Leaving Chicago Without a Souvenir Again…

By: Michael | April 23rd, 2007

In Summary:
In 14 games in Chicago, a whooping total of 2 have featured the Wizards returning home with at least a point. Last night, we failed to make it a third time. Chicago’s backline, having only Eddie Johnson to worry about because of Scott Sealy’s foot contusion, completely snuffed out our attacks, and our defense looked shaky at best. If there’s an upside to the game, it is that Marinelli again looked great, and his PK was a thing of beauty. US soccer blog “Climbing the Ladder” features video highlights of all of MLS’ goals this year. Carlos’ goal is the third-to-last highlight… and once you find it, I would suggest backing it up one more goal, as Chivas looked absolutely brilliant. Raise your hand if you kind of wish Preki was back in KC to be our coach (peace and love still goes out to Coach Onalfo, you understand)…

Shoot!
Official tally: 7 shots, 3 on target. When you test the ‘keeper once every THIRTY MINUTES, the result will not look good. Also, when you shoot less than 50% accuracy, as KC also did against RSL, you don’t win. Against DC, we had 10 shots and put 9 of them on target, resulting in 4 goals. What a difference consistent, accurate shooting makes!

The Player Who Saved us from Embarrassment:
Without a doubt: Carlos Marinelli. While the rest of our attack was flat, Carlos really made use of empty space and was intelligent about each touch. A football mind like Carlos’ is a valuable commodity in the MLS, and once his match fitness allows it, a full 90 minutes of that brain orchestrating our attack will make the Wizards a much better team. Congratulations on your first MLS goal, Carlos!

The Two Who Contributed Most to Our Loss:
1) Nick Garcia. He looked really flat-footed this weekend, almost as though he was unable to match each attacker’s first two or three steps, enough to get beaten and either force another defender to cover (leaving a man open) or force Garcia to commit a silly foul to try and make up for the mistake. The latter was the scenario when at 72′, Garcia conceded the penalty which put us down 2-0 and secured the Fire’s victory.

2) Yura Movsisyan. Basically Movsisyan’s greatest fault against Chicago is that he wasn’t Scott Sealy. Sealy’s play in our attack third was sorely, sorely missed, and Yura seemed to make it clear that he is still not the dangerous 3rd striker we need him to be (and drafted him to be, for that matter). Without a strong game from Yura, the Fire was able to concentrate on EJo, which prevented Eddie to make the runs which made him such a threat against DC.

Wait… 4-5-1!?:
With Yura not showing up and an equalizer badly needed, Onalfo subbed Yura out for Marinelli. This makes complete sense. However, instead of sending Davy Arnaud or Sasha Victorine (who played up front against RSL and scored our only goal) forward and maintaining a 4-4-2, the style of play changed to that of a 4-5-1-type-thing. This limited Marinelli’s options in front of him and caused the game to pushed out onto the flanks, something which isn’t our strongpoint.

Not the Draw I was Looking for:
My pre-season prediction was a 1-1-1 record from our little roadtrip and I was looking for the Wizards to tie the Fire 2-2 to fulfill my prophecy. As this didn’t turn out to be true, and FIFA ‘03 predicted a 3-0 Fire victory, I’m calling this a flat out victory for the hopelessly outdated video game. This brings the season’s tally to 0-1-1 in my struggle against the machine.

A Must Win Already?:
We now travel home to the Arrowhead to play KC’s home opener. The game is the first part of a home-away double against Toronto FC, and by my count, this is a must-win for the Wizards. Because FC hasn’t gelled as a team yet and are getting beaten by absolutely everyone, a loss here would be akin 6-point defeat against a different division foe (e.g. New England). We have to count ourselves amongst those who took the full 3 from FC, and I would go so far as to say the full 6 out of the next two games. This is a critical home opener for sure. PS: I’d like to say thanks to the MLS for countering the effect of our game in Toronto being the franchise’s first home game ever by making it directly after our own home opener against them. It was a fair thing to do and shows someone is definitely thinking these things through.

The Final Word:
It’s always tough to play in Chicago, and even tougher to win a third consecutive away game, so I think this result should come as neither a surprise nor a great disappointment to Wizards fans. We need to take these three games for what they were: an amazing win at DC, a hard-fought and perhaps fortunate exit from the USOC, and 0 points from a game we had little chance of getting anything from in the first place. Now we need to move forward, put both the success of DC and the frustration of Chicago behind us, and look Toronto FC straight in the eye.