Every game this season seems to leave the Kansas City Wizards with something more to work on during the following week's training.
After Kansas City's 3-2 victory Saturday against the Chicago Fire at Arrowhead Stadium, coach Bob Gansler has a few things in mind.
With their second consecutive win after five games without a victory, the Wizards are pushing their season back in the direction they wish to travel.
"Offensively, yes. Defensively, we have to look at a couple of things because we were a little too generous," Gansler said.
The Wizards broke their streak of nine consecutive games in which they scored only one goal. And it took more than one goal against the Fire to gain the three points in the standings and make up some ground on Eastern Division-leading D.C. United, which drew at New England earlier Saturday.
The Wizards had to rally twice from a one-goal deficit to even be in a position to snatch the three points on a goal by Jose Burciaga Jr. in the 89th minute.
"When you are down not once, but twice, at home and fight your way back before halftime, that was good," Gansler said. "But it drained us tremendously."
Gansler made all three substitutions in the second half. Jack Jewsbury, Matt Groenwald and Ryan Pore all did more than just provide fresh legs, Gansler said.
"They gave us fresh legs, but also gave us smart play as well," Gansler said. "This is not an 11-man project, but the 14 who will be asked to contribute."
And contributions are different for each player. Scott Sealy scored the first two Wizards goals, taking advantage of his only two scoring opportunities of the game. Only better execution has helped the Wizards break through the one-goal barrier.
"Even before the guys left for the World Cup we were executing in the final third," Sealy said. "Even last weekend, we got chances on goal and got one in."
Burciaga's goal was a low, driven cross from a busted corner kick. Fire goalkeeper Zach Thornton got down in good shape to get his hands on the low ball, but managed only to deflect it into the goal.
And both Wizards goalkeeper Bo Oshoniyi and defender Nick Garcia successfully argued that a shot by Fire midfielder Gonzalo Segares was not a goal in second-half stoppage time, but went through a hole in through the outside of the side netting and rolled around inside the goal.
Calling that shot a goal would have touched off quite a bit more arguing. The Wizards had just taken the lead with Burciaga's goal.
"That could have been potentially pretty bad for us and pretty bad for the referee," Garcia said. "The referee did a good job making the right decision."
The Wizards were not a team in dire straits to begin with, even during the five-game winless streak.
"Everybody has picked it up and done a better job of what they are supposed to do," Garcia said.
While the Wizards may have been drained at the end of the game, that was the game plan. The result was 10 shots on goal, the most in a game this season, no offside calls, and only nine fouls committed.
"They whole game plan was to take it to them," Garcia said. "I thought we persevered. If anything, when we fell behind, we said, 'Let's go out and not get our heads down.'"
The Wizards next challenge is D.C. United. Kansas City travels to the nation's capital next Saturday and hosts D.C. on June 28.
The Wizards now trail D.C. by six points and have played one less game. United have defeated the Wizards twice this season and Sealy is looking forward to the next meeting.
"Those guys got six points off of us and we want to get them back," Sealy said.
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
