Taking on the Top of the League

The Wizards return home tomorrow to take on the league leaders, Chivas USA at Community America Ballpark at 7:30. Chivas sits 8 points clear in the race for the Supporters' Shield with about 1/3rd of the season played. The Goats arrived in KC yesterday and trained out at the Wizards' Swope Park training facility today. They arrive on the backs of a tough 2-2 draw with DC, which saw Chivas give up 2 goals in the final 15 minutes to see 3 points evaporate to 1. Chivas comes into town now with 4 former Wizards on their team, and it's the first time that Sasha Victorine returns to KC since being traded last season.

KC comes in after probably their best all around performance of the season in their 2-0 win in Salt Lake last week. From practice this week it looks like everyone is going to be ready to go tomorrow, so I'd fully expect them to come out with the same lineup that they did at Rio Tinto.

Hartman
Watson - Conrad - Hohlbein - Besler
Hirsig
Arnaud - Jewsbury - Espinoza
Wolff - Lopez

Key Match Up - Josh Wolff and Claudio Lopez vs Chivas' back line - The Wizards forwards against Chivas' back line is going to be the big match up. Chivas has only allowed 5 goals this season, only 1 on the road. Wolff is the Wizards' inform striker and will look to score in his 4th straight game for KC.

PREDICTION - This is only Chivas' third trip outside the state of California this season (they defeated a lackluster Dallas squad and lost to Toronto at BMO), which could certainly work against the Goats, as they have not had to do a whole lot of traveling this season. They will be wanting to rebound from that poor final 15 minutes against DC, and Preki is the type of coach that will have them working on avoiding that sort of thing again. Also working in KC's favor is their all time record. KC is 5-0 all time in KC against Chivas.

KC - 2 (Wolff, Jewsbury)
Chivas - 1 (Victorine)