Saturday, July 07, 2007

Wizards Headed to LA LA Land

The Wizards are in LA tonight to take on Landon Donovan and the LA Galaxy, in their last game before Beckham arrives I believe. The Wizards are desperate for a win, and taking on LA might work to their advantage. The Galaxy are second from the bottom in the West, but have only played 11 games. In their last game, the Galaxy defended the hapless Chicago Fire 2-0 on PKs by Donovan. They'll find the Wizards offense a bit more testing, as the Fire only had 2 shots, none of them on goal. The last 2 games, the Wizards have been averaging 24 shots, so Joe Cannon will get a bit of a work out tonight. LA, though, is definitely not one of the Wizards favorite places to play, probably ranked just ahead of Chicago, the Wizards only have 4 wins out in LA.

The good news, is that no one is listed as being on international absences, but does that mean Jimmy Conrad and Eddie Johnson have flown straight to LA to join the team? I have my doubts that they have. I would think that Onalfo might just let them fly back to KC and recoup. Although from last year's experience, I would not be surprised if Jimmy came to LA wanting to play tonight, especially after sitting out the USA's final game in Copa America. That said, I'm predicting a lineup that does not include him, as I don't want to get my hopes up.
Hartman
Jewsbury - Hohlbein - Garcia - Burciaga
Zavagnin
Victorine - Marinelli - Harrington
Movsisyan - Arnaud

Prediction
Shutting down Donovan is the main goal, that task likely falls on either Kerry Zavagnin or Nick Garcia. The Wizards have the better team, but they've been the better team in their last 2 games and look what's that gotten them. I really see this one ending up in a draw tonight.

KC - 1 (Marinelli)
LA - 1 (Pavon)

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