Wizards vs RSL

The Wizards bow out of the US Open Cup tonight 2-1 after extra time, to Real Salt Lake. While there was no TV for this game, fans were able to listen to the radio broadcast, featuring Sean Wheelock and Brian Roberts.

Salt Lake took the lead after Kevin Hartman brought down Freddy Adu in the box, leading to a PK that was converted by Jeff Cunningham. The Wizards best first half chance came when Eddie Johnson was able to round Chris Seitz and have an open goal, only to have Daniel Torres recover and clear the ball away before Eddie could shot.

In the second half the Wizards came out pressing more, and almost equalized when Ryan Raybould's 20 yard blast hit the cross bar. Carlos Marinelli got his first run out with the Wizards tonight as well, coming on in the 61st minute. Listening to the broadcast it sounded like Marinelli did a great job and really changed the game when he came on. Some RSL fans who post on bigsoccer gave their thoughts on Marinelli in this thread, and this thread. Finally in the 88th minute, Marinelli helped set up the equalizer, as he turned Kenny Cutler, laid the ball off to Davy Arnaud, who crossed in to Will John. John's shot was saved by Seitz, but Victorine was there to put the ball in the net.

In extra time a good combination from RSL led to Andy Williams beating Hartman for what proved to be a winner.

Overall, the lineup was not entirely what I expected, 6 of the starters started the game on Sat, 8 of the 13 players used against DC started tonight, and 11 of the 13 played tonight, only Aaron Hohlbein and Jose Burciaga did not.

Since I can't comment more on the game, I'll comment on the announcing. Sean Wheelock can be really great at times, he does really well at capturing the excitment, there were times when he'd call players names who had been subbed out as the action got faster, the goal in particular. As for Brian Roberts, he did ok for his first radio broadcast. He stumbled through the first 45 minutes or so having to clear his throat a lot and mumbling, not finishing his sentences, but he got better over the course of the game.

My stars of the game tonight are all based on first hand accounts or from what I gathered from listening to the radio.

Stars of the Game
1.) Jeff Cunningham - RSL - scored the first goal, and seemed to give the Wizards back line trouble most of the night.
2.) Carlos Marinelli - KC - The game completely changed when he came in the game, I recall 4 or 5 times when Wheelock said he turned his mark inside out to get by him. This is a good sign and gets me more excited to see him play in person more.
3. Andy Williams - RSL - The match winner, also helped to change the game when he came on, Roberts mentioned in the broadcast that he was able to find a lot of room on the right side of the field and eventually he exploited it.