BY ADAM SERRANO
The Kansas City Wizards travel west to take on the slumping Los Angeles Galaxy at the Home Depot Center.
Los Angeles may be leading the league in points, but have hit a bit of a skid recently with only two wins in their last six matches. The Galaxy will be glad to return home for the first time since August 1st where they are 6-1-1 overall. Kansas City on the other hand have caught fire recently (3-1-2 in 6 games) and find themselves just outside a playoff berth. To continue this recent success, the Wizards need to perform better on the road, Kansas City is 1-6-2 on the road this season.
I will be providing commentary throughout the match so please feel free to follow along here. As always, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section below.
Enjoy the action (Commentary is after the jump):
FULL TIME – KANSAS CITY 2 GALAXY 0. The Wizards come into Home Depot Center and hand the slumping Galaxy their second home loss. KC gets the victory thanks to a pair of goals by Davy Arnaud and Jimmy Conrad which will put them back into the playoff hunt. For the Galaxy, the midseason lull has become a full slump as the club is unable to rebound from an early goal yet again. Thank you for following along, check back to SBI for more coverage of this game later tonight.
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FINAL – The final whistle is blown and boos rain down on the field. Kansas City 2 Los Angeles 0
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90th Minute – The Galaxy earn a free kick, but once more Kansas City does enough to clear the effort. Four minutes of stoppage time.
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89th Minute – Don't expect much stoppage time for this one. Both clubs look like they want to go into the locker room.
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87th Minute – Buddle goes down near the box, but gets called for a foul after jostling with Arnaud. Crowd is unhappy there.
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86th Minute – Sloppy play by Dunivant who tries to fire in a cross in the box. He gets tangled with Harrington and gets caught up in a shoving match with the defender. Frustrations high right now.
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81st Minute – The Galaxy are in complete slump mode now. As the season has gone on, the team has been increasingly hesitant to admit of being in a slump, but right now it appears that they will need to follow the old saying. The first step to getting over a problem, is admitting that you have one.
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80th Minute – Wizards sub: Kamara comes out for Bunbury.
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79th Minute – Cazumba doing his best to lead a come back, but a few comical efforts are not going to get it done. It looks like a meltdown right now.
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75th Minute – Bowen earns yet another corner that Donovan sends begging. Count me among those who believe that Bowen should have started.
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74th Minute – Galaxy sub: Cazumba in for the ineffective Mike Magee.
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72nd Minute – Arnaud whips in a free kick and Conrad gets a boot on the ball after a great extension. The shot bounces off the bar and goes into the net. It's 2-0 to Kansas City.
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70th Minute – GOAL!!!! KANSAS CITY!! JIMMY CONRAD!! The Boos come down at Home Depot Center.
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69th Minute – HARSH late foul on Smith by Birchall leads to a yellow. Birchall is suspended for the next match.
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66th Minute – Wizards sub: Jack Jewsbury comes in for Craig Rocastle.
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64th Minute – Kansas City clears the corner. Los Angeles is getting the lionshare of the possession so far this half, but KC is performing well on the counter.
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63rd Minute – Bowen nearly pays off immediately, fires in a nice ball to Franklin that Kansas City clears for a corner. Nice play there by the youngster.
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62nd Minute – GALAXY SUB: Tristan Bowen in for Chris Klein. The veteran was very dangerous today, but Klein can not go that long anymore.
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60th Minute – SAVE RICKETTS! Nice build up by Kansas City leads to a shot by Diop that Ricketts leads to a corner that LA clears.
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58th Minute – BIG SAVE BY NIELSEN!! Birchall gets a shot off after a build up after a Kansas City turnover, but the Dane comes up big again for Kansas City.
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57th Minute – Magee gets a very decent ball in from Stephens, but he can't handle it to get a shot off. Expect Kirovski or Bowen soon.
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56th Minute – Dangerous cross in from Harrington, but Diop can not get a shot off. VERY dangerous from Kansas City.
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52nd Minute – Donovan nearly breaks free and it appears that he drove Jommy Conrad into the ground on the play that leads to a collision with Neilsen. Conrad gets back up after the boot to the face from Nielsen
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49th Minute – Birchall gets sprung free and fires a shot on goal, but Nielsen comes up with a huge toe save.
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48th Minute – A soft for me as a Cal grad, the California High School band is playing "Sons of California", the fight song of UC Berkeley. Very nice.
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47th Minute – Weak shot by Buddle goes straight into the hands of Nielsen.
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46th Minute – And We're back.
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HALFTIME – Key stat of the half, The Galaxy have six corners, but zero shots on goal.
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HALFTIME – USMNT fans might disagree, but in MLS Landon Donovan is by far more effective playing forward. I would expect the Galaxy to put him up top if the score holds. He was way more dangerous last week when placed at forward.
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HALFTIME – The Wizards are by more the more threatening team so far this half. They are quicker to the ball and doing a fantastic job of muscling the Galaxy attackers off the ball when they get it in an advanced position. Los Angeles finds themselves behind because of yet another early goal and will need to rebound. They are getting a number of chances, but as is the case as of late, they can not find the back of the net.
