The Kansas City Wizards faced their first adversity of 2010, but still managed to walk away with the inaugural Supporters Showdown title by virtue of a 2-1 exhibition victory against AC St. Louis on Saturday night.
Wizards forward Zoltan capitalized on a defensive mistake by St. Louis in the first half before a defensive miscue by Kansas City gave their opponents a penalty. KC fought back for the game-winning goal through midfielder Santiago Hirsig six minutes from time.
Although head coach Peter Vermes had reason to be disappointed with his team’s inconsistent finishing—the Wizards outshot St. Louis 16-2—he said he was pleased his that players were forced to fight for a result after dominating the majority of the game and eventually succeeded.
“Having to get the second goal and then lock the game down was something that we haven’t had to do yet,” Vermes said.
Zoltan scored the opener for the Wizards in the 31st minute after a communication breakdown resulting from a back pass allowed the striker to dispossess the St. Louis goalkeeper and slide the ball past two defenders on the goal line.
Despite having only one shot on goal all match, St. Louis fought back to even the score through a penalty kick after Wizards goalkeeper Jimmy Nielsen was judged to have committed a foul in the penalty area. Nielsen could not hold on to a St. Louis cross, parrying it into the path of an AC player and making enough contact when he attempted to swap the ball away to warrant a spot kick from the referee.
But with the momentum in the balance, Kansas City’s defense stepped up and shut down the home side for the final 37 minutes.
“St. Louis got a lot of momentum and energy from that goal, and they felt like they had a little bit of a chance,” defender Jimmy Conrad said. “I thought we did a good job of managing it and keeping the ball in dangerous areas.”
Kansas City experienced a scare in the 57th minute when Zoltan went to the ground in obvious discomfort, forcing Vermes to replace him with Korede Aiyegbusi. There was no word on the diagnosis or if the player will miss any time.
“I’m hoping it’s not severe,” Vermes said.
Hirsig scored the game-winning goal in the 84th minute when he redirected Craig Rocastle’s free kick into the back of the net.
All in all, Vermes said the team got exactly what it wanted from the weekend: 90 minutes for the majority of team and two competitive games to continue working molding the identity of the squad. The Wizard’s reserves defeated Evansville 5-0 prior to the night’s main event.
“It all just helped in the next part of our evolution as a team,” Vermes said.
Kansas City will have Sunday and Monday off before returning to training on Tuesday to begin preparing for the Colorado Rapids, who tied the Chicago Fire 2-2 on Saturday.
Josh Wolff, Davy Arnaud, Chance Myers, Stéphane Auvray and Ryan Smith did not travel to St. Louis with the team, instead staying in Kansas City to continue recuperating from various illnesses and injuries.
Lineup: Jimmy Nielsen; Michael Harrington, Jimmy Conrad (Pablo Escobar 62’), Matt Besler, Roger Espinoza; Kei Kamara, Craig Rocastle, Santiago Hirsig, Jack Jewsbury (Graham Zusi 63’), Teal Bunbury; Zoltan (Korede Aiyegbusi 57’)
