Wizards' Conrad overcomes gaffes
Veteran defender's game-winner lifts Wizards past visiting FC Dallas
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But, he couldn't shower. Not yet. Reporters wanted to ask him about his two errors that ultimately led to two FCD goals and gave away Kansas City's 1-0 lead. They also wanted to ask him about his sprawling header in the 80th that forged his team's 3-2 lead and kept the Wizards' slim postseason hopes alive.
"It's easy to brush [my performance] off now, for sure," Conrad said, smiling as he answered. "But, there's still video to watch. We have that on Tuesday. I can't wait for that."
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When the video session rolls around, the team will see two pretty egregious Conrad errors that led to the FCD scores. Conrad acknowledged as much. But they will also see something else: the return of a collective defensive effort that had carried the team through the early part of the season but disappeared in the summer months. It showed again last weekend at New York in a 1-0 win.
The defense, on the whole, was every bit that good again in the Wizards' 25th game as it really did a fine job in slowing an FC Dallas team coming off a six-goal performance against Los Angeles.
"You know, it's funny, there were no defensive mistakes tonight, just two by me that led to the two goals," Conrad said. "[The plays] hurt, and you kind of move on. I'm obviously not pleased with my performance overall."
Offensively, the Wizards scored in several ways. The first goal of the night came via Santiago Hirsig's header off a Claudio Lopez corner kick. Josh Wolff later tied the game 2-2 with his 10th goal of the season (which tied his career high and ties him for fourth in MLS) -- a redirection of a first-time shot from Zoltan, also directly from a corner.
And, finally, Conrad's header sealed the victory, after a Lopez cross was nearly deflected by an FC Dallas defender into his own goal before it was swatted away by goalkeeper Dario Sala.
Wizards technical director/interim head coach Peter Vermes said Hirsig's goal was indicative of his club's primary strategy going in.
"One of the first places we felt we could be dominant on them was set pieces," Vermes said. "Getting that corner kick goal was a really good thing because it was something we really felt we could take advantage of."
Vermes also said he was glad that Conrad was able to make amends for his earlier play.
"I'm happy for Jimmy in that he struggled with those two plays, and he made up for it in regards to getting [the goal]," Vermes said. "Sometimes it bites you, and sometimes you get a chance to bite back."
Vermes made several changes to his lineup after halftime, inserting recently acquired Kei Kamara for Herculez Gomez to start the half, and later adding Zoltan in place of Davy Arnaud.
The new mix on the field displayed an energy not seen for some time from the Wizards, and seemed to rush FC Dallas into a pace more hurried than it would have liked.
"Yeah, for sure," Vermes said when asked if the energy and subsequent results from the last group on the field would weigh on any lineup considerations moving forward. "Kei is a presence physically, and he can put defenses under major pressure.
"Zoltan is an extremely smart soccer player. You see a lot of times when balls get played out to him, very rarely does he lose the ball through the dribble or the pass. He winds up finding guys."
Zoltan found Wolff. Kamara also did what he was brought in to do. The team has done enough its last four games to win three of them and stay on the heels of New England, which now leads Kansas City by four points in the Eastern Conference standings following a 1-1 draw with New York on Friday and the Wizards' win.
And, overall, chances might be small, but it appears the Wizards might have found just enough to make the playoff push the team claimed it could.
Curtis Kitchen is a contributor to MLSnet.com
