Postgame: Kansas City Wizards @ Red Bull New York

By: Michael | June 18th, 2007

In Summary:
Down 2-0 after Juan Pablo Angel twice beat Jimmy Conrad (once for the goal, once to set up a give-and-go in the box) in 15 minutes, things looked bad for the Wizards. Fast forward to the closing minutes, and Angel scores again – on a controversial penalty call – but this time, the tally is from behind, and RBNY manages the 3-3 tie.

What happened in between was exactly why the Wizards are OK with Eddie gone from the Gold Cup. The defense began to hold up, the midfield was solid, and then the genius of Carlos Marinelli kicked in. Down 2-0, it was his leadership that first got the offense clicking again, and our first goal coming from his heads-up defensive play and nifty heel-pass to Kerry Z was fitting.

In the second half, Scott Sealy’s poor experiment coming back from injured reserve gave way to Yura Movsisyan deciding he’d had enough of being flamed by this blog, other blogs, and nearly the entire KC fanbase and scored twice to put us up 3-2. A brilliant lob by Victorine gave him the chance to put in a nifty chip and silence – for this week, anyway – the criticism. Down the Byline reacted to Yura’s performance aptly: “tonight I have to eat crow“. Make another plate for me.

With Yura putting the Wizards on top, we return to the aforementioned Angel PK. KC was absorbing punches like your average fat boxer in a Bugs Bunny cartoon when Burciaga was found out of position in the area… as he compensated, the RBNY forward fell, and though Burciaga is right in saying, “To decide a game on a call like that, I don’t think that’s right,” the official thought it acceptable to call the final-minute PK. Angel buried it (despite a good guess by Hartman), and the game sat at 3-3.

Sorry, Yura, but…
The man of the match was Carlos Marinelli. I don’t think anyone can deny that from 20′-80′, the game was Carlos’ to dictate. He was there on every Wizards attack, made it difficult for RBNY to gain momentum coming back the other way, and generally embarrassed Arena’s players every chance he got. What a game he had… Onalfo deserves a ton of credit for bringing Marinelli in, and I think we still have more to expect from No.10 as he continues to reach 100% fitness. In fact, I hope he was winded at 84′ as he was replaced by Kurt Morsink, because otherwise, the change could have been the deciding factor in missing the win.

Prediction Time:
My prediction: KC 3 – 2 RBNY
FIFA ‘03 prediction: KC 1 – 7 NY/NJ
Right until the finally minute, I’ll give myself the win over FIFA ‘03, who had the Wizards up 1-0 at halftime and then conceding a goal every 6 or 7 minutes for the entirety of the second half.

The Final Word:
My early prediction for this weekend’s game read “Sealy returns and Arnaud swings up next to him; Marinelli starts in his usual Center Attacking Mid spot and Yura is a second half sub for a tuckered-out Scott.” While this read pretty well, I could not have predicted how rusty Sealy would look and how big the Yura substitution was. Movsisyan showed why Gansler thought him to be the spark we needed off the bench and Onalfo used him well in this game.

To say that a win would have been huge is an understatement. However, with this tie, we leave New York down one point with two games in hand, almost assuring us the Eastern Conference lead when our games played tallies even out. The character we showed and the strong play of our supporting guys (Yura especially) bode well for confidence come playoff time. With our next game coming up in Columbus mid-week and then another hosting the Dynamo on Saturday, this week will be busy and our team will be again tested in the absence of EJo. As of today, however, there is still little that could discourage the momentum the Wizards are carrying with them into each game.