KANSAS CITY, Kan. — Kei Kamara has never had a start—or even a season—like this.
Only seven games into the 2010 campaign, Kamara has already bagged five goals, one behind the fifth-year forward’s career high and good for third in MLS. In the process, he’s also transformed himself from journeyman to the early focal point of the Wizards’ attack.
“I feel good right now,” Kamara said. “The people around me are doing a great job. I just need to put myself in the right position. I’m happy the way we’re playing right now offensively. The five goals I have is good, but we need to start getting wins.”
Kansas City are winless in their last five games, during which Kamara has scored three goals. But it’s the goal he couldn’t put away that has received the lion’s share of the attention.
After whiffing in front of an open goal and knocking the ball across the goal line with his arm, Kamara’s sitter miss made the front page of many national Web sites and blogs. Some even labeled it the miss of the century.
Luckily for the Wizards, it couldn’t have happened to a player with a better mindset to deal with the fallout.
“Obviously, Kei is a very confident guy,” assistant coach Zoran Savic said. “The goal that was seen worldwide that he missed, a lot of guys might have carried that with them. He turned right around and scored three goals.”
Those goals—one in stoppage time against D.C. United and two against the Fire last weekend—couldn’t propel Kansas City to three points, though that’s more to blame on defensive mishaps than anything else. And while the Wizards are happy to see the player they traded Abe Thompson to Houston for last season begin to truly establish himself, it could be a little disconcerting that only Kamara has scored since the first game of the season against D.C. United.
That doesn’t seem to bother the Wizards too much. It would be nice to have put the ball in the back of the net with more frequency and spread the wealth around, but captain Davy Arnaud pointed to another team as proof that the name on the score sheet is just a means to an end.
“It doesn’t matter who is scoring goals honestly as long as you are getting the results that you want,” Arnaud said. “Look at LA. Edson Buddle scored their first however-many goals and those guys have the most points in the league right now.”
Like Buddle, Kamara has the ability to make something out of nothing, but he’s relied on his teammates to provide the service he needs to be successful in the penalty area.
“Coach keeps telling me ‘Stay in the box. Stay in the box, and stuff is going to happen,’” he said.
Playing as the lone forward and supported by five midfielders, Kamara’s responsibility is to get on the end of his teammates’ movement and buildup. And with Ryan Smith, Arnaud, Jack Jewsbury and Josh Wolff pulling the offensive strings, Kamara hasn’t had to wait too long for those scoring opportunities to present themselves.
“The supporting cast around Kei is a lot better than we had a year ago,” Savic said. “As a team, we also create opportunities a lot differently than we did in the past. Kei's the catalyst of a lot of people doing a lot of work.”
