Strong win isn't enough to secure the Ben Cup

I was really surprised to see United's players so happy after this match. Earlier in the year, the team was knocked out in the home leg of the Champions Cup after a victory that wasn't enough to earn them the aggregrate win. And the same thing happened tonight, as United falls 5-4 on aggregrate goals in the 2008 Ben Cup.

Seriously though, it's strange how starkly different this match was from the match played by the same two teams just two weeks ago. DC United dominated, especially in the second half. Let's just hope this result won't be followed up by a series of letdowns like the last time we had a 4-1 victory at home. Still, despite the resounding victory, I would have liked to see Emilio notch a goal, to get his confidence up, and I would have liked to see the team earn a clean sheet, to get the back line's confidence up.


1. Jaime Moreno - Two goals and two assists for the Godfather of Goals! Might Jaime be in the running for player of the week?

2. Marcelo Gallardo - The 3-5-2 worked well here, allowing Gallardo and United to really control the midfield. And a rocket of a finish on the fourth goal. Might Marcelo be in the running for goal of the week?


1. Santino Quaranta - Nice work to find space and get open for his goal, and to finish it smoothly. Tino proved that we don't necessarily need McTavish in to score from the right wing. His crosses and long distance shots left a lot to be desired though in this match.

2. Marc Burch - Really a nice cross to set up Gallardo's goal. Looked like Burch and Martinez were having some trouble communicating at times though, leaving an RSL player open a couple times.

3. Rod Dyachenko - Still needs to control himself a bit more to resist some of those cheap fouls. But I thought Rod played pretty well. I didn't like the move of bringing in an attacking midfielder for a defensive midfielder (At the time, I would have preferred the left-sided Ryan Cordeiro), but Rod proved that he has the ability to play holding midfielder behind Gallardo.


1. Dan Stratford - I'm not going to give Strats a hard time, but he could have played better, and I doubt this will be his last start this year. Stratford was employed as a means to shut down Kyle Beckermen. Well as it turns out, the team didn't really need anyone to shut him down, because he sucked in this game. Which won't help the ol' fantasy team.

Last comment... Take a look at this image, and then take a look at the tagline that has always graced the heading of this blog. Does Thomas Rongen read DCUMD?




Highlight video coming soon once YouTube learns to handle it.