Point on the Road

The Wizards finished their busy schedule stretch of 3 games in 8 days, two on the road, with a 1-1 draw with the Colorado Rapids last night at Dick's Sporting Goods Park. Peter Vermes put out the same lineup that saw the Wizards pull out a 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew on Wednesday. KC came out and dictated play early, controlling the game. Stephane Auvray and Craig Rocastle did a good job of shutting down the Rapids midfield. In the 20th minute, the Wizards capitalized on the possession, as Rocastle played a nice ball in behind the Rapids defense. Captain, Davy Arnaud raced through, beating his man, taking a touch and touching the ball just over Rapids' goalkeeper, Matt Pickens and into the net, giving the Wizards the early 1-0 lead again. With KC holding the lead, they continued to control the game and had the better chances as the game continued. The Rapids chances were all from distance and ended up not really troubling Jimmy Nielsen in net for KC. In the 40th minute, KC had a great chance to double the lead through Kei Kamara. As the ball was heading out for a goal kick and being shepherded by Drew Moor. Kamara stepped around Moor, stole the ball and dribbled in on goal. Kamara fired toward the near post but was denied by Pickens' leg. The rebound fell to Arnaud who fired on goal again and Pickens knocked it away. Shortly after, KC almost grabbed a second goal again. Teal Bunbury got in on goal and fired off a shot that beat Pickens, but didn't beat the post. The ball hit off the far post, then off the near post before going back out into play and cleared.

In the second half, Kansas City continued to press the game, and created some chances, but none as dangerous as Kamara and Bunbury's in the first half. Kamara fired one at the near post that was just wide of the near post was one of the team's best chances. At the other end of the field, Colorado started to get more dangerous as the half wore on. KC held on and kept Colorado from getting really good chances though. Finally, in the 74th, when those of us that traveled thought that maybe, just maybe we'd see the Wizards win on the road, Conor Casey received the ball, turned Shavar Thomas inside out, before beating Nielsen through the 5 hole to tie the game up. With the equalizer, it was Colorado that pushed harder for the winner, and should have had it when Casey again got behind Thomas and the Wizards defense. Casey rounded Nielsen and had the open net to shoot into, but fired right into the post and it went out for a goal kick. The Wizards held on after that and came away with the point, their 4th in the past 2 games. In the last two games (both on the road) the Wizards picked up a third of the total points that they picked up the first 14 games of the season.

Wizards Man of the Match - Kei Kamara - One of his best games of the season, and even though he didn't score, Kamara had a good performance and performed well.

Player Ratings - Nielsen 5, Harrington 5, Conrad 4, Thomas 4, Espinoza 5, Auvray 6, Rocastle 6, Arnaud 6, Kamara 6, Bunbury 5, Smith 4. Subs Jewsbury 4, Wolff 4, Zusi NR.