The Kansas City Wizards' coast-to-coast marathon is finally over. The Wizards played seven games in 20 days, ending the stretch with a scoreless draw against the New England Revolution Saturday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
Considering the logjam, which featured games on three different fronts -- MLS, SuperLiga and Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup -- a draw on the road isn't the worst result.
But the Wizards still leave the Boston area disappointed because they thought they deserved more out of the Eastern Conference clash.
"It's a point on the road, which you can't be too upset about," Wizards midfielder Michael Harrington said. "We just felt we were the better team and that we should have won the game."
The Wizards had the better of play in the second half and outshot the Revs, 10-6, after halftime, 16-11 for the game. But they were unable to put the ball past Matt Reis, who made a career-high 11 saves.
"We had a couple of chances off their mistakes in the first half and in the second half I thought we were good enough to get one," midfielder Jack Jewsbury said. "Obviously he had some key saves, but at the end of the day I think we need to be a little bit better in front of th e goal."
Kansas City has now gone three games in all competitions without scoring.
"We've having problems putting balls into the back of the net over the last couple of weeks," Wizards coach Curt Onalfo said. "The positive is that we're creating chances, the negative is that we're not putting them away."
Harrington was the Wizards' most dangerous attacking player in the first half, but he came off in the 56th minute for Michael Kraus after picking up a dead leg just before halftime.
"If you look at the last four games, he's played enormous minutes," Onalfo said of Harrington. "I knew he was going to hit some fatigue point."
Jewsbury had a productive second half, twice testing Reis in less than a minute. But his header was saved by a lunging Reis and then was played in behind the Revs defense and alone on Reis, but again the New England goalkeeper parried the ball away for a corner kick.
"Herculez Gomez sent in a good ball, a little behind me and I tried to get as much as I could on it and it kind of floated up to the top corner and Reis makes a good save," Jewsbury said. "In the next one I floated one off to Claudio (Lopez) and he played me a great ball in. I probably could have done a bit better, but Reis makes a good near post save on me and keeps it 0-0."
Reis s tood on his head in the second half, keeping the Wizards off the scoreboard. In the 79th minute, the veteran goalkeeper saved a chip by Josh Wolff and then denied Gomez on the ensuing corner kick. Seven times the Wizards put the ball on frame in the second half. And seven times, Reis had the answer.
"He's a great goalkeeper, in my opinion one of the best in the league," Harrington said. "I think he's proved that over his time in MLS. He was Matt Reis today."
The Wizards had to play the final 10 minutes with 10 men after referee Baldomero Toledo sent off Lance Watson with a straight red card for a sliding tackle on Nico Colaluca.
"I was disappointed," Onalfo said. "I felt like it was a late challenge, but not one that warranted an ejection. But whenever you put the referee in a situation where he has to make a decision, I think it's unfortunate."
Despite the draw, the Wizards continue their strong form at Gillette Stadium, improving to 7-1-2 here. They now have 20 points out of 16 matches and are three points in front of the Revolution in fifth place in the Eastern Conference.
"We've been very successful here in my seven years here," Jewsbury said. "It's just unfortunate we weren't able to get one (goal) because I think we could have held them off. We were pretty solid defensively all night and they didn't get too many chances."
Dylan Butler is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
