Sunday, May 18, 2008

Wizards Grab a Point

Kansas City broke their two game losing streak last night, drawing 1-1 with the New York Red Bulls. The Wizards should have gotten all 3 out of it though, thanks to a stellar performance in net again by Kevin Hartman.

The Wizards grabbed the lead in the 20th minute when Jimmy Conrad met a Carlos Marinelli corner kick and headed it past Jon Conway for his team leading third goal of the season. After the goal, New York began to really take the game to Kansas City, causing all kinds of problems in front of the net. Part of those problems was the Wizards defense having trouble clearing their lines. Soon after the goal, Hartman parried away a cross that fell right to Jozy Altidore, who's effort was saved off the line by Jack Jewsbury.

In the second half, New York continued to pressure, but were turned away multiple times by Hartman, who had good saves on Juan Pablo Angel, Danliegh Borman, and others. Kansas City went up a man in the 77th minute, when former Wizard, Dave van den Bergh was red carded for throwing an elbow at Davy Arnaud after he was fouled. The red card was the culmination of a poor night of refereeing by Jair Marrufo, who let far too much go in the game, letting play get extremely physical. You could see that a red card was probably coming, and it'd likely come due to retaliation, which is exactly what happened to van den Bergh.

The man advantage did not pay off for the Wizards, though, as only 4 minutes after the red card, Borman was some how left all alone on the far side of the field and beat Hartman high and to the near post to give New York the goal that they had deserved for all their pressure.

Wizards Man of the Match - Kevin Hartman - He had a few shaky moments, but it was his play in goal that kept the Wizards in this game. He's proving time and again this year why he was brought in, and why he's stayed in the league for so long. He can steal points when you really don't deserve them.

Honorable Mention - Jimmy Conrad, Carlos Marinelli

1 comment:

Reepicheep said...

I agree with your man of the match and the second two after.

The Wizards offense has been largely absent since their first three wins. I would prefer not to hear "attacking style" any more when describing them. They are playing very poorly in the final third of the field.

The fake turf stinks.
Claudio needs help up top, or he needs to be shifted to the midfield (left). Sealy has been pretty useless.

They have not been improving.