Peter Vermes = Technical Director: After 3 seasons in this position I feel Vermes has done a less than stellar job. Yes, the hires, drafts and the team depth are done with the coach, but truth be told he should have had the final say. His final say should have been “Nay” when it came to Colombano (who I personally liked), Trujillo, Marinelli, Thompson, and his failure to have a fully competitive team that not only had a stable heavy presence on the field but have a pool of trusted and established set of backup players that could step up and could be worked into the starting lineup.

Truth be told, although he did score some positive points with players like Claudio Lopez and to some extent Santiago Hirsig (Zoltan and Kamara look positive but it’s still too early), and I think KC has a nice pool of young players that at times have stepped up when given a real chance, Vermes as a Technical Director has done a sub-par job and I believe he does not deserve to keep his position. Three years on the job and KC seemed to have peaked in mediocre year one and gone down after that.

John Pascarella = Goalkeeping/Fitness Coach: Although at times it looked like the team was a bit out of gas, fitness was something that seemed to be a strong point for KC. Also, Kevin Hartman looked superb this year keeping the team in games that under normal circumstances should have been losses. He is a definite keep in my book.

Peter Vermes-Coach: I personally don’t like his style and at times it looked like he was slow to react, especially in those games where at the end of the season we needed a win but we still finished playing with 4 or 5 defenders and would either go play 3 defensive midfielders one game and then would play 4 offensive midfielders in another; interesting to say the least but I will acknowledge that it seemed that the team started to respond to his coaching style. I will also say that I believe he lost a great chance at the end of the year to give some younger players a chance to prove their worth and evaluate talent. I won’t buy the “we were still in it” excuse (yes we might have been mathematically alive but there was no way it was going to happen.

If the Front Office wants to give Vermes a shot at a whole season as a coach they need to go look for a capable and experienced Technical Director because very few (in any sport) have done a good job when performing the GM/Coach double duty. I’ll give Vermes the Coach a maybe with a short leash attached to his stint so that if the team does not show a significant turn around I would cut his coaching career short.

Kerry Zavagnin-Assistant Coach: Zavagnin is an interesting case and is someone that I can see as a possible future coach for the Wizards if they prepare him well. I think the first step to prepare him well is to get him out of KC; the FO needs to flex some diplomatic muscle and get Kerry a job as an assistant coach (paid by the Wizards) either in England, Scotland, or Holland for example, so that he can learn from other coaches and assistants and get a feel of how teams in better leagues do things. He knows the MLS, now he needs to know other leagues and systems.

Call it enrichment, call it internship, but the Wizards need to help get Zavagnin prepared if they want to see him as a successful future MLS coach for KC. Add to that the fact that there is a reason that institutions like the military move their Soldiers away to other units when they get promoted up the chain to a position of power; because the line of respect and camaraderie sometimes gets blurred when you are in charge of your ex-peers and as a coach you want that line to be there. If Zavagnin moves out for a few years on some kind of internship it will serve both for his preparation as it will allow for a roster turn over and help avoid any problems.

What’s your take on it? Who should stay, who should go?

The future of Peter Vermes the Technical Director(polls)

Kerry Zavagnin’s future(survey)

Should John Pascarella stay with KC ?(answers)

Peter Vermes as a Coach(answers)

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the game highlights:

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:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

KC will be missing defensive leader and captain Jimmy Conrad, as well as midfielders Davy Arnaud and Roger Espinoza due to Gold Cup call ups, while Kevin Souter will not be available due to injury. The Dynamo also has its share of vacancies in the starting lineup, missing Brian Ching, Stuart Holden and Andrew Hainault because of the Gold Cup, while Wade Barret, Eddie Robinson, and Craig Waibel are out injured; Ricardo Clark missed his US Cup game due to personal reasons and I am unsure of his availability.

