Wizards lose at home to Dallas

For the first time since 1998, Dallas won a game in regulation in KC (they won in a shootout in 1999). Thanks to goals by Kenny Cooper, Juan Toja, and some questionable refereeing, Dallas was able to walk out of Kansas City with a 2-1 win. Playing without Scott Sealy or Carlos Marinelli even on the bench, is a major concern, that was not even noted in the preview for the game. Without those 2 in the lineup, KC's high powered offense has looked rather pedestrian. That said the Wizards did have their chances, as Eddie Johnson went off the wood work, Davy Arnaud shot right at Dario Sala, and Yura Movsisyan missed about 4 good chances, including a break away that he didn't even put the shot on goal for.

Overall in the first half, the Wizards were ran around too easily by Dallas, a looping header from Kenny Cooper gave Dallas the lead. They doubled their lead right before halftime, when a long ball from Ramon Nunez was brought down on the hip of Toja, the ball then bounced up, hit Toja's arm and went right back into his path. Toja then placed the ball to the far corner past Hartman. No call was made and Dallas was up 2-0.

In the second half, KC came out and dominated the game, but were unable to find the back of the net as Sala played extrodinary in his first game back from his 6 game suspension to start the season. Finally the Wizards got on the board in second half stoppage time thanks to a Michael Harrington goal. Harrington's performance as a whole was great, he's gonna be a star in this league.

Teams have learned how to stop Kansas City's high powered offense, they're playing a hack-attack approach, it was seen last weekend against Columbus and again this week against Dallas, as the Wizards suffered over 20 fouls for the third straight game. Team's come in and hack, kick, and chop down Wizards players to stop the team from getting into their flow, which helped them to get goals early in the season.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Dario Sala - Dallas - Had 9 saves, many of them in the second half to help preserve the points for Dallas on the road.
2. Michael Harrington - KC - The Wizards goal scorer last night continues to impress and to make his early case for Rookie of the Year. He's worked his ass off every game this season.
3. Juan Toja - Dallas - His handball and hacking aside, he did exactly what was expected of him, he stopped the Wizards attacks, and slowed down their tempo, exactly what he was suppose to do.