The Kansas City Wizards broke out of their first-half scoring slump with two goals and a gift in the first 45 minutes as they defeated the New England Revolution 3-1 in front of a sellout crowd Saturday at CommunityAmerica Ballpark.
Davy Arnaud, an own goal and Aaron Hohlbein sent the Wizards on their way. Shalrie Joseph had pulled the Revolution even, but that just minutes before they went a man down when defender Emmanuel Osei was shown a red card.
The Wizards' three goals matched the team's previous first-half output for the season and were the most goals in a game for Kansas City since last season's regular-season ending 3-1 victory against the Revolution.
Kansas City's scoring explosion began with Arnaud's fifth goal of the year in the 19th minute as a result of a perfect give-and-go with Claudio Lopez inside the New England box.
Arnaud began the run knifing through the center of the Revolution's defense, finding Lopez to his left. Lopez immediately returned the favor to a wide-open Arnaud in front of the New England goal.
All that was left for Arnaud was to send a shot past helpless New England goalkeeper Matt Reis. It was Lopez's fourth assist of the year.
Shortly after a game-tying goal by New England's Joseph (his team-high fifth) in the 28th minute, the wheels came off the Revs' bus. Joseph headed home a Steve Ralston cross from the left after a corner kick was cleared back out.
In the 31st minute, Revolution defender Osei was assessed a red card for a serious foul play and ejected. Off his feet after being pulled to the ground by Lopez, Osei reacted by kicking the forward. He then rose to his feet and shoved Lopez, earning the ejection.
Lopez received a yellow card for unsporting behavior.
Up a man, the Wizards regained the lead in the 36th minute on a gift in the form of an own goal by Revs midfielder Jeff Larentowicz. Herculez Gomez fired a shot that deflected first off of Reis. The deflection bounced off Larentowicz, retreating toward his own net, and into the goal.
Just three minutes later, Kansas City earned its first-half hat trick.
Forward Josh Wolff played a Lopez corner kick and nearly scored with a header. Reis made the save, which sent the ball to K.C. captain Jimmy Conrad. Conrad then centered the ball with a header of his own to Aaron Hohlbein, who finished the play just a few feet from the net. It was Hohlbein's second goal of the season and the first assist of the year for Conrad.
The first half was a welcome change for Kansas City, which, despite applying a quicker pace and attack as of late, had struggled to find much offense including last week's 2-0 loss to Columbus.
Kansas City managed 11 shots (eight of them on goal) in the first 45 minutes and kept New England on its heels as the visiting team dealt with its man-disadvantage for the last 14 minutes of the half.
In the second half, it was the Wizards who were able to use the smaller dimensions of CommunityAmerica Ballpark to its advantage instead of the other way around as happened with Columbus.
With K.C. settled defensively and in rhythm offensively, New England was unable to mount any sort of attack and subsequently any momentum in trying to come back.
For the game, the Wizards took 21 shots to New England's nine.
The win moved Kansas City's home record to 3-2-2 and broke up a bit of the logjam in the Eastern Conference. With the result, the Wizards are tied with only Toronto FC in third place as TFC defeated New York 2-1.
Both clubs now take two weeks off to compete in SuperLiga, where they will be in the same group. The teams return to MLS competition on July 4, when the Revolution travel to face the LA Galaxy, and the Wizards play host to the Houston Dynamo.
Curtis Kitchen is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
