Postgame: Kansas City Wizards vs. Red Bull New York (How the East was Won)

By: Michael | June 4th, 2007

In Summary:
Revenge, for all of its cliche, felt pretty good on Saturday night for Kansas City. After a controversial red card and a tight finish left the Wizards a goal short of the playoffs during last season’s season finale in New York, many have waited for the day when RBNY would get a taste of their own medicine. Wouldn’t you know it – Clint Mathis was sent off when he sent Kerry Z flying with an (over-dramatized?) elbow to the neck. While Angel had made his presence known early, Eddie Johnson poured in three consecutive tallies against a 10-man New York and the Wizards held on, 3-2. For the record, EJo became the first in MLS history to score back-to-back hat tricks and is now atop the league in goals. Top that off with regaining our rightful spot atop the Eastern Conference leader board, and this result couldn’t be much better for the boys in blue!

Why I think I’m right when I say the Wizards are the strongest team in the East:
1) As I’ve said before, we’ve been keeping within striking distance of the top with a ridiculous amount of absences.
2) With Marinelli back in form and a possible new foreign signing in the works, our attack is primed to keep winning results.
3) We now have seven people who have played fullback in a Wizards win: Burciaga, Conrad, Garcia, Harrington, Hohlbein, Jewsbury, Wahl.
4) Hartman is proving to be just enough of what Bo Oshiniyi wasn’t.

I Don’t Mean to be a Broken Record, but…
Once again a late goal proved incredibly important. If at 46′ Johnson hadn’t put in the Wizard’s first, Bruce Arena could have better set up his team to play a staunch second-half defense and dig in for the win or a draw. With it tied, RBNY was forced to still play slightly open, and their defense proved its inability to contain attack on its own.

Quick Wizards News:
- Idan Shriki officially starts his trial today.

- Jimmy Conrad has finally posted another article on ESPN SoccerNet… an extremely entertaining survey of his Wizards teammates.

- Apparently we’re still not better than New York. And only just as good as the Revolution. Where is the respect? Wait until next week…

Prediction Time:
My prediction: KC 3 – 2 RBNY
FIFA ‘03 prediction: KC 1 – 1 NY/NJ
Back on the winning side, my record is 4-3-2 against FIFA ‘03. And I’ll take the extra credit for a perfect score and Marinelli for an assist.

The Final Word:
To beat New England and then RBNY back-to-back is a great thing to behold, especially with a six goals from EJo. Now, however, we are without Eddie, and heading into an away game against a probably very upset RBNY. The true test of superiority will be if we can beat them without Eddie in their arena. While they will be without Mathis, I don’t suspect it will change their dynamic as much as being without EJo will affect ours. Early Prediction: 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.

If you’d like to submit any comments/stories or add a question to my accumulating “Ask the KC Offside” article, don’t forget to e-mail KCOffsider@gmail.com.