Fire down the Wizards

The Wizards still can't play well in Chicago. Last night the Wizards lost to the Fire 2-1, with goals by Chad Barrett and Chris Rolfe (PK), and the Wizards tally coming from Carlos Marinelli.

The Wizards looked like they were tired tonight, which is not surpising, considering only 2 players that played last night didn't play in the US Open match against Salt Lake that went to extra time.

The Fire looked more rested and better prepared for this match. Eddie Johnson was almost completely neutralized, and never really got a chance to turn and go at defenders. Instead, a Chicago defender was on Eddie's back all night. The Wizards never really had any threatening chances until the second half and the introduction of Marinelli. Looking at the match, KC missed Scott Sealy last night. What it proved is that after Johnson and Sealy, there is a big drop off when you reach 3rd strike Yura.

Chicago took a 1-0 lead a little after the half hour mark, as Rolfe stuck in between 2 KC players and won the ball to Chris Amras who released Chad Barrett who beat the offside trap and was in alone on Hartman, and he finished. Chicago doubled their lead in the 73rd, when Nick Garcia made a late tackle on Ivan Guerrero that Guerrero hammed up, even though replays showed Garcia didn't touch him. KC was able to salavage a goal in the 90th, when Marinelli took an elbow to the face from Dasan Robinson in the box, leading to a PK.

Overall, the Wizards didn't look terrible, but they definitly didn't look like the team that beat DC 4-2 last weekend. Johnson was completely neutralized and he missed Sealy, who we saw tonight is VASTLY underrated.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Chad Barrett - Chicago - Barrett gave the KC back line trouble all night, he got Garcia an early yellow for a poor challenge, and then shreaded the KC defense to soccer the first goal.
2. Chris Rolfe - Chicago - Playing deeper then he normally does as a forward, Rolfe did really well in that position, setting up the first goal, as well as stepping up to bury the PK that doubled Chicago's lead.
3. Chicago Backline - Chicago - Completely shut down the KC strikers and didn't allow much of anything past them. A solid performance.

Yes, no KC players deserved to be mentioned as a star of the game, they were all just adequite tonight.

On to the 4th game in 12 days.