I’m glad Matt is getting that chance to prove what he can give to the team. I know there are naysayers who love the “status quo” and cannot live without their dose of Arnaud, Jewsbury and Josh Wolff, that will probably be teary eyed with the idea of playing Matt, but I to them I can only show the miserable season that we’ve had playing the “idols”, so I suggest you suck it up for a game. Not that I expect him to outshine others since he’s had only a few starts, which could lead to some newbie jitters, but I do hope he has a solid game. I’m sure any mistake he makes will be magnified by many but SO WHAT! our season sucked and giving a guy like that a shot, even when it’s a “forced change” that I’m sure Vermes hates doing, is, in my book, a good thing.

I would have also love to see a bit more of Kei Kamara to see what he can bring to KC, but his lack of playing time would suggest he probably won’t be here next year. Would it kill Vermes to play Kamara and Zoltan together? It appears so. I just hope our new coach and T.D. will have a chance to fix this mess he has helped create.

So the lineup will probably be the same with Marquess for Harrington being the only change. I expect DC to come in hard and fast and pressure the KC midfield that hasn’t been able to hold anything recently. I do believe if results in other games go unfavorably for DC (i.e. TOR, DAL or COL ) they might get desperate and push forward too much that could open up spaces for KC to possibly score.

I see a season ending tie 2-2 with KC, even with “inexperienced reserves” Zusi and Marquess on the field.

Also worth mentioning is the fact that I can only hope that the Front Office and the employees in charge of directing security near and around the Cauldron to show some more common sense for this game than what they had for the Seattle game. Giving fans streamers and then complaining about how and where they are thrown by having a new and unannounced zero-tolerance policy and kicking people out for throwing them seems stupid. It reminds me of the bank commercial where the kid gets a bike but can’t pedal it out of the small square. It makes no sense at all.

With higher hopes for next year, my suggestion to OnGoal on what to do with the team and the FO next year is:

Starting with the FO.

A boring first half where it seemed that Seattle had the run of things generating more chances and completely dominating our midfield. Lopez and Zusi helped KC move forward, but it just seemed that we were physically pushed around by a bigger, more compact Sounders team. During one of their advances they were able to produce a corner off Hartman’s right side; the cross came in low and no one was placed on the near post, allowing the rebound to be knocked in through the position normally occupied by the shortest guy on the field (from later corners it seemed to be Zusi). Whatever the reason for not having someone there it was either the specific player’s fault or Hartman’s for not physically placing someone there; Mistake #1. Still, at the end of the half the game was pretty balanced and KC was generating a few chances.

The second half started with KC on the attack using both Michael Harrington and sub Chance Myers (in for an ineffective Leathers) off the wings (Wow, did Myers seem comfortable back there or what? so much for playing him in the middle; it reminds me of another coach who playerd one of his back out of position for most of the season… I’m sure it will come to me).

The tie came off a pretty bad Harrington shot on goal that just crossed the box and was redirected in by a streaking Zoltan who came in from behind Leo Gonzalez. KC kept up the pressure and a few minutes later they took the lead when Davy Arnaud skipped a poor cross from the right side that no Sounders defender cleared (and at least one missed), which allowed Josh Wolff to knock the ball in past Cassey Keller.

Although leading, KC could not hold the midfield and the Sounders’ attack kept pressuring the backline. Another corner kick brought the tying goal when the cross came to the near post, Hartman missed the punch-out, leaving the goal open for Roger Levesque to knock it in easily (Mistake #2). A few minutes later came another KC mistake, this time by Matt Besler who got outsmarted and outmuscled by Freddie Ljungberg on a ball that should have been cleared (Mistake #3) near the KC box. Ljungberg stole the ball and fed Nate Jacqua for an easy goal.

The story of our season in a nutshell; 3 plays we gave away, 3 goals.

Commentary: I was impressed with rookie Graham Zusi who, with Zoltan, was one of the best Wizards on the field (interesting that the KC mls website has Besler on the POTG poll, even with his huge mistake, and did not Zusi; I guess I must have watched a different game; that and of course the fact that Zusi is not from the KC area). It seems that playing a few games as a starter has Zusi’s confidence. His understanding with Lopez seems to be growing, although with Arnaud and Jewsbury he did seem out of sync which may not be his fault after all. (I’m anticipating hate e-mails from people wearing their blue tinted glasses and for whom these 2 players can do no wrong ).