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45th Minute – First half: Galaxy 0 Wizards 1 No stoppage time.
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44th Minute – SHOT! Magee gets a great cross in from Klein, but Magee fires the shot right into the ground despite the empty net. Klein is looking more and more dangerous as the game goes on. Now if only LA can find someone to finish.
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41st Minute – The Galaxy are simply unable to get anything going right now. The Wizards are using their physicality to just muscle the LA forwards off the ball.
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39th Minute – JUST OVER THE BAR! Birchall fires a shot from distance, that nearly loops into the net of Nielsen. Close there.
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36th Minute – GREAT SAVE BY RICKETTS! The Wizards get a break away as Arnaud strips Leonardo, gets a 2 on 1 with Diop, crosses to Diop, but Ricketts comes up with a great kick save to win the ball. Great play to keep the deficit at 1.
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35th Minute – Decent effort by Donovan, but the Galaxy are unable to get a shot on net. Kansas City clearly the better team so far. They're faster to the ball and by far more physical.
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33rd Minute – Klein earns a corner for the Galaxy. Kansas City is having a quiet word with the officials, they don't agree with the call.
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31st Minute – Klein gets the ball in an advanced position, but his cross is easily cleared by a Wizards defender.
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29th Minute – Galaxy thought they deserved a corner kick after it appears that a an Edson Buddle header went off a Wizards defender. No call from Reyes however.
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27th Minute – Horrible free kick by Donovan goes low and into the wall. Kansas City back on the attack.
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26th Minute – Thomas with a foul on Buddle forces a very dangerous free kick for the Galaxy.
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24th Minute – Leonardo saves an effort their clearing a cross by Arnaud. Kansas City putting a lot of pressure on the league leaders right now.
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23rd Minute – For those wondering, Bowen is most likely been left out of the line up due to concerns about the club's speed. In the match with San Jose, they looked pretty anemic in the last 45. Expect Bowen on late if the score holds.
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20th Minute – Baffling bit of goalkeeping by Nielsen earns a corner, the initial effort is cleared and the Galaxy wil get a retry that Donovan wastes.
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19th Minute – Harsh foul by Leonardo on Diop does not earn a card, but the forward is on the ground for a decent bit of time. Looked like that one hurt.
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17th Minute – The Galaxy are 0-4-1 when their opponents score first. The lone tie coming against San Jose. KC will not be easy, they have only given up four goals in their last six games.
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16th Minute – Decent effort on the corner, but Birchall is unable to hold the ball and it goes out for a Kansas City throw in.
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15th Minute – The Galaxy trying to strike right back. Corner.
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13rd Minute – Dunivant goes down and allows Kamara a world of space. The winger breaks free of his marker and fires a cross into Arnaud who beats Ricketts. It's 1-0 to Kansas City.
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12th Minute – GOAL!! KANSAS CITY!! DAVY ARNAUD!
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11th Minute – Kamara gets through the defense, but his effort goes across the goal mouth. Great run, but poor finish from Kamara.
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10th Minute – No Dice for the Galaxy on the corner as the Wizards are beginning to play long ball. Not much action in the opening 10.
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8th Minute – Corner for the Galaxy. Donovan to take.
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5th Minute – If there is a weak point for the Galaxy it is the veteran Chris Klein. Expect Sean Franklin to overlap often with the midfielder in order to provide assistance.
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3rd Minute – Kansas City earns a free kick and on the effort chaos breaks out in front of Ricketts net, the Galaxy are able to clear the danger however.
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1st Minute – We're underway, Los Angeles going to the right of your computer screen.
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PREGAME: A decent crowd on hand tonight for the match against the Wizards. The ACB and Riot Squad have made it a loud one though.
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PREGAME: The Galaxy come into the match with only a slim lead of 2 points on the Columbus Crew for the Supporters shield. Kansas City is eight points out of the playoff chance with today's results.
Brazilian midfielder Juninho is not available tonight. The midfielder returned to Brazil on Tuesday for personal matters, it is unknown yet if he'll be available for next week.
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PREGAME: Here are the line ups:
KANSAS CITY WIZARDS
————————Diop————————
Smith—–Rocastle——–Arnaud——-Kamara
———————-Auvray———————-
Espinosa——Conrad—–Thomas—–Harrington
———————-Nielsen————————–
KC Subs: GK: Kornberg, DEF: Aiyegbusi, Leathers, Myers, MID: Myers, Jewsbury, Zusi, FWD: Bunbury.
LOS ANGELES GALAXY
–———–Magee———Buddle—————
Klein———–Donovan————Stephens
——————–Birchall———————
Dunivant—-Leonardo——-Gonzalez——Franklin
———————-Ricketts————————–
LA SUBS: GK: Saunders, DEF: DeLaGarza, MID: Cazumba, Kovalenko, Lewis, FWD: Bowen, Kirovski