The Kansas City Wizards pulled off an impressive 3-0 victory in an exhibition versus the Chicago Fire on Wednesday. The Wizards shut out the Fire, bolstered by goals from forwards Yura Movsisyan, Eddie Johnson and Scott Sealy and strong efforts by goalkeepers Kevin Hartman and Eric Kronberg.
The first notable moment of the game came early when midfielder Jack Jewsbury won the ball out wide in midfield, and passed it to midfielder Kurt Morsink, who sent a beautiful through ball to Movsisyan, who scored from 12 yards out. Johnson scored the second goal when he collected a loose ball, following a poor pass from Chicago, and outran the defense to slot a shot past the Chicago goalkeeper. Kansas City continued to control the run of play as midfielder Will John played the ball to outside the corner of the box, to an oncoming Movsisyan, whose shot sailed over the crossbar on a bending shot. The Wizards ended the first half 2-0 after playing dominantly and looking very sharp defensively.
In the second half, the Wizards changed their line-up, starting many of their rookies. The Wizards had a great scoring opportunity when midfielder Ryan McMahen took a free kick from the right side and sent it straight to midfielder Sasha Victorine, who headed it to the low corner. The ball was saved by the Chicago Fire. The Wizards added an insurance goal to go up 3-0 later in the second half when forward Scott Sealy took a shot inside the 18 at a hard angle that sailed into the upper-left corner. Defender Ryan Raybould tallied the assist. Meanwhile, the Chicago Fire had four great scoring opportunities throughout the second half, but were never able to slip the ball past Kronberg.
1 |
2 |
F |
|
|---|---|---|---|
Kansas City Wizards |
2 |
1 |
3 |
Chicago Fire |
0 |
0 |
0 |
Goals:
KC: Movsisyan (Morsink) - 14th minute
KC: Johnson (unassisted) - 44th minute
KC: Sealy (Raybould) - 65th minute
Unofficial Stats
| KCCHI | ||
| Shots | 10 | 11 |
| Corner Kicks | 2 | 4 |
| Saves | 6 | 5 |
Kansas City Wizards
Lineup for first half - (4-4-2) Hartman, Jewsbury, Garcia, Conrad, Burciaga, Jr., John, Morsink, McMahen, Victorine, Johnson, Movsisyan
Lineup for second half - (4-4-2) Kronberg, Wahl, Hohlbein, Conrad, Godbolt, Elcock, Raybould, Mamado Ba, Watson, Sealy, Guadarrama
OUT: Arnuad (Knee), Thomas (Travel), Harrington (U-23), Zavagnin (Groin)
QUOTES:
"Overall, it was a very good performance from start to finish," Kansas City Wizards Head Coach Curt Onalfo said. "We were rock solid defensively throughout the entire 120 minutes and we were very pleased with how dangerous we were offensively. That has been an emphasis in training over the last couple of days. I was very encouraged to see how well we were going forward today - it was a small step in the long process of preseason training."