Too bad Zoltan didn’t get a start with Kamara. I guess Vermes will stay with his boy Wolff who again scored but overall has been doing pretty poorly in the last few games. It would be nice to see Kamara so he can show us what he has and if he’s worth the money he’ll be looking for next year. Oh well, I can only hope our new coach (and our new Technical Director? need to remember to include that on my Xmas list this year) will have some MLS coaching experience and have a better eye at evaluating talent than our current one.

By the way, I know Seattle won, but Freddie Montero was horrible; he missed 2 EASY sitters in the second half. I know he’s good (he’s shown it most of the year) but I wonder if trying to get some payback for “Punk-Gate” weighted a bit too heavy on his little frame. Also I would love to know what the deal is with Cassey Keller’s anger, the guy was really going at it with the ref, the linesman, and even Kei Kamara. He needs to chill and double up on the Metamusil before the game because anger like that MUST be derived from constipation and bowel irregularity. Still, you can’t deny the guy still has it as a keeper and a leader.

I have no highlights yet but they will be posted when available.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Although we are not mathematically eliminated, only a complete debacle by the teams in front of us and a sudden resurgence of our team would get us through. (OK, not going to happen). This brings up the point of what we should do with these last 2 home games. Keep the mediocrity and try to bust the slump some of the players are in (hey, one more week might do the trick, right?), or use the friendly venue to give some others a shot.

I personally think Zusi did an OK job on Saturday, not any worse than Arnaud (OK, here come all the comments from the ones with the Arnaud blinders). I’d love to see Zoltan in for Wolff, who again got a bloody nose and who is in the scoring drought part of his up and down season. Will this happen? No, because the coach is also wearing his own blinders hoping that all these players he has been partly responsible for bringing in and giving to Curt Onalfo to use (and now having to use himself) will somehow magically show us all their talent. It just seems that it’s his last ditch effort to justify what he has done.

That actually is kind of sad since when the season comes to a close and the cutting needs to start most of the players leaving will be those who never got that chance. Yes, Yes, some have said that those reserve games have shown us who is good and who isn’t. For me that’s a bunch of crap. Players play to the level around them and playing college teams might be good exercise but the only ones really getting the learning are the…(wait for it…) college teams. And judging some of those players on the one or two games they get to play in with no regularity is actually meaningless. Like someone mentioned in another post, the best goals I’ve seen from the Reserves came from players who aren’t starters and I’ve seen a couple of college players make a few of the starters look foolish. Should we go ahead and sign the kid that was able to dribble through Jimmy Conrad? Giving so much credit to these reserve games to judge quality is absurd; unless we actually play teams that are better than us; KC Brass, UMKC, etc, not the case. Two word: Ryan Pore, need I say more?

In my book you judge these players when they are asked to play at that higher level. If players aren’t given that chance at the higher level they don’t get the chance to succeed. Case and point Ricardo Clark for example who I’ve never seen as a great player IN HOUSTON, but when asked to step up with the USNT, at a different level, he has shown that quality that makes him a good mid with a foot in Europe at the end of the season. The same goes for other players who although have a normal or good level in the MLS but seem to step up when asked to do more. I’m not saying we have superstars on our bench, but I do think we have some serviceable ones who might be able to step up and do an OK job when they get on the field filling in for a starter if it’s not their first time in a meaningful game.

So we lose against that “punk” Montero (that one’s for Coach Onalfo), or against DC; so what? there’s nothing on the line. Pride? Really?

I’ll take losing with a new lineup now, than over losing again like we did against Santos, where Jimmy Conrad got hurt and the guy that came in had few or no minutes and got schooled by the Mexican forwards.

I believe in moral victories but beating Seattle and DC would not even be that (that is, if we actually were able to muster the offensive power to do so).

Oh well, I’m sure Peter Vermes has though about the good of the team next year and setting up the next guy for success instead of trying to justify his job and escape failure. The more he coaches the less the blame scale tips against Onalfo and his time coaching with the hand he was dealt. He’s not blameless but he’s sure as hell not the only one to blame.

