It wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t three points. And in many ways it will go down as a missed opportunity.
But even though the winless streak now stands at eight games in league play, the Kansas City Wizards took a step in the right direction Saturday afternoon in Toronto, battling to a scoreless draw in a match marred by two red cards and characterized by a demanding, physical style of play.
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The point was the Wizards first in five attempts on the road this season and the first chink to appear in Toronto FC’s form at BMO Field, where it was undefeated in four matches.
“This was a grind, this game,” manager Peter Vermes said in a phone interview afterward. “We knew it would be.”
Apparently, so did referee Baldomero Toledo, who was quick with cards all afternoon.
The first red card came in the 27th minute when former Wizard Nick Garcia's reckless, late and high challenge left Kei Kamara with a large gash above his knee and the Red's down a man.
But Kansas City failed to take advantage of Garcia’s dismissal; waiting until early in the second half to sustain any sort of pressure on Toronto’s back four. And by the time Ryan Smith, Josh Wolff, Teal Bunbury and Kamara began pushing the Reds into their own half, combative midfielder Craig Rocastle hacked down Julian De Guzman to earn his second yellow card and evened the playing field.
That left Vermes in a tricky position tactically with half-an-hour to play, down to 10 men on the road still and still lacking a result away from home in 2010.
“It would have been nice to extend the rest of the game with the man up,” Vermes said. “We were at a point right when Rocastle got thrown out to drop in two players to give us a little more attacking oomph.”
Korede Aiyegbusi and Jonathan Leathers injected life to the team as Vermes juggled tactics, but the Wizards were still limited to efforts from long range that rarely troubled TFC goalkeeper Stefan Frei.
While Kansas City struggled to create chances on one end of the field, goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen kept TFC from gaining any steam on the other. Nielsen thwarted two one-on-one opportunities, even taking a shot directly to the face to stop Jacob Peterson only eight minutes into the match, and ended any lingering doubts about jettisoning Kevin Hartman in the offseason.
“He was gigantic,” Vermes said. “He has been one of our most consistent performers all season long. You hope your goalkeeper can make those big saves throughout the course of the game, and he did. He was tremendous.”
So even though it wasn’t three points and the winless streak remains intact, the doldrums the Wizards have been locked in don’t seem quite so bad after a deserved draw.
Kansas City will play their final game before the World Cup break on Thursday against the Philadelphia Union at CommunityAmerica Ballpark with a chance to hit the layoff on a relative positive note. Something that wouldn’t have been possible without Nielsen and a decided working-class result against Toronto.
“I think this game was the most important for us,” Vermes said. “We needed to come here and get back to a little bit of what we had at the beginning of the season. And that’s doing whatever it takes to get the job done.”
