Award 5: The Grosy

By definition, the Grosy Award goes to the player with the most cajones. In general, the nominees for this award are players who aren't afraid to play through injury and leave it all on the field. The award's namesake Josh Gros was famous for his work rate, and his career with DC United has seemingly ended way too soon, thanks to the numerous concussions he'd received throughout his time here. Gros's energy and consistency has been sorely missed this season.

1. The only United player to wear any head protection this season was Bryan Namoff. His reputation as the team's "Iron Man" makes him a strong candidate. Or maybe this is all just an excuse for me to link this picture again.

2. Santino Quaranta is another guy who has played through pain multiple times this year. He's spent most of the season with a cast on at least one of his arms, and even finished one recent match with a bloody sock. Tino returned to DC this year as a kind of polarizing figure, but his heart has never been questioned.

3. Team newcomer Ivan Guerrero is nominated purely due to one play in a match earlier this season, in which Guerrero lunged to cross a ball that was about to go out of play for a corner. Quaranta wound up scoring on the cross. Guerrero wound up falling into the advertising boards and injuring himself.

4. Despite participating in only 15 minutes of action all season, Ben Olsen certainly deserves a nomination for playing through injury. As the team's emotional leader, Olsen displayed a bit of bravery that a lot of other players on this team could learn a lot from, and those 15 minutes may have been the high point of the season.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Continuing the downward spiral

As frustrating as it was to watch this team on a roller coaster ride that had its share of ups and downs the past few months, I would trade the past three weeks for that roller coaster. I'm not going to argue that we deserved to win this match, because clearly we didn't, but it sure made it hard for us to have a chance when we suffered from the worst display of officiating that we've seen all year. And for the second match in one week, we saw a red card go to a central defender on a challenge that deserved a yellow at worst.


1. Boyzzz Khumalo scored his first MLS goal, and was maybe our only attacker to look dangerous for any sustained period of time. What do you guys think of the nickname "Z3" for him?


1. As pissed off as I was at the midfield in general, I've got to hand it to Santino Quaranta. He showed a lot of heart, clearly playing through some significant pain, even a eliciting a Curt Schilling bloody sock reference from Bretos. I'm just worried though that some longer term damage could have resulted from Soehn leaving him in too long.


1. Sorry, but I will not be joining the Louis Crayton apologists from this match. Sure he made some great 1v1 stops, and maybe there was only one goal that you could truly blame on him, but he let in five goals, which hasn't happened to us in over two years. That's unacceptable.

2. This is one of those matches where you'd tend to hold the entire backline accountable. But McTavish did manage to score a goal, so it's just Marc Burch, Bryan Namoff and Gonzalo Martinez for this one.

3. But worse even than the defense was the midfield. And that's Clyde Simms, Ivan Guerrero, and Fred. I have a feeling that the team of Fred/Simms/Quaranta/Guerrero is the best foursome that we've got for most of the rest of the season, and this was their worst match collectively. Simms looked like he belonged back in Richmond the way he was abused by Donovan. The wingers didn't have horrible matches, but I expected much more. When the speedy Guerrero is on the same side of the field as David Beckham, we should be using that to our advantage. Becks may still be a world class crosser, but Guerrero should have been able to beat him up the left side all night, if only the team had tried. And I only saw Fred make one of his patented diagonal runs in this match, and he was called offside for that one.

4. Tom Soehn was straight up out-coached by Bruce Arena. Arena knew enough to take advantage of our lack of speed in defense, and Soehn did nothing to adjust. Of course he was hampered for most of the second half thanks to the Beckham Rule (You know, the one where you automatically get sent off if you knock him over?). I also thought the 77th minute was way too long to wait to bring in your first offensive substitute.

I'm normally very optimistic about this team, but I think we've reached an obvious crossroads here. Even with the 3-7 start, and the mid-season roller coaster, I never really had any doubts that we'd miss the playoffs. Until right now. This is the first time all year that I'm thinking DC has about a 50-50 shot at making the playoffs, and that's scary.

So with that said, I'm ready to punt the CCL. We really have no shot of winning at Marathon, even if we sent our best lineup. So really, why bother? I would have no problem with Moreno, Emilio, Fred, Quaranta, Martinez, Namoff, and Crayton all heading home to DC until the weekend. None of these players should be forced to see action during the remainder of the CCL, as they need to be as healthy as possible for the playoff push. And I sure hope Peralta is close to recovered, because Burch's suspension really necesitates his availability for our big road match this weekend.

By the way, what kind of shitty scheduling would cause the only two professional sports teams that I'm emotionally attached to to both be playing Sunday afternoon in Dallas this weekend?

I guess the better team doesn't always win

A tie at home against a lesser Western Conference opponent certainly should feel like a loss. Somehow for me though, this one doesn't. Maybe it's because we outplayed Dallas, to the point where I think we really deserved the win. This felt like it should have ended at 2-1. Oh well. I guess we'll just have to steal back those extra two points when we play them again on the road in two weeks.


1. That's two weeks in a row now where the standouts for me were Ivan Guerrero and Santino Quaranta. Guerrero's effort throughout the match, but especially on Tino's goal, made a huge difference. He laid it all on the line, and may have even injured himself falling into the advertisements after his awesome assist. Quaranta has really come on strong since Superliga, and added his fifth goal of the year.