It will be a scrappy battle for tired teams who just got off playing US Cup games and, who after Saturday’s match will again continue to play for the Cup midweek. I do wonder how much offense will be generated from teams that regardless of their mid week results have struggled to score recently and are missing key offensive players such as Ching and Arnaud.

I really can’t predict what the KC lineup might look like with the defense having been exposed against Santos last Sunday and with a midfield that could not contain the fast passing Mexican team. Some posters and bloggers have suggested moving Matt Besler to his more natural center back position instead of struggling Rauwshan McKenzie and slotting Michael Harrington to his natural left back position instead of continuing to place him in the right side of the midfield where he has produced some terrible performances. Also the attacking midfield could see either Kurt Morsink or Graham Zusi there if Harrington does move back to defense. The Morsink/Hirsig midfield does have the interesting option of having them rotate the d-mid position so that Hirsig can move forward and do some more vertical passing like he did in his first game vs. Toronto where he got an assist.

Coach Onalfo might consider Houston’s weakened attack and leave Hohlbein with McKenzie in the middle hoping that they can control the dangerous and speedy Kamara but if Vuoso from Santos gave us fits a faster Kamara could spell trouble. I expect this to be a low scoring affair with either a tie or KC winning by one.

I’m going to throw out 2 possible lineups today:

Hartman
Watson—Hohlbein—McKenzie—Besler
Jewsbury—Hirsig—Morsink/Zusi—Gomez
Wolff—Lopez

OR

Hartman
Watson—Hohlbein—Besler—Harrington
Jewsbury—Hirsig—Morsink/Zusi—Gomez
Wolff—Lopez

KC-2 (Lopez, Wolff)
HOU- 1 (Kamara)

On a side note: Not much going on this holiday weekend and looking to watch a classic movie? Here’s the trailer to one of my favorites; the one and only original Die Hard. If you haven’t seen it (where have you been?) you have to watch it; if you have, watch it again, you can’t get tired of watching John McClaine kill terrorists.

Have a great 4th of July weekend and always keep our guys in gals in the military serving throughout the world in your prayers this Independence Day and every day.

By the time the game kicked off the Wizards knew that a tie would get them into the next round since New England had beat Atlas. One would expect a more ball controlling, possession style game from KC so as to force Santos to open up and look for the goal; in other words, control the tempo, avoid the mistakes and take advantage of the openings Santos was leaving. Well, I can say without a doubt that it didn’t happen that way. A punchless KC could not hold the ball, just had a few REAL chances to score and if the soccer gods were fair, would have ended the game with 5 or 6 goals against them. A Hercules Gomez shot and a Jack Jewsbury header were the only real threat that the Santos goal faced, while poor Kevin Hartman was getting peppered with shots clanging off his goal posts (twice), multiple saves and close calls; all in all not a very inspiring half of football for the Wizards.

The backbreaker for KC was losing Jimmy Conrad to an injury right before the half and putting pressure on an inexperienced Rauwshan Mckenzie to try and hold back the Santos attack that Conrad himself struggled to do while in the game. As the half ended I was hoping that KC was going to strengthen the midfield so as to control the game a bit more, keeping in mind the score was tied and all KC needed was a tie. Regardless of what Coach Onalfo wanted to do, it was clear that his defense had weakened and the constant loss of possession was going to put the line under more pressure.

The change that took place was for a midfielder, but not someone that holds the midfield but for an attacking mid. Onalfo pulled out Lance Watson from the right back position, mover Jewsbury there and then plugged in Davy Arnaud as an attacking mid. That might have brought a bit more offense, but it left the middle of the field wide open for Santos to move the ball; and move it they did, missing at least 3 scoring opportunities. Neither Arnaud nor a lackluster Santiago Hirsig could control the onslaught and soon enough in the 61st minute Santos opened the scoring through the 4 lane wide gap that was the Wizards defense.

