United Recap - The Belly of the Beast

Not a particularly full beast out there in the cavernous confines of Arrowhead Stadium, but that Wizards team sure does make you uncomfortable, don't they? United rode their luck and Troy Perkins (with a liberal dose of McTavish) to a narrow 1-0 victory. New signing Greg Vanney managed to commit the mandatory "Erpen brain fart" and nearly gave the game away, but United's luck held and the ball bounced wide of the post. I think we saw from Perkins' performance today that he may well have made the difference in United's only loss in the last 10 games - the 2-1 defeat at Salt Lake where Nolly was handed the start. KC were repeatedly through on goal only to be stoned by the United netminder.

Emiligol has really started to bang them in and his run of consecutive scoring games has now stretched to five in a row while the improving Fred notched another assist. I was encouraged by the tremendous start to the game by Moose, and Addlery put himself about despite not receiving any friendly whistles from Michael "The Napoleon Complex" Kennedy. United were probably fortunate to win, but they could have made things a lot more even by putting some of those shots from outside the box on target. There must have been a handful of opportunities where balls were laid into the path of players charging in from midfield, but save for one shot from Gomez, I don't think a single one was put on frame.

KC once again racked up a high shot total, getting off 21 blasts at the net, 8 of which would have been in if not for Perkins pulling his "super keeper" routine (see - all of you FM/CM fans - it does happen in real life!) to stifle chance after chance. KC was determined to test a United back line consisting of a veteran who has only had a day with the side, a second year reserve player, and two converted midfielders. The Wizards ran right through, past, and around them in the first half, and it looked like only a matter of time before they would score.

Fortunately, the goal at the end of the first half for United pegged them back a bit and despite a half-dozen good chances in the second half, the home side could not break through and the heat eventually began to take its toll as both teams tired and the frequency of good chances started to slow. It was still a very open, attacking game despite the mid-day heat and MLS HQ's sadistic insistence on not rescheduling what was sure to be a miserable afternoon game. There was a bit of levity provided by the "Forza Wiz" banner in front of the brave band of KC supporters that were in fairly good voice all match. "Go wiz!" indeed. I believe I shall.