Wizards Win, Playoffs Ahead

For the first time in three years, the Wizards are returning to the MLS Cup playoffs. The Wizards took care of business down in Dallas last night, with two Scott Sealy goals. While the Wizards had everything to play for, Dallas had nothing but pride to play for, and it certainly showed in the way that Dallas played the game.

From the start KC came out trying to dictate the tempo of the game. Less then a minute into the game, Davy Arnaud had put a shot over the cross bar. The Wizards best chance at a goal came in the 30th minute, when Sasha Victorine played Eddie Johnson in alone on Ray Burse. Johnson rounded Burse, but then over thought his shot and skied it over the goal. Lucky for Johnson and the Wizards, about 10 minutes later, the Wizards had their deserved opener. An Arnaud cross found Scott Sealy alone on the right. Sealy brought it down with his chest, took a touch and then curved it around Burse and into the net for the 1-0 lead.

In the second half, the Wizards continued their pressure, Sealy should have added a second on a long ball by Arnaud, but his finishing was off. It wasn't off in the 55th minute, though, as Arnaud found Jack Jewsbury streaking into the box. Jewsbury completely shanked what looked like a shot, but it was ok, as it right to Sealy who just had to get a redirection on it to put it in the net. With the 2-0 lead, the Wizards sat back a little bit more and absorbed some of the pressure from Dallas. Dallas, though, never really got into the game, and the Wizards held on for the 2-0 win.

The bad news out of this game, is that the Wizards had to use two of their three subs on injuries. Late in the first half, Carlos Marinelli had to be subbed out due to an ankle injury he picked up on a tackle by Arturo Alvarez. Then in the second half, after only being on the field for 7 minutes, Eloy Colombano pulled up lame with what looked like a hamstring injury. So the Wizards two Argentines were subbed out and will certainly be big question marks for the up coming playoff series against either Chivas or DC United.

3 Stars of the Game
1. Scott Sealy - KC - Two of the biggest goals of the TnT strikers career, as he showed composure on finishing the first and was in the right place at the right time to finish the second.
2. Jimmy Conrad - KC - Shut down Dallas' offense for the entire game. Dallas never had a really good look at Kevin Hartman's goal last night.
3. Davy Arnaud - KC - Two assists for Davy gave him the team assist title for the season. I'd still like to see some better finishing out of him, he had some poor ones last night.