Although it was their most satisfying victory of the season, the Kansas City Wizards have no time to celebrate ahead of Monday's U.S. Open Cup game against the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park.
Kansas City broke out of a nine-game winless streak Saturday in Major League Soccer games with a 4-0 victory against Columbus on Saturday, but find themselves playing 48 hours later in the fourth round of the Open Cup.
The game was scheduled to be played Aug. 2, but severe weather conditions prevented the game from starting. When the two teams are done with the Open Cup game, they will hook up in a league match on Wednesday, also in Bridgeview, Ill.
That means most of the Wizards roster is likely to play in at least one of the two games.
"We'll try to divvy the minutes up and try to divvy the roster up somehow that it makes sense for both games," interim coach Brian Bliss said.
But Bliss will be limited in player selection. Defender Jimmy Conrad is out four to six weeks with a fractured jaw. Defender Alex Zotinca started Saturday, but had to be replaced when he was injured reaching for a pass.
"You start taxing guys like that and you run into some injury issues," Bliss said. "And that's the last thing we want with Jimmy down and Zotinca down and (midfielder) Lance (Watson) just coming off his ankle injury. We can't afford another injury."
Bliss hinted that the lineup for the Open Cup game might feature more players who have seen little action this season outside of reserve division games.
"Not to play down the Open Cup, but right now the league is the most important thing," Bliss said. "I wish I could put more into that Open Cup game, but the reality is, is that the league has got to be our focus at this point."
The Wizards jumped two places in the Eastern Conference standings with the victory Saturday. Kansas City is now in third place with 25 points, three points behind second-place New England.
A victory in the Open Cup game only means more work for the Wizards -- an Aug. 23 date against New England in the quarterfinals.
"Not to say we aren't going to try and win Monday's game because we will," Bliss said. "I'll put a group out there that will fight and they'll win or give an effort to win."
The Fire are in a similar predicament, having played Saturday. One edge the Wizards might have is that they have pushed their season in the right direction with Saturday's victory. Coupled with draws in their two previous games and shutouts in two of the last three games, Kansas City has some momentum.
But the Fire, three-time winners of the U.S. Open Cup, are likely to be taking the competition just as seriously as the Wizards.
"We've looked at each season that we have two cups to win, the MLS Cup and the Open Cup," Wizards defender Jose Burciaga Jr. said. "We're going to take it game by game. We're going to need everybody. That's going to be the key for us. You get your number called, you get your job done and be positive. If we just show we want it a little bit more, the ball is going to roll for us."
Defender Ryan Raybould, who made his first MLS start last Wednesday in New England, is likely to be called on for either the Open Cup game or the league game on Wednesday. Raybould is confident that whatever the starting 11 is, they will work hard to advance in the Open Cup.
"We have a lot of reserve guys who are really good players," Raybould said. "Guys are hungry, guys want to get minutes and the Open Cup is a good way to get (minutes) and I'm one of those guys. I think you'll be surprised how deep this team is."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
