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).

There are just a long list of decisions and statistics coming from Onalfo that lead me to believe that he is not the right coach for the Wizards. I’ve come up with a summarized, not all inclusive list, which details some of my gripes:

1. In his third year Onalfo still has not been able to come up with a “stable”, constant group of players. His lineup changes (at time drastic) are result driven and are very predictable. If he wins he will play the same team, again; same tactic again until he loses, regardless of if it’s at home or on the road. In other words Onalfo plays the result and forgets about the tactics that his team uses vs. a certain rival; or if the team actually looked good (i.e: the same team that “earned” a 1-0 win vs. a ten man Red Bulls team on a 2nd minute penalty where the team was horrible, got to start the next game against DC United in what was another bad game). On the flip side he will make 2 or more changes when he loses, regardless of how the team played and who or what lead the team to the loss. Granted, Onalfo isn’t Pep Guardiola, but I can’t remember Barcelona taking about a 1/3 of the team off after a loss. I’ve always believed in continuity and that is never achieved when players, especially young ones are afraid of losing their spot for making mistakes when taking risks. I would not be surprised that next Saturday rookie Matt Besler loses his job as left back for giving up a penalty. Similar situations occurred with Aaron Holhbein, Tyson Wahl and Kurt Morsink last year after “mistakes” lead to goals.

2. Too many “fan favorites” get a pass. In 2007 it was Eddie Johnson who could do no wrong. In 2008 and 2009 Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury will not lose their starting spot for anything they do. All these players have been crowd favorites and front office money makers and are penciled in week in and week out. After a torrid start in 2007 Johnson cooled off significantly and showed what some thought to be a poor effort, too the point where some people thought he was a lazy player; regardless of that he played every game and Onalfo did not sit him on the bench. This year Davy Arnaud had a great start, but has been less than mediocre in the last 10 games; games where he started and completed where all he showed was effort but little quality. Jewsbury, like Arnaud had a good start but has steadily declined in productivity, to the point where he was responsible for the game tying goal for LA 2 weeks ago; he made a mistake that has cost other players their starting role. To his credit Onalfo did sit Claudio Lopez down last year for a few games, but I actually believe that it was done to rest him at the end of last year more than because he went through a spell of bad games.

3. The Wizards rely too much on their international players and will play them until they either are proven to be complete failures, or until the fans expect so little that even mediocre play from one of them now draws applause. Marinelli, Trujillo, Colombano, Lopez, Hirsig; of these 5 players in the Onalfo era only Lopez has proven that he belongs in the field over some of our other “local” talent. Hirsig has had his good games but he has not proven to be the superstar we were promised; he surprised the MLS in his first couple of games, but now MLS players and coaches have figured out that he rarely plays a one touch ball so they now collapse on him and close his passing lanes. Those great passes we saw in the first 2 games have been missing for a while and he has actually lost balls that have led to 2 opponent’s goals this year; add to that the fact that lately he will drop at the slightest touch from the opponent; this has him as one of the MLS leaders of fouls received, but at the same time refs are catching up and call a foul only about half the time (last Saturday he lost 5 balls where he hit the ground trying to draw the foul and the ref just let the game go on). Regardless of their individual play the Onalfo/Vermes camp seems to want to play these players as much as possible hoping that they either come out of their slump, produce something positive, or at least log enough minutes with them so that they can justify sending them home after an unsuccessful season where “they could not adapt to MLS style of football”, i.e. Marinelli, Colombano and Trujillo. I will mention that once these international players lose favor with Onalfo they will rarely see the field, regardless of how well they do with the Reserve team of how bad the guy in their position is (Trujillo).

4. Onalfo the decision maker makes me scratch my head a lot during games and makes me wonder what he was thinking. Let me illustrate this with a few examples. Last year in the playoffs at home vs. the Crew the Wizards were up 1-0 and had Gomez ejected; with 15 minutes left and clinging to this slim lead that would be important to keep for the 2nd leg of the playoffs, Onalfo never flinched and never though about pulling a forward to reinforce a weekened midfield; the result C-bus tied, took a 1-1 game home for the 2nd leg and eliminated the Wizards. That second game brought on another Onalfo decision that made scratch my head; in a playoff game, down 1-0 Onalfo goes with Michael Kraus as a substitute for Abe Thompson; Kraus who had not played 1 MLS minute was thrown into a playoff game (vs. big man Ivan Trujillo); less than 20 minutes later he pulled Roger Espinoza out for Matt Marquess, a left back that started 4 games during the season. Things that make you go HMMM. Add to these last Saturday’s decision, when losing by one goal he pulled an attacking midfielder for a forward when he was a man up and the Crew only had Barros up top. Oh boy! Like these decisions there are many others that go against what one could consider as logical and that sadly have not really panned out.

