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:

Although not as hot as last Sunday, the temperature around game time should be over 85 degrees and both teams (especially KC) have had a long week so I would hope to see be some changes in the Wizards lineup. What those changes (if any) are going to be I have no clue. My guess would be that Claudio Lopez, Jimmy Conrad, Hercules Gomez and Lance Watson will be again starting, but it’s hard to say. I just hope Coach Onalfo will use his reserve players to give some of the starters a rest.

Hopefully there will be no injuries or players over worked, especially now that KC will be losing 3 players to Gold Cup call ups; we can’t afford to lose anyone else. There is no reason for the starters that played both games not to get a rest on Sunday so that they can still be available for the game in Minnesota next week if they are needed. (I still remember having to use them in North Carolina and against Colorado last year)

I expect it to be a tough match because of the heat and because Santos is a very physical team (2 players supended in 2 games) that will come out looking for the win to keep their hopes alive. It should not be a high scoring game.

Possible lineup:
Hartman, Watson, Hohlbein, Conrad, Besler, Jewsbury, Arnaud, Hirsig, Gomez, Lopez , Wolff.
Final Score:

KC –1 (Wolff)
Santos– 0

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Here are the highlights:

After the exhausting game Sunday vs. Atlas in 95+ degree weather where KC lost Hercules Gomez to a heat injury and Roger Espinoza to a Red Card, I am totally in the dark regarding who they are going to play. Even though it’s well known that the Superliga is a tournament with a nice $1 million purse, I hope that Coach Onalfo is giving the upcoming the US Cup the same amount of attention since the winner of that will move to the CONCACAF Champions tournament (DC United won it and is in the tournament even after a poor year). Because of all this I believe he’ll be looking into using a mixed lineup giving some of the players (especially the older ones) a break while bringing in some players that have already been MLS starters.

Unless I’m mistaken KC traveled to NE with 18 players, with Michael Kraus taking Roger Espinoza’s slot. In view of this I would expect, the likes of Jimmy Conrad, Claudio Lopez, Josh Wolff and maybe even Santiago Hirsig to be on the bench, opening the field to Raushawn McKenzie, Michael Harrington, Abe Thompson and Kurt Morsink to take their spots with a little shuffling of the positions. Also, since Davy Arnaud will be going to the Gold Cup, I would expect him to play if he’s available since his schedule will be less demanding than the 5 games in 2 weeks that the Wizards are coming up against.

This is my educated (and probably wrong) guess about today’s lineup:

Hartman
Watson—Hohlbein—McKenzie—Harrington
Harrington—Morsink—Jewsbury—Gomez
Thompson—Arnaud

It’s tough to predict a result but to come back with a tie would be nice for KC since they can assure themselves a spot in the next round with a win vs. Santos on Sunday. NE, like I said before, is depleated with injuries but that sometimes is opens the window to either a team underestimating their oponent, or some of the oponent’s younger players wanting to show what they have. This is a trap game for KC with the Santos game coming up; it will be tough and physical.

KC-2 (Arnaud,Jewsbury)
NE-1 (Nyassi)

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).