Friday, June 01, 2007

Battle at the Top

The number 1 and number 3 teams in all of MLS meet tomorrow at Arrowhead Stadium, when the Kansas City Wizards host the New York Red Bulls. The Red Bulls are in first place in the East with 17 points, ahead of New England on goal differential. Kansas City is one point behind New York heading into this match.

The Wizards are still suffering from the injury bug, and will be looking forward to a week off next week to help the players with knocks to heal up. But the Wizards can't look to that off week yet, with the match this weekend in front of them. The injury report almost reads like a Wizards starting 11 almost. Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga, Aaron Hohlbein, Jimmy Conrad, Scott Sealy, Davy Arnaud, and Kerry Zavagnin are all listed on the injury report for tomorrow's game. Each of those players has started at least 1 game this season for the Wizards. All but Hohlbein are probably in the Wizards best starting 11 this season.

Now will all these players not play tomorrow? I doubt it, Arnaud and Zavagnin are both probably they'll start. Conrad seems to be positioning himself to start after listening to his radio show on Wednesday. Nick is also pushing himself to start this game I think. Also you can't always trust these reports, as a few weeks ago, Sealy and Carlos Marinelli were not listed on the injury report, but neither even made the bench.

So who starts this weekend for the Wizards? This guess is gonna be completely off with the injuries, but here we go.

Hartman
Jewsbury - Wahl - Conrad - Harrington
Zavagnin
Arnaud - Morsink - Victorine
Johnson - Pore

Prediction
This should be an exciting game, and if you're reading this and aren't already planning to come to the game, get out to Arrowhead. This should be an exciting one. Will the Wizards move atop the East though? I wanna say yes, but my gut is telling me now, New York looks like the best team in the league, and they aren't even fully healthy. Of course neither are the Wizards. That said I think this'll end up a tie.

KC - 2 (Johnson, Arnaud)
NY - 2 (Angel, Mathis)

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