Winless in their last six games following Saturday's 3-0 loss to the visiting Columbus Crew, the Kansas City Wizards players decided it was time to call a post-game team meeting.
"Some things needed to be said amongst us players," was all that midfielder Ryan Pore shared.
But after a match in which literally nothing went right on the field in front of a sellout crowd at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, something had to give.
It was the Wizards who gave in early on, in their first home match since April 12. Just three minutes in, Chad Marshall rose at the far post and headed home a Guillermo Barros Schelotto corner to give the Crew the lead. Eighteen minutes later, Alejandro Moreno scored the first of his two on the night.
"We shot ourselves in the foot. We gave a goal away in the third minute, and then gave another silly goal away in the 21st minute. You put yourself behind the 8-ball three minutes in at home in front of a sellout crowd -- absolutely so disappointing," said Kansas City head coach Curt Onalfo. "A game we just absolutely [gave] away. The league is too good. Columbus is too good of a team to do that with. We couldn't have put ourselves in a worse situation."
In such a difficult position, the only thing to do is to keep playing hard and smart. But at any inkling of a Wizards resurrection, things fell apart or were countered by the Crew.
Even a series of early second-half chances from Lopez on a header in the box and a scramble in front of Crew goalkeeper William Hesmer were not enough to get the Wizards back in the game. Somewhat fittingly, the Wizards best chance of the second half came from substitute Ryan Pore in the 80th minute, some 13 minutes after Moreno struck again. Pore took a Claudio Lopez cross down in the box, whirled and hit a shot that stretched Hesmer fully to the left to preserve the shutout.
"Going in, Coach told me, 'One goal can change the complexion of the game.' I tried to bring some energy and tried to get a goal for us, but Hesmer made a good save on me. That was kind of the way things were going tonight," said Pore.
Added forward Scott Sealy: "3-0 -- that's what you get when you don't show up."
Where do the Wizards go from here?
"I've been through a lot worse things in my life than losing a 3-0 game at home. [But] I never want to lose a game again 3-0 at home," Onalfo said. "It's just a matter of plugging away, continuing to try and solve the issues we have as a group. We have a resilient bunch of guys. We have a good bunch of guys. We have a bunch of guys who will rebound fine, but it's a bit of a gut check."
A gut check for all.
"The only way you can react to it is you try to lift up your teammate, try to be a professional, try to get out there and work as hard as you can, and make sure that you are better the next time. You have to put your faith in somebody. We'll put our faith in the coach, and hopefully, things will turn around for us," said goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
"We have to make sure everybody is working hard and staying after doing the things that are going to help them become a better player for the next game. It's not a group of 11, or 13, or 14, or 15 players that lost tonight; it's the entire Kansas City Wizards. It's disappointing for the guys that were out there, and it's disappointing for the entire organization. It was a huge letdown for us tonight."
Bob Rusert is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
