KANSAS CITY - Summer has officially arrived in Kansas City. Temperatures are in the 90s, the humidity is high and the forecast is for the same for the next week.
The Kansas City Wizards season, though, is in the dead of winter after Houston Dynamo won 3-2 on Saturday. The visitors kept their unbeaten streak alive, boosting it to nine games. The Wizards lost their sixth consecutive game, five of those by one goal.
The game followed a familiar pattern for the Wizards, home and away: giving up the first goal and fighting just to equalize.
"The big question we have to ask ourselves is, 'Is this our level? Can we play better than this or can't we?'" Wizards coach Bob Gansler said. "If we can't then tonight's game is proof of that, but I think there is more there and I think the guys feel the same way. We have to work on it and get it done."
Wizards captain Jimmy Conrad said the losing streak is something that the squad thinks about in terms what to do to start winning again.
"It's obviously something where you start thinking about it a lot. What do we do from here? We're just thinking, 'Oh, man we're giving up the first goal,'" Conrad said. "It just starts to snowball. I think if we can just melt the snow in some way, we'll be all right. I think really getting that first goal and having a lead at some point will be a nice change for us."
Dynamo scored two of their three goals from dead ball situations. Brad Davis served a corner kick that Eddie Robinson scored on at the far post in the 21st minute for Houston's first goal. Davis scored himself from a free kick in the 56th minute to put Houston ahead 2-1.
"Defending set pieces in general is just concentration," Conrad said. "And sometimes you can look at how a set piece is created. Sometimes it's a turnover we give away in a bad area that leads to a corner kick. If we play that right, we're not giving up set pieces. There is always the play before the play and we just have to get some more of those."
In some ways, this might have been an atypical Houston victory. Wizards midfielder Sasha Victorine said the Wizards did a pretty good job shutting off outside midfielder Davis and Brian Mullan from putting crosses into Ching.
Instead, Victorine said, Houston was able to play balls into the top of the penalty area to their forwards, who held the ball while other players ran off them.
On one such ball, Ching turned with the ball and had a lane to shoot while closely marked by Wizards defender Tyson Wahl near the top of the penalty area. Ching shot and scored Houston's third goal in the 66th minute.
In general, Victorine thought the Wizards should have taken the game to Houston more than they did.
"This is our home and we've got to press and we've got to push. We've got to be the ones who are putting teams on their heels and I don't think we did," Victorine said. "I think in the first half at times they were pressing more than we were. We were turning the ball over and it was allowing them to have more possession in the game."
Conrad said there is a different area that breaks down during each loss.
"I just feel like it's always something new," Conrad said. "Every game we're talking a little different something. It's comes down to concentration."
Conrad does not exclude himself from suffering lapses in concentration.
"It's kind of getting passed around. We need to have a nice collective effort," Conrad said. "I think we realize that nobody is just going to hand us three points. I think (opponents) think we're a little vulnerable. We just have to do the little things to make the difference.
"You have to keep going out there and trying to do the right things and trying to get better each day. Once you lose that, once you start throwing your hands up and giving up, that's not a good sign. We're not there yet. I don't think we'll get there. I think we have a good core of guys that understand and know what it takes to win."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
