Back to Work

Sporting Kansas City get back to league play tomorrow when the Wizards will take on the Columbus Crew at Crew Stadium. After having last week off, KC has had a chance for a few of those nagging injuries to heal up. The Crew on the other hand were busy last week when they went out to LA and took on Chivas USA. The two teams played to a 0-0 draw in what was considered to be a very dull affair where neither side really impressed offensively. That seems to be the Crew's way in the early part of this season as they have only scored three goals this season. On the opposite end they have only allowed three goals as well. Chad Marshall appears to have overcome some concussion syndromes earlier this season and has helped lead the Columbus defense along with former Wizards goalkeeper, Will Hesmer.

Kansas City suffered a blow last week when Omar Bravo had his sports hernia surgery flair up, and the Wizards DP will now miss 4-6 weeks recovering from the injury. And while KC's depth will be hurt, the starting attack should still be pretty potent as Teal Bunbury, Kei Kamara, and CJ Sapong showed in Vancouver. Can they do it again against a tougher defensive opponent? We will see soon enough. With Aurelien Collin, the question becomes who is going to start next to Matt Besler tomorrow, is it going to be Juilo Cesar again, who has failed to impress me in his two outings, or Shavar Thomas? Other than that I think we're likely to see the same lineup that we saw two weeks ago in Vancouver against the Whitecaps.

Nielsen
Harrington - Cesar - Besler - Espinoza
Arnaud - Diop - Stojcev
Kamara - Bunbury - Sapong

Number to Remember - 3 - As I said earlier, it's the number of goals that Columbus has scored and allowed this year. It's also a number that at least 1 team has scored in all three of Sporting KC's games.

Key Match Up - Birahim Diop vs Eddie Gaven - Diop seems the likely candidate to start at the defensive midfield position for the second straight game. And while Arnaud has had plenty of defensive responsibilities in the past few games, shutting down Gaven is a key to shutting Columbus down.

PREDICTION - This is one of those key match ups when a good offensive team takes on a good defensive team. Which side will be able to take advantage of the other will be the key. Can KC continue their hot offense or will Columbus' defense step up and be the first to really shut down KC? Columbus has been a tough team to break down, but if any team can break down it'll be KC with the 3 pronged attack of Kamara, Bunbury, and Sapong. I think tomorrow will be close but I think the extra time off will be to the benefit of KC.

KC - 2 (Bunbury, Kamara)
CLB - 1 (Gaven)