SoccerBlogs

I had a professor in college that told the class that the day that he returned tests he would not discuss the results of the test and he would not take any questions about the test for 24 hours. He said in the first 24 hours of receiving upsetting news your response will be emotional. After that 24 hours you will be able to approach things with a clear mind.

To quote College Football Hall of Famer and ex-ESPN analyst Emmitt Smith, we got "debacled" on Saturday. We were a team with no personality, no heart, making stupid mistake after stupid mistake and it seems that we are a team, unless things change drastically, that will not see the playoffs this year.

I have to say that I was probably a little more optimistic about this game after seeing the pounding SKC gave FC Dallas. But, I was also a little worried that Vermes was going to go back to his beloved 4-3-3 formation that hasn't worked well. But, when I saw that Omar Bravo was going to replace Stojcev (who was suspended) I was again excited.

A 10 game road trip is not an ideal way to start a season! But, the Wizards scheduled this on their own. They knew they would have to travel to some hostile environments and need to get points pick up points in order to avoid falling too far back in the standings. After picking up 3 points against Chivas and almost stealing a point against Chicago while playing down a man I expected a positive result from the trip to Vancouver.

Now it is time to put that loss behind us and start looking forward to the next game. With international duties ending and hopefully some injuries healing we should see a more cohesive side when SKC travels to Empire Field in Vancouver.

Both teams will be playing with our their designated players as both received red cards last week and will be forced to support from the stands.

So, going into the game Sunday, you may not be all that familiar with Birahim Diop. If you are not a fan of the Wizards^... well, you may not have heard of him at all.  Heck, even if you were familiar with him then you were probably thinking that he would be as ineffective as he was in his brief appearances earlier in the season.

After a season of many disappointments the Wizards close out the season against D.C United Saturday night at the CAB, in a game that means nothing to us but a lot to them.

They are playing for their playoff life, while we keep playing the retread game lining-up players that are in a slump, are old or who have already proven their value to the team.

Jimmy Conrad had a night to remember, and at the same time a night to forget. At the end the Wizards kept their hopes alive with a come from behind win against Dallas that puts them 7 points behind the last playoff spot with 5 games left.

The night started with the Wizards trying to win their first game at home since June 12th (yes, a 3 month drought, including Superliga).

The Wizards are traveling to New York on Saturday to close out their one week/3 game road trip that has had split results. One nice win against the Revolution where they broke out of the scoring funk, followed by a game where they were held scoreless by DC United.

The Red Bulls are on a 2 game winning streak and playing pretty well after the departure of Coach Juan Carlos Osorio.

Down a goal, up a man for about 60 minutes, against a Real Salt Lake team that was missing a few starters and decided to play only one forward, the Peter Vermes strategy called to have, on paper, 5 defenders on the field. Wow, and I thought before the game that things couldn't get any worse.

Real Salt Lake comes into town this weekend after trouncing Chivas USA on Wednesday. That's a perfect recipe for disaster for a team like the Wizards that has scored ONE goal in it's last 6 games (7 if you count the loss vs. Seattle for the US Cup).

I didn't go out to Swope Park to watch practice this week so my lineup prognostication will probably a bit off (vs.

This might sound cheesy, but while watching the Wizards lose again, and worst of all, not score again a Madonna song from the early 1990s started to go off in my head.

On the game.

Not much to say. Pretty boring and we made a mediocre (at best) team look pretty good and we were incapable of scoring.

The Wizards are running out of time to right the ship and try to make a run up the table. They visit the Earthquakes in a match between teams that certainly had higher expectations for the 2009 than what they have been able to achieve up to now.

I liked the effort and the passing from KC last weekend (they tried to get away from "everything is a long ball" style of play) but their finishing let them down and they got shut out once again.

A different Wizards team came out to play on Sunday afternoon against a Chicago Fire team that was missing 4 of its starters. Although Peter Vermes' hand/work is starting to show, it wasn't enough to get the Wizards out of the winless streak and scoring drought that has plagued them for months already.

On Sunday the Wizards will take on the Fire at the CAB. It will mark Peter Vermes' first game as a coach after taking over the position when Curt Onalfo was fired. From watching some of the practices and reading the reports from their friendly against a PDL team last week, it seems that unless Mr.

On a great evening for soccer in Kansas City those of us who were at the CAB witnessed a beautiful goal by Argentinean star Claudio Lopez but were only able to enjoy it for about 8 minutes before the other Argentinean on the team Santiago Hirsig gave an easy ball away to, of all people, David Beckham who sprung Landon Donovan who scored the Galaxy's tying goal.

The Wizards seemed to play a better game this past Saturday against New England than last week's home loss against Houston but still cannot seem to find the back of the net; luckily neither could New England.

To make a long story short (since I'm traveling for work) the Wizards again seemed to dominate the run of play but with little or no impact when moving forward.

I was going to write this recap as soon as I got home last night after the game, but I decided to give myself a 12 hour "cool off" period so I wouldn't be too overcritical of the team. That being said I feel about the same and things seem to have just gotten worse since I've been thinking about the horrible uninspired soccer that KC played, not only yesterday, but throughout the SuperLiga.

KC takes on Santos this Sunday at 5:30 p.m. at Community America Ballpark. By the time the game takes place KC will know what result it needs to qualify to the next round. A win and KC is in regardless; a tie will have the Wizards hoping for a New England win or at least a tie (goal differential will come into play at that time).

KC travels to New England to play the walking wounded Revolution. A win for NE and they are in to the next round, while a KC win will get them close and leave everything in the group up in the air until next Sunday when they play Santos at the CAB.

