Third time’s a charm. KC-NE Recap

By: Herschel | June 15th, 2009

For the 3rd straight game KC opponents went a man down and this time the finally figured out a way to Wizards step on the gas and take advantage of the extra man; they easily controlled the game from that moment on earning a well deserved win; their second one in 8 games.

It was a pretty fast paced game from the beginning with the Wizards midfield pushing forward and giving the NE defense trouble. During a nice passing sequence, Davy Arnaud sprung Claudio Lopez towards the left side of the box and Lopez returned the ball across to Arnaud who closed the play and slotted the ball past Matt Reis. NE reacted, and in a combination that might have resulted from a natural letdown from scoring the goal and a Revolution push to tie, they began to control the midfield and put a bit of pressure on the KC defense. They finally succeeded in tying the game when, after a corner in which Kevin Hartman made a great save, Steve Ralston was able to cross a ball to Hartman’s back post, and Sharlie Joseph out jumped what seemed to be at least 2 defenders and headed the ball in to tie the score.

After the tie, the Revolution again let KC take the initiative and push forward. During one of the advances a ball was played towards the right side of the NE box, where Emmanuel Osei and Lopez were fighting for possession and Osei went down. What ensued was strange since it seemed that Lopez said something to Osei, who threw a kick towards Lopez, who answered by saying something again to Osei, who got up and pushed Lopez. The aftermath was a yellow for Lopez and a straight red for Osei. That red marked the end of the game for the Revolution who tried to move around their team to make up for missing one of their central defenders, but the changes definitely did not work.
With a weakened opponent KC took the offensive and on an attack from the left side of the field Lopez found Hercules Gomez who took a nice shot towards goal; Matt Reis made a good save, but the rebound itself went off Jeff Larentowicz and into the goal. A few minutes later and with the Wizards not stepping off the gas, a corner by Lopez was headed towards goal and Reiss again made a great stop, but his rebound short and it was headed towards the front of the goal by Jimmy Conrad where Aaron Hohlbein sneaked in between defenders to make it 3-1.

From that point on the game was not in question and KC ran up and down the field with little or no opposition. The Wizards probably missed at least 4 or 5 clear scoring chances in the second half while NE forced only one save from Hartman during the final 45 minutes.

Player Ratings - Hartman 5, Watson 5, Conrad 6, Hohlbein 6, Besler 6 Hirsig 6, Jewsbury 6, Arnaud 7, Gomez 7, Lopez 8, Wolff 5. Subs Harrington 5, Zusi 4, Morsink N/R

Man of the Match: Claudio Lopez. The man was a dynamo. He did not stop running. He set up the 1st goal; should have had an assist on the second one if Gomez had slotted the ball in, and fought Osei for the ball that led to the NE player’s ejection. He was everywhere and did a bit of everything. My only knock on him is on his corner kicks; I think he needs to mix them up a bit since most seem to fall short; still great game. Honorable mention to Matt Besler who, although a rookie and playing a position that is not his strongest, ran up and down the field and combined with Lopez and Gomez on overlapping runs quite a few times.

Commentary: A much needed win for KC who put pressure on NE once they were a man short and did not let up. I do worry about missing so many scoring opportunities, especially in the second half where the game could have been blown wide open, which would have allowed for earlier subs for players with 3 or 4 yellow cards like Jack Jewsbury or Davy Arnaud. Luckily Jack did not pick up his 5th card and because he played his 3rd straight game without a yellow he is back down to 3 yellows.

These are the games that KC needs to win, and that’s why it’s been so painful to have let 5 points go by in the last couple of games where we were a man up. Had we won those other games (or at least tied v. C-bus and beat LA), we’d be on top of the Eastern Conference. Regardless, it was a very good win and hopefully this was a start of streak that goes through Superliga and US Cup.

The Ref: All in all Salazar did a good job. The Osei ejection was a stupid play and like Josh Wolff’s a few weeks ago, deserved. He did look a bit gun shy with Pat Phelan who got a yellow on the 13th minute for a reckless foul, and 5 minutes later committed an even worse foul that could have (should have) earned him a second yellow, but all in all pretty smooth. I have my doubts on the Lopez offside in the second half but that one is on the linesman and Salazar just acknowledged the flag.

Here are the highlights: