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

What’s In A Playoff Race?

After such a putrid first 14 or so league games of the season, in which our beloved Kansas City Wizards managed a whole 12 points, they had dug themselves in a great hole for the remainder of the season. Much like other Kansas City sports teams seem to do, once odds are firmly stacked against them, they began to pull themselves out of the muck and make things just a wee bit interesting.

Results since the 0-2 home embarrassment to Chivas USA on July 10

• For what it’s worth, this is also when I created The Daily Wiz, and coincidentally, the team hasn’t lost a match in all competitions since. Hmmm.
• Columbus Crew 0-1 Wizards – At the time, Columbus was on a roll and we were struggling mightily. KC killed some nasty, nasty streaks that night. It seemed to be little more than a slight blip in an otherwise disappointing season.
• Colorado Rapids 1-1 Wizards – 4 points in 4 days. Too bad we were set to be slaughtered by the mighty Manchester United in a meaningless friendly our next match, and lose all present momentum.
• Wizards 2-1 Manchester United – 52,000 people at Arrowhead, victory over the world’s largest sporting brand, but was it best for the team?
• Wizards 1-0 Toronto FC – Another three points against another playoff side. On. A. Roll.
• Wizards 1-1 Real Salt Lake – Should have been three more points, but a draw against arguably the best team in the league and defending champs; I’ll take that.

So, at present moment, the race for the 8th and final playoff spot looks like this*:

		Points	GD	GP
7	Colorado Rapids	27	3	18
8	Toronto FC	26	1	18
9	San Jose Earthquakes	23	0	17
10	Chicago Fire	21	0	16
11	Kansas City Wizards	20	-6	18

Obviously, that leaves KC 6 points back, with a game in hand or two to be countered in the final dozen league matches. Work to be done, for sure. How we can accomplish said work after the jump.

* I’m aware Houston are level with KC on 20 points, but given their recent form and results, they are sinking quickly while everyone else are on the upswing.

Three Answers: Wizards vs Real Salt Lake

Ned Grabavoy flung himself in effort to slow down Ryan Smith - a common sight Saturday night.

Before every Kansas City Wizards upcoming game, I do my own version of the three keys for a Wizards victory. I call it “Three Questions.” It occured to me that I was asking the questions, but leaving them unanswered. I know how much it irritates me when I ask someone a question, but to no response.

Therefore, starting now, I’ll be answering my own Three Questions following every game.

1. What will the different effect of having both starting full backs against RSL make compared to the first matchup?

In short, it made a world of difference. As I mentioned when proposing the question, where Real Salt Lake killed the Kansas City defense in the first matchup was predominently on the right side of defense with regular right back Michael Harrington playing left back in place of Roger Espinoza, who was training for the World Cup with the Honduran national team.

This time around, Alvaro Saborio found far less room to roam and bar the complete gaff on Robbie Findley’s goal (which was a handball, admitted by Findley) the defense was nearly airtight. It was, of course, the center of defense with the momentary lapse of focus that lead to the goal, which Wizards fans have become accustomed to.

The defense as a whole was above their average performance level and did a fairly good job of minimizing the necessity of Jimmy Nielsen heroic saves. Actually, Nielsen may have been so well protected this week that he may not have had opportunity to create and entry into the MLS Save of the Week competition. Well done, backline. Shavar Thomas and Jimmy Conrad played a passable center tandem for the third game in a row; while Harrington and Espinoza were great, as usual, both in defense and pressing forward out wide. They pick and choose their spots so well. That went a long way in picking up the result against arguably the best team in the league.

Three Questions With An Opposing Blogger: Real Salt Lake

SB Nation home of Real Salt Lake - RSL Soapbox

With the impending move of The Daily Wiz to the SB Nation network, I decided it was as good a time as any to call upon manager of the Real Salt Lake blog of the network for this week’s version of the Opposing Blogger Interview. I reached out to Denzel Eslinger of RSL Soapbox and he was more than kind enough to fill me in a bit on the latest happening of the defending MLS Cup champions. We exchanged questions in either direction, so take the time to jump over there and see what he was interested in hearing about the Wizards, and fill him in on anything I may have neglected. You can find it here.

Without any further ado, on to the Q&A.

1. With the US national team friendly against Brazil scheduled for this coming Tuesday and Robbie Findley being one of only three forwards named in the squad, one would expect him to not feature in Saturday’s league game. Are you at all worried about your side’s attacking fortitude on Saturday, given you’ll essentially be without a heralded substitute striker in the severe heat in the Midwest of late?