After the exhausting game Sunday vs. Atlas in 95+ degree weather where KC lost Hercules Gomez to a heat injury and Roger Espinoza to a Red Card, I am totally in the dark regarding who they are going to play.

In the sweltering heat of Saint Louis where the temperature on the field was near 100 degrees, the Wizards and Atlas ended in a scoreless draw, in a game that left alot to be desired for an international competition.

Due to "scheduling conflicts" Kansas City traveled to Saint Louis to open their Superliga first round in a game against Mexican First Division squad Atlas.

For the 3rd straight game KC opponents went a man down and this time the finally figured out a way to Wizards step on the gas and take advantage of the extra man; they easily controlled the game from that moment on earning a well deserved win; their second one in 8 games.

It was a pretty fast paced game from the beginning with the Wizards midfield pushing forward and giving the NE defense trouble.

Saturday night's game at the CAB was just that. Ugly. The Wizards showed little creativity, little effort and little of anything as they fell (and got swept for the season) by the Columbus Crew 2-0. Here is my recap and commentary.

The Game:
Columbus was missing 2 of their best players in Alejandro Moreno and Frankie Hejduk while KC was missing part time started Roger Espinoza.

You have to feel for Bruce Arena. He has taken over the mess that is the LA Galaxy, tried to bring on new blood while mixing in veterans to serve as teacher and it's these veterans that keep putting LA in a hole they have to dig themselves out of. Last Saturday night was no exception, when Greg Berhalter, the experienced LA defender let Claudio Lopez passed him and was forced to commit a foul that denied a goal scoring opportunity and earned him a red card.

The weather might not have been the best for a game, but it would be hard to blame the poor play from both teams solely on that. The Crew showed why they have only scored 4 goals the entire season. And the Wizards showed why they have given up more goals than any other team.

Vermes decided after the embarrassment in Vancouver that he would go with the exact same line up for this game.

It's bad enough we have had a horrible season. It's bad enough that we played basically the same lineup that has given us little to cheer about throughout the season (with Zusi and Zoltan being the exceptions). Saturday we decided to give the Sounders some help by giving away 3 goals on big mistakes.

I decided not to comment on our 2-0 loss against Chivas since my arguments are the same as the Houston tie except for the Zoltan goal. This week we didn't even score and it would seem that playing those players in a slump (Wolff, Arnaud, Jewsbury) has brought nothing good.

The game did have a horrible offside non-call on the first Chivas goal, but in all honesty should be blamed on the assistant and not the ref (Mike Kuhn has all the evidence, and the video is clear also).

Yes Kansas City played better yesterday than their last game against Colorado; yes they could have won to keep the slim playoff hopes alive. But NO we didn't win; no we didn't finish off a team that played almost 70 minutes a man down and missing one of their best players; no, we aren't that much better with Peter Vermes than we were with Curt Onalfo; and no Peter Vermes should NOT survive the house cleaning that should take place in KC this offseason.

Back again. I missed out on commenting about our victory last Saturday against New England which brought some renewed enthusiasm to the KC faithful. This was mainly due to the fact that there was way too much soccer to watch with the WC qualifiers over the weekend. A good dose of soccer overload which was great

I did watch the game against NE but did not really get overly excited because KC really needed to get a streak going after the string of goaless games before one could cheer wholeheartedly and think about a turn around.

On this 4th of July weekend Houston comes into KC hoping to improve on their goalless effort from last weekend against one of the worst defenses in the league (LA's), while KC, tries to make it 2 wins in a row in the league after a horrible Superliga performance.

KC will be missing defensive leader and captain Jimmy Conrad, as well as midfielders Davy Arnaud and Roger Espinoza due to Gold Cup call ups, while Kevin Souter will not be available due to injury.

The Wizards have a busy schedule coming up next in the next few weeks: they play Sunday in St. Louis (still mad about that) vs. Atlas; Wednesday in New England; and Sunday vs. Santos Laguna at the CAB. If all goes well and the Wizards were to win this tournament, they could be looking at a nice purse (close to $ 1 Million or so they say) and with the added bonus of giving some Reserve players some playing time while allowing some of the older starters a few days off.

I want to apologize for not writing anything on the Sunday loss to Houston or on the Tuesday loss to Seattle until now but I'm battling a nasty "non swine flu" flu virus that knocked me out off work Tuesday afternoon and all of Wednesday.

Well, Sunday KC outshot Houston 15 to 9 but only had 3 of those shots on goal while Houston actually got one goal out of its 5 shots on goal.

It was the 34th minute on a less than exciting game when New England attacker Michael Videira went up for a ball with KC defender Aaron Holhbein. In his effort to head it he swung his elbow back and struck Hohlbein in the face. Referee Jorge Gonzalez pulled out the red card right away and sent Videira to the showers.

Columbus and KC battle it out this weekend at the CAB. KC is coming from giving up a tie vs. a 10 man Galaxy team while the Crew tied its away game vs. a 10 man Seattle team.

The big story this weekend, as the Crew try to sweep the season series, is if the Crew will be able to overcome the international absences of Alejandro Moreno (Venezuela), Duncan Oughton (New Zealand) and Frankie Hejduk (USNT) for this game at Community America Ballpark.

Well, things aren't going to get any easier for the Wizards in the next couple of weeks. KC will be visiting New England, DC and NY in an effort to bust out the slump the team is currently in.

Having not scored a goal in 424 minutes and having only one in the last 8 games (counting the US Cup game where we used our starters) KC will have their hands full with 2 playoff teams and one team that is on the rise after firing their ineffective coach (hopefully we will catch the same bug they did).