Friday, July 10, 2009

Again Against the Revolution

For the third time in less than a month, the Wizards will take on the New England Revolution tomorrow afternoon as part of a triple header with the Gold Cup. The Wizards game kicks off at 3pm central time. New England is starting to get healthier, as they may have Steve Ralston back for this game. The Revs though, will still be without forward Taylor Twellman and midfielder Sharlie Joseph.

Kansas City comes into this game winless in 7 games in all competitions (the Open Cup game against Minnesota is officially a draw). Their last win was against New England at home on the 13th of June, the team's last league game before SuperLiga started. The Wizards, though, have usually done well when they travel up to Boston. Since 2000, the Wizards are 8-1-5 (W-L-D) in New England. That includes the Wizards recent SuperLiga draw up there. As for the Wizards lineup, I'd expect the lineup to be what we saw against Houston last weekend. It doesn't seem likely that the Wizards will make any changes. After this game, the Wizards have 14 days off before their next game.
Hartman
Watson - Hohlbein - McKenzie - Besler
Hirsig
Harrington - Jewsbury - Gomez
Wolff - Lopez

I am still holding out some hope that if either Davy Arnaud or Jimmy Conrad aren't in the US 18 for their game later in the day that they'll play for the Wizards and help the team get out of the funk they've been in recently.

Key Match Up - Jack Jewsbury vs Jeff Larentowicz - Jewsbury is likely to play the more advanced midfield role tomorrow meaning he'll be matched up against Larentowicz, who has become a fairly good player over the last few years. It should be a good match up to watch.

PREDICTION - The Wizards have a decent history at New England over the years and hopefully they can continue that tomorrow. With the way the team has been playing though, it could be a long day, especially with the Revolution starting to get healthy and Ralston likely to return to the lineup. A draw seems the likely result for the Wizards tomorrow.

KC - 1 (Lopez)
NE - 1 (Ralston)

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