Toni! Toni! Ton- ... Wright-Phllips. Sigh.

So let's just get it out of the way. Bradley Wright-Phillips was on side. If Besler and Myers are in does that back line stay tighter? Maybe. But it's hard to fault the defense too much in that performance. I thought the back four performed generally well, Kronberg did okay, and I was impressed with Toni and Igor Julaio. And, honestly, getting scored on after Thierry Henry helps beat an offside trap to the current MLS leading goal scorer isn't the worst thing that could happen. It's just frustrating to see another result slip away after Sporting Kansas City turned in what was largely a good performance. I thought it was interesting to hear the players talk about how they feel they're playing better this year than they were last year. To a certain extent, I agree with them. For 85 minutes of most games, they look really good. It's those few "oops" moments we seem to have in every match this year that's been killer.

The return of Aurelien Collin was welcome and I thought he performed well. Lawrence Olum should return soon as well (after the DC game, I believe, but don't quote me on that. Or anything else. Ever.). For what it's worth, Olum made his debut for Kenya last week in a 1-0 win over Comoros and may see time again this weekend. Should Kenya advance, the second round of qualifying runs from July 18th to August 3rd.

At any rate, here's some player ratings from the match.

You could probably make a case that Benny Feilhaber had a very good game in the absence of Graham Zusi, but I'd like to give man of the match honors to Toni. Like I said, I thought he had a very good match and seemed to provide a really good spark going down the sidelines, with a willingness to take guys on and rifle off a shot when given time. Some one willing to take shots from range, and put them on frame, is something I think Kansa City really needs.

At any rate, I love these two game weeks. A road win against DC United will have me feeling much, much better.