KANSAS CITY - While they suffered through a nine-game winless streak, the Kansas City Wizards talked about what they had to do resume winning. In their 4-0 victory at home Saturday against Columbus, the Wizards did what they have been talking about since their last previous victory on June 17.
The Wizards won without three key players. Defender Jimmy Conrad is out four to six weeks with a fractured jaw suffered Wednesday against New England. Forward Josh Wolff dressed for the game but did not play. Midfielder Kerry Zavagnin also dressed for the game, but did not play.
Zavagnin is 100 percent after a hip injury kept him off the traveling squad for Wednesday's scoreless draw in New England. Interim coach Brian Bliss said he rewarded Jack Jewsbury's solid play against the Revolution with another start in Zavagnin's spot.
With three games in the next eight days, the Wizards will need to keep players as fresh as possible. That gives more and more players a chance to contribute.
"One of the things Bliss has done is give guys a rest," midfielder Sasha Victorine said. "Guys like Scott Sealy came in and played great, Ryan Pore finished a good goal at the end and Jack (Jewsbury) coming in and playing great."
The most cathartic part of the victory was the goals. During the nine-game winless streak, the Wizards scored only five goals and scored no goals in six of the nine games.
Players and coaches talked about scoring the first goal and scoring early during the winless streak. Davy Arnaud put the Wizards ahead in the fourth minute with a 30-yard grass cutter.
After scoring the first goal, holding a lead killing off the rest of the 90 minutes becomes the task. The Wizards accomplished that by scoring more goals.
The goals by Arnaud and Pore (the game's final goal in the 89th minute) were the result of good defending by the Wizards attacking players, something Bliss has emphasized.
"They are not just there to hold on the ball and finish. They need to chip in on the defensive end and that means defending on the offensive end of the field," Bliss said. "It's a lot of shovel work, a lot of scurrying around and sometimes you have to put that work in. And the reward came because we did get the goals."
For a team the goals came, but forward Eddie Johnson had a team-high (along with Sealy) three shots on goal, all saved by Crew 'keeper Bill Gaudette. Johnson, though, kept making runs in an effort to attract attention from teammates with the ball.
"I thought Eddie played very well," Bliss said. "I thought his energy level was good. I was happy with his performance."
The Wizards survived great scoring opportunities by the Crew between Arnaud's goal and Sealy's goal in the 17th minute, which put the Wizards ahead 2-0.
"The hard work is coming to fruition," Wizards defender Shavar Thomas said. "We've just been coming up short in a couple of games and we've played bad in a couple of games. But we're still sticking with it and trying to work harder."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
