Heading into their matchup with Chivas USA at The Home Depot Center on Saturday, the Kansas City Wizards are still feeling a glow from their two-goal blitz in stoppage time at home last weekend against the Columbus Crew that gave the Wizards a 3-2 victory.
"A win like that buoys you into a belief that we are going to make the playoffs. ... With that win, it makes it a little bit more concrete that we're going to make the playoffs," said team captain Jimmy Conrad, "and when we make it, we're going to make a run."
The victory left the Wizards with 36 points, now five ahead of eighth-place Chicago heading into the weekend, with five matches left to play for both teams. Appropriately, then, the glow is tempered by a measure of reality.
"We played a very good first half [versus Columbus], and we played a good first five minutes of the second half," said head coach Curt Onalfo. "But for whatever reason, we hit a lull and stopped playing for 15 minutes. For two of those minutes we had lapses all over the field, and that's when we got punished."
The lapses are a recurring theme in a Wizards season that has seen inconsistent performances and up-and-down results. In the first meeting against Chivas, a 3-2 win at home on July 29, the Wizards fell behind in the 17th minute, took the lead in the 53rd minute, and then surrendered it two minutes later as Chivas drew level. Similarly, last Saturday against the Crew, the Wizards took the lead only to fall behind 2-1.
After Eddie Gaven leveled the score in the 65th minute, the second Crew score brought out another recurring theme: allowing a goal on a set piece. Andy Herron's 67th-minute goal was a tap in at the far post off a corner.
"[Set pieces are] something we talk about offensively and defensively. We wish we could be sharper on both. I don't know why that's our Achilles' heel this year," said Conrad. "You can talk about it until you're blue in the face, but unless you make the play, it's all for naught. ... If we really want to be considered a real threat to win the championship this year, set pieces in tight games are what it usually comes down to. That's something we're really going to have to focus on in the stretch run."
Preki's Chivas USA will present a monster challenge on more than just set pieces come Saturday night. Second place in the Western Conference, they have not lost since their setback in Kansas City on July 29, and they have not lost at all in home games at The Home Depot Center this season. Those marks owe equally to their defense (only 22 goals allowed) and their attack (39 scored). Onalfo has also said repeatedly how organized Chivas is on the field.
Defensively, the Wizards will need to emulate their opponent's organization to limit the dual threat of forwards Ante Razov and Maykel Galindo, who have 21 goals and 13 assists between them.
"Ante drops back in the midfield, and when he does that it creates a plus one for them [in the midfield]. So now you have Carlos [Marinelli] and Kerry [Zavagnin] having to not only manage the two midfielders they have to mark, but Ante as well," said Conrad. "What Chivas likes to do, probably with a grin on their face, is that when Ante goes, it forces me or Nick [Garcia] to follow him. If one of us does, it opens up a gap in the back and they run other guys through there."
That scenario played out in Chivas' first goal in K.C. in the last meeting between the teams as Chivas back Jonathan Bornstein found the net from a Razov through ball.
"We don't want [Razov] to be able to get a ball uncontested and pick us apart with his passing because he's really good at it ...," said Onalfo. "He needs to know it's going to be a tough game. That's the job of our central defenders to make sure that's the case."
The needed organization of picking up Razov and any subsequent runners does fall on the central defense pair of Conrad and Garcia but also Marinelli and Zavagnin in the heart of the midfield. Fortunately, playmaker Marinelli is rounding into a two-way player after joining the Wizards in March.
"The last three weeks, Carlos has just been excellent. ... We've told him exactly what we expect on both sides of the ball," Onalfo said. "The beauty of Carlos is that he is now fit enough where he is able to help us defensively, but he's also able to give us that final pass that really makes us dangerous."
Prompted by Marinelli, forwards Eddie Johnson (15 goals, tied for second in MLS) and Scott Sealy certainly won't be shy on the attack even though they are playing on the road. It's just not a philosophy Onalfo thinks is effective.
"I believe that if you take a conservative approach, at least with our team, we're not as successful," he said. "So we like to be a team that does a good job of breaking the rhythm of the other team, getting after the ball, and pressing. We feel that an important aspect it to try and get that first goal."
When scoring first, the Wizards are 6-0-4 this season. Combined with the fact that Chivas has never beaten the Wizards in the club's two-plus year history, aggressively pursuing that first goal sounds like a good strategy.
But as the Wizards' comeback versus the Crew shows, anything can happen, and with two attacking teams going at it Saturday night, the match should be a good one.
"I look forward to [the game]; I think it's going to be a good soccer match and a great challenge for our team," Onalfo said. "We want to finish the season strong, so our goal is to go there, play aggressively, and do our best to get the result we want."
Bob Rusert is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
