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The September 25th game of Seattle Sounders vs. the Chicago Fire has gone from hotly anticipated playoff race matchup to just another game in less than a month. Some of that has to do with the Sounders winning, some of the that has to do with the Fire losing, but increasingly it has to do with the Kansas City Wizards simply getting on the pitch. More after the jump....
It was 3-1 Houston over Kansas City when I went to get a glass of water, feed the cat, and wrap up some small chores. By the time I came back to write some positive news my heart sank as I saw the screen - 3:3 KC:HOU. I go to link the story and there you have it, Kansas City Wizards 4 - Houston Dynamo 3. Of all players to score the winning goal, it had to be ex-Fire Josh Wolff, didn't it?
Everywhere you look there are analagoies. The Fire couldn't comeback against Houston on August 21. The Wizards did tonight on September 22. The Fire are even further back while the Wizards are right on the backs of Seattle for 8th place. I'm shocked to be honest. I threw the Wizards out of the playoff picture when they went 1-3-8 between April 17th and July 10th. When Kei Kamara had the 'worst miss of the century', I laughed and thought, ah the Wizards. Who in their right mind would have put even a dollar on them putting together a next ten games of 6-3-1? The joke is on me now. It's not very funny and I'm certainly not laughing. Read the summary of tonight's game if you dare.
The only consolation I can take from this is that it is possible for MLS teams to turn it around. This isn't the English Premiership where you can't go too long before running into the invincible big four or more and more the pretty good six or seven. Maybe just maybe we could turn it around and hey, at least build up some momentum for 2011. Small consolation for sure and this is certain: Kansas City is officialy a hurdle in our already almost impossible path. Tip of the hat for doing what the Fire haven't been able to do.