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:

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:

A new midfield and a defense with a returning Jimmy Conrad looked initially like a positive step for KC early in the game since the passing and the hustle seemed to be showing up and the ball was being moved forward, especially on the right side where Hirsig (in a new position) moved freely up and down the line; the downside of course was that neither he nor Lance Watson could come up with a cross that was met by the KC forwards.

Still, the Fire played the system they needed to play to exploit the weaknesses in the KC defense and used the long ball to overcome the absence of their playmaker Blanco. Although Chicago did have some early opportunities it seemed that the effort by the Wizards of trying to move forward by passing the ball (instead of cracking a long pass every time) might lead to something, but the KC defense again let one slip by. A long ball was not cleared but let go out of bonds near the KC left side corner flag; Chicago brought pressure in on the KC throw in which forced a mistake by Matt Bessler and left the door open for a quick give and go that found Chris Rolfe with the ball in the box and firing it past Kevin Hartman who seemed to have been outguessed.

After that KC continued to try and move the ball with short accurate passes while the Fire kept using the long crosses which were almost successful twice, once on the left side finding Bessler out of position, and then a long high ball exploiting the size of Watson who could not reach it. Honestly, both should have been put in but were horribly missed by the Chicago forwards. On the other side a couple of plays brought the Wizards close, especially a through pass by Kurt Morsink to Josh Wolff where the KC attacker turned and shot but was denied by Jon Busch and a shot by Hirsig who seemed to slow down just a bit and let the Fire defense close down on him just getting a corner off the play. All in all, less long aimless balls by KC and more moving and passing by the midfielders had me in OK spirits for the second half.

The 2nd half started and KC pressured the Fire a bit more trying to get close to the area. The team started to move the ball more, especially when the Hungarian born striker Zoltan made his debut. He brought energy and a desire to impress the new coach. On one of his first plays he was able to slip by the left side of the Chicago defense and send a nice cross to a charging Roger Espinoza, who although shadowed by a Fire defender, could have knocked it in, but instead saw the ball go by him. While the Wizards kept pressuring, Chicago was playing the counter attack hoping for a KC mistake, which came in the 79th minute when a corner clearance allowed for Mike Banner to break free and move towards Wizards’ territory. As he ran he was tackled from behind by Zoltan who earned a straight red and brought his KC debut to an end.

At that point short handed and a goal down KC again got sloppy on another throw in and the Fire countered for their second goal of the game.

Player Ratings:
Kevin Hartman (4), Lance Watson (6), Jimmy Conrad (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5), Matt Besler (3) (Michael Harrington (5)), Santiago Hirsig (6) (Herculez Gomez (5)), Jack Jewsbury (5), Kurt Morsink (6), Roger Espinoza (5), Josh Wolff (5), Adam Cristman (5)(Zoltan Hercegfalvi (5) He deserved a 6 but that tackle was an automatic -1).

Comment: Like I said before, I liked this team more than the one that had been playing for Onalfo recently (not only the Dallas debacle one). The passing seem better, the effort and teamwork seemed better and the chances to score were there. Granted, against Dallas we hit rock bottom and anything else looks better, I think I’ll give the Vermes experiment a few more weeks to pass final juddgement. I think the defense let the team down yesterday, and the left side of the team (Bessler/Harrington and Espinoza) had an overall bad day. Our forwards need to put the clear chances in the net, the 2 Josh Wolff had, and the Espinoza and Hirsig chances should have at least landed us one goal. At least our total shots and the ones on goal did increase which I guess could be considered a step in the right direction.

On the Ref: I like Jorge Gonzalez but it did seem that he let some Fire players get away with a few things, especially the Justin Mapp “delaying a restart play” which he did by clipping Hirsig from behind when he was going to take a free kick (granted the math isn’t always clear cut but according to FIFA it’s a yellow for delaying a restart and as far as I know it’s also a yellow for a tackle from behind; how he only gets a yellow escapes me). Also, while I do agree on the Zoltan red card, Michael Harrington took a stud slide to knee 5 minutes later (which is far more dangerous) and it got the Fire player only a yellow. Still my biggest gripe with Gonzalez was allowing the Fire players to just waste time, especially Jon Busch who took as long as he wanted every time there was a goal kick. After all that I will say that I don’t blame him for the loss, if we don’t score we are not going to win.

Now it’s out to California to meet the Earthquakes. Here are the highlights:

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) :

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the highlights:

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

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

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

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

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

Player Ratings:

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

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

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

The Ref:

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

My thoughts:

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

Here are some of the highlights, judge for yourselves.

The big story this weekend, as the Crew try to sweep the season series, is if the Crew will be able to overcome the international absences of Alejandro Moreno (Venezuela), Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) and Frankie Hejduk (USNT) for this game at Community America Ballpark. KC on the other hand is only missing Roger Espinoza (Honduras) who came in at the end of the LA game and provided an assist in KC’s only goal.

