Defending Champs in Town

The Wizards welcome the defending MLS Cup Champion, Columbus Crew to town tomorrow at Community America Ballpark. Like the Galaxy last week, the Crew come into the game tomorrow on an extended unbeaten run. The Crew is unbeaten in 7 games, but like the Galaxy that is not as good as it actually sounds, as they've only won 2 games out of those 7, the other 5 have been draws. One of those wins though was against the Wizards in Columbus. The good news for the Wizards, though, is that the Crew is a little short handed right now, with 3 players away on national team duty (Frankie Hejduk, Alejandro Moreno, and Duncan Oughton) as well as many as 4 players missing due to injury (Andy Iro, Will Hesmer, Brian Carroll, and Adam Moffat).

The Wizards come in unbeaten in 3 games and are back at home. Unfortunately, lately the Wizards have had trouble beating the Crew recently. The Wizards are winless in the last 6 games in all competitions against the Crew. The Wizards will welcome back Josh Wolff and Santiago Hirsig, who both return from suspension. They will be without Roger Espinoza, though, who is with the Honduran national team. With their return, some of the players from last week will return to the bench.

Hartman
Watson - Hohlbein - Conrad - Besler
Hirsig
Jewsbury - Arnaud - Gomez
Wolff - Lopez

Key Match Up - Santiago Hirsig vs Guillermo Barros Schelotto - The match up of two Argentines will also spill over to Jimmy Conrad and Aaron Hohlbein in the back line as Schelotto will likely play as a withdrawn forward. Either way, the Wizards will have to shut down the reigning MLS MVP tomorrow if they want to take all 3 points tomorrow.

PREDICTION - The Wizards need to win this game, or else they'll lose another season series against a conference foe (along with Toronto). Teams can't lose these season series' and expect to make the playoffs, or make an extended run. A win is a must, especially since a loss will see Columbus tie the Wizards on points. Unfortunately the word of the season so far has been tie. I hope the Wizards can break out of that and get a win tomorrow.

KC - 2 (Wolff, Arnaud)
CLB - 1 (Schelotto)

Also of note, at halftime, look for the guy on the field wearing the blue number 9 of a target striker in the media game, as that will be yours truely. Yes that's right, this year I was invited to play in the media game.