MLS Thursday Night: Kansas City Wizards v LA Galaxy

By: Bob | September 27th, 2007

What to do when you have sold 25,000 tickets to a game that David Beckham was supposed to play in, but won’t? If you are the Kansas City Wizards you hand out free parking and two-for-one playoff tickets, you have a Beatles tribute band and you set off post-game fireworks. In other words, you do everything possible to entertain the thousands of fans who have no interest in watching an average Kansas City Wizards team play a dreadful LA Galaxy side in an 80,000 seat pointyball stadium.

The same enticements will not be available to those of us tuning in from the comfort of our living room. Instead, we’ll have to rely on copious amounts of adult beverages and our unwavering desire to make MLS Thursday Night a huge ratings success (or at least a bigger ratings success than the reruns of the world poker tournament).

The Wizards enter the contest having won just 2 of their past 8 games. After a decent start to the season they find themselves in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with the same number of wins as losses. They are a team that has had some success at cavernous Arrowhead Stadium but little luck on the road.

The LA Galaxy come into the game with the same number of points as Toronto FC. That would be a good thing if Toronto weren’t an expansion team and if the Galaxy weren’t billed as one of the league’s marquee teams. The Galaxy have yielded a league-high 43 goals on the season. They haven’t won on the road, yet their PR department optimistically clings to the notion that they have playoff hopes.

So on paper this game will be a stinker, which means in real life it probably will be the most exciting thing you’ve seen on ESPN 2 since the last poker tournament. Here are a few things to keep an eye on while you wait for the Beatles tribute band to play in your living room.

1. The 300 club – Only four players in MLS history have played in 300 games. After last week’s game against FC Dallas, Cobi Jones is now one of them. He joins Steve Ralston, Chris Henderson and Jason Kreis on the list. Even though he is slated to retire, Jones is now grumbling that he might return for another season.

2. Too many cooks – With a decent attack and a defense that is suspect, the Wizards sometimes play an appetizing brand of soccer. Not as appetizing as their culinary skills, mind you, but tasty nevertheless.

3. If they were paid by minutes played… – Ty Harden would draw the largest salary on the LA Galaxy roster. He has logged 1,880 minutes, which is 1,678 more than Beckham has played. Harden’s salary: $30,000.

Put on your best smile and do your darnedest to enjoy the game.