Mad Props: Kansas City Wizards 4-3 Houston Dynamo

Wolff-y, you came through for us big time. I'm sorry. Photo via KCWizards.com

Rather than try to exprees deep, insightful thoughts about Wednesday night’s incredible come from behind victory that kept our dearly beloved Wizards’ playoff dreams on life support, I’ll keep it simple. Actually, I’ll probably do this after most games from now on.

Sometimes, it’s just too dificult to come down off that emotional high of a huge win like this and be rational and thorough. Or, to get back up after a heart-breaking loss. I suppose after a loss, I’ll hand out the “Sad Props.”

With that said, mad props for Wednesday night’s victory go to…

First and foremost, Peter Vermes gets my Man of the Match award. It’s “Man” of the Match, not player of the match. I’ve been hard on him over the last few weeks for his lineup selection. Most notably, the decision to play Birahim Diop as a center forward. (That criticism still stands. Wednesday night’s game is further proof.)

But, the selection of Diop aside, Vermes was brilliant in this one. I, for one, didn’t think he would go with a full regular starting XI, due to fatigue after playing at Chivas USA just 72 hours prior. But, to his credit, he trotted the exact eleven men that took three points on Sunday out against Houston.

Things started not so well. Actually, they started terribly. But, it was the substitutions and tactical changes Vermes made that won this game.

Bringing on Teal Bunbury at half for Diop was a no-brainer, but I’ve thought there were no-brainers at other times this year that he flubbed up. Also, the other halftime substition, taking off the usually bulletproof Stephane Auvray for a much more attack-minded player in Jack Jewsbury, was one I didn’t see coming.

VIDEO: Josh Wolff’s 97th Minute Winner Keeps Kansas City Wizards’ Playoff Dreams Alive

It was a truly epic moment tonight. Not much to say other than, “WOW!!” I’ll let the goal and celebration footage tell the story.

NOTE: Watch Jimmy Nielsen go leaping into the Cauldron. Epic.

Also, if you turn the quality on the video up to 720p, it’s far better viewing.

By the way, that’s Eric Howell with the birds to the “Houston cheaters.” Thanks for the ticket, man!

Big News Announcement Regarding Kei Kamara Coming Tuesday?

With that one harmless little update on Twitter tonight, Kansas City Wizards leading goal scorer, forward Kei Kamara, sent all the Wizards kingdom of loyal supporters (actually, just myself, really) into speculation over what the grand news coule be about.

Early speculations (amongst myself and another person or two on Twitter) are, but not limited to:

• Kei and the club have reached an agreement on a new contract for the 2011 season and beyond.
  I would certainly not be upset one bit if this were the case. Kei is leading the team in goals this year with a career high of nine and has become somewhat of a face of the club off the field, as well. He was feautred in a television commercial along with Teal Bunbury showcasing the new stadium. You would have to think Kei is in the club’s long-term plans. And, he seems to really be enjoying himself in Kansas City. He knows he is loved.
• Kei and Chipotle have agreed to an official sponsorship deal.
  Would this really surprise anybody? Honestly, the bigger surprise would be that something of the sort hasn’t been arranged sooner.
• The Wizards and Chipotle have agreed a naming rights deal for the new stadium.
  This is more speculation than anything, but there was a curious Tweet from the Chipotle official Twitter account. When the prospects of playing at “Chipotle Park” next year was mentioned to the account, the response was as follows:

Yeah, I am not sure what the status is but I know they were looking into something. Never know with those things though. -Bob

Again, this is mostly speculation, but there’s not a whole lot else that could be out there to announce regarding Kei. I’m very much so hoping it’s the first possibility and the club has re-signed Kei for three more years. He’s really one of my favorite players, and played an instrumental part in me becoming interested in the Wizards this year.

Whatever it is, stay tuned to Kei’s Twitter all day tomorrow to find out.

Choosing the Starting XI: Kansas City Wizards vs Houston Dynamo

We let Luis Ángel Landín scored on us in the first matchup. #SignsThatThingsAreBAD

After Sunday night’s 2-0 road triumph over Chivas USA, the Kansas City Wizards find themselves back in a familiar position. That is, of course, looking up at Seattle Sounders FC, who sit six points clear of Kansas City for the eighth and final MLS Cup playoff spot. The kicker, though, being KC’s two games in hand over Seattle.

Wednesday night will see the first of the two games in hand played, when the struggling Houston Dynamo come to town, looking to upset the Wiz’s playoff dreams. As they got revenge on Chivas Saturday night, KC will be looking to exact another measure of revenge against a Houston side that showed them out of town with a 3-0 loss back on May 1. (How fitting it was for that disaster of a game to occur on the first of May, as it really was “May Day” for the beloved Wiz.)

