Wizards Roll Revs In K.C.

The New England Revolution and Kansas City Wizards came in to Saturday night’s contest in Kansas City as part of a cluster of teams fighting for position in the Eastern Conference table.

With both teams sitting on 16 points heading into the match, a win would catapult either club into the top four of the Conference standings. But the Revolution would once again be without Taylor Twellman who eclipsed the 100 goal plateau last week against New York.

A frantic first 45 at Community America Ballpark saw the home side take a two goal and one man advantage to the break and eventually end the match as 3-1 winners.

First Half:

The Wizards broke got on the scoresheet first 19 minutes in through Davy Arnaud. The midfielder did well to latch on to a Claudio Lopez through ball while holding off a defender and poke the ball past Revolution ‘keeper Matt Reis.

But the Revs responded just nine minutes later through Shalrie Joseph. The team’s surprising top scorer notched his fifth of the season after Steve Ralston sent a cross from the left to Joseph at the back post. The big midfielder turned striker knocked his headed effort off of Wizard ‘keeper Kevin Hartman and into the net to level the score on 28 minutes.

Three minutes later the match took another turn as Revolution defender Emmanuel Osei was sent off after a confrontation with Lopez.

It didn’t take long for Kansas City to capitalize on the man advantage and in the 36^th the home side would jump in front again. A shot from Lopez was too much for Reis to handle from close range and took a fortuitous bounce off of Jeff Larentowicz, who had shifted to the backline from his normal midfield role after Osei’s sending off, and into the Revolution goal.

Down a goal and down a man the visitors needed to stop the bleeding, but the Wizards were in no mood to sit on a one goal advantage and in the 39^th a corner would lead to a third.

Josh Wolff put a shot on target from the initial service that Reis did well to keep out, but the rebound was flicked from Jimmy Conrad to the onrushing Aaron Hohlbein who made no mistake with his finish.

The match went into the half with the home side up 3-1 and little hope for a New England comeback.

Second Half:

Kansas City took full advantage of the man advantage in the second half and controlled proceedings from the opening whistle. Down a man and without a legitimate striker on the field through most of the half, New England never really formulated any kind of sustained attack against a very settled Kansas City back line.

The Wizards continued to press forward, but the visitors seemed almost content to keep the score where it was and head home with a loss. Despite their best efforts the Wizards couldn’t find a fourth and the match would end still 3-1.

The win put Kansas City in a tie for third with Toronto F.C. on 19 points and improved their home record to 3-2-2.

The loss snapped a two game winning run for the Revs and put the team back at .500 for the season with a 4-4-4 record.

Both sides will now get an extended break from Major League Soccer action to play in the SuplerLiga.

Goal.com

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