After yet another match where they created ample opportunities without finishing off enough, the Kansas City Wizards are still keeping the faith.
Yet a look at the Eastern Conference standings shows the impact: after Sunday's 1-1 draw with Toronto FC, the Wizards are still just tied for second place, instead of sitting alone atop the heap.
At Arrowhead Stadium, the Wizards took 25 shots at goal. Yet they failed to score more than just Michael Harrington's 18th-minute goal, which was answered just after the halftime break by a Danny Dichio header.
"It hurts; it definitely hurts. To not be able to score ... it's worse to get chances and not score than to not get any chances," said second-half substitute forward Yura Movsisyan. "I had so much energy in me. ... I was excited."
In some ways, Movsisyan was the representation of the Wizards' night. After coming on as a halftime substitute, Movsisyan had seven shots at goal. Only one found the target, but that was stopped by TFC goalkeeper Sam Reynolds, who made six saves in his professional debut.
"The team played very good," Movsisyan said. "We just have to put it in the back of the net. If we do it's a 10-0 game, that's how many chances we had."
Movsisyan demonstrated both the belief and the frustration the Wizards felt after playing well enough to win for the fourth game in a row. Two ties and two losses, whether to teams with a hot goalkeeper or teams that stay right with the Wizards blow by blow -- or both -- are lost points.
"Their goalkeeper came up very, very big, and they had a very fighting spirit," said Kansas City head coach Curt Onalfo. "We knew they were going to try and frustrate us the whole night, and they did a good job of that."
While a touch flabbergasted by the realization of only one goal, Onalfo continued to find positives.
"You can't fault [Movsisyan's] effort. He tried to make an impact on the game," said Onalfo. "Yura's a young player, and he needs to calm things down a little and just pick his spots rather than hitting it so hard."
Onalfo said the Wizards did better on set pieces, and also dealt well with two forced substitutes at halftime, when defenders Jose Burciaga and Aaron Hohlbein were both injured and could not continue.
"I feel like we are moving in the right direction," Onalfo said. "We played tonight without two of the best players in Major League Soccer: Eddie Johnson and Jimmy Conrad. ... Having said that, how many chances did we create? We just need to be sharper, smarter in front of the goal."
The Wizards' last chance of the match fell to Ryan Pore, an 81st-minute substitute, as they pushed offensively with Toronto down a man after Andrew Boyens was sent off following a second yellow card. Pore's header in the final seconds seemed destined for the back of the net.
"Michael played a great ball; I was able to beat the offsides trap, thought I had deflected it into the corner," said Pore. "But the 'keeper made a nice read on it and made a nice save."
Yet after the disappointment, the frustration and missing an opportunity to jump into first place in the East after losses by the New England Revolution and the New York Red Bulls on Saturday, the Wizards vowed to stay the course.
"You're going to have stretches in the season where the ball isn't going into the back of the net," Pore said. "We just have to keep working at it and it will come eventually."
Added forward Scott Sealy: "We can't put our heads down now; we have to keep shooting and creating chances."
Even humor crept in when asked if the Wizards had any mystical way to either explain or disrupt their current string of disappointing results.
"This run started when (Wizards equipment manager) Alex (Paepke) changed our uniform up one game on the road. Blame him, maybe," said Davy Arnaud.
On Wednesday, the Wizards host an in-form D.C. United in what will be a quick turnaround. Only time will tell if that is the game that the Wizards break out and cash in on their opportunities consistently, but by keeping the faith, the Wizards will make it at least possible.
Bob Rusert is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
