Real Salt Lake -vs- Kansas City Wizards
from the perspective of Big Soccer poster the_cyclones (George Shook)
This Is The End ...
Of a brutal six game road trip. When KC takes the field against Real Salt Lake on Saturday it will have been 49 days since they played at Chicago and 57 days since drawing Houston 0-0 at home. The team will return to CAB(CommunityAmerica Ballpark) for the first time in 64 days when they take on the Columbus Crew on the 14th of June.
Salt Lake is the final destination for the Wizards. A victory here will make the 4 points in the first 5 games not hurt so much. This will also be the third "plastic pitch" in that time span - technically the fourth including the USOC game - but let's just count MLS games. It a way it's good to get the non-grass games out of the way before the hot summer part of the season.
Right now KC resides in 6th place in the East and trail NY by 4 after their win tonight. If not for DC-Houston game being postponed last night it's possible that KC could be dead last in the East. As it is right now the Wizards can at best remain in 6th place with a victory this weekend. Real Salt Lake are in 6th in the West but the West is much tighter top-to-bottom than the East and a victory will have RSL right in the thick of it. Both teams are on 11 points.
Historically KC does not do well in Salt Lake. With the exception of a 4-2 win back in RSL's first season of 2005, KC has back to back 3-1 league losses and a 2-1 USOC loss last year. This season RSL are undefeated at home with a 3-2-0 record and 0-0-5 on the road. A Jekyll-n-Hyde home-road record befitting most MLS teams. So KC will have their work cut out for them.
Both teams have two players that are out and two others with knocks. RSL have Espindola and Beltran with ankle and knee contusions respectively but I would not be shocked to see them both play. Not sure when Beltran picked up his injury but I know that Espindola left last weeks game at the half. If Espindola is out that can only help KC. The Wizards have still have both Lance Watson and Roger Espinoza out with foot injuries. Carlos Marinelli and Sasha Victorine have groin strains and did not participate in the USOC game on Wednesday. Sasha did not play against Municipal this past weekend either but Carlos played 35 minutes. I fully expect that Victorine will make the bench and that Carlos Marinelli will start on the left in midfield.
Several Wizards players that went 120 minutes in the USOC should be expected to start and probably play the whole game on Saturday. Claudio Lopez has been the catalyst recently, not only creating chances up top but dropping back into the midfield to start the attack. I expect he'll go 90 or be pulled really late. Jimmy Conrad of course will be expected to go all the way as he anchors the defense. Jack Jewsbury should start in the midfield along with Kerry Zavagnin. JJ has been very solid all year and never seems to run out of gas so I expect he'll go 90 on Saturday too. For the wide players it will be Davy Arnaud on the right and, as I said above, Carlos Marinelli on the left. The ... "new" ... 4-4-2 flat midfield formation is supposed to bring more attacking play from the wings and even though this will be the third game in this formation (previous was 4-4-2 Diamond) this will be the first MLS competition (RSL won't be resting players). It will be interesting to see how Carlos and Claudio work together on the outside. Carlos is best on the ball but with him working the outside maybe he'll be more apt to pass it than to hold onto the ball too long. Up top with Claudio Lopez we will most likely see Scott Sealy. I know a lot of fans are not happy with his play(not jumping for balls, constantly losing the ball with pressure, mis-kicks, etc) but Sealy must be just killing Ivan Trujillo in practice. Besides, Trujillo seems well suited in coming off the bench as he did in Colombia. He was a late game game-changer who scored a lot of goals. He was in the right place for an 86th minute goal against Colorado. I don't doubt that he'll see some minutes on Saturday. The back line for KC should remain unchanged from previous MLS games. Chance Myers and Micheal Harrington(also went 120 on Wednesday) will play wide right and left while Jimmy and Tyson Wahl will stake out the middle. Expect to see a lot of Chance and Micheal pushing up on their side a lot as Coach Onalfo's philosophy is to attack - though some would say it doesn't really seem that it is. For this game it would actually have been nice to see Jonathan Leathers on the field. He did a great job of shutting down Jose Burciaga on Wednesday; stoning him on several occasions. But I think that Leathers will just be on the bench for this one and I don't expect him to get off it unless Harrington or Myers can't find their game. In the net will be Kevin Hartman. We all know what Kevin can do. Especially with a strong defense in front of him. Hopefully with Chance and Micheal pushing up does not weaken the defense to much in front of him, but with a few early goals I think we could see Hartman directing a shutout.
If the Wizards can get some space and string some passes the together I think we'll see a lot of Claudio running at player to create some really good chances. This could open up Scott Sealy and even Jack Jewsbury from the middle of the field. Mostly I would like to see more movement off the ball to help create possession and chances as right now that is one of KC's weak points.
The weather for the game should be pretty darn nice. Looks like high 50's and clear skies with minimal wind. Then again the game not for another 30+ hours.
Prediction for the game. KC 2-0 RSL. Goals from Lopez and Arnaud in the first twenty. Well, that's what I want to see anyway.
Tidbit - It will be Eric Kronberg's birthday on Saturday. He turns 25. His present? Field side seats :P
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George Shook
