Another scorcher had made its way to Kansas City by noon on game day. Despite the high temperatures and stifling humidity, the Wizards were in high spirits as they took the field. They had been experiencing a fantastic run of form as of late and hoped to sustain it into August.

I took my customary place on the berm in what is normally center-field when the Kansas City T-Bones play baseball. In front of me on the grass was a father and his two young sons. The kids are budding soccer players, and this was their first Wizards match to attend in person. Their father was a nice fellow who was not as well-versed in soccer-speak as he was in other American sports. What he lacked in proper terminology, he more than made up for with earnestness. I chuckled as he told his kids about the 3 umpires and how the object of the defense is to kick the ball as hard as you can "even out of bounds."

The match started and clipped along at a good pace that belied the high temperature. The Wizards won a corner kick in the 3rd minute and continued to pressure Real deep into their own end. The hard work finally paid off when Ryan Smith shook off his marker and delivered a pin-point cross that Kei Kamara hammered into the upper 90. The 21st minute header was his 7th goal of the season. Unfortunately for the home team, Real equalized in the 33rd minute. There would be no more scoring in this match and Kansas City moved into a tie with Chicago in 4th place in the Eastern Conference.

After Robbie Findley scored, I overheard the father tell his sons that when a team is down by a goal, they can use their hands to score. Then he mentioned that Teal Bunbury’s late-game goal was disallowed because he was “off to the side” of the play. He also stated that when a player already has a yellow card, he gets a stern talking-to by the ref when he slides through a player to get to the ball instead of a second yellow. Now that you mention it, he knows quite a bit more than I originally gave him credit for…

If you have the courage to make contact, fanista can be reached at JC.Com Headquarters, extension 9, or at fanista@jimmyconrad.com

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