The Kansas City Wizards’ season will officially end next Saturday night, but there won’t be anything but pride on the line against the San Jose Earthquakes.
Thanks to Kansas City’s 1-0 loss to the New England Revolution on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium, the playoff field is now set in stone. And for the second straight season, the Wizards won’t be a part of it.
“It’s extremely disappointing to be out of it,” manager Peter Vermes told MLSsoccer.com following the match. “Especially when we still had a chance to live on and see what happened tonight and hopefully go into next week.”
WATCH FULL MATCH HIGHLIGHTS
<object data="data:application/x-silverlight-2," type="application/x-silverlight-2" width="480" height="324"><param name="source" value="http://mls.neulion.com/mlsvp/scripts/mls.xap"/><param name="initParams" value="catid=1822,id=9693,shareembed=true,server=http://mls.neulion.com/mlsvp/,pageurl=//www.mlssoccer.com/videos?id=9693&catid=1822"/><param name="background" value="Transparent" /><param name="minRuntimeVersion" value="3.0.40624.0" /><param name="autoUpgrade" value="true" /><param name="Windowless" value="true" /><param name="enableHtmlAccess" value="true"/><a href="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=149156&v=3.0.40624.0"><img src="http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=108181" alt="Get Microsoft Silverlight" border="0"/></a></object>
The Wizards began the night sitting six points behind the Colorado Rapids for the eighth and final playoff berth. Both teams had two games left to play in the season, and the Wizards needed to win both of them in order to stay alive.
But like so many of their losses this season, Kansas City could not convert the chances they created from their long spells of possession. Those missed opportunities came back to bite them, as a Shalrie Joseph goal from a defensive gaffe in the 31st minute held up for New England and left the Wizards empty-handed in 2010.
Two hours later, the Rapids completed a 3-1 mauling of the LA Galaxy. But instead of watching that result with baited breath, the Wizards’ improbable postseason run came to an end with the final whistle in Foxborough.
Things seemed to have been falling in place for Kansas City. They had not lost to the Revs in their last seven meetings, and finished out their schedule at home.
The Rapids, meanwhile, closed their season against the top two teams in the Western Conference, LA and Real Salt Lake. A dramatic last day of the season seemed to be in the offing, but it was not to be.
“It’s never easy to go away from home and win games,” Vermes said, “but we thought we had a good chance here. That part of it is disappointing. We created enough chances to get the points, and we just didn’t finish the ball.”
The Wizards dominated the stat sheet, taking 22 shots to Revolution’s four and a watching a number of penalty appeals waved off by referee Jair Marrufo.
“Those things change games,” Vermes said, specifically mentioning plays involving Kei Kamara in each half. “They aren’t things to just write off like, ‘Ah, it’s not that big of a deal.’”
Kansas City were lucky not to have a spot kick awarded against them, as well. Matt Besler appeared to have handled the ball in the area before awkwardly bundling over Marko Perovic in the 70th minute.
The Wizards can take pride in the fact that they bounced back from a dreadful early-season stretch to make an incredible run at postseason contention.
“As time went on, we got better in the way we played and everybody became more defined in their roles on the field,” Vermes said. “That was a big help and one of the big reasons we went on the run that we did. It gave us a glimpse of what we could do and places where we are still leaking and need to get better.”
Now comes the hard part: waiting until next season for a chance to build on those glimpses.
