Oz City

Wizards rookie Jonathan Leathers started at right back and played the full 90 for the US this morning in the Toulon Invitational Tournament in France.  At half, he switched to the left side where much of the Turkish attack had been originating.  In the end, the U-23’s fell 3-2 to an impressive U-21 Turkey side and will next face Ivory Coast on Friday at 11:30 am.  

On a related note, the only US player to ever garner an individual award at the Toulon tourney?  Former Wizard Josh Wolff, whose 5 goals in the 1997 tournament tied for tops with French phenom Thierry Henry.  Wolff was released by his German Bundesliga 2 side, 1860 Munich, earlier this week, but was selected to the U.S. squad by Bob Bradley for next Wednesday’s friendly at England.  Former Kansas City teammate Eddie Johnson joins him on the 22-player roster.

Kansas City’s partner club, Atlas AC of Mexico, will try to eliminate historic Boca Juniors tonight in the second leg of the Copa Libertadores quarterfinals.  Having tied 2-2 in Buenos Aires last week, Atlas has the luxury of two away goals, an even goal differential, and home field advantage (where they defeated Boca 3-1 during the group stage).  The Guadalajara club has only participated in the Copa Libertadores once prior to this appearance, falling in the 2000 quarterfinals.

Finally, some milestones worth mentioning from last Saturday’s 1-1 tie in New York: Davy Arnaud tied Matt McKeon for 6th on all time regular season games played (144) and passed Tony Meola for 7th on all time regular season minutes played (11,342).  Scott Sealy passed Chris Klein for 3rd on all time regular season offsides (74).  Sealy is 2nd in the league in that category this season.

The Good and the Bad so far

By Tony Felich

The season is still young, but it’s not too early to evaluate how our team is doing. I have been able to watch every minute of every game so far and despite the last five games being relatively disappointing, the team has managed to maintain a 3-3-2 record. I say disappointing because one gets the feel ing the team is underachieving. Despite youth and inexperience, the Wizards seem to have the right pieces; they just need to get them in the right places with cohesion and consistency. They have been guilty of trying to sit on small leads and not playing with consistent intensity at all positions all the time. They have had moments of brilliance for sure, but so far they’re not quite firing on all cylinders. While the long term future of the Wizards is exciting, I’m hoping we’ll start seeing that future be realized this season. I would like to note the good and the bad so far, as I see it.

The Good

1. OnGoal Ownership Group. The six principals that make up the OnGoal ownership group have proven to be top notch. There are all sorts of squirrelly owners in professional sports, and generally multiple owners are a challenge to team progress, but it seems OnGoal has Read more »

    ~ Biggest news of the day: Rookie Jonathan Leathers was named to the 22-player roster for the US U-23 team that will compete in the Toulan Invitational Tournament in France.  The US will play Turkey, Italy and Ivory Coast later this month — all on FSC.  The team arrives in Toulon on Thursday, so Leathers will be unavailable for the Wizards next two matches: Saturday at New York and next week at LA.  Leathers has appeared for KC in four games this season (three starts), but has not played in the team’s last two games and was not on the 18-man roster at Columbus.

    ~ Former Wizards Amir Lowery and Yomby William, both waived last month to allow for the addition of open tryout participants Kevin Souter and Nelson Pizarro, are training with other teams in MLS.  Yomby is in Salt Lake where he took part in their reserves match versus Dallas yesterday.  And Amir has played for both New York’s reserves on May 2nd and San Jose’s reserves on May 4th. 

    ~ Following New York’s 2-1 victory over LA on Saturday night, an MSG network anchor previewed the Red Bulls next game: Saturday, May 17th against the Kansas City Lizards.  Hmm.

    ~ Finally, Kansas City’s partner squad, Atlas AC in Mexico, advanced to the quaterfinals of Copa Libertadores with their 2-2 draw against Argentina’s Lanus last week, but will miss out on the Clausara league playoffs after drawing 0-0 yesterday in their two-leg series with Necaxa and losing out on the regular season record tiebreaker.  Atlas faces Argentine superpower Boca Juniors on Wednesday in Copa Libertadores action.

Against the top team in the league and on the road, the Wizards couldn’t make many mistakes if they expected a positive result.  The boys in blue made several on Saturday, the first coming in the 4th minute of the game as Columbus opened the scoring on a Guillermo Barros Schelotto freekick.  Tyson Wahl hacked down the Argentine 30 yards from goal after being nutmegged, and then was beaten by Chad Marshall on the ensuing service to the backpost.  Marshall’s high arching header looped across the goal mouth where three Wizards (Jimmy Conrad, Jack Jewsbury, and Michael Harrington) were outjumped by Adam Moffat, whose header beat a hesitant to come out Kevin Hartman. 

The Crew’s lead was then doubled through a cheeky bicycle kick through ball played by Alejandro Moreno.  Miscommunication between Hartman and rookie Chance Myers allowed the speedy Robbie Rogers to tap the ball into the open net in the 34th minute.  Two minutes later, Myers’ fellow first round draft pick Roger Espinoza complicated matters when he was sent off for a deliberate forearm to the chest of Frankie Hejduk.

Lucky to be at the half only down two, the Wizards second-half performance was sparked by the halftime insertion of Scott Sealy.  The Trinidadian drew a soft penalty when he went down after a Danny O’Rourke shirt tug was whistled instantly in the 78th minute.  Claudio Lopez converted it for the Wizards, hitting it hard and low down the middle.  Why didn’t Jewsbury step up to the spot, as he did in the Wizards only other penalty attempt of the season?  Listeners to Thursday’s Jimmy Conrad Show know that there was some gamesmanship going on between Jewsbury and former Wizard and current Crew keeper Will Hesmer.  The two bantered about their confidence facing a familiar foe should the situation arise on Saturday.  Sure enough it did and Hesmer — 2 for 2 on pk saves this season prior to Saturday — was forced to face newly acquired and therefore unfamiliar El Piojo.  

Video highlights here.  KC Star and Columbus Dispatch both with separate stories by Shawn Mitchell.  On Sunday, the Wizards reserves tied Columbus reserves 1-1.  Ryan Pore missed a pk in the match.

The Wizards are off next week before returning to action at New York on May 17th.  After starting 2-0, Kansas City has gone 1-3-1 in its last five, scoring just three goals in the stretch (two from the pk spot).