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Johnson, new-look Wizards shine in win

Apr 15, 2007 - 3:53 AM WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- Given a week longer to absorb the good vibes brought on by a new coaching staff and new ownership, the Kansas City Wizards enjoyed getting off to a late start.

Eddie Johnson scored the go-ahead goal for the Wizards, who found the back of the net three times in the first half goals en route to a 4-2 victory over D.C. United.

Kansas City (1-0-0), which started its season a week after the rest of the league as a result of the adjusted schedule to accommodate the 13 teams that now reside in the MLS, jumped ahead of D.C. United early, 2-0, on goals by Michael Harrington and Sasha Victorine.

"We started the game with an attacking mentality and got two goals early," first-year Wizards coach Curt Onolfo said. "Anytime you can get a lead, you want to be smart and move tactically. We're not going to be a team that sits back. We're going to be a team that plays aggressive, both home and away."

A member of the 2006 U.S. World Cup team, Johnson finished with a goal and two assists, nearly matching the two goals he scored last season and doubling the number of assists he tallied in 19 games during the 2006 campaign.

"This year is a real important year for myself," Johnson said. "It's the last year of my guaranteed contract. Curt told me that he's going to be hard on me to score goals.

"I just had a run of bad luck last year. My goal this year with the Wizards and the national team is just to put myself in spots where I was scoring goals in '04 when I first started playing with the senior team. All it takes is that one goal to get your confidence."

With the score tied, 2-2, Johnson broke through two defenders on the right side in the 45th minute and drove the ball past goalkeeper Troy Perkins to put Kansas City up, 3-2, just before the end of the half.

"It (Johnson's performance) was unbelievable," Wizards defender Jimmy Conrad said. "It just showed his speed and his talent. They had guys all over him and he was still running all over them. He scored a great goal to get us up, 3-2. He was big-time tonight."

Johnson set up a goal in the 53rd minute when he drew the attention of the D.C. United defense, giving forward Scott Sealy an uncontested path to the goal and the Wizards a 4-2 advantage.

"The hard part now is that everybody will have watched this game and now they're going to try to harness Eddie and Scott and they're probably going to drop off a little bit," Conrad said. "We just have to figure out a way to be successful despite that."

Kansas City was swept, 4-0, in the season series last season.

Christian Gomez scored two goals for D.C. United (0-2-0), which dropped its second straight game. D.C. United did not lose their second game last season until July 29.

"We slipped on the first two goals," D.C. United midfielder Ben Olsen said. "It's unacceptable, but it happens, people slip. It was maybe a little too open on our part or maybe we took too many chances with the personnel that we had out there. It's embarrassing to have so many people sit here and come and watch us in the rain and cold and support us and we treat them like that.

"We don't want to but it happened. We're sorry about that, but we're going to make it right."