KANSAS CITY, Mo. – The Wizards didn’t have the opportunity to make up ground last week, but they certainly didn’t lose any footing in the playoff chase either.
Despite being out of action because of a scheduling conflict at CommunityAmerica Ballpark, Kansas City watched as fellow playoff hopefuls Chicago, San Jose, Seattle and Toronto struggled through a difficult week.
That stretch left the Wizards six points behind the Sounders, who occupy the last playoff spot but have played two more games, a point ahead of Chicago, which had two games in hand themselves at one point, and a point back of Toronto with two more games left than the Reds.
“I think there were eight games that we needed to get good results in, and we got seven,” center back Jimmy Conrad said. “We’re going to probably need a few more of those kinds of weekends, but there are eight games left and that’s still a good chunk of the season.”
[inline_node:316550]And despite the help Kansas City will likely need to sneak into the playoff field, manager Peter Vermes is doing his best to make sure all the attention within the team stays squarely on the job at hand.
No matter how much help the Wizards get, the reality is that they will have to pile up results to stay in the playoff mix.
“It doesn’t hurt that things are helping us,” Vermes said. “But I’ll maintain this until the bitter end; we have to stay focused on what we are doing.”
For now that focus has been placed on Sunday’s matchup with Chivas USA in Los Angeles. The Goats took three valuable points from the Wizards in July to ignite the current stretch the team is enjoying, and it’s easy to forget that plenty of points are still up for grabs with just more than a month remaining in the regular season.
“At the end of the day, there are eight games and 24 points out there for us to capture,” veteran forward Josh Wolff said. “We’re pretty aware of what it’s going to take to at least get us on the cusp. But you don’t want to be on the cusp. You want to get in, so we need some wins.”
There will be plenty of opportunities for that as Kansas City play three games in eight days, starting with Sunday’s match. If the Wizards can handle their business against Chivas, Houston and Dallas, they should be well equipped for the season’s final push.
“If we do the right things in the games and get the results that we want,” Vermes said, “everything else shouldn’t matter.”
Still, a little help is always nice.
And with the pressure on, the hope is that the Wizards rise to the occasion while their main competitors succumb in the season’s final weeks.
“There are certain body parts that get tight when the pressure mounts,” Conrad said. “Hopefully, that happens to some other teams, and we can take advantage of that.”
