With Eddie Johnson away on CONCACAF Gold Cup duty with the U.S. national team, the Kansas City Wizards looked like they would be at a firepower disadvantage heading into Saturday's top-of-the-East clash against the New York Red Bulls at Giants Stadium.
After all, it had been all EJ two weeks earlier at Arrowhead, when Johnson burned the Bulls with a hat trick in a 3-2 Wizards win, and he had scored nine of his team's 19 goals on the season heading into the match.
Plus, New York's in-form import Juan Pablo Angel was still available for the hosts, having been inexplicably left off Colombia's Copa America squad despite tearing MLS apart since his arrival Stateside a month earlier.
Enter K.C.'s second-year forward Yura Movsisyan. The Armenian teenager scored twice after entering the game in the 58th minute, helping his team earn a tie in a game they probably deserved to win.
"Coach (Curt Onalfo) put me in and I just tried to do my job, which is to score goals and help the team," said Movsisyan. "That's what I came here to do and I got lucky today."
The 19-year-old had started four of the Wizards' nine games this year, but was omitted from the 18-man squad entirely for his team's previous game on June 2, that home win against New York.
But with Johnson gone, Onalfo decided it was time to give the youngster another chance, and he delivered with aplomb.
"Great athletes respond to adversity, and he couldn't have responded any better," said Onalfo.
"He spent the last 10 days working his tail off trying to prove the coaching staff wrong, and we felt he was a guy who could come into the game and really make an impact and he certainly did."
The visitors had fallen behind 2-0 inside the first quarter hour on strikes by Angel and Clint Mathis, but they managed to pull one back when Kerry Zavagnin hit a 25-yard bomb past Red Bulls 'keeper Ronald Waterreus on the stroke of halftime.
It was all Wizards in the second half, with Ryan Raybould setting up Movsisyan's first with a low cross to the near post and Victorine sending Movsisyan in on Waterreus's goal with a long pass in the 79th minute that the former Pasadena City College player finished with a brilliant chip over the former Dutch international.
It would have been a worthy game-winner, but Jose Burciaga, Jr., pulled down Red Bulls forward John Wolyniec inside the box in the 90th minute, and Angel stepped up to the spot to bury his ninth goal in seven games. That total matches Johnson, who did not feature in the U.S. team's 2-1 quarterfinal win against Panama earlier Saturday, atop the MLS goal-scoring chart.
It was a disappointing ending for Kansas City, especially since it would have overtaken New York in the Eastern Conference standings with a win despite having played two fewer games.
But to a man, the Wizards were proud of their performance.
"We showed great character in this game by coming back, especially against a good team in New York," Zavagnin said. "In the second half, we had a chance to steal the game. Credit to our guys. We made a good account of ourselves."
Onalfo agreed.
"This team doesn't give up and we don't get frustrated," he said. "We always find ways to do well. We walk away from New York, a very good team, with a point. We're looking forward to our next game."
And with Johnson gone at least another game, especially Movsisyan.
Doug McIntyre is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
