Must Win

Tomorrow night in LA the Wizards will be facing a must win as they take on Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center. Should the Wizards lose, their playoff chances go to almost none existent (and will be completely gone if New England beats Columbus. Basically, there are two ways the Wizards can be eliminated from the playoffs this weekend. They can be eliminated if the Wizards lose and New England wins or draws at home against Columbus. They can also be eliminated if the Wizards tie and New England win. Even with the result, KC will need to win their final 3 games and get help to make it to the playoffs.

As for Chivas this weekend, it's going to be another tough road game for KC. The Goats sit on 41 points right now. As it's been all season, Chivas' injury report is very long, but has plenty of attacking options still, including Jesus Padilla on loan from the "Mothership". Chivas will be without Jonathan Bornstein though, who is with the US national team.

KC will also be without one of their key defenders, as Jimmy Conrad is also with the US national team down in Honduras. Without Conrad, it would appear that Aaron Hohlbein will be the one to step up and replace Conrad in the starting lineup. The rest of the lineup is likely to be very similar to the lineup that took the field against Houston. Josh Wolff seems likely to fill in for Conrad as captain as he did during the Gold Cup. While some Wizards fans (myself included) would like to see a Kei Kamara and Zoltan Hercegfalvi partnership up top this week, I don't think we're goingn to get it.

Hartman
Leathers - Hohlbein - Besler - Harrington
Hirsig - Jewsbury
Arnaud - - - - - - Lopez
Wolff - Kamara

Key Match Up - Hohlbein and Besler vs the Chivas forward line. Whether it's Maykel Galindo, Eduardo Lillingston, or any other one of the multitude of forwards it seems that Chivas has, they're going to test the young back line of Hohlbein and Besler without Conrad. Hopefully it will end up better than the last game without Conrad.

PREDICTION - This game is a must win, but last week I just don't see it happening. By MLS standards, the Wizards have had a succesful season on the road, but they're going up against a Chivas game that is working to get into the playoffs and is just a better team overall than KC is. Even with KC's better run of form lately it's going to take a big performance to get all 3 points and stay in the playoff chase.

KC - 0
Chivas - 1 (Galindo)