Wizards wrathful with one point draw
Team upset with itself after 1-1 draw to New York at Giants Stadium
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Game highlightsNonetheless, the visiting locker room at Giants Stadium was full of hushed tones and long faces afterward.
"It's a tie that feels like a loss," said Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad, whose first-half header off a Carlos Marinelli corner kick gave his team a lead it held on to for more than an hour.
New York dominated possession for most of the game and peppered Kevin Hartman's goal with six on-target shots in the second half (Kansas City didn't have any) and the equalizer seemed inevitable. But what riled Wizards coach Curt Onalfo was that his team finally conceded just minutes after New York had been reduced to 10 men. "(Dave) van den Bergh gets a red card and I think we're walking out of here with three points," said Onalfo. "I walk away with a bitter taste in my mouth because I'm not happy with how our guys managed that last portion of the game."
The Wizards started well and got into the rhythm of the game quickly. They had some difficulty dealing with the home team's three-man forward line of Dane Richards, Jozy Altidore and Juan Pablo Angel, and the slick artificial turf field didn't help matters. But, for the most part, the back four of Chance Myers, Tyson Wahl, Michael Harrington and Conrad held strong, especially in the opening 45 minutes.
"We played a very good first half," said Onalfo. "We took the game to them. We did a really good job of keeping the ball. We went into halftime exactly where we wanted to be."
Conrad's goal's was no lucky strike. It was his third tally of the season, and he's been the team's main target on corner kicks all year.
"It's been a point of emphasis this year to be dangerous on set pieces," Conrad said. "Marinelli plays in a great ball so it's just a matter of us getting to good spots to make it happen. For that one (tonight), it was probably harder to miss than to make. I was happy it went in."
Alas, after the intermission, things stopped going the Wizards' way.
"The Red Bulls really put us on our heels in the second half," Onalfo said. "They switched their formation to a 4-4-2 and pushed their outside midfielders up the field. The momentum shifted and we didn't do a great job defending on those occasions. We were probably lucky not to get scored on (earlier)."
They probably would have been scored on earlier if not for Hartman. Yes, New York squandered several chances with wayward shooting and also saw two Wizards defenders clear shots of the line. But the veteran 'keeper made two fantastic close-range saves on Angel and Kevin Goldthwaite in the second half to keep his team in the game.
"I think I gave us a chance to come away with three points and we weren't able to do it," said Hartman.
As disappointed as the visitors were, to a man, following the game, their goalscorer, being a good captain, was determined to find a silver lining. "In a fair and balanced world -- and I don't know if we live in one of those -- it's probably a fair result," Conrad said. "They had a lot of chances."
Doug McIntyre is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
