beats Seattle so that we can finally host another US CUP down (it’s been a while since the Colorado game in Shawnee Mission). Winning the US Cup would give us an automatic berth in the Concacaf Champions League which is clearly more important than the Superliga.

Back to the Atlas game, with Arnaud and Espinoza out I expect to see either Kurt Morsink or Graham Zusi (not impressed by him yet) on the field and maybe Abe Thompson in for Lopez so that the man can get some rest. Still, because of the 5 games in 2 weeks and having 3 players less, Onalfo will have to carefully manage the lineups. Saddly if there is one game that will have a majority of the Reserves on the field it probably will be the US Cup game due to its proximity to the Houston game.

Sunday’s game is going to be tricky. Atlas coach Ricardo Lavolpe is a sly fox with many years of coaching (including stints with the Mexico NT) and young players sometimes are not phased by the fact that it’s a preseason game and will actually care since they are fighting for a roster spot. This will be a tough game for KC.

I see this as the starting 11 against Atlas:

————–Hartman——————
Watson—Hohlbein—Conrad/McKenzie—Besler

Jewsbury—Hirsig—Morsink(Zusi)—Gomez

Wolff—Lopez(Thompson)

Final score: KC 2- ATL 0

P.S. At least one red card per team.

By the way, those of you, who like me cannot go to STL, you can either watch the game online on www.SuperLiga2009.com or on Telefutura which is on some of the cable and satellite Spanish packages. US Cup games will also be available online at their site, but more on that next week.

Also, thanks to Alan, blogger for the offside.com’s Atlas page for providing the list of players that are going to Saint Louis. You can find the list here:

http://atlas.theoffside.com/team-news/superliga-2009-player-list.html#comment-366

Best of luck to those of you going to STL.

It was a pretty fast paced game from the beginning with the Wizards midfield pushing forward and giving the NE defense trouble. During a nice passing sequence, Davy Arnaud sprung Claudio Lopez towards the left side of the box and Lopez returned the ball across to Arnaud who closed the play and slotted the ball past Matt Reis. NE reacted, and in a combination that might have resulted from a natural letdown from scoring the goal and a Revolution push to tie, they began to control the midfield and put a bit of pressure on the KC defense. They finally succeeded in tying the game when, after a corner in which Kevin Hartman made a great save, Steve Ralston was able to cross a ball to Hartman’s back post, and Sharlie Joseph out jumped what seemed to be at least 2 defenders and headed the ball in to tie the score.

After the tie, the Revolution again let KC take the initiative and push forward. During one of the advances a ball was played towards the right side of the NE box, where Emmanuel Osei and Lopez were fighting for possession and Osei went down. What ensued was strange since it seemed that Lopez said something to Osei, who threw a kick towards Lopez, who answered by saying something again to Osei, who got up and pushed Lopez. The aftermath was a yellow for Lopez and a straight red for Osei. That red marked the end of the game for the Revolution who tried to move around their team to make up for missing one of their central defenders, but the changes definitely did not work.
With a weakened opponent KC took the offensive and on an attack from the left side of the field Lopez found Hercules Gomez who took a nice shot towards goal; Matt Reis made a good save, but the rebound itself went off Jeff Larentowicz and into the goal. A few minutes later and with the Wizards not stepping off the gas, a corner by Lopez was headed towards goal and Reiss again made a great stop, but his rebound short and it was headed towards the front of the goal by Jimmy Conrad where Aaron Hohlbein sneaked in between defenders to make it 3-1.

From that point on the game was not in question and KC ran up and down the field with little or no opposition. The Wizards probably missed at least 4 or 5 clear scoring chances in the second half while NE forced only one save from Hartman during the final 45 minutes.

Player Ratings - Hartman 5, Watson 5, Conrad 6, Hohlbein 6, Besler 6 Hirsig 6, Jewsbury 6, Arnaud 7, Gomez 7, Lopez 8, Wolff 5. Subs Harrington 5, Zusi 4, Morsink N/R

Man of the Match: Claudio Lopez. The man was a dynamo. He did not stop running. He set up the 1st goal; should have had an assist on the second one if Gomez had slotted the ball in, and fought Osei for the ball that led to the NE player’s ejection. He was everywhere and did a bit of everything. My only knock on him is on his corner kicks; I think he needs to mix them up a bit since most seem to fall short; still great game. Honorable mention to Matt Besler who, although a rookie and playing a position that is not his strongest, ran up and down the field and combined with Lopez and Gomez on overlapping runs quite a few times.

Commentary: A much needed win for KC who put pressure on NE once they were a man short and did not let up. I do worry about missing so many scoring opportunities, especially in the second half where the game could have been blown wide open, which would have allowed for earlier subs for players with 3 or 4 yellow cards like Jack Jewsbury or Davy Arnaud. Luckily Jack did not pick up his 5th card and because he played his 3rd straight game without a yellow he is back down to 3 yellows.

These are the games that KC needs to win, and that’s why it’s been so painful to have let 5 points go by in the last couple of games where we were a man up. Had we won those other games (or at least tied v. C-bus and beat LA), we’d be on top of the Eastern Conference. Regardless, it was a very good win and hopefully this was a start of streak that goes through Superliga and US Cup.

The Ref: All in all Salazar did a good job. The Osei ejection was a stupid play and like Josh Wolff’s a few weeks ago, deserved. He did look a bit gun shy with Pat Phelan who got a yellow on the 13th minute for a reckless foul, and 5 minutes later committed an even worse foul that could have (should have) earned him a second yellow, but all in all pretty smooth. I have my doubts on the Lopez offside in the second half but that one is on the linesman and Salazar just acknowledged the flag.

Here are the highlights: