KANSAS CITY WIZARDS v TORONTO FC
ARROWHEAD STADIUM, Kansas City, Mo.
7 p.m. CT (MetroSports; The Score)
July 1, 2007 (WEEK 13) / MLS Game #85
The Kansas City Wizards and Toronto FC meet for the third time this season, with both teams looking to reverse a couple of recent trends. The Wizards dropped both of their games last week to put an end to a four-game unbeaten run, shut out for the first time on the season in their last match, a home loss to Houston. Toronto FC is playing the second match of a six-game road swing while the FIFA Under-20 World Cup is being played in Canada; they have yet to win on the road in their inaugural campaign.
REFEREE: Ricardo Salazar. SAR (bench): Greg Barkey; JAR (opposite): Kermit Quisenberry; 4th: Brad Clem
MLS Career: 60 games; FC/gm: 31.4; Y/gm: 3.6; R: 13; pens: 21
Games involving Wizards: P9 W3 L4 T2; FC/gm: 32.7; Y/gm: 3.8; R: 4; pens: 5
Games involving Toronto FC: P1 W0 L0 T1; FC/gm: 25.0; Y/gm: 3.0; R: 0; pens: 0
INJURY REPORT: KANSAS CITY WIZARDS - OUT: DF Matt Groenwald (blood clots); MF Ryan McMahen (torn ACL); PROBABLE: MF Davy Arnaud (lower back strain); DF Jose Burciaga (L shoulder sprain); MF Carlos Marinelli (calf strain), FW Scott Sealy (ankle sprain) ... TORONTO FC - OUT: DF Marco Reda (knee); MF Tyler Hemming (knee); QUESTIONABLE: FW Danny Dichio (ankle)
SUSPENDED: TOR: Tyrone Marshall (through July 1)
WARNINGS:
SUSPENDED NEXT YELLOW CARD: none
SUSPENDED AFTER TWO YELLOW CARDS: KC: Davy Arnaud; Jose Burciaga Jr., Nick Garcia, Kerry Zavagnin ... TOR: Jim Brennan, Danny Dichio, Maurice Edu
INTERNATIONAL ABSENCES: KC: Jimmy Conrad, Eddie Johnson (USA; Copa America) ... TOR: Marvell Wynne; (USA; Copa America); Andrea Lombardo, Cristian Nunez, Stephen Lumley, Nana Attakora-Gyan, Gabe Gala (Canada under-20)
HEAD-TO-HEAD
ALL-TIME (2 meetings): Wizards 2 wins, 4 goals ... Toronto FC 0 wins, 0 goals ... Draws 0
AT KANSAS CITY (1 meeting): Wizards 1 win, 3 goals ... Toronto FC 0 wins, 0 goals ... Draws 0
• This is the third and final meeting between the clubs, after the clubs played a home-and-home series over four days in April.
• Coaches record: Curt Onalfo vs. TOR: P2 W2 L0 D0 ... Mo Johnston v KC: P2 W0 L0 D2
THIS SEASON (MLS)
4/25: KC 3, TOR 0 (Johnson 5, Zavagnin 55, Movsisyan 70)
4/28: TOR 0, KC 1 (Johnson 81)
• In the first meeting in the home-and-home series between the clubs, the Kansas City Wizards got the home portion of their 2007 campaign off on the right foot with a 3-0 victory at Arrowhead Stadium. Eddie Johnson headed the Wizards into the lead after just five minute, then Kerry Zavagnin scored his first goal since the 2003 season in the 55th minute. Yura Movsisyan then finished off the match in the 70th minute with his first professional goal.
• On April 28, a sellout crowd greeted Toronto FC for their first-ever home game on a cold, damp afternoon, and the first-ever MLS game in Canada.
• TFC started strong, and nearly scored twice in the first half. An innocuous looking corner kick was nearly spilled into his own goal by Wizards goalkeeper Kevin Hartman, and then Danny Dichio had a terrific chance when all alone in the area, but his shot was cleared off the line by K.C. right back Jack Jewsbury.
• But after the break it was a different story, and the Wizards deservedly took the lead in the 81st minute. A long ball from Michael Harrington found Eddie Johnson in the right side of the area, and he cut back to his left foot before lashing a low drive that took a deflection off a defender and slipped inside the near post for the game's lone goal.
