About 20 minutes after the end of the Kansas City Wizards 3-1 win against New England, techno music blared from a stereo in the Wizards locker room and smiles were plastered on players' faces.
That is what 21 shots, three first-half goals and, most importantly, a win for the first time in four games, in front of a sellout crowd, will do for a team.
A week after taking 17 shots in a 2-0 home loss to the Columbus Crew, a game that had some Wizards wondering if the offense would ever come around, Kansas City treated the scoreboard like a pinball machine.
Wizards captain Jimmy Conrad said a slight attitude adjustment could have been a reason for the good night.
"I thought we were a little more decisive in front of the goal, maybe a little bit more sure of ourselves," Conrad said. "We worked on it in practice, just being a little bit more selfish even.
"It was just a matter of being in the right place at the right time and still having the belief and confidence that you can be there, and you can do it."
The inflection in Conrad's voice said Saturday's performance provided a little relief as well to a team that hadn't won in its previous three games.
"It is nice," Conrad said. "I think this is the first time under coach [Curt] Onalfo that we've had a game where we could actually take our foot off the pedal and relax a little bit in the second half and make it an exercise in discipline."
The Wizards head coach thought his team played a solid 90 minutes.
"We moved the ball very well," Onalfo said. "Like I said at the press conference this week and prior, we know it's a challenge in our ballpark because of the size of the field. We have to get better at creating more chances at home.
"It's been a big point of emphasis. I also said we would eventually do what we needed to do in order to have a better record at home, and it's starting to come together."
The Wizards are now 3-2-2 at CommunityAmerica Ballpark this year and are tied for third in the Eastern Conference with Toronto FC after TFC's 2-1 win over New York on Saturday.
If it could go right for Kansas City on Saturday night, it did.
After breaking on top in the 19th minute thanks to a Davy Arnaud goal on a splendid give-and-go with Claudio Lopez ("Pretty. Good soccer," Onalfo said), it appeared the game would be a dogfight as New England answered nine minutes later with a Shalrie Joseph header past goalkeeper Kevin Hartman.
Over the next 11 minutes however, fortune smiled on Kansas City.
Lopez, who simply abused the Revolution's back line most of the evening, dragged down Revs defender Emmanuel Osei. While on the ground, Osei responded by kicking Lopez in the leg. He then stood up and shoved Lopez. The act earned Osei a red card and gave the Wizards a man advantage for the remainder.
Five minutes later, Revolution midfielder Jeff Larentowicz conceded an own goal in the 36th minute as the ball ricocheted off his leg into the goal after a deflection by goalkeeper Matt Reis.
With the crowd still buzzing from the play, the Wizards struck again as defenders Aaron Hohlbein and Jimmy Conrad hooked up to give Kansas City the 3-1 advantage. Off another deflection from Reis, Conrad sent a header to Hohlbein, who put the shot away from point-blank range and gave Conrad his first assist since Sept. 25, 2005 against Los Angeles.
The 34-year old Lopez played like a man possessed.
Moving without the ball, he harassed the Revolution, causing them to focus on him and lose sight of other Wizards darting through the middle of the field. Along with his assist on the Arnaud goal, his corner kick started a chain of events that led to the Wizards' third goal as Josh Wolff's header off the kick was deflected to Conrad.
"He looked like he was 25 tonight," Conrad said. "It's nice to see when Claudio is feeling good because he's like the cog to our team. Hopefully that will continue."
Lopez said the red card noticeably affected New England.
"We played better the first half," Lopez said. "And, after the red card they had, it was much easier. They left [the middle] open most of the time, and it was pretty easy for us. [The win] was great for us because we really needed three points."
Curtis Kitchen is a contributor to MLSnet.com