Since we didn’t see any KC goals last weekend I leave you with a few of my favorite ones. Enjoy.

KC seemed to dominate a lot of the run of play on Sunday but it translated into absolutely nothing. A Kamara shot off the post (which isn’t considered a shot on goal) and Zoltan’s goal were the only dangerous plays that translated into something. Meanwhile, Brian Mullan and a 10 men Dynamo squad managed the game as they needed to, and actually took the lead when Mullan danced around Michael Harrington for what seemed to be hours before sending a cross from the right side that was missed by at least 3 KC defenders before Luis Angel Landin just tapped it in for the lead. Landin, who Jonathan Leathers forgot existed, scored his first MLS goal.

KC continued to move the ball but with little success against the 10 man Houston. We had little attacking power, where Josh Wolff looked his age, and Kamara looked alone up front. Add to that the fact that “The Coach” still has a man crush on Davy Arnaud and Jack Jewsbury who are in line to the “where are they now” award since their real selves have not been sighted since around week 8 of this season. They have had poor form, have contributed little, and at this point I see them as players taking a spot from youngsters that cannot do any worse. Maybe the time off will do them good and will lead to a better 2010.

Back to the game: In the 73rd minute a very nice cross from Lopez to Zoltan (who will not stop running while on the field) finally ended in the equalizer, which still “keeps us in the playoff hunt”, as some MLS writer I’m sure will make note of. The truth being that the slight glimmer of hope that was left from last week has now been extinguished, and we can now start looking towards 2010. Also, I don’t know about you guys, but the fact that we have “a 4 game unbeaten streak” as the KC Wizards website says, really does not make me feel any better about missing the playoffs; of course I could be suffering from the “glass half empty” syndrome but who could blame me at this point in the season.

It’s noteworthy to mention that Vermes again brought Chance Myers into the game for a brief appearance that reminded me why I think “Ryan Leaf” when I see him, since it appears that he has also lost the power to make semi-decent crosses (passes?), which in my book was all Vermes was asking for when he started using him a few weeks back. We also saw a glimpse of Roger Espinoza on the bench, which quashed the rumors of him running away from KC, while we still have no news on why, steady starter Hercules Gomez did not make the trip to Houston. Three defenders, 2 midfielders, and one forward on our bench; good to see we were going all out to win this game.

Here’s a suggestion, since it’s over, why don’t we play Kamara and Zoltan up front and use a couple of youngsters in the middle and give that a try. Will we really miss Arnaud, Jewsbury and Wolff that much? Wolff hasn’t scored in 2 games so probably his hot streak has come to an end again and it will take him about 6 or 7 games to get on another one so just for fun let’s see a change.

All in all we tied a game we should have won leaving 3 games in this disaster of a season. All I can hope from On Goal is that they actually shed some dead weight from the team and maybe start by getting someone in the front office that can make some good player-personnel decisions, because, honestly Peter Vermes is not the man. I know he’s well liked here in KC, I know he won a title here in KC, but that means nothing when it comes for finding talent and running a team, and his 3 years here and the players he has brought in prove that. Hey, if those were the only creditials to get a front office job imagine all the players the Yankees would have working with GM Brian Cashman.

While 2007 was a year to remember, 2009 is a year to forget. But lets face it, this is KC, where Chief’s GM Carl Peterson was finally fired after stinking up the place for years, and the Royals are the Royals; do I really expect that On Goal, a business with few soccer people at the head, will fire their top soccer man after this season? The answer is no. Too bad though, since the mess that we are in is mostly Vermes’ fault because his stint as a coach has proven that Curt Onalfo really didn’t have that much to work with.

No highlight available. Sorry.

The night started with the Wizards trying to win their first game at home since June 12th (yes, a 3 month drought, including Superliga). They came on to the field playing 4 in the back, 2 in the holding midfield, 2 in the attacking mid at the wings and 2 up top. By the 10th minute KC seemed to be controlling the game and was already up with a Santiago Hirsig goal off a Lopez corner. Dallas quickly figured out that their attacks through the middle would run into the double team of Hirsig and Morsink, so they decided to go after KC’s more vulnerable wings, where Lopez and Gomez, although primed for the attack, bring little if any, defensive help.

