For the last two months, Kansas City Wizards coach Bob Gansler has prepared a squad with the expectation that players would miss stretches of the season.
National team duty for the World Cup could claim as many as six Wizards players. Injuries put players on the shelf without warning.
The Wizards will be without two of their biggest forces on the field when they open the season at Arrowhead Stadium on Saturday against the Columbus Crew. The game matches the two teams from Eastern Conference that failed to make the playoffs last season.
Jimmy Conrad, the 2005 MLS Defender of the Year, is out with athletic pubalgia, also known as sports hernia. Forward Josh Wolff is also out, still suffering from headaches resulting from a concussion suffered in a March 22 friendly between the United States and Germany.
Conrad is in Germany and will undergo a surgical procedure from Dr. Ulrike Muschaweck to resolve the symptoms. Dr. Muschaweck's procedure is designed to be the least invasive to resolve a sports hernia. Conrad might be able to return to the lineup April 8 for the game at Houston.
Wolff, the Wizards leading scorer from 2005, is more likely to return to the lineup next week. He has made progress toward recovery and has trained some with the squad, but still had a headache on Thursday.
Gansler has had to prepare for the opener without Conrad, Wolff, Kerry Zavagnin and Eddie Johnson for much of the preseason anyway because of the national team commitment. Those players have been around for about two weeks of the two months of preseason training.
"We knew it was coming one way or another," Gansler said. "We have enough capable guys, 27 guys, all anxious and capable of playing."
The Wizards are likely to play three forwards in 4-3-3 as opposed to last season's 4-4-2. Johnson, Davy Arnaud and Scott Sealy, last year's second-leading goal-scorer, are likely fill those roles.
The biggest question in the starting 11 is who will be the starting goalkeeper: Bo Oshoniyi, last year's starter who played every minute of the regular season, or second-year goalie Will Hesmer. Gansler said he would reveal his choice just before the game on Saturday.
But selecting a starting 11 has been more pleasurable than difficult for Gansler.
"I feel this is a very deep squad," Gansler said. "It's a coach's delight to have more than 11 starters. We're ready to play in spite of the fact we will be missing two of our bell ringers."
The big question for the Wizards might be how well any players new to the squad settle into the lineup. It is likely that the only two players in Saturday's starting 11 who were not on the squad last season would be Johnson and right back Matt Groenwald, a third round-selection in this year's MLS SuperDraft.
"For guys who have been in this league long enough, it's pretty obvious that we need to get off to a quick start," Zavagnin said. "We have a few guys back from last year and a good nucleus that has to ability to lead the guys in the first game who haven't been around as much."
The fact that the Wizards have missed four key players for much of the preseason is more of an unknown to Zavagnin than a problem.
"I think we're going to be fine," Zavagnin said. "It's nice that we have the first game at home."
In the Crew, the Wizards face a team with, perhaps, more uncertainty going into its season opener. The Crew has a new coach, Sigi Schmid, and is likely to have more new players in the starting 11.
Central defender Marcos Gonzalez and playmaking midfielder Sebastian Rozental, both from Chile, are expected to be major contributors to the Crew's success.
The overhaul of the Crew lineup under Schmid was still going on this week. Columbus traded forward Edson Buddle to the New York for midfielder Eddie Gaven and the rights to defender Chris Leitch.
That could be an edge for the Wizards, who are 7-1-2 all-time in season openers and 4-0-2 in home openers under Gansler.
But to Gansler, no game is more important than any other.
"Every game is there to be won," Gansler said. "This is our first opportunity. We'll be keen and I'm sure Columbus will be keen. So we'll want to win the first one, the second one and the 16th one."
The Wizards have MLS Cup in their sights as well as the U.S. Open Cup, which they hoisted in 2004.
"We are capable of being there for when both of those cups are handed out, the Open Cup and MLS Cup," Gansler said. "That's our ambition and I think that's not a foolish way of thinking."
Robert Whitman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
