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Fire-Wizards Preview

Aug 16, 2009 - 1:57 AM By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN STATS Senior Writer

Chicago (8-4-8) at Kansas City (5-7-6), 3:00 p.m. EDT

After the worst loss in franchise history, the Kansas City Wizards made a coaching change. They have also had surprising success in recent meetings with the Chicago Fire, who are getting ready for an important eight-day stretch.

Peter Vermes will make his debut as Wizards coach on Sunday against the Fire, who haven't won in Kansas City in nearly four years.

Kansas City (5-7-6) fired coach Curt Onalfo and assistant Kris Kelderman in the aftermath of a 6-0 loss at FC Dallas on Aug. 1. Vermes, the club's technical director, will coach the rest of the season. It's his first stint after a playing career that featured seven seasons in MLS.

"The big thing is we're moving forward. It's pretty simple; we realize we have 12 games left. The fact of the matter is, as results are important, right now, performance is even more important," Vermes said. "As an organization, the thing that we're going to have to - and I think the players are on the same page with this - we have to better our performance on the field."

Vermes won't have a full squad for his first match with second- and third-leading scorers Davy Arnaud and Claudio Lopez unavailable. Arnaud is suspended due to an accumulation of yellow cards while Lopez was sent off in the loss at Dallas.

"If you look at all of our results, I think that's the worst result we've given up in like 10 years," Kansas City captain Jimmy Conrad said. "I think the 6-0 makes it a little bit more immediate that you have to look at the situation."

The Fire once dominated the Wizards, winning the first 10 matchups, but the series has been in Kansas City's favor recently. The Wizards have three ties and one win in their last four games against Chicago (8-4-8) and are 2-0-3 at home versus the Fire since a loss on Oct. 1, 2005.

Kansas City rallied for a 2-2 tie in Chicago on April 18 when Josh Wolff scored twice in the final 12 minutes.

Chicago will have two games in hand entering Sunday as it tries to catch Columbus for the top spot in the Eastern Conference. The Fire play three times in the next eight days with matchups slated against Western Conference powers Los Angeles and Colorado after this contest.

They sandwiched two MLS matches around a loss in the SuperLiga final to Tigers of Mexico last week. Chicago fell 3-2 last Sunday at West-leading Houston, rallying from a two-goal halftime deficit before falling.

"There were a lot of guys that plugged in and left it on the field tonight," Chicago coach Denis Hamlett said. "We will go home and regroup and get ready for another important stretch."

Hamlett and defender Bakary Soumare were fined undisclosed amounts by the Fire organization Saturday for an incident that happened in the locker room during halftime of the loss.

Chris Rolfe scored and Peter Lowry added his first MLS goal in his second career professional appearance.