DC United win at NY Red Bulls, 3-2

This certainly felt like another one of those games where we outplay our opponent, but settle for a tie, or worse. Yet somehow, for the second week in a row, DC scores in stoppage time to secure the victory. That's four points that we've earned now in the final five minutes.


1. Great to see Santino Quaranta back to form. Each of his two assists in this match were among the best I've seen from a DC player.

2. For the second time this year, Bryan Namoff single-handedly saved a goal by clearing a ball off the line, and was solid throughout the match.

3. Chris Pontius looked good in the central attacking midfield role, but he was most productive when switching over to right midfield after Barklage entered the match. Pontius made up for all his misses the previous few weeks by burying the game winner.


1. Pardon the cliche, but it was a tale of two halves for Marc Burch and Dejan Jakovic. Burch handled Richards and Oduro very well in the first half without giving up any opportunities, but struggled at times against Kandji in the second. Jakovic kept Angel from having any effect on the match in the first half, but was outmuscled by JPA for a goal in the second.

2. I would have started Pontius at forward and Quaranta at CAM, Tom Soehn did the opposite, and it seemed to work out perfectly. Two of his substitutes Barklage and Khumalo made a big impact. But we gave up two goals during the fifteen minutes that Soehn switched the team from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2. In that formation, with Burch at LCB and Wallace at LB, and without Olsen on the field anymore, DC was at its weakest.

3. Rodney Wallace scored his first MLS goal, was an Emilio miss away from adding an assist, and was a goal line clearance by his former Terp teammate Jeremy Hall away from a second goal. But Wallace continues to be a bit of a liability on defense.


1. I would have liked to see more out of Fred, who had little impact on this match.

Now for some quick housekeeping from the 2-0 Open Cup win over FC Dallas:
Top Shelf: Barklage, Fred, Kocic, Burch
Call: Quaranta, Janicki
Rail: None

Summing up, a 2-2 tie felt like it would have been the right result. But fortunately, DC grabbed a couple extra points thanks to more oustanding play from their rookies. Between Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace starting every match this season, Brandon Barklage emerging as a fan favorite, and Milos Kocic potentially being the starting keeper in waiting, is it possible that the 2009 draft class is our greatest ever?

The First Sixth

As promised, this is the first of a new recurring feature here at the DCUMD blog. In the NFL, coaches and analysts often divide the season into four quarters when discussing how their team is doing. For example, the Redskins were a good 3-1 in the first quarter of their season, but finished 1-3 in their fourth quarter. In the MLS though, it's a little bit more complicated because 30 games doesn't easily divide by four. So I figured it would work out just as well to break the season into sixths, and we'll reflect back after the conclusion of each sixth to see where the team is standing. This will allow us to take a different perspective on the season and to track our thoughts on the team as the year progresses.

Results: 1-1-3. 6 GF, 6 GA

Standings: Currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference

Statistical Leaders: Luciano Emilio (3 goals), Chris Pontius (1 goal, 1 assist)

Most frequent lineup:

What we liked:

• The Rookies - Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace each started every game and combined for a total of 892 minutes out of 900 possible. They have each contributed immediately, and have done a fantastic job at filling in for the injured Fred and Quaranta on the wings. Soehn will have some real tough lineup decisions to make when the team returns to full strength.


• Ben Olsen returns - United is at a big advantage over last season in that we've got Benny leading by example on the field instead of just cheering from the sidelines. It was Ben Olsen who scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time to tie New England at home. Hopefully this was a huge momentum boost that will carry the team forward into the next stretch of games.


• The Aging Triangle - The reunion of Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, and Luciano Emilio has proven fairly effective in these five matches, including a three game goal scoring streak for Emilio in the middle.

What we didn't like:

• Failed opportunites - This stat says it all: Chris Pontius had 13 shots, but only 4 shots on goal. The team continues to put itself into good scoring positions, but has failed to convert far too often. Or how about Emilio deciding to shoot when heavily guarded, despite having a wide open Christian Gomez to his right in the Galaxy match? Missing your open opportunities is a terrible reason to miss the playoffs.


• Disappearing stars - As great as our attacking triangle has often been, we've also seen each of these three stars vanish from matches for long periods of time. Moreno and Emilio are occassionally at fault, but Gomez has been the main offender. Or is it the fault of the rest of the team for failing to get him the ball?


• The goalkeeping situation - I'm not quite ready to send Louis Crayton back to Liberia, and to be fair, he did earn one shutout, and gave up only 3 goals in his 3 games. But neither Crayton nor Wicks seems to have the consistency to be a top flight goalkeeper. Is it possible that Milos Kocic will eventually be our Varlamov and supplant the veterans?

Defining moment: This image says it all. The first sixth unfortunately was defined by Devon McTavish and Greg Janicki bumping heads while defending a Galaxy attack, and leading to two quick goals within the next 10 minutes as DC scrambled to adjust. The season to date can be summed up by DC United outplaying their opponents, but still giving away points unnecessarily.