Still, as the half came to a close, the game had gotten pretty even, with KC giving up some of its attacking control by relying too much on the Hartman and Conrad long ball. In the 44th minute Jimmy Conrad decided that it was the right time to play one of his first passes up the middle to Santiago Hirsig, but left his try short, giving Dax McCarthy a running start to come in unmarked and shoot from outside the box, beating Hartman and ending the half with a tie.

The second half brought Kei Kamara to the field for Gomez and dropped a very ineffective Arnaud to his midfield position. On the 54th minute, as KC started to put more pressure on Dallas, a long ball that should have been cleared turned into an adventure for Conrad again as he tried to dribble it out and got dispossessed by David Ferreira who ran into the box and set up an easy finish for Jeff Cunningham’s fifth goal against KC this year.

Peter Vermes at that point decided to sacrifice defense for attack by bringing in Graham Zusi for Kurt Morsink and a few minutes later Zoltan for Arnaud. Zoltan paid dividends right away as he volleyed a Lopez corner back on goal, where Josh Wolff back healed it in for the tie. With the score tied it seemed that both teams gave up marking and defense for attacking soccer. During this back and forth across the field, a Claudio Lopez low cross was re-directed by George John onto his own goal forcing a great save by Dario Sala to keep the ball out, but leaving it close enough for Jimmy Conrad to dive in and put KC ahead.

The last 10 minutes where a bit stressful for the KC faithful since the very offensive team on the field now had to hold off the brunt of the Dallas attack, with players like Lopez and Zusi, great for the offense, became little help when it came to stopping the Dallas attack. At the end, the KC defense and a couple of nice stops by Kevin Hartman kept the score 3-2 and gave the KC faithful another weekend where they can waive the “We Believe” banner out in the stands.

Player of the Game: Lopez. He was involved in every goal; granted 50% of his passes it seems are made with his eyes closed, the other 50% are on the money.

Ratings:

Kansas City Wizards — Kevin Hartman (7) Jonathan Leathers (6), Matt Besler (6), Jimmy Conrad (5), Michael Harrington (5), Herculez Gomez (5) (Kei Kamara (6)), Santiago Hirsig (7), Kurt Morsink (6) (Graham Zusi (6)), Claudio Lopez (7), Davy Arnaud (4), (Zoltan Hercegfalvi (6)), Josh Wolff (6).

On the ref: Nice work by the second year man for this game. I will say that the McCarthy yellow for lifting his shirt was a bit harsh since he really didn’t take it off, but oh well.

Next Up: The Rapids. I would like to see a similar lineup for the next game but with Kamara up top with Wolff and someone else taking Arnaud’s spot. He is not himself and hasn’t been at all good for the last 3 months. He either needs some time off or a stint on the bench. I know that Vermes (and Onalfo during his stint) rarely pull out the fan favorites Jewsbury and Arnaud, but they have not been playing their best soccer, and maybe a Zoltan sighting on the right wing could be a nice change.

Here are the highlights:

The Red Bulls are on a 2 game winning streak and playing pretty well after the departure of Coach Juan Carlos Osorio. KC on the other hand will be missing rookie Matt Bessler (due to card accumulation) and recent Peter Vermes pet project Chance Myers (red card) whom he has brought in to every game as a sub since he has been healthy. The Bessler suspension will probably bring Aaron Hohlbein back to the lineup to pair up with Jimmy Conrad, while Myers being out should allow Herculez Gomez a few more minutes on the pitch before the token sub that Vermes makes.

I’ve also heard that Jack Jewsbury will be out for this game but I have not been able to confirm that on the MLS website; if that’s the case we’d probably see Kurt Morsink or Graham Zusi come in his place.

I see this one as a tough match. The RB players are really playing hard for their new coach, while KC’s coaching change hasn’t had that same result. Hopefully will score a few goal on Saturday, and not let NY get any closer in the battle to avoid Eastern Conference futility.

My prediction:
KC-1 / NY-1

I did watch the game against NE but did not really get overly excited because KC really needed to get a streak going after the string of goaless games before one could cheer wholeheartedly and think about a turn around. Against DC we again forgot about scoring and got caught looking at the ball during our opponent’s goal, which led to another loss.