5. Let me throw this stat out there. Onalfo predicates fast “exciting football” but the Wizards have only 1 win with a 3 goal difference over their opponent. Opening day vs. Toronto in 2007. Curt, nail biting and exciting are not the same in soccer.

(To be continued, yes there are more things I have to say)

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

That was in the 59th minute. Prior to that it was all LA with the exception of a Davy Arnaud shot that was stopped by Donovan Ricketts’ chin/chest. The Galaxy took the game to KC, that was missing regular starters Santiago Hirsig and Josh Wolff. Curt Onalfo countered by making a mess of his starting lineup moving Jack Jewsbury from the A-Mid position, where he was doing a good job in the past few games, back to the D-mid position; bringing in Kevin Souter on the left for Roger Espinoza, Michael Harrington moved to right of the midfield and Hercules Gomez was in for suspended Josh Wolff up front

From the beginning it was clear that KC was being outmatched in all lines and had Alan Gordon not done his best impression of Toronto’s Chad Barrett, missing chance after chance, LA would have finished the first half with a comfortable lead. The LA midfield suffocated a KC line that had not punch moving forward, since Jewsbury had been moved back, Arnaud was being collapsed on by the Galaxy midfielders when he tried to run with the ball, Souter, although penciled in the lineup was absent, and Michael Harrington proved once and for all that he is in a serious slump, rarely being able to make a pass to someone on the KC team. Thanks again to man of the match Kevin Hartman, the crossbar and Alan Gordon, the game was still tied at half time. KC was outplayed at all lines, and again both the right and left side defenders were abused by the LA attack; clear example of this was the shot on the post where a long ball from the midfield caught Lance Watson in with the central defenders, allowing Eddie Lewis a clean unobstructed cross to Gordon who missed a sitter. Coach Onalfo, Watson is not a defender so please keep him off the field.

The Second half started as the first had ended. With KC on the ropes while LA ran up and down the field but with little to show for it. But again, poor Bruce Arena, when his team was playing at its best Mr. Berhalter was slow to react and was forced to pull Lopez by his shorts and/or shirt to stop him from going in against Ricketts. Red card and gone. LA had to play the last half an hour with 10 men.

Right after the ejection Onalfo saw an opportunity to move forward and try to win the game so he brought in Espinoza and rookie Graham Zusi to bolster the offense for the Harrington and Souter (yes he was playing). First of all, Zusi? Really? I understand the Espinoza change but Zusi has shown very little and true to form brought nothing to the game. Instead of bringing in a midfielder like Kurt Morsink that can pass the ball and allow Jewsbury to move forward and be effective and moving either Arnaud or Gomez to the right, Onalfo brought in a rookie who had not played since week 2. Still, his other sub, Roger Espinoza was able to track down a long pass on the left side of the LA box and get a nice cross to Hercules Gomez who made a mess of his header towards goal that ended up as a wide shot and was redirected by a trailing Davy Arnaud to open the scoring.

Before that Kevin Hartman, Alan Gordon and the post continued to keep the game scoreless, even with one less player. The goal in the 84th minute looked to give KC a nice, yet undeserved, away win to make up for the 9 player Chivas game the week before, but that was not the case. A silly Jewsbury turnover on the KC side of midfield let Landon Donovan place a nice cross for sub Edson Buddle (who came in for Gordon), who unmarked, due to Watson’s absence on the right side, slid the ball past Hartman from the right side of the KC box. A tie and the end of the game.

Player Ratings - Hartman 7, Watson 3, Conrad 5, Hohlbein 5, Besler 5, Arnaud 6, Jewsbury 4, Harrington 2, Souter 3, Gomez 4, Lopez 5. Subs Espinoza 6, Zusi 4, Thompson N/A

Man of the Match: Kevin Hartman again. The save he made off a Chris Klein shot in the second half has to be one of the best saves this year. Thanks to him and the inability of LA to score let KC leave LA with one point.

