The winless streak is at seven games and counting in Kansas City.
That’s the grim situation the Wizards find themselves in after Real Salt Lake dismantled manager Peter Vermes’ side 4-1 at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday night in a match marred by yellow cards and an eventual red to captain Davy Arnaud.
WATCH: FULL
MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
No matter how you cut it, Kansas City have now gone 630 minutes and 49 days without collecting three points, effectively rendering their quick start meaningless and leaving Vermes to take the blame for his squad’s current shortcomings.
“It’s my responsibility,” Vermes told MLSsoccer.com over the phone following the loss. “Obviously, there is something that’s not right. I’m going to figure that out, and I’m going to figure it out quick.”
Quick can't come soon enough. What is clear is that the Wizards’ recent performances just aren’t good enough. In fact, the only consistent aspect of their game since defeating Colorado on April 10 has been the absence of results.
Against Real Salt Lake, defensive misgivings – a familiar theme – burdened Kansas City with an early 2-0 deficit from which they could never truly recover despite Josh Wolff, starting in midfield for the first time this season, pulling a goal back before halftime.
And unlike previous games, in which the team’s performance perhaps deserved better than the result, there was no sugarcoating the defeat this time around. Real Salt Lake fully deserved all three points, and the Wizards’ winless streak continues with no signs of abating, much to the chagrin of everyone surrounding the team.
“We’re tired of talking about it,” assistant coach Kerry Zavagnin told reporters after the game. “It’s something we addressed before the game, in terms of ‘Talk is cheap.’ We can talk about the mistakes and the decisions that are made throughout the game, but the fact of the matter is, we need more warriors on the field.”
With an eye to that, Vermes brought Wolff back into the fold after replacing him with rookie Teal Bunbury last week against the Crew. But though the veteran scored his first goal of the season to give the Wizards something to fight for, Real Salt Lake weathered the pressure applied by the visitors and could have widened the gap if not for erratic finishing.
Then, to make matters even worse, Kansas City lost Arnaud, one of the few players still fighting to make a consistent impact on both sides of the ball, to a questionable red card in the 82nd minute with the team down 2-1 and fighting for an equalizer.
Real Salt Lake’s Robbie Russell proceeded to score on the ensuing free kick, putting the game out of reach leaving the Wizards to ponder a fifth defeat in seven games.
“The third, in regards to the free kick and the ejection, just absolutely drops us into a ditch with no ladder to climb out,” Vermes said.
If that’s the case, Ned Grabavoy’s meaningless fourth goal was the dirt piled on top of another defeat and the low point in another match in which Kansas City turned in subpar performances on both sides of the ball.
“The fact of the matter is, we haven’t put a complete game together for a long time,” Zavagnin said, “and that’s led to losses and ties along the way. It’s not good enough.”
And, as the standings show, it isn’t anywhere close to good enough, and the road forward only gets harder from this point on.
Kansas City visit Toronto FC next week, searching to remedy their defensive woes against yet another hot opponent. In the meantime, Vermes has a week of practice to restore confidence in a squad in dire need of a boost while working out the kinks in the back line.
“We can’t give up goals like we are,” Vermes said, “and we have to put teams under pressure and put the ball in the back of the net. It’s a pretty simple gig.”
The truth of the matter is it’s been that simple for the last seven games. Now comes the hard part: finding a way to earn the victories that have eluded Kansas City for nearly two months.