• Here's Onalfo's team: (4-3-1-2): Kevin Hartman - Jack Jewsbury, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga Jr. - Sasha Victorine, , Kerry Zavagnin, Michael Harrington - Carlos Marinelli (Ryan Pore 16 / Kurt Morsink 90) - Eddie Johnson, Davy Arnaud. Substitutes Not Used: Aaron Hohlbein, Will John, Eric Kronberg, Ryan Raybould, Lance Watson
• Here's Johnston's team (4-4-2): Greg Sutton - Marvell Wynne, Andrew Boyens, Jim Brennan, Kevin Goldthwaite - Paulo Nagamura (Edson Buddle 84), Maurice Edu, Carl Robinson, Andy Welsh (Miguel Canizalez 68) - Danny Dichio, Alecko Eskandarian. Substitutes Not Used: Srdjan Djekanovic, Andrea Lombardo, Ronnie O'Brien, Chris Pozniak, Marco Reda
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
The Kansas City Wizards lost for the second time in five days, falling 1-0 to Houston Dynamo at Arrowhead Stadium last Sunday. The Wizards fell back into third place in the Eastern Conference with 20 points from 12 matches, one behind the New York Red Bulls and two behind the New England Revolution.
LAST MATCH
• The Wizards were returning home after a draw and a loss on a two-game road swing followed back-to-back wins, while Dynamo were riding high with a four-game winning streak that followed the low point of three consecutive losses.
• The Wizards controlled the opening half-hour, and twice Pat Onstad was called upon to make saves from Scott Sealy when he was all alone in front of the Houston goal.
• But the Dynamo defense held out and finally got the chance they were looking for in the 81st minute. Stuart Holden swung in a corner from the right and defender Patrick Ianni just stuck his head in front of Sasha Victorine to snap home his first career professional goal and give the Orange the victory.
• For the third consecutive match Wizards head coach Curt Onalfo kept his starting XI intact. Here's Onalfo's team (4-4-1-1): Kevin Hartman - Jack Jewsbury, Jimmy Conrad, Nick Garcia, Jose Burciaga Jr. - Davy Arnaud (Kurt Morsink 67), Sasha Victorine, Kerry Zavagnin, Michael Harrington - Carlos Marinelli (Ryan Pore 80) - Scott Sealy (Yura Movsisyan 51). Substitutes Not Used: Aaron Hohlbein, Eric Kronberg, Ryan Raybould, Tyson Wahl
• "We created enough chances to win the game, and we didn't," said Onalfo. "I'm going to say it until I'm blue in the face: we're not going to get caught up in the result. At the end of the day, we played a good soccer game today and had enough chances to put the game away, and we didn't."
TEAM NEWS
• The Wizards remain hopeful even though they failed to make up ground on the conference-leading New York Red Bulls during the two games they had in hand.
• "You look at the positives. We were rock solid and didn't give anything away almost the entire game, gave them a set-piece goal in the 81st minute," Onalfo said. "Our guys fought and gave everything they possibly had. We fell short; that's life."
• Set pieces for both sides were a large factor in the contest. The Wizards earned eight corner kicks against Dynamo but failed to score. Added to their 10 corners against Columbus on Wednesday without a goal, and the Wizards were looking for better.
• "Yeah, and we had been working on them the last two days. But go figure," said Onalfo. "When you play as many games as we have in the last week, it's difficult to spend quality time doing that. But that is something we'll spend next week getting ready for Toronto at home."
• Coming into the match, the Wizards had not been shut out all season, and against Dynamo, they took 14 shots at goal, putting five on target. But in the end, the result was the extension of the winless streak to three games.
• "I think we're a mature bunch of guys, and we realize it's not normally going to take just one or two shots to get the job done. An immature team might be frustrated if there wasn't a goal at the end of 45 minutes. But we knew it might take longer than that because they're a good team and we were prepared to compete for 90 minutes," said goalkeeper Kevin Hartman. "We kept our positive attitude and we tried our hardest and unfortunately, we came up short."
• The lack of execution on set pieces and in the final third are certainly frustrating for the Wizards, but taking responsibility is a sign the Wizards are confident things will be righted.
• "I take the positive from this. Carlos [Marinelli] got 80 minutes; he's played three games in a row, and team is now starting to understand how to find him. We're extremely dangerous," Onalfo said. "We had two one-v-ones with the goalkeeper. You have to put it in the back of the net, end of story. We're not going to let that result mess with the mood in this locker room."
TORONTO FC
Toronto FC began their long road run in an inauspicious fashion, falling 3-0 to the New England Revolution in Foxborough last Saturday night. TFC now have 13 points from 12 matches and fell back into seventh place in the Eastern Conference, one point behind the Chicago Fire, two behind the Columbus Crew and five in arrears of D.C. United.
LAST MATCH
• The Revolution were finishing off a four-game homestand after recording a loss and two draws in the first three games, while Toronto FC were heading out on a six-week road swing after having played seven of their eight previous matches at home, claiming all four victories on the season in that time.