Jump forward to the present moment, and Kansas City are one of the hottest teams in MLS – trailing only Saturday’s opponent, FC Dallas – in that category. The Wizards have picked up 18 of a possible 27 points in their last nine league games (5-1-3), while Houston have won just a single game (1-8-4) since the beginning of June, and have only three wins (3-11-4) since the two teams’ first meeting of the season.

If the Wizards are going to keep this gravy train rolling and track down Seattle in the league standings, they’re going to have to make it happen with somewhat of a makeshift starting XI against the Dynamo.

Due to the physical wear three games in seven days entails, look for a slightly modified starting lineup Wednesday night. The middle game of three game stretch is the most logical time to rest your top line players, especially when facing a struggling opponent. (That was my logic for starting Teal Bunbury Sunday night over Birahim Diop. If you must start Diop once in the stretch – and you likely must do so – why not the middle game against the weakest opponent? Things worked out to this point, so I’ll leave that be until Saturday night.)

One Down, Two To Go: Kansas City Wizards Get 2-0 Revenge Over Chivas USA

This just in: Jimmy Conrad is still damn good. Ya know, mid-season rough patch aside.

In game one of the Kansas City Wizards’ grueling three games in seven days stretch of MLS play, the Wizards got a little revenge for a 2-0 loss at home against Chivas USA back in July. The tables were turned, and the Wizards came out on top this time, to the tune of a familiar 2-0 scoreline at the Home Depot Center in Carson, CA. (Kansas City also beat league-leading LA Galaxy 2-0 at HDC on August 28.)

Some would have been happy with a draw and a road point against the Goats, but in my mind, it had to be the full three possible. Chivas are a side that a playoff team should beat, whether at home or on the road.

Goals by forwards Kei Kamara (9th of the season) and Teal Bunbury (3rd of the season) came inside the final 20 minutes of the match. The game-winner from Kamara in the 70th minute will likely be up for discussion once the season ends, for Wizards goal of the year.* Bunbury’s goal, which came in the 83rd, was all the team needed to put the game out of reach and secure a rare road victory. (3rd of the season)

How did the game get to that point when the goals started flowing, and who can we look back on and say were the players most responsible for the early struggles, and the late triumph? Read on and I’m sure to give my thoughts.

* Note: If Landon Donovan wins MLS Goal of the Week this week, (and he probably will) then the next thing you’re going to tell me is that we live in America and everyone is in love with him. No chance, right? Even Kamara’s header against Real Salt Lake was a better goal than Donovan’s header this weekend.

Three Keys: Kansas City Wizards at Chivas USA

Know where he is. Hit him in the mouth.

Hey, this is a blog post. This is a blog about the Kansas City Wizards. That’s what we talk about in these blog posts here.

Seeing as how we’re moving to SB Nation this week (yes, it’s finally happening), I figured I should get back in the swing of things. Beginning Sunday night, the Wizards start a three games in seven days stretch that will likely determine their fate come season’s end. Come this time next week, we should be able to tell if they will have weakly pissed away a season that could have been so much more with a horrendous first dozen-or-so games, or they will have set themselves up to come back from said horrendous start on a miracle playoff run.

Either way, these three games will tell us where we go from here on out. Currently sitting behind 9 points (with three games in hand) behind Seattle, it’s must-win time. Some have said any result against Chivas will be good. I disagree; we need three points to keep pace with the Sounders. They’re far enough ahead in the standings, and with the way their CONCACAF Champions League group is going, they might just pack up shop there and focus on the league.

Must. Beat. Chivas.

How are we going to do that? That’s what I’m here for – to tell you.

Be Aggressive. B-E Aggressive.

Let’s remember that we’re the team that hasn’t played a competitive game since September 4. In the same time frame, Chivas has played three – two league and one friendly mid-week this week. If we come out flat the first 15-20 minutes and not winning every 50-50 ball, the boys just don’t have it in them and don’t want it badly enough.

If they can’t get up for this stretch run after two full weeks rest, it will be a damn shame.

Three Questions: Wizards at San Jose Earthquakes

KC Soccer Stadium > San Jose's Prospective New Stadium

This Saturday night, our beloved Kansas City Wizards take to the road for their first matchup of the 2010 MLS season against the San Jose Earthquakes. Kansas City will host its leg of the home-and-away tie on the last night of the regular season, October 23.

While last week’s match against defending MLS Cup winners Real Salt Lake was called “the biggest game of the year so far” by fans and players alike, this week’s trip to the Bay Area is even bigger for a completely different reason. At present moment, the Quakes sit two places and 3 points above KC in the league table. As was discussed on Wednesday, head to head matchups with playoff competitors are the quickest way to climb the table. Anything short of a draw on Saturday, and a golden opportunity will have been wasted.

As always, I’ve got three important questions the Wizards have to answer en route to the result they want.

