Friday, October 16, 2009

Back Home

The Wizards are back home to close out the MLS season with 2 home games against Seattle and DC. They start tomorrow against Seattle. While they are extremely slim, the Wizards are still barely in the playoff picture. By the time they take the field, though, KC could be eliminated if either Toronto or Salt Lake win. Seattle comes into town close to clinching a playoff berth themselves and will like their chances against KC considering the past two weeks Houston and Chivas have both clinched playoff berths against KC. KC gave Seattle their first loss and first home loss earlier in the season, and while Seattle got a bit of revenge by knocking KC out of the Open Cup, they'll likely be looking for more come Saturday.

KC will be getting Jimmy Conrad back after his time with the US national team, which should help to stabilize the back line a little bit more. While the Wizards are close to playoff elimination, they have shot themselves in the foot lately in that process. The last few weeks the playoff line has come towards the Wizards, but due to their inability to score goals, they haven't been able to gain ground and make a stronger push. Instead of the playoff line being around 43, the line could be as low as 38, but with the Wizards going 0-1-2 the last 3 games, they've been unable to take advantage of it. As for the lineup, I'd likely expect something similar to last week, with Santiago Hirsig apparently being in Argentina, I'd expect to see Graham Zusi get the start again in center midfield. Will we see any other changes? Does Zoltan Hercegfalvi finally get a start? If he does, who sits, Josh Wolff or Kei Kamara?
Hartman
Leathers - Conrad - Besler - Harrington
Jewsbury
Arnaud - Zusi - Lopez
Wolff - Kamara

Key Match Up - Jimmy Conrad vs Fredy Montero - Montero is still Seattle's most dangerous player and shutting him down is one of the big keys to this game tomorrow night. Conrad and Matt Besler at times will have their hands full.

PREDICTION - I expect KC to be officially eliminated by the time kickoff occurs tomorrow. As for the game itself, KC hasn't made CAB their home like they did last year, they currently have as many wins on the road this season as they do at home (4). Seattle is finishing up a 3 game road trip after losing in New England and winning in Columbus. I just have trouble seeing where the Wizards are once again going to find the goals, Davy Arnaud is still struggling, Wolff's latest hot streak appears to be over, Kamara and Zoltan have shown flashes but can't find the net. Have a feeling KC's going to lose this one.

KC - 0
SEA - 1 (Montero)

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about making some changes... for a change? I mean, sit Arnaud, Wolff and Jewsbury, who are just stinking up the place; sit Lopez and Conrad, and just play the last 2 games with the bench players. Let's see how they measure up. Some don't even add 180 mins throughout the season, and that's no way to find out if they should stay with the team or not.

Anonymous said...

No thank you, I don't want to see Rauwshan McKenzie, Michael Kraus, Matt Marquess, and the rest of the reserves play in these games.

Half of them will be here anyways, we're not going to get 20 new players next year. We may get 5-8, that's it. Most of the players though we'll still have next year.

MOUFWASH said...

Id like to see Meyers get a full 90

Bryan said...

yeah playing the bench players to finish out our season is the worst idea ever...half those guys have gotten starts this season anyway or have seen time last season and obviously not contributed enough. its sort of bitter sweet because, yeah our starters obviously aren't contributing either...however, its still more likely they will.

we might as well let this core continue to fight it out the rest of the season and jell a little more and hopefully pick up some wins, score some goals, and take that with us into the off season and next spring...

we definitely need an overhaul in philosophy and coaching...

Anonymous said...

Yeah, that's the spirit. Let the veterans stick up the place some more, let them keep on not doing anything, let them keep being incompetent for the last game. lost vs Seattle, which could've been by 2 or 3 more goals against.
One start or 60 total minutes in 4 games DOES NOT let you see the future of a specific player. No player can play to their potential in just 1 or 2 starts, or after being given a couple of minutes for a couple of games. Starting our bench in the last 4 games or so (we are almost done, anyway) would've given us a clear idea... a "yeah, he really sucks" or "well, seems like he's settled in". Anyway, last 5 games or so, our starting 11 -with the exception of a couple- have sucked!! I rather see a young kid giving it his all than Arnaud, Jack, and Wolff sucking every game even more.

Anonymous said...

Some people need to take their blue goggles off. Some of the fan favorites need to situt hey, when we have no depth next year we'll again hear the complaining.

I wonder if there's a team that rotates their bench through league and international competition? Oh yes, Houston, and oh next year it will be Seattle because that's how Sigi plays his team (he did that last year with C-bus) and they are doing OK in CONCACAF and will likely make it to the next round sitting their starters for half their games (Barros has only played half the CONCACAF games).
No need to reinvent the wheel, just learn from someone else success.


Oh well.

Anonymous said...

Just because people aren't as "anti-Wizards" as some people doesn't mean they're wearing blue glasses.

I hate people that think that just because people aren't agreeing with your depth of belief, they're instead wearing blue glasses.

Anonymous said...

BTW, just because we want change and see what else we have doesn't mean we are "anti-wizards". We want the team to succeed but the formula and the "team loved ones" aren't doing it.
Good for you that you are happy with the status quo. Some of us would love to see something differet.So what if we lose at this point. Not like playing the "idols" did anything to keep Seattle from winning. In addition to Zusi who seems to have promise; anyone else?