A) Not at all, while I am not sure when Robbie will be heading out to join the USMNT, we know that RSL can score plenty of goals without him, he was gone almost all of May and June, during which the team was 6-0-2 in league play.  RSL is one of the deepest teams in MLS with 12 different players having scored goals and 12 different players with assists, including Alvaro Saborio who has 8 goals and 4 assists.  Sure I am hoping we can use Robbie for a half, he speed would be a huge advantage with the small pitch at CommunityAmerica, but I am confident we will be able to survive and continue to thrive.

Three Questions: Wizards vs Real Salt Lake

Dazed And Confused - MLS needs more Kyle Beckerman's

Seven points from three league games. I’m not going to beat around the bushes with some long-winded lead-in to my three questions for Saturday’s home game against Real Salt Lake. This team is on a hot damn roll and we owe this Salt Lake side a little consideration of payback for the 4-1 thrashing they put on our Wizards back on May 29 in Utah.

This team is full-steam ahead, so I’ll be the same. They are, after all, going to the playoffs this year.

1. What will the different effect of having both starting full backs against RSL make compared to the first matchup?

Where the game at Rio Tinto was lost was on the wide part of the right side of Kansas City defense. If you think back, Roger Espinoza left the team in the previous week and a half leading up to that game to train with the Honduran national team before the World Cup. Subsequently, regular right back Michael Harrington was shifted from right to Espinoza’s spot on the left and started in Harrington’s spot on the right.

Not only did the Wizards lose Espinoza’s great skill and defending on the left, (Harrington is more than capable of playing either side) but Harrington is, in my mind, an elite level MLS right back. When you have to shift his position, a gaping hole is left for exploitation. And, exploit that weakness RSL did. Alvaro Saborio and Fabian Espindola ran loosely down the right side of the KC defense and each scored first half goals. Poor Jonathon Leathers, put in an impossible position, was left hung to dry for 90 minutes. Perhaps leaving Harrington on the right to play the speedy pair would have been better, but that’s months ago and water under the bridge. April, May and June weren’t exactly head coach Peter Vermes’ claim to genius.

Fast forward to August 7, and the full compliment of Harrington and Espinoza will be in the starting XI. What exactly does that do for KC’s chances Saturday? To put it frankly, a hell of a lot. At ages 24 and 23, respectively, the fullback duo of Harrington and Espinoza have to be considered an elite MLS pairing and a real gleam of hope for the future.

As for this game, if Espindola and/or Saborio have games anywhere near the first matchup against the regular duo, not to mention the smaller CommunityAmerica Ballpark field, I’ll be shocked and fully accept the blame for jinxing the team.

The Daily Wiz Announcement And A Guarantee

Programming note: As is obvious as could be, I’ve been away from The Daily Wiz for a while this past week for a couple of reasons. 1) stuff that you can’t control comes up in life that occupies your time, and 2) I’ve been in the process of working with the SB Nation network on moving TDW over there in the coming weeks. So, look for a return to the regular posting schedule starting now and until forever.

And, a quick thought to get out there before moving on to this week’s game against Real Salt Lake:

This team is, and I repeat IS, going to the playoffs in 2010.

You can put my name to that.

Why so confident, do you ask? Simple – since the creation of this humble little blog of which I reside, the Wizards are 3-0-1 in all competitions. I take full credit. Coming right off the back of three straight shutout losses after the World Cup break, something needed a change. Something had to be done.

I took it upon myself to create the new lifeblood of this wonderful soccer club we call our Wizards and gave the ultimate shot in the arm – The Daily Wiz. (That sounds pretty disgusting, now, doesn’t it?)

All kidding aside, who knows if they are going to continue this run and end up sneaking into the playoffs, or not. But, if they do, I’m set up to look incredibly smart. Beyond that, I’ve maintained the stance all season that this team was far better than they were performing. That’s a bold statement by any stretch of the phrase, but I never wavered on that opinion. Simply put, with the coaching change (Onalfo got fired again, by the way. Shocked.) and such great roster turnover, there was to be a real transition period.

We’ll call that transition period games 1-15 of the league season. The victory at Columbus is included for being the turnaround and bearer of fruit for putting up with pure and utter crap for much of the spring and summer.

So yeah, we’re going to the playoffs. I’ll see you on the home and away legs of the conference semis.