I anticipate a tough match for KC, that gets Josh Wolff and Santiago Hirsig back after their suspensions last week. Keving Souter and Michel Harrington will again be on the bench after a pretty bad game vs. LA (to Harrington’s credit although his game was very bad and his passing was horrendous, but he at least tried to get involved in the game instead of hiding on the left side of the fields and being a non factor like Souter was).

Jack Jewsbury will move back to A-Mid where he has done fairly well the last few weeks (except for the LA game where he was D-Mid) and Arnaud and Gomez will be on the wings rotating sides and moving up at times letting Lopez fall back to the the left wing for periods of the game.

I am a bit worried about the Crew’s speed and the fact that Emmanuel Ekpo will give Lance Watson a lot of trouble. Also, forwards Steven Lenhart (if he starts for Moreno) and Pat Noonan could be problematic for the KC defense due to their physical play. On the upside for KC, Will Hesmer is still out which means that the unreliable Andy Gruenebaum will be manning the goal for the Crew. Although the Crew are missing 3 players, I think that Hejduk’s leadership is going to be sorely missed by C-bus and will also be a factor in a scrappy game like this one.

Since KC didn’t lose (very important fact when talking about Curt Onalfo teams) and with the return of Wolff and Hirsig, Curt Onalfo, true to form, will most likely use a lineup similar to the one against Chivas USA 2 weeks ago (except for Espinoza)

Hartman
Watson-Holhbein-Conrad-Besler
Gomez-Jewsbury-Hirsig-Arnaud
Wolff-Lopez

If that is the lineup my guess for subs will be Harrington, Zusi, and Thompson; probably in that order. I also anticipate that Crew goal will come through the right side of the KC defense. (I’m going to start keeping tally of my score predictions as well as the subs and the side of the defense that gives up the goal.)

I see a very physical game where there will be a quite a few yellows but where KC will manage to score twice and edge the Crew. By the way, another great game for Keving Hartman.

Final Score KC 2 – Crew 1

It was a scoreless first half that had me nodding off watching Preki tactically beat Curt Onalfo, Chivas having the bulk of the scarce scoring chances and Kevin Hartman earning his Man of the Match title once again. And then things started to pick up. KC took the offensive in the second half, with Roger Espinoza pushing forward, delivering better passes to Claudio Lopez, and Jack Jewsbury starting to take control of the midfield. It was during one of these attacks that Espinoza was taken down with a karate-like kick from a Chivas player (who got no card, by the way), and the subsequent free kick was buried beautifully by Lopez in the top left corner, leaving Thorton with no chance.

Just 8 minutes later a free kick by Chivas that was not cleared by the KC defense ended at the feet of the now always opportunistic Eduardo Lillingston who outmuscled Lance Watson and slotted the ball on the left side of Hartman (it seems to me that Watson has been involved in most opponents goals this year by being outplayed or outmuscled; hint, hint Mr. Onalfo). So I’m thinking, wow, 2 goals in 8 minutes, the game was heating up! Nope, whatever heat it was picking up was quickly smothered by Mr. Ass and his band of myopic moron linesmen.

Four minutes after the Chivas goal, a nice through pass was sent towards Josh Wolff who may or may not have been clipped by Chivas defender, Eduardo Trujillo (personally, I think Wolff needs to man up and not go down that easy at times, a la Landycakes, but that’s just me). Wolff took exception to that and after pleasantries were exchanged between players, Wolff “headbutted” Trujillo slightly, and Trujillo pushed him back. Now look, I’m all for ejecting players for violent behavior, but considering that Trujillo, an excellent showman (a la Mr. Blanco in Chicago), would have fallen, rolled on the ground and needed CPR to be revived had that “headbutt” been at all hard, and considering the fact that he proceeded to shove Wolff back, this was nothing that serious. It should have been a “yellow for both, next time I see you not playing nice you are done for the game” type of situation. But NO! Mr. Ass, with his band of Merry Morons assistants, after talking things over for what seemed forever, decided a red for Wolff and a yellow for Trujillo and one more to a KC player for “dissent”. Well, there went any chance of this game getting any better.

Let me be clear, up to that point in the game, Mr. Ass had shown 2 yellow cards, to Atiba Harris and Santiago Hirsig for not playing nice during a corner kick; because in Mr. Ass’ world, during corners, players are not allowed to jostle for position, and must hold hands and hug until the ball is in the air. Well, the game continued and it suddenly turned into a game where the free flowing of the ball back and forth was cut by the constant whistles of Mr. Ass, who now decided to be the enforcer instead of letting the boys play. Around the 83rd minute a nifty move by Sasha Victorine led to a trip by Santiago Hirsig and his ejection for a second yellow. I feel it could have been worth a yellow, but having seen the fouls up to that point that had not gotten cards, I’d have to say Mr. Ass screwed this one up also, especially considering that no one got a card for nearly decapitating Espinoza.

