The Kansas City Wizards will look to stay on a roll Friday when they take on FC Dallas on the Fourth of July at Pizza Hut Park. Unbeaten in their last two league games, the Wizards will look to score some goals of their own -- as they did in their 4-2 extra-time defeat of the USL-1 Carolina Railhawks in the U.S. Open Cup round-of-16 Tuesday evening.
The Wizards offense has not scored a goal of their own in a league match since May 24 in a 3-1 loss at Los Angeles -- their lone tally since coming through an own goal in a 1-0 win against Real Salt Lake last Saturday. Recently, the debilitating problem of not creating chances has been consistently solved. Now they must put those chances away.
One player who might be ready to fit that bill is Colombian forward Ivan Trujillo. While he didn't score last Saturday, in his first league start since June 7, his potential as an MLS goal scorer has been seen.
Trujillo scored two goals in Tuesday's Open Cup match -- one with his head and one with his foot -- and has now scored five goals in various competitions and exhibitions this season to go with his single goal in 10 MLS contests.
However, Wizards head coach Curt Onalfo has recently been most impressed with Trujillo's mental strength and determination -- two traits that are sure to help him break through in MLS play.
"He played in the reserve game against Columbus [on June 15] and hurt [his ankle]. ... He was out for the Toronto game [the next week] because he couldn't train, and the prognosis was for him to be out three weeks," Onalfo said. "But he's a warrior. He got back, was not slated to start against Salt Lake, but he trained and did extremely well. He basically made a statement that he wants to help this team. He had a solid performance in that game having only a couple days of training. He played extremely well on Tuesday night. It's very encouraging."
Encouraging also is the Wizards' progress in the month of June, a month in which they only lost one match in all competitions, including two "gritty" road draws.
"We made tremendous progress in the month of June. ... We had some very good results," Onalfo said. "We walk into the game very confidently knowing that we have some games in hand and that there are points out there that we need to get."
Right midfielder Davy Arnaud, who will be playing in his eighth league contest on Friday after having offseason knee surgery, knows his team is on the verge of a winning roll and feels that he personally is now near full strength.
"We're looking to keep that winning feeling we have going right now," he said. "It's tough [for me] after six months of not playing. Last week in Toronto was the first real game I made it through without cramping up at the end, and [last Saturday] was the same thing. I felt good; I felt fit, which is important. I'm getting to feel like myself again. I'm starting to feel sharp again."
Making winning a habit again is what the Wizards need, and a win in Dallas would bring the Wizards back to the .500 mark on the season.
"Our mind set [going into Friday's match] is that we know we are playing against a very good team that has a new coach, probably newfound energy," said Onalfo, "and we have to exceed that and be a little bit smarter and do our best to walk away with three points."
Bob Rusert is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