KC on Wednesday started moving the ball well against a sluggish and slow DC team that gave Claudio Lopez a lot of room to roam the left side of the field. His runs generated a lot of chances that KC attackers could not put in goal time and time again. DC then started to come out of its shell using Chris Pontius on the left side and giving the KC defense something to worry about. Still, KC had the brunt of the chances.

On the 39th minute a short corner found KC napping which resulted in a short cross to Bryan Namoff who beat a slow to react Hirsig, redirecting the ball to the back post, where Pontius dove in for the header that went off the post and right to Luciano Emilio who just blasted it in from in front of the goal. Kind of a pinball type goal, but well played while most of the KC players looked on.

KC tried to react but just could not do much. An interesting group of changes from Peter Vermes really didn’t help; he pulled a dangerous Herculez Gomez for Chance Myers who basically managed to do what he’s been doing since coming back into games: cross the ball into the box time and time again and then added to that getting ejected on a stupid play. Vermes also brought in Zoltan for a HUGELY ineffective Davy Arnaud who should earn a stint on the bench after missing 3 sitters and then a timid Graham Zusi in the last 10 minutes of the game. I like Zoltan, but playing a goal down and trying to salvage the playoffs would it kill him to play 3 forwards (I know Lopez was there but he was on the wing)? What is there to lose?

At the end KC fell short and the playoff train seems uncatchable. Peter Vermes still hopes to reverse the trend, but with this team he’s fielding I seriously doubt it. Unless our last 7 games are against a 10 player New England team that spots us an own goal it’s just not going to happen.

Player of the Game: Lopez

Goat of the Game: Arnaud

On the ref: I really don’t like Terry Vaughn as a ref. He makes the game choppy by not allowing players to play fluidly and letting them play on more; hopefully his style won’t get him killed when he goes somewhere in Central America to ref a game and he makes a mess of things. There’s a reason he’s called “Terriblon” (Terrible) everywhere he goes south of Mexico. That being said he did not affect the result; KC lost because of all the missed opportunities. Myers is a dunce who, with a yellow, playing away from home, decided to trip the DC mascot from behind; according to FIFA rules a trip from behind can be considered a yellow card offense; 8 out of 10 just call it and let it go, but you can’t take that chance with Terriblon.

Now on to NY.

Here are the highlights from Saturday. The High!!

And the let down from last night. The Low!!

Having not scored a goal in 424 minutes and having only one in the last 8 games (counting the US Cup game where we used our starters) KC will have their hands full with 2 playoff teams and one team that is on the rise after firing their ineffective coach (hopefully we will catch the same bug they did). It’s not looking good for the Wizards.

I’m not really sure what Peter Vermes is going to do, nor do I really care if he’s going to keep playing some of the “stiffs” that he’s been throwing on to the field. I would love to see Zoltan start from the beginning and maybe give some of the younger players a chance to play. I would also love to see an offensive team (the goal scoring offensive, not the one that’s been offensive to the fans for about 2 months). So what if we go for a 4-3-3 system with an extra forward? No big deal. I’d even be willing to lend Peter Vermes my copy of FIFA 09 so he can experiment with that and see how it looks on the field. You know, try before you buy kind of thing.

Whatever he does I do hope (as I have mentioned before) that something good comes from this playoff-less season. A glimmer in the darkness that some of us Wizards fans can say “well, I’m looking forward to seeing X, Y or Z on the field as a starter since he showed me something at the end of the year”. Still, I don’t get my hopes up too much since right now a best case scenario would be a nice house cleaning where Vermes follows Onalfo’s path, since he’s equally responsible for the current debacle.

Here’s my prediction for Saturday:

NE 2 KC 1 (yes we will finally score a goal)

How many point will we earn on this road trip?(trends)

Hope springs eternal and it was with hope that I went to the game on Saturday: hoping for a win, hoping for a goal, hoping at least not to lose…. Was it too much to ask? It appears so, because Peter Vermes and the group of players he started seemed to lack interest, effort and quality when confronted with a RSL team that still had something to play for but at the same time knew the quality of their opponent and decided to rest some starters. Not that KC was eliminated at that point but the odds were against us. Be that as it may I was hoping for a good showing that never happened.