• But just as they had done in a 4-0 victory against TFC in April, the Revolution dominated from the outset, and took the lead after just 13 minutes. Avery John sent a cross to the top of the Toronto area, but a fortunate bounce off defender Kevin Goldthwaite saw the ball bounce right into Andy Dorman's path, and he gleefully pounded home from 12 yards.
• The Revolution doubled their lead just after the half-hour mark. Jeff Larentowicz swung in a cross from the right and Pat Noonan rose up to athletically send a looping header inside the left-hand post and double the lead. It was Noonan's second goal in 2007, both in the past two weeks.
• New England finished off the rout as Dorman claimed his second nine minutes from the end. A wonderful tic-tac-toe passing movement finished with a heel to toe play, as Khano Smith's pass was back-heeled by Adam Cristman into Dorman's path in the area and he toe-bashed the ball past Srdjan Djekanovic inside the near post.
• Toronto FC head coach Mo Johnston kept his team the same as the one that defeated FC Dallas 4-0 at BMO Field the previous Sunday.
• Here's Johnston's team (4-4-2): Srdjan Djekanovic - Marvell Wynne, Andrew Boyens, Jim Brennan, Kevin Goldthwaite - Ronnie O'Brien, Maurice Edu, Carl Robinson, Andy Welsh - Jeff Cunningham, Danny Dichio. Substitutes Not Used: Adam Braz, Miguel Canizalez, David Guzman, Joey Melo, Chris Pozniak, Sam Reynolds
• "I just lambasted (my team). I'm clearly disappointed in almost all of them. I'm not happy. It's certainly unacceptable, the way they played," Johnston said. "In the first half and second half we defended poorly. We had two or three clear-cut chances in the first half; in the second half, nothing. I'm not happy with the way we played, the way our attitude was, the way we came out in the second half."
TEAM NEWS
• While Johnston did have his three Canadian senior internationals back from the CONCACAF Gold Cup, he didn't call upon either Adam Braz or Chris Pozniak. Marco Reda, originally part of the Canada squad, suffered a knee injury that meant the addition of Pozniak. And he was still missing five younger players with the Canadian under-20 national team as the FIFA U-20 World Cup was around the corner.
• "We need our guys to come back. Our squad is bare as it is. That's why we didn't use any substitutes. We just got two guys back from the Gold Cup," said Johnston. "With the big guys missing, I'm not making it as an excuse. We were fairly beaten tonight. And to be honest with you, this team's going to get better, but the attitude needs to change and the way they played tonight. But there was a certain thing in our play that was disappointing and I told them so."
• However, Greg Sutton was not available after suffering a concussion while with the Canadian team, that required the Maple Leafs bringing in Houston Dynamo 'keeper Pat Onstad. Sutton was apparently given a clean bill of health in the run-up to the Wizards match.
• "We also need Greg Sutton in the goal. He's a good goalkeeper," Johnston said. "I'm not going to say anything about our backup goalkeeper. Obviously, we didn't defend well. When you come in here, and play a team like this, you need to defend. We gave up two sloppy goals."
• However, the Reds will now be without first-choice right back Marvell Wynne, who was called into the full U.S. national team for the first time to play in Copa America. "We're excited to have one of our guys play for the national team," Johnston said. "We're excited for Marvell and his family. The kid's worked hard, he deserves it. We'll be watching the games closely."
• The reverse starts a six-game road trip for TFC. The club has only picked up one road point on its travels so far this season (0-4-1) and faces another five contests on the road before returning to BMO Field.
• "We've been very good at home. We're tough to beat when we play there. We just need to get things right from the get-go," defender Jim Brennan said. "Hopefully we'll turn it around now because we're going be on the road for a while. We're going to have to turn it around. We've got good players here who know how the form we play. But, we just got to get things right and get ready for next week."
• There were more changes during the week for the club. First, Trinidad & Tobago international forward Collin Samuel was acquired after playing through the end of a contract with Dundee United in Scotland, where he had played for the last four seasons.
• "We're excited to have him on board, I tried signing him two years ago when I was in New York," said Johnston. "He's strong, he's fast, he can play left side, he can play right hand side and he can play through the middle. He's a great edition to our team, having Dichio and Cunningham already."
• Then the club sent Kevin Goldthwaite to the New York Red Bulls for Todd Dunivant in an exchange of left backs. Goldthwaite had been acquired by TFC from Houston Dynamo in April, making nine appearances (all starts) with a goal and an assist for the expansion club. Dunivant was acquired midway through last season from the Los Angeles Galaxy in exchange for a partial allocation.