In response to that 3 minutes later Onalfo brought in Michael Harrington into the midfield for Aaron Hohlbein, KC’s most experienced defender on the field at that time (Jewsbury is a mid); the though of what was to come made me cringe since now KC was in a 3-5-2 or 3-4-3 (wherever you want to put Arnaud) against a team they could not stop with 4 defenders let alone 3. Add to that the fact that last week’s performance proves that Harrington is in a slump and needs a long time on the bench to either resort things in his head or wait for Lance Watson to give him back his spot at right back since he continues to struggle as a midfielder.

Santos’ answer to this change, another goal, this time from a counter after Roger Espinoza did not get a foul call where Santos brought the ball quickly and allowed Mares to cross a nice floater towards Matias Vuoso who just physically abused Matt Besler going over him and leaving Hartman with no chance; 2-0. Down by two KC now pulled Hercules Gomez and brought in Michael Kraus to try and salvage something, but little came of it, and it wasn’t until Arnaud was fouled on a run towards goal that Claudio Lopez to buried the free kick to bring KC closer.

The Wizards continued to pressure trying to find an equalizer but missed on 2 clear chances: first Espinoza was able to get a shot off that hit the post and then in stoppage time a nice cross by Harrington sprung Hirsig free but alone vs. the Santos keeper he got off a very weak shot. Off this last play Santos counterattacked again and scored their 3rd and final goal. A bad loss that sees the Wizards Superliga run come to an end.

Player Ratings: Kevin Hartman(6), Lance Watson (5), Jimmy Conrad (4), Aaron Hohlbein (5) , Matt Besler (4), Herculez Gomez (5) , Santiago Hirsig (3), Jack Jewsbury (5), Roger Espinoza (5), Josh Wolff (34), Claudio Lopez (6); Subs: Davy Arnaud (4), Rauwshan McKenzie (3), Michael Harrington (3) Michael Kraus (1)

Players of the Game: Claudio Lopez & Kevin Hartman: Most of KC’s attacks came from of through Lopez’s feet; he sometimes makes shooting/passing decisions that make me scratch my head but he’ll make up for it a play later with a nice pass or a good play. In Hartman’s case, the man saved KC from finishing the game 5 or 6 goals down; enough said.

Commentary: A few weeks ago I had commented that KC seemed to play the same system regardless of the situation or the team and although there have been arguments to the contrary, this game in my mind proved this. I understand the idea of trying to win a game, but when a tie is all you need I believe that more possession oriented game plan should be used in search of the win. Instead KC, when not able to cross midfield passing the ball then went ahead and started launching long passes which most of the time gave Santos back possession of the ball. I think that when the offense is suffering as it really did for these Superliga games (2 goals: 1 own goal and 1 free kick) possession becomes the key and KC did not possess the ball.

I also don’t understand the insistence in playing Michael Harrington at midfielder. First of all he’s a natural defender, and secondly he is in a horrible slump where he’ll make one good cross (the one Hirsig missed) out of 5 or will get flustered and give away the ball too easily (like he did a couple of times at the end of the game). The Michael Kraus sub also makes me scratch my head since he only provides effort to the attack but little physical presence (he’s done next to nothing after that goal in Colorado); I know Thompson is also in a slump but he does open spaces as a big body.

All in all the Superliga was a super embarrassment. We tied a preseason Atlas team; tied an injury ravage New England team (with an own goal); and lost against a preseason Santos team in a game that if things in soccer were always fair would have ended 7-3. Now KC is going to US Cup play and back to MLS play with holes in the defense and midfield and in a position that if things go badly could see them fall out of contention very quickly.

I know I don’t make the lineup but I would love to see Jewsbury as a central defender on Saturday against Houston; yes we will miss the push forward, but he knows how to defend and can help organize a very young defense; that is if he isn’t too tired from playing every single Superliga game.

On the Referee: Typical CONCACAF mediocre refs. He hurt both teams, but the linesman on the bench side was horrible on his offside call. With a $ 1 million purse one would hope that at least for the international matched the could get better refs.

Here are the highlights:

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.