1. Will the finishing improve?

To put it honestly, and without regard for feelings, this team is borderline awful when it comes to finishing and actually putting the ball in the back of the net. Since the insertion of Teal Bunbury into the regular starting XI, the creation of chances and pressure on opposing defenses is there, yes. That goes without saying. But, as was pointed out in the Byline 2 Backpost podcast this week, our forwards’ finishing abilities are less than stellar. Kei Kamara, for all his other skills and his great size, is probably the worst finisher of the lot of them. Forget the ultimate miss against Los Angeles Galaxy this year; that was a freak thing. I’m thinking more about multiple opportunities that you see most MLS forwards finish. At times, it seems he gets uber-excited and “finishes” prematurely, if you know what I mean. Just calm down, Kei. We’ve all done it.

Now, the fact that Kei has struggled to finish this year, yet still has amassed 7 goals on the season makes it slightly easier to swallow. (Hopefully the “finishing prematurely” joke is out of your mind already.) That said, there’s a small bone to pick with Ryan Smith. It’s rather simple, actually. Dude, just shoot the ball. Whenever you are darting into the box, dancing around defenders and looking for an opening to shoot, here’s what I want you to do. Decide when you think you need to shoot, and let it rip one touch before then. How frustrating was it against Salt Lake to see him run defenders raged and stupid over and over, only to take one touch too many and fire a shot into a defender who was given just enough time to recover and regain a bit of self-pride?

San Jose aren’t airtight in defense. Chances will present themselves. We just have to learn to finish. We didn’t do so against Salt Lake, and we dropped 2 points. A draw here isn’t the end of the world, but 3 points are better than 1 any day of the week.

Week 19 SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings

Continuing with the “soon to be SB Nation blog” theme, I’m going to keep doing SB Nation MLS blog-type things here at The Daily Wiz. In doing so, this may (or may not be) your first look at the weekly SBNhanced MLS Power Rankings.

“Why is it called ‘SBNhanced’,” you ask? Well, there a bit more to it and it’s slighty different from your typical power rankings, thus being deemed enhanced. Basically, it’s a power rankings poll done weekly by all of the SB Nation MLS blog leaders. (This is actually my third of fourth week participating, but the first I’ve posted results here for some reason.) Seeing as how there is yet to be an MLS blog on the network for every club, there are currently 7 voters. Beginning next week, there should be 9, with the additions this week of Dynamo Theory (Houston Dynamo) and Eighty Six Forever (Vancouver Whitecaps) to the network. By the way, the poll is conducted and run every week by Martin Shatzer over at Black And Red United. (DC – yack.)

Rather than a straightforward 1 through 16 ranking system, (there actually are no numerical rankings) each team’s power ranking is determined by being placed into a tier that each voter believes said team fits into. Their are four tiers, and they are as follows: Teams Contending for Cups, Teams Likely in the Playoffs, Teams on the Outside Looking In and Teams Competing for #3 Draft Pick. A voter can choose to put as many or as few teams in each tier as they like, all based on where they think they fall into the pecking order.

Moving right along, here is this week’s poll:

	Total Vote Count	First Tier Votes	Last Week’s Tier
Tier 1 – Teams Contending For Cups
Real Salt Lake	21	7	1
Columbus Crew	21	7	1
LA Galaxy	20	6	1
Tier 2 – Teams Likely in the Playoffs
FC Dallas	17	2	2
New York Red Bulls	15	2	2
Seattle Sounders	15	1	2
Toronto FC	14	0	3
Tier 3 – Teams on the Outside Looking In
Colorado Rapids	11	0	3
Chicago Fire	9	0	2
San Jose Earthquakes	6	0	3
Kansas City Wizards	6	0	3
Tier 4 – Teams Competing for #3 Draft Pick
Chivas USA	2	0	3
Houston Dynamo	2	0	4
New England Revolution	1	0	4
Philadelphia Union	0	0	4
DC United	0	0	4

Thoughts? Agreeances? Disagreements? Complaints? Truly, the greatest thing about a blog on the SB Nation network is not the writing and the posts itself, (thank God for that, right?) but the broad community of sports fans it brings together and how a blog can sort of take on its own personality and feel more like a “place” than a site. Feel free to share your thoughts, because once the move happens, commenting is incredibly easier and free-flowing.

	Total Vote Count	First Tier Votes	Last Week’s Tier
Tier 1 – Teams Contending For Cups
Real Salt Lake	21	7	1
Columbus Crew	21	7	1
LA Galaxy	20	6	1
Tier 2 – Teams Likely in the Playoffs
FC Dallas	17	2	2
New York Red Bulls	15	2	2
Seattle Sounders	15	1	2
Toronto FC	14	0	3
Tier 3 – Teams on the Outside Looking In
Colorado Rapids	11	0	3
Chicago Fire	9	0	2
San Jose Earthquakes	6	0	3
Kansas City Wizards	6	0	3
Tier 4 – Teams Competing for #3 Draft Pick
Chivas USA	2	0	3
Houston Dynamo	2	0	4
New England Revolution	1	0	4
Philadelphia Union	0	0	4
DC United	0	0	4