Must Win

If the Wizards want to make the playoffs this year, they need to get somewhere in the range of 20-24 points of the remaining 33 most likely. That means winning the remaining 5 home games as well as getting a few wins on the road. The first thing to do is obviously win at home. With the New England Revolution in town for the game tomorrow, it has to start then. A loss and the Wizards can start preparing for next season even if they aren't totally eliminated.

New England come into town finishing up a 3 game in 8 day swing in 3 different cities. They played Houston last Saturday and in Chicago on Wednesday night. New England has struggled just like the Wizards have, only scoring 4 more goals than KC. But up until the team's 2-1 loss to Chicago on Wednesday, the Revolution were on an 8 game unbeaten run. They still have Sharlie Joseph running the team from the midfield which will be a handful for KC.

The first thing for KC to do is to actually score more than 1 goal. If not for DC, KC would be well on their way to setting a league record for fewest goals in a season. So scoring and probably scoring more is going to be needed for KC to make the playoffs. Ryan Smith is now probable for the game that's certainly a good sign for KC. But the Wizards will be without Teal Bunbury who is suspended. Which likely means the return to the starting lineup for Josh Wolff. Other than that I don't know if we'll see much change to the lineup from last week's game against San Jose.

Nielsen
Harrington - Conrad - Thomas - Espinoza
Arnaud - Auvray - Rocastle
Kamara - Wolff - Smith

Key Match Up - Davy Arnaud vs Ricardo Salazar - First time I've ever had a player vs the referee, but considering Salazar has given Arnaud 2 or his 3 red cards this season. For the Wizards to even have a chance at the playoffs they have to keep the full 11 players on the field. And that means Arnaud has to keep his ego in check, especially with a referee who has red carded the Wizards captain twice.

PREDICTION - With the way that the two teams have played much of this season, one would think that a safe result would probably be a 0-0 draw as combined the two teams have scored 34 goals. The Wizards themselves have scored only 2 more goals than Edson Buddle has. With this being virtually a must win, one would hope that Peter Vermes has the team ready to play and they come out and get the win.

KC - 1 (Kamara)
NE - 0