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.

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:

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:

I can understand in part the idea that Vermes wants to live and die by the players he has brought to the team in the last 3 years with the hope that somewhere he can show OnGoal and the Kansas City faithful that he can actually scout for players (and that not all players but Lopez are busts) but I also believe that if this approach blows up in his face and he doesn’t make the playoffs and have some success there, he will be gone, and deservedly so.

I could be wrong (and hope to be) but unless Hungarian import and Vermes “discovery” Zoltan can renew a stagnant office and the return of Jimmy Conrad can plug the gap in the defense that allowed 6 goals, we might be seeing more of the same from KC when an offensively strong Chicago visits this weekend. It looks like Vermes will play Harrington in midfield (where he has seemed lost), Hirsig will be trying to control Blanco and hoping not to play him on for a score like he did Donovan and Blanco in consecutive games, and the KC offense will try and lead the team to its first win in more than one month. All with very similar personnel, meaning that either Vermes can work magic, or the players weeks back really just quit on Onalfo.

Whatever happens I just hope (sadly) that we can at least pull off a point but I doubt it. I expect Chicago to come in hard and fast and with a midfield that will give us fits and with an offense that, contrary to ours, can score goals in bunches.

With the Western Conference seemingly breaking the trend this year and taking 5 playoff spots, losing these points at home might be (and pardon the cliché) the first nail in the Wizards’ playoff coffin.

My prediction: CHI 3 – KC 1

What do you think?

Who wins this Sunday?(trends)

Well, Sunday KC outshot Houston 15 to 9 but only had 3 of those shots on goal while Houston actually got one goal out of its 5 shots on goal. I’ll admit that the Wizards did create opportunities and probably outplayed the Dynamo, but the difference between a seasoned team like the Dynamo and a mid-level team like the Wizards is that the Dynamo stole a goal and knew how to defend it while could not buy a ball in the net. KC did have a few close calls to tie with a header off the bar and a Claudio Lopez free kick in stoppage, but Houston managed to take the 3 points back home.

This was KC’s 3 loss this year at home and it would seem that we are really lacking an attacking punch and that makes us the predictable team that we are today. Yes we are waiting for Adam Cristman to “spruce up” our offense, but I cannot believe that the Technical Staff and coaches have the attack of this team dependant on a single player that has yet to see the field this year. We did create the opportunities against Houston, but we did not have the offensive weight to make them count.

On Tuesday in the US Cup KC started a very “starter heavy” team against the Sounders in Tukwila, Washington, and yet again the came up short with a pitiful offensive performance. I base my comment on both what I heard from the “homers” on the Seattle radio broadcast and the stats/write ups I’ve seen in different reports. The fact that KC had 6 total shots and only 1 of those on goal seems to prove that the team is in horrible offensive slump that has gone on for almost a month with little relief in sight (it would actually seem that we are getting worse). I understand the frustration that many have with the fact that we lost on a penalty, and although it was a call that in real speed could have gone either way in my book, by ref Abiodun Okulaja (who is not my favorite ref anyway), the truth is that there is no reason for us to be in these situations every single game. Had KC gone out and played an offensively surprising game and scored a few goals it would not matter what Okulaja did at the end of the game. We need to stop depending on that one missed call or on the Lopez free kick that goes just wide.

In the end we are out of the Superliga and again out of the US Cup and now, the fact that Onalfo used a lot of his starters for this game to show how serious he was about the match, has put him in the position of not being able to excuse yet another failure. For all the talking that was done on how the depth of this team was to be tested and how the reserves were to play a “vital role” in the Superliga and US Cup matches, truth be told Onalfo used a starter heavy team for each match (except for the Minnesota game) with nothing to show for it, with the added negative impact of now dealing with a group of tired players.

Hindsight being 20/20 I would have preferred to send in our Reserves for the Superliga; they get the experience and our starters get the break. With 3 players missing due to Gold Cup call ups and a few more due to injuries our depth (or lack of) will be tested for a few more weeks (not as many times now that we are out of US Cup and Superliga).

I understand that when Coach Onalfo started off he had one of the worst teams in the MLS and has now taken the team to 2 straight playoffs since he’s been here, but the fact that the Wizards swoon in the middle of the table throughout the year and end up having to make runs at the end to qualify at the bottom of the Conference shows that we are far from reaching the elite status of the league. Add to that the fact that this year more than ever we seem to be stuck with a predictable offense, a spotty midfield and defense and depending on our keeper time and time again. Yes, Coach Onalfo got us out of the deep rut, but I don’t know if he’s the one that will make us take the next step to the elite rung of the MLS that teams like Houston sit on.

At this point I wonder if a team like KC should look for one or two players in other MLS teams to revitalize the offense and try and bring the team closer to an elite status, specially due to the fact that players like Lopez, Conrad, Hirsig, Wolff and Hartman are not getting any younger and it would seem to me that we should be looking to put together a team to win now. I could venture and say that we do have a lot of young players that ride the bench with little or no chance of playing and that could be used as trade bait if packaged correctly.

I don’t know right now where are the Wizards headed, and it’s frustrating. At the beginning of last year, before Lopez was brought in I thought we were going with an all youth team but ended up getting Lopez and then adding veterans like Gomez, Wolff, and Thompson. This year we have a more veteran team and add Hirsig but we are achieving little (if not less). So what gives. As a fan (short for fannatic) I could have lived with the youth movement but if you scrap the youth movement for a win now attitude I believe you better win now.

Whatever Onalfo and the Technical Staff decide to do it needs to be done fast; we are at midseason and we are are under .500. I think Onalfo’s and Vermes’ seats are getting a bit warmer.

Here at the highlights of the Houston game and the penalty in the Sounders game. Also Hillcrest Road has some highlights and the play in which the penalty was called. (http://www.hillcrestroadblog.com/2009/07/wizards-sounders-highlights.html) :

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:

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:

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.