KC started with some game control but quickly Kyle Beckerman took over and started pulling the strings of the game. In the 18th minute Pablo Campos slid through the defense, caught Jimmy Conrad out of position (and lost) and scored the only goal of the game. KC as always tried to react but to little avail; even when RLS went down to 10 men with the Ned Grabavoy ejection. Of course being a man up just spelled disaster for KC, that time and time again this year has failed to capitalize when their opponent goes a man down.

Not much else happened for the rest of the game. KC missed a few clear scoring opportunities, RSL hunkered down in the back and by the end of the game the Wizards were only 3 minutes away from setting a new KC record in scoring futility; according to the Hillcrestroad Blog they currently have not scored in 424 minutes of MLS play. We also caught a glimpse of the Peter Vermes attack tactics that can be summarized as playing 5 defenders on the field when losing 0-1 and a man down. I can only imagine that if RSL had all 11 players we would have seen a couple of more defenders in the mix so that they could hold that 0-1 score. Pathetic to say the least, and just one more reason for On Goal to help him pack his bags at the end of the season.

Player Ratings:

Everyone gets a 3 except Watson who gets a 5.

Commentary:

I know people say we should not play our Reserves or young players because they “suck” but here is my argument. Have we really seen them play regularly? It’s time to stop the Conrad, Arnaud, Hirsig, Wolff, Jewsbury, Lopez, Gomez love affair; these players (and the coaches) have the team where it is now. We need to know what we have in Reserve and see what we want to keep in the Reserves. The key to victory of teams like Houston is that they have those players that can step in when Ching, or Clark or DeRosario(last year) leave the team. Their pool of young talent goes hand in hand with their good coach. We lack that here in KC.

How do we know that our Reserves are good or bad when you see them for a few games or a few minutes here and there after not playing the whole year? We expect them to come in and take Arnaud, Conrad or Jewsbury’s spot without even flinching? That is utterly stupid. If a player needs to see the bench or worse after a few bad games, a lot of those “senior” players mentioned before should have been there long ago. Arnaud has been absent since week 3 or 4, Hirsig has given up 6 or 7 plays that have led to opponent goals, Jewsbury disappears for long stretches of the game, Lopez can’t cross a ball worth his life, Gomez has a track record of missing open shots, Wolff…, well enough said. If a few bad games mean the end of your MLS career, I’m sorry to say that these guys should call it quits. The only reason they are where they are is because someone gave them the chance to move through the ranks, take the hard knocks and learn from them. What better opportunity that now, with 9 games left to play at least half a team of youngsters and see if they need to be here next year taking up a roster spot; if they can live up to some of the hype and hope.

It might sound stupid but I believe we have some talent here and there have been players that when given regular starts have shown quality, but are quickly moved off to the side when they have a bad game. If this is the rule to be followed I don’t want to see Conrad on the pitch next Saturday since the last 2 goals we have given up have been on him.

I can only hope for a change. I for one can go watch a game where the players on my team are fighting for a roster spot next year, and a chance to something more, instead of watching a bunch of stiff showing up at the game thinking that whatever happens they’ll be penciled in every time. By the way, let’s not look back because the Red Bulls are closing in; at least if we play the “youngesters” we have an excuse if they catch up to us.

Here are the highlights of the game:

I didn’t go out to Swope Park to watch practice this week so my lineup prognostication will probably a bit off (vs. it being “spot on last weekend”) but my expectations of what will happen if we go with the “status quo” Onalfo-based team will be the same: not good.

At this point in the season I would love to see a youth movement for KC but I have my doubts since it would seem that Vermes, like a lot of the players on the team, is trying out for his job next year so he will go with the experience vs. the youth and excitement.

The possible absence of Movsisyan and Javier Morales might make KC defense have an easier time, but because we just cannot find the back of the net they are really going to be perfect for the team to have a chance. RSL is still looking pretty good when it comes to the playoff picture so they will be coming into the CAB with an extra incentive of moving up in the West.

My predicted lineup for this game is:

Hartman
Watson-Bessler-Conrad-Harrington
Arnaud-Jewsbury-Hirsig-Lopez
Zoltan-Cristman

Prediction:
Wait for it………. We will finally score a goal but we’ll give one up.

RSL-1 KC-1

How many goals will we score this weekend?(surveys)