Overall impression: At fourth place in the Eastern Conference, DC United is just about where we all expected them to be for most of the year. No longer the elite team in the league, but still very much in the thick of things. From what we've seen in the past five games, DC might be better than their record shows. But we need wins, not just solid performances. For example, at the conclusion of the first half of the Revolution game, all of the ESPN analysts agreed that that was the best half they'd seen out of DC all year, yet the game was scoreless. In each of our three ties, we had chances to put the game away and gain an extra two points, but either failed to convert our scoring opportunities, or failed to shore up defensively. Until United can start to grind out some victories rather than settling for draws against teams they can beat, this season may be likely to end in more disappointment.

Open Cup preview

There's been surprisingly very little debate this year about how we should line up for the Open Cup, which starts tomorrow against Dallas. In years past, we used to have heated arguments about the Cup's virtues vis a vis the MLS regular season, and whether the club should start its best XI, or start the reserves. This year the consensus seems to be pretty clear in favor of getting our reserves some action. For a couple of reasons I think. For one, in 2008 after two consecutive Supporters' Shield winning seasons, I think we'd gotten a little bit complacent with regards to regular season matchups. But now that we've seen that DC missing the playoffs is a very realistic possibility, it's a whole lot harder to take those regular season games for granted. And secondly, with MLS abandoning the Reserve Division in 2009, this might be our first opportunity to see a few new players in action.So I'm 100% on board with playing our reserves, and if they aren't better than Dallas's reserves, so be it.

Here's the lineup I'd like to see tomorrow night:

I don't know enough about Barklage or DiRaimondo to figure out where they might fit in here, but each could be a second half substitute option. Also, the lineup we see tomorrow might be a sign of who will be sacrificed to free up a roster spot for Avery John in the next couple days. If Anthony Peters doesn't get a start in this match, then his days with the team are surely numbered.

DC United tie vs NE Revolution, 1-1

I'm having a real hard time figuring out how to feel about this tie. The ending kind of makes it feel like a win. I can tell you with certainty that that was the loudest I've yelled at my tv this year with Benny scoring a goal in extra time. But apparently the recurring theme of the season to date is earning ties against teams that we are better than.

In the first 45 minutes, we had an absurd amount of possession in New England's half of the field. And unless you're Kenny Cooper, it's pretty hard to score when you can't even get the ball across the halfway line. United was better than the Revolution in every aspect of the field. Except for coaching, and except for goalkeeping. We'll get into each of those more in the player ratings.


1. Our domination in the first half was due mostly to our midfield, led by Clyde Simms and Ben Olsen. It's no coincidence that we ceased to dominate midfield in the second half when Simms came out. Olsen's fire and heart earned us a point in this match. I would pay good money to have heard exactly what Olsen said to Thompson after the goal. Whatever it was, it better have ended with either "boy" or "son".

2. This looked like Jaime Moreno's best match of the season. Even when playing the final 20 minutes with an injury, Moreno became the first player in league history to score 100 goals and 100 assists, and will probably be the only player to do that in the next 20 years.


1. Chris Pontius continues to find himself in excellent scoring position multiple times per match. But he needs to spend all of the next week practicing his finishing. Harkes is right - low to the far post.

2. I'm still unsure on where I stand on Christian Gomez. The team did a much better job at getting him the ball in this match, but his passes were just a step behind too often. Despite this, he created many good opportunities. Christian is good, but he could be better.

3. Contrasting with the first game of the season, Rodney Wallace had a good first half, and a poor second half. And there was a good reason for that. Wallace played on the left wing in the first, and at left back in the second. Even though he played left back in college at Maryland, he seems better in the midfield where his attacking skills can be utilized without exposing his inexperience in defense.


1. Kenny Mansally was Wallace's man, and Shalrie Joseph was Andrew Jacobson's man on New England's goal. Both were open. Jacobson didn't do much after entering for Simms in the second half.

2. I wrote the same thing about Zach Wells last season. Louis Crayton isn't usually at fault specifically on the goals that are scored on him, but that doesn't mean that he shouldn't occassionally save some of them. The Revs only had one good scoring opportunity all game, and they converted on it. Meanwhile, the other side had a keeper who's only started 2 games previously in the MLS, went undrafted two years go, and he came up with several difficult stops.

3. I'm not anywhere close to jumping on the "Fire Soehn" bandwagon yet this season, but I think Tom Soehn cost us two points tonight. The substitution of Jacobson for Simms was unfortunate, but may have been necessary due to Clyde's illness. But subbing out Marc Burch for Santino Quaranta at half time is inexcusable for a lot of reasons. First, it forced Wallace to play a position (left back) that he has never played as a pro. The 3-5-2 can only be effective when the back 3 act as a cohesive unit. That doesn't typically happen when one of them is playing out of position. Secondly, it left us with only one substitute remaining for the final 45 minutes with Gomez, Moreno, and Olsen all still in the match. And thirdly, after dominating the midfield in the second half, why change 40% of your midfield? Hindsight is 20/20, but I would also argue that Devon McTavish would have been a better addition than Jacobson. Lastly, Francis Doe singlehandedly won our last match against the Revs, and he wasn't even on the bench. When the team is struggling to score, Doe would make for a great second half sub.