Well, at that point in the game, the Wizards were down to 9 players and in a purely defensive mode and Chivas was trying to take advantage of their numbers with no luck. And the end came with Mr. Ass leaving the field as some of us were singing his praises as he walked into the tunnel.

Player Rankings: Hartman 7, Watson 4, Conrad 5, Hohlbein 5, Besler 5, Arnaud 4, Hirsig 4, Jewsbury 5, Espinoza 5, Wolff 2, Lopez 6.
Subs Gomez 4, Harrington N/A, Kraus N/A

More Commentary:

On the Wizards: They got outcoached and were lucky to end the 1st half with a tie. It was not surprising that the same lineup that beat RSL last week was going to do little damage to a far superior Chivas team. It was not Wolff’s day, he missed 2 chances in the first half and should have been out of the game before his ejection and the ejection play, although harsh, was STUPID on his part. Josh, never give Mr. Ass a chance to show us his merciless power to change the game (and show us how much he sucks). Will the Davy Arnaud that started the season please come back, where are you? Chance Myers needs to get healthy now; Lance Watson has the heart but lacks the physical strength to handle MLS attackers and he has been involved (negatively) in half of the goals the team has given up since he has been starting; Michael Harrington anyone? Also, after all these games I finally saw Hirsig play a one-touch ball, it was with his head, but one-touch is one touch, right?

On the Ref: I don’t care how much the MLS grows game-wise, if the quality of refs keeps being inconsistent, the game will not advance. If you are a “quality player” whose last name isn’t Donovan or can act out the part like Mr. Blanco, you will get pounded week in and week out with little protection or calls. Yet MLS refs will have issues with players pushing and shoving in the area while doing nothing about serious tackles. Also if by any chance that day they do take care of that part of the game it will not be consistent or their level of rigorousness will be on and off at different times in the game, leaving players not knowing what ref will do. In other words their “strike zone” will be all over the place.

I like Don Garber, but to excuse HIS bad refs by saying that there are bad officiated games all over the world is STUPID. Let me tell you something Don, the “Blanco T-shirt Gate” that you have asked us to dismiss and forget would have probably cost an English or Spanish ref the rest of the season for the appearance of impropriety, but your “disciplinary” committee can’t do that because the ref involved sadly is near the top of a mediocre ref class; you bench him and we’ll be getting a lot more of Mr. Ass throughout the league; spreading joy and idiocy with his merry band of linesmen. I see how Laurie up in Seattle felt after the Tim Weyland debacle a few weeks back. Call me a bad loser (although we didn’t lose) but fans should get more from the refs; they are not part of the show, they should be there to help the show run smoother.

For the record I’d like to clarify that I know that Anno specifically describes a part of of the Ass. If you sound out the word itself you get the idea of what I’m talking about. Out of respect to the few who read this post I wanted to refrain from using the popular phrase but could not leave out my distaste for horrible officiating.

Here are the highlights:

This game reminded me of that great Baltimore Ravens team that ruled by defense and would bend but not break. They were not great coming from behind but if they got ahead early it was hard to catch up. I’m not saying the KC defense is something to write home about, but the team has the ability to make teams pay (see Chicago game for example) if they are given the chance and their opponent squanders the opportunity (like RSL and CHI). Of course, Kevin Hartman being in top form has saved the team time and time again, but hey, didn’t the Ravens have Ray Lewis and Ed Reed to bailout their less than stellar offense?

A break away goal from Josh Wolff after RSL was on top pressuring KC and then a second half goal that caught most of the RSL midfield pushing forward and gave Michael Harrington the right wing to cross the ball on to a streaking Wolff. After that, although RSL kept pushing to cut the lead, they just could not score. Now I understand Jason Kreis’ frustration with his team’s attack. They have scored 14 goals in 8 games, which is a pretty decent number, but it turns nasty when you realize that out of those 14 goals 10 came in 2 games, giving them 4 in 6 games; pretty pathetic.

I’m still not sold on Curt Onalfo’s player choices nor his system, but truth be told, it worked very well for THIS game. I think there will have to be some changes for Saturday’s game against Chivas, although hometown hero Preki has not done to well as a coach here in KC.

Here are my player ratings:

Kevin Hartman (8), Lance Watson (5) (Michael Harrington (7)), Jimmy Conrad (6), Aaron Hohlbein (6), Matt Besler (6), Davy Arnaud (5), Santiago Hirsig (5), Jack Jewsbury (7), Roger Espinoza (6) (Herculez Gomez (5)), Claudio Lopez (6)(Michael Kraus (NR)), Josh Wolff (9).

Man of the Match: Josh Wolff. That was easy.
Runner up: Kevin Hartman

Highlights in case you missed them: