The Bulls are back in Town (KC-NY Pregame)

By: Herschel | April 22nd, 2009

This Thursday night on ESPN the country will get its first nationally televised view of the Wizards temporary home, Community America Ballpark, also known by Wizards fans as “The CAB”.

The team coming to visit the CAB, the New York Red Bulls, with an offense that woke up last weekend and scored twice as many goals as they had scored all season with a 2-0 home win against Real Salt Lake (their only goal in the first 4 games came from an own goal). Last time New York was at the CAB they left with a 2-1 loss thanks to a Davy Arnaud goal and a flurry of Kevin Hartman saves at the end of the game.

The Wizards on the other hand are coming from a gutsy game against the Fire where they got performed magic; they disappeared for 75 minutes and suddenly came back in a flash and tied the game at 2.

So what can we expect of this game from a Wizards side who got bombarded by the Fire offense and, thanks to Kevin Hartman, only allowed 2 goals? Here’s my line by line:

Keeper: “El Gato”. Hartman is the man. Just see last week’s highlight reel here. 1st goal mistake aside he is the reason the Wizards won in Seattle and tied in Chicago.

Defense: The Chicago wingers ran wild up and down the field last Saturday night, and there was nothing Lance Watson and Matt Besler could do but watch them go by, which also resulted in little help to the offense. In the middle I’d say it was not Conrad’s or Hohlbein’s best game, but they were basically alone against the Fire attack and with little support from a missing midfield; still both goals came from the middle of the defense and some attention needs to go there. I’d love to see Michael Harrington come back to the staring lineup to secure at least one side of the defense, especially with speedster Kandji running down the field. Still, true the Curt Onalfo School of Coaching he probably won’t make changes because he didn’t lose.

Midfield: The disappearing act that the Wizards had for 75 minutes started at midfield where neither Santiago Hirsig, nor Jack Jewsbury could do anything to hold the ball, which meant Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez got no support up top; Wolff looked lost on the side and will probably move again to forward (the fact that he scored once he moved up top should finally give Onalfo a clue of where he belongs); If this happens Arnaud would again slide down to the A-Mid position where I think he excels and where he gets more chances to fire his cannon shots. I like Hirsig but he needs to do much better than Saturday night; there are players on the bench that can do better than that and don’t cost as much. I love the guts of Jack Jewsbury, but his level of play this year has not as high as expected, probably because he is surrounded by a different midfield almost every week.

Attack: No help from the midfield for most of the Chicago game (arnaud had 1 touch in 20 minutes). It woke up when Lopez dropped back a bit to help carry the load and Wolff moved up. I love the fact that Lopez will run all game; it’s impressive; that being said, he sometimes won’t run to the right place or pass the ball too well at times, but he will still not quit. I hope he and Wolff will somehow get on the same page, because although the Wizards are up close the top of the league in goals scored, the offense still seems to be a bit punch-less.

Regardless of the mix and match, and although I can only hope that Harrington comes back to the starting lineup, I think that Onalfo, true to form will make no changes. I’m not sure why this happens. If a team is outmatched for 75 minutes and there are clear holes in the lineup why would you stick with it? The Seattle game (11 vs. 10) was a preview of how we needed some changes but they never came.

I worry a bit about New York, CAB home field advantage aside. They might have been bad for the first 4 games, but they woke up and played pretty well last weekend. Angel is always dangerous and it looks like he and Kandji are starting to get understand each other; that plus the fact that Juan Carlos Osorio, like everyone else in the MLS, probably has a pretty good idea of how the Wizards are going to lineup and the Chicago game showed him the weaknesses in the lineup.

I feel it’s going to be a scrappy 3-2 Wizards win with a lot of Kevin Hartman in between to save the day.

See you at the CAB: beautiful soccer weather in the high 70s with a free Jimmy Conrad bobble head that you can use as a decoration or for target practice (if you are a NY fan).