While writing this post, I almost wrote "win" twice by mistake. So I guess it felt like a win. And after their first five games, DC United is sitting in the middle of the Eastern Conference, on the outskirts of playoff position. Not a terrible place to be, and pretty much just what we expected, but I can't help but think we could do so much better. Next week, we'll take a look back and introduce a new feature to the blog to put the season to date in a different perspective.

Chris Pontius versus Jaime Moreno

With all the lineup changes and the tinkering we've seen in the first four matches of the 2009 season, I figured this would be a good time to bring back an old favorite feature from 2008.

This matchup pits a grizzled veteran against a rookie for the withdrawn forward role, lining up next to Emilio. One has scored more goals than any other player in MLS history, and the other scored his first goal in his first MLS game just a few weeks ago. To be honest, I have no idea what the end result is going to be when I begin writing these.

Chris Pontius

Strengths:

1. Positioning - It's no coincidence that Pontius has been involved in so many of our scoring opportunities this season. He's the only guy on the team thus far to earn one goal and one assist.

2. Durability - Who would have guessed that Pontius would play all 360 minutes of the first four games? We expect that from Simms and Namoff, but not typically a rookie.

3. Flexibility - This post is meant to discuss the withdrawn forward position specifically, but there is something to be said for a guy who can play at forward, at either wing, and has also appeared at CAM for about a minute.

Weaknesses:

1. Inexperience - What a huge contrast between these two phenoms. Pontius is in his first MLS season. Moreno is in his 14th.

Jaime Moreno

Strengths:

1. Experience - Now at age 35, Moreno has seen it all.

2. Chemistry - The scoring triangle of Emilio/Moreno/Gomez is just behind Lassiter/Diaz Arce/Etcheverry as the best in team history. Even as Moreno and Gomez near the ends of their careers, they've always had an uncanny ability to find each other, and to find their striker Emilio to create scoring opportunities. Hopefully we'll see some more of that as they see more time on the field together.

3. Leadership - Without Jaime or Benny in Salt Lake last Saturday, there was a noticeable lack of leadership presense on the field.

Weaknesses:

1. Fatigue - I have my doubts about Moreno playing very many 90 minute matches this season. It's just a part of getting older.

2. He's better as a sub! - This is taking nothing away from Moreno's ability, I just like him best when he enters a match after minute 60. Although this isn't necessarily a weakness, it's a decent reason to start one player over another. When leading, Moreno can control possession and seal a victory. When trailing, Moreno can totally alter the pace of our attack and guide us to victory.

So what do I think we should do? I like Chris Pontius starting next to Luciano Emilio, with Moreno coming off the bench. I like having at least one of Olsen or Moreno on the field at all times, so as long as Ben Olsen is healthy enough to start, I'm ok with starting the dynamic Pontius over the experience of Moreno.

Now on to more pressing matters... I'm really excited about the game tomorrow night. This just feels like the kind of match that we usually win 4-1. And even though this is only the fifth match of the season, after a couple of disappointing results earlier, and now playing against one of our Eastern Conference rivals... Does this feel like a must-win game to anyone else?

What I missed

I've been pretty busy with house additions and family functions the past couple weeks, so without the capability to DVR matches that frustatingly are not on television, my reactions to these past two matches are coming only from video highlights and the written opinions of other fans, bloggers, and reporters. But I promise to resume my normal weekly match discussions Friday night. In the meantime, here's some quick thoughts...

April 4: 1-0 Win over Houston
Top Shelf: Bryan Namoff (An assist and a game-saving clearance off the goalline to preserve the win and the clean sheet), Louis Crayton (Didn't have to do too much, but a shutout in week 3 is much better than waiting until week 17 like last year), and Luciano Emilio (Nice touch on the goal.
Call: Chris Pontius (Earned himself many good opportunities, but needs to convert).
Rail: Jamie Moreno (A sliding tackle from behind at midfield is a highly unnecessary reason to play the remainder of the match down a man).

April 10: 2-1 Loss to Real Salt Lake
Top Shelf: Luciano Emilio and Chris Pontius (Continue to be the stars of the 2009 season for us)
Call: Andrew Jacobson (A lot of mixed opinions on Jacobson in his first start as he did well on the ball, but maybe failed in some of his defensive responsibilities) and Dejan Jakovic (BDR touted a couple of nice pokes by Jakovic to extinguish opportunities, but a couple scary moments from him as well).
Rail: Louis Crayton (He is allowed exactly one blown save per season - this needs to be the only one), Christian Gomez (Third game in a row that I have not seen him appear in the highlights even once), and Devon McTavish (Did very little in his return).

The best analysis so far goes to D with this expert analogy:

So we arrive at United's first loss of the year, and it feels as if an annoying acquaintance has shown up to your party, but an hour late, just as you were hoping that he might not remember the invitation you extended out of some strange social obligation. But in your heart, you knew he was coming, and he'd tell his bad jokes, and hit on your friends, and double-dip into the guacamole. All we can hope is that he didn't bring a sleeping bag, and leaves next week at RFK.