KANSAS CITY, Kan. – Two months ago, the Wizards might have been content to settle for a point at home against Real Salt Lake.
These days, however, Kansas City are in no mood to settle.
Despite splitting the points against the defending MLS Cup champions on Saturday night at CommunityAmerica Ballpark by virtue of a 1-1 draw, the home team left the field with a bad taste in its mouth.
WATCH:FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
“We’re not happy because we feel like we left two points out there,” captain Davy Arnaud said. “It’s disappointing, but that’s not a bad thing.”
For a team considered close to down and out earlier this year, it certainly isn’t.
The Wizards are now undefeated in their last four games, notching victories against Columbus and Toronto and draws against Colorado and Salt Lake. But as positive a stretch as that is for a team that was winless for eight straight at one point, the fact remains that Kansas City led against both Colorado and RSL before giving up costly equalizing goals and, ultimately, four important points.
“It’s good to get a point,” manager Peter Vermes said, “but we should have had three. The bottom line is we should have had three, and we gave away those points ourselves.”
For the first 30 minutes or so, it seemed like the Wizards would run away from an RSL side considered by many to be the hottest team in Major League Soccer. Ryan Smith and Kei Kamara found space on the flanks and Teal Bunbury gave Nat Borchers and Jamison Olave fits with his speed and strength.
“We were taking it to [RSL],” Vermes said about a side that defeated Kansas City 4-1 in late May. “We were all over them. We had chance after chance after chance [and] you just knew the goal was just about to come. You could just feel it.”
Eventually, it did. After narrowly missing the target just minutes before, Kamara lost his marker and appeared alone near the penalty spot to bury a pinpoint header into the top corner from a brilliant right-footed cross from Smith.
From there, it appeared Kansas City was well on its way to finding a second goal and killing the game, but a lapse in concentration allowed the Robbies to snatch an equalizer for RSL against the run of play.
Twelve minutes after Kamara gave the home side the lead, Robbie Russell found an unmarked Robbie Findley at the back post with an early cross, and the World Cup forward nodded the ball past a helpless Jimmy Nielsen.
“It was really a breakdown on our part all the way around,” Vermes said. “We had no pressure on the ball, it was an easy service in and then we just weren’t connected along the back. He was all alone in the box.”
Nielsen argued Findley used his hand on the play, but to no avail. The RSL striker admitted to reporters afterward that the ball brushed his fingertips on the way in, but, no matter the case, Kansas City can only blame themselves for leaving a proven goal scorer unmarked at the back post.
“Losing our concentration for a five- or 10-minute period really hurt us,” Vermes said.
Still, as disappointing as it was, a point is a point.
RSL may have succeeded in escaping CAB with half the spoils, but the Wizards can take some consolation in the fact that their fortunes seem to be turning around one result at a time.
