Preview: KC Wizards vs. Toronto FC (Home Debut!)

By: Michael | April 25th, 2007

The Skinny:
After a tough string of three away games, the Wizards will finally get a taste of home cooking - and against one of the league’s slowest starting teams! Playing Toronto FC at first seems like a blessing, but there is a downside as well:
1) Everyone else is beating Toronto, so not getting the full 3 points is actually losing ground on the rest of the field.
2) If things do go poorly, all shreds of the euphoria brought about by the win in DC will be gone. It can only last so long!

My Take:
The Wizards always play well when they’re back in blue, so I think we’ll see a good result! My gut reaction is to be guarded in my optimism, but I’m fighting myself to stay completely positive. We’re back in KC! Harrington and Marinelli will be wearing Wizard blue for the first time! Sealy being gone will put pressure on EJo to produce, but I think the adrenaline of a friendly crowd should make goalscoring a lot easier.

The Starting XI:
I think we’ll see some changes from the Fire game as it really seemed as though the two basic XI we tried (first half with Yura up top, second half with a 4-5-1 feel) didn’t seem to work. I don’t know what Onalfo will do, but here would be my choice for the starting XI:

(Though it’s early, fatigue may play a role in this game, so I put a set of parenthesis next to each player. The first symbol is the DC game, the second is the RSL game, the third is the Chicago game… a * is a start, a ^ is a substitution, and a _ is a game on the bench.)

———————–Hartman(***)———————-
Jewsbury(***)–Garcia(_**)–Conrad(***)–Burciaga(*_*)
———————–Zavagnin(***)———————
Victorine(*^*)———-Marinelli(_^^)—–Harrington(***)
————Arnaud(*^*)——Johnson(***)————-

This is assuming Marinelli is at the point where he could go 90 minutes, and if he is, Arnaud starting up front OR Victorine starting up front might be better than Yura this time. If Marinelli does not start, look for either Pore or Yura to play in his stead and Victorine to take the central midfield role.

Prediction Time:
My Prediction: KC 3 - 1 TFC
FIFA ‘03 Prediction: KC 0 - 2 SJ
Remember that since I’m playing with FIFA ‘03, I need to use the San Jose Earthquakes to play instead of the teams that have been added since then. Seeing Jimmy Conrad set up Landon Donovan for the first goal against the Wizards seemed quite surreal, and something tells me the computer is way off with this prediction! I must admit I hadn’t read the news of Sealy’s ankle injury when I made my prediction. If I had, I think a 2-1 scoreline would have been my guess.