Commentary: I still fail to understand the “tactical” planning and way of thinking that Curt Onalfo uses for some of his games. So you lose a forward and a holding mid. I believe you have a forward, and a physical one at that, on the bench (Abe Thompson) and you have an experienced holding midfielder (Kurt Morsink) that can take Hirsig’s spot without sacrificing your best midfielder (Jewsbury) to a position where is less effective. Did Espinoza play that badly against Chivas that he deserved to be benched for a player who has not seen the field all year and has not been that impressive since coming to KC anyway? I don’t think so.

I am still trying to figure out what our system is week by week but whatever it may be the constant experiments need to end. Also, am I the only one starting to worry about how bad Michael Harrington is playing (granted he’s not starting, lost his spot due to injury and is slotted into different places in the midfield each game); it seems to me that his shine coming out of college is starting to show the wear and tear of the Onalfo system of player development.

KC was lucky to leave with one point; we deserved none but should have done better a man up and gotten 3.

By the way, I am quick to criticize refs when they screw up, I will give kudos to Terry Vaughn (Terriblon for those in Costa Rica) who had a good game and was quick to keep the game under control when it got a bit chippy.

Next up: Columbus.

Here are the highlights of the game. You have to love the Hartman save on the Klein shot.

Another soft goal was conceded in the 34th minute, as Chance Myers and Kevin Hartman had a miscommunication just outside the box. Myers looked like he was trying to shield his man, Robbie Rogers off the ball so Hartman could grab it, but Hartman couldn’t get to it in time and Rogers poked it in. So the Wizards faced an uphill battle, compounded by a red mist moment by Roger Espinoza. He lashed out with his elbow at Frankie Hejduk and landed a shot to Hejduk’s face. The ref had an easy call giving Espinoza his marching orders.

The Wizards were the better team in the second half, although it wasn’t until Carlos Marinelli made a substitute appearance and helped spark the offense. In the 79th minute, Scott Sealy (another substitution) was pulled down in the box and Claudio Lopez calmly finished from the spot. Unfortunately, the Wizards couldn’t steal a point in the last 10 minutes.

The coach was proud of how his team responded to adversity. Disappointing to concede soft goals like that, but in the end, defense will continue to be key. It would also have been nice not to be down to 10 men, but what happens, happens.

Going forward, there were more than a few positives. The team had a positive reaction to the adversity of being down a man, and showed composure scoring. Lopez continues to play well, and despite not exactly lighting up the score sheet, his passing and skill automatically make the Wizards a better team.

Next Opponent:
The Wizards don’t play again until May 17, as they will next travel to face the New York Red Bull who drew 1-1 at Toronto. Time to step up and bring the losing streak to a halt.

Finally, the highlights:

Last night was an indication of what could happen if they underperform. It wasn’t a bad showing, but nothing stood out. The first goal given up, an own goal off the foot of Jack Jewsbury. And to be honest, it was a freak goal. Jewsbury was trying to clear and it flicked off of Tyson Wahl’s head onto Jewsbury’s shin and ended in the net. The Wizards looked to rebound quickly, and when Kurt Morsink was felled in the box, Jewsbury was given the chance to atone for his sin and leveled the score at one.

From there, the rest of the first half was all New England. Jimmy Conrad was beaten down the left side by Khano Smith who crossed it in front of two Wizard defenders to Sainey Nyassi who punched it in. Another set piece in the 40th minute then led to the death blow, and it was 3-1 at the half. The defense on both occasions faltered mightily, unable to simply clear that ball from danger. But the offense didn’t bail them out in the second half.

The fight the Wizards showed during the final 45 was lively and inspired, but the Wizards touch in the final third of the field betrayed them to defeat. Chance Myers and Roger Espinoza, both picks in the SuperDraft (stupid name) made their debuts respectively. Myers looks like he’ll be a starter soon enough; he had some nice runs down the left side, but his crossing can use some work. He’s a real big kid too and should become a formidable force on the wing.

Highlights/lowlights:

Next Opponent:
Houston comes to town still looking for their first win of the season. They were spanked by the Revs 3-0 during opening weekend. Wizards look to restart their winning ways.