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).

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.

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:

Saturday night the adage “sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good” was a perfect illustration of the Wizards game play. They came back from a 2-0 deficit to rescue a point in the dying moments of the game after Chicago, tired of missing chance after chance to put the game out of reach had a horrible mental lapse and collapsed.

From the moment the game started the Wizards looked out-coached and outmatched last Saturday night. Learning from the mistakes that the Sounders made the week prior, the Fire collapsed on the only real scoring threat KC has had this year, Davy Arnaud, and did not let him play a ball for more than 2 touched for the first 20 minutes of the game. While managing this, Tim Ward and Gonzalo Segares spent the first half streaking by Matt Beasler and Lance Watson, who did little to contain them; to Beasler’s credit he tried to support the attack from his side, but his passing and chemistry with Claudio Lopez were just not there. With a midfield that could not hold the ball or string enough consecutive passes to keep the pressure off, the Wizards looked lost and the inevitable 1st goal came when Kevin Hartman and Jimmy Conrad clumsily collided when going for a lobbed ball, leaving the goal open for Brian McBride to slot it by both players. Chicago ’s attack continued and a few minutes later a Cuauhtémoc Blanco free kick off a Lopez handball found McBride again, who towered over a slow, unmarking KC defense, to slot a header by Hartman.

At that point I figured on a 4-0 tally, since the Fire wingers were running up and down the field uncontested, Blanco and his teammates swallowed a KC midfield that was absent from the game, leaving no attack that could lead to a comeback. Still, as is the nature of soccer many times, when a team takes a lead like this quickly, it tends to step off the gas, and that is what Chicago did, which let KC to start holding the ball more and stop the possible goal onslaught. Still, increasing control didn’t translate into anything for the Wizards but it kept the score within reach and only a lone shot from Jack Jewsbury let us know that John Busch was actually in goal.

The second half started off with Michael Harrington coming on for Santiago Hirsig who just did not show much of anything during and actually lost a couple of balls in midfield that allowed for Chicago attacks. Although the change gave the Wizards a bit more ball control, the Fire kept up their attack, with shots from Blanco, Thorrington and Nyarko coming close to extending the lead and making Hartman go from the 1st goal villain to the team hero keeping the team in the game. Around the 75th minute the Wizards made 2nd change bringing Michael Kraus into the game for a hard working Watson who was not contributing much to the attacking effort and was being outplayed. Although not a game changing sub, Kraus gave KC another body up front for the Fire defense to look over.

And then it happened: the Wizards, now in a 3-4-3 started gaining some momentum, not because the team was really playing better, but because Chicago got tired of missing sitters and allowing Hartman to thwart their chances. This gave the Wizards some new life. A new life that came in the form of a goal off a nice cross from Lopez (who did not stop running all game) that was knocked in by a streaking Josh Wolff who had been absent from the game until his goal in the 78th minute.

At that point game the Wizards, who had showed very little, suddenly became the aggressors; a shot by Gomez that Busch had trouble controlling and later a long cross by Harrington, missed by Conde and Soumare was tapped in by Wolff for the tie(although I could swear Soumare had the last knock). Chicago ’s last hope for justice was again saved by Hartman who kept out a nice header from sub Justin Mapp.

As the game ended many soccer clichés came to mind; the biggest one: if you let the other team off the hook you will lose. Yes Chicago didn’t lose, but I will bet anything that they left thinking of the 2 points they had just let get away; while the Wizards left the field thinking how lucky they were to have been outplayed for 75 minutes at Toyota Park and come out of it with a tie.

Here are my player ratings for KC: Hartman (7); Lance Watson (4), Jimmy Conrad (5), Aaron Hohlbein (5), Matt Besler (4) Herculez Gomez (6) Jack Jewsbury (5) , Santiago Hirsig (3), Josh Wolff (6), Claudio Lopez, (6) Davy Arnaud (4) , Michael Harrington (6), Michael Kraus(5), Roger Espinoza (5).

Highlights of the game are here.

It was the familiar presence of Josh Wolff that really helped steady things. He was the dominating attacker this team lacked before his arrival a couple of months ago. He basically is what Claudio Lopez isn’t. He drew the penalty that Jewsbury buried to open the scoring. That was all that was needed, as the backline of Jimmy Conrad, Aaron Hohlbein, Tyson Wahl, and Michael Harrington made sure that Toronto didn’t even got a shot on goal. Impressive feat.

To add to the celebration, Kevin Souter came on as a substitute late in the game, and managed to score on a fluke goal (that somehow ended up as a GOTW nominee) for his first MLS goal ever. Next up is a trip out to Los Angeles to take on Chivas USA. They’ll have to take down Chivas lacking regular Jack Jewsbury who picked up his fifth yellow card of the season and be forced to take a seat.

The Galaxy, while soft at the back, have boasted a ferocious attack so far this season. They’ve scored 19 goals in eight games already, and they’ll be facing a KC backline that have performed well so far this season. Captain Jim has done his best to keep a young group defenders on their toes, and combining with some excellent play last week by Hartman, nearly had a clean sheet – which would have been their first since the Chicago game. A clean sheet this week will be no small task, especially with the possible return of Carlos Ruiz. Even Edson Buddle scored a hat trick last week, and if that happens again the Wizards will be in trouble.

While the Galaxy attack doesn’t worry me, the troubling thing has been scoring. Claudio Lopez has emerged as more of a set up man than a finisher, and this hasn’t worked out well so far, as Conrad is the leading scorer. Carlos Marinelli showed what he brings last week, and the Lopez/Marinelli combination should be able to break down a weak LA defense. The only question is, can they outscore LA?

In terms of injuries, the only player still out is Lance Watson. Jonathan Leathers remains over in France with the U-23 team, who lost to Ivory Coast 1-0 yesterday. Leathers didn’t play.

Thoughts and insights from the players below:

MLSnet preview here, Fox Soccer here.

Prediction: I see the Wizards grabbing a couple of goals, but the Galaxy will crack KC more than them. Los Angeles 3, Kansas City 2

A second win in a row will no doubt be important if the Wizards hope to be in a similar spot on the table come July. They’ll benefit from the return of Carlos Marinelli who has missed a couple of weeks with a groin strain. Hard to see how this game will end up, but the offense from the Wizards should be enough to snatch a goal or two, and the recent play of Kevin Hartman and Jimmy Conrad will continue their shut out streak.

Prediction: Kansas City to win 2-0