2. Jaime Moreno continues to make a plea to be considered for the MVP award this season.


1. Louis Crayton was 10 minutes away from earning Man of the Match in my book, that is until his failed dive to block the cross leading to the Fire's second goal. He made a lot of great saves tonight though.

2. I'm not sure whether to truly hold either of them at fault, but I feel like Marc Burch and Gonzalo Martinez each may have been able to do more to stop the second goal. But both looked good through most of the match.

3. I liked the starting lineup. But there was one move made by Tom Soehn that was just inexplicable to me. Our left midfielder gets injured, so you replace him with Dyachenko of all people?! A move that forces Quaranta, who had been excellent all day in the middle, out of his natural position to cover on the wing. You make that move while up a goal and while having two legitimate wingers in Cordeiro and Thompson sitting on the bench?! D brings up a good point too in asking why Zaher and Carroll were both left off the gameday roster behind Dyachenko and Doe. Most teams would have subbed in a more defensive minded player when up a goal with 15 minutes to play. Not Soehn. He went for Dyachenko.


1. It was a poor touch and a costly mistake by Devon McTavish that led to the first goal. I'm starting to look ahead to which players will be protected in the expansion draft this offseason, and wondering whether McTavish might be left exposed in favor of guys like Burch, Quaranta, and Guerrero.

2. I do believe that Rocha should have been Rod Dyachenko's man to cover at the back post. Seriously though, why was he in?! Do you think Craig Thompson would have let that happen? WHY?!

Aw well. A decent performance by a still somewhat limited team doesn't help us much in the standings, but does still give me hope that we may be able to put together a decent run in the CCL and/or the MLS playoffs. Soehn's starting lineup for this game though does seem to indicate that we will be taking the Champions League fairly seriously. Fred and Emilio started this match on the bench, but it's a pretty safe bet that they'll both be starting on Tuesday, and so may Gallardo and Peralta.

I think we all saw this coming

In a match where we were missing Emilio, Moreno, Namoff, Fred, Vide, and Peralta, a loss wasn't necessarily surprising. I guess the bright side is that we escaped without any more injuries! Also, I saw tonight that we've got some young players with a lot of heart, and that's got to count for something, even if it didn't earn us any points.


1. The best player wearing white tonight I think was Ivan Guerrero. He showed up to play against his former team.

2. It was no coincidence at all that Santino Quaranta scored within the first 5 minutes after Gallardo left the field. It's becoming more and more evident that center attacking midfield is Quaranta's natural position.


1. That was a bit of a break out performance for Ryan Cordeiro. He had two great chances immediately after entering the match, but both went just wide. It would be nice to see him put a couple more on target, and he still needs to play better defense if he wants to crack the starting XI.

2. I'm hoping that the fantastic hustle that earned him an assist on Quaranta's goal will be enough to give Rod Dyachenko some confidence again. But still, he could win awards for having the worst first touch in all of football.


1. In general, that was just poor team defending by Gonzalo Martinez, Marc Burch, and Mike Zaher on Alvarez's goal. Martinez lost the ball (I wish I could use the adverb "uncharacteristically" here, but that just wouldn't be true) leading up to the first goal, and then again soon afterwards on a play that almost led to another goal. Burch looked better once they switched to the 3-5-2 in the second half, but he was caught in no-man's-land without a marker on both goals. Most of the chances in the first half came on Zaher's side, and he was the guy who should have been marking Alvarez on the first goal. Huckerby's goal was well deserved though.

All in all, we turned in a valiant effort while shorthanded, so you can't fault the club too much for this one. When we were down 2-0, it didn't feel right, but 2-1 is probably the correct score. Ultimately, this wasn't a very heartbreaking loss, mostly because we all saw it coming, and more importantly, because the Red Bulls lost too so it didn't really affect our place in the standings. Let's hope the team is back closer to full strength in time for the Champions League to begin in just over a week.

Champions again!

In a season that's had its fair share of ups and downs, we've finally got something to show for it! Maybe a title in the US Open Cup wasn't necessarily the goal for this season, but it's certainly an accomplishment the team should be proud of, and most importantly, its great that United has fought its way back into the international picture.



1. Santino Quaranta is making an excellent case to be our regular center attacking midfield whenever Gallardo is absent (or after he retires?). Quaranta was instrumental in both goals tonight, and was in my opinion our man of the match.

2. Since we haven't seen him in a little while, I'd forgotten what I love most about Fred. Those quick diagonal runs from the outside totally changed the match and caught the Battery by surprise. Fred missed his first chance but hit on his second.

3. Credit to Tom Soehn for the lineup decisions tonight. This is a point that Bretos brought up, but getting Fred in in place of Vide just before halftime gave him a chance to get acclimated to the tempo of the match before the break. That decision could have made all the difference in the world.


1. Just after I got finished hyping up Marc Burch for fending off Dane Richards, he has to go and get beat by Chris Williams. Other than that though, Burch was quite possibly our best defender in this match. I think the dude might really be starting to "get it".

2. Maybe Ivan Guerrero was such a non factor on Saturday because he was saving all his energy for the Cup final? This guy made a big impression tonight.


1. As is typical, just too many giveaways from Rod Dyachenko.

So we should be able to expect this level of play from United for the rest of the season right? Not quite. I'm with Fullback on fully expecting a letdown on the road against San Jose this weekend. Because that's just the way this season has gone.

But this United team that we've all had our doubts about over the past two years has finally gone and WON something. Finally! So let's take the next couple of days to enjoy it, because this season is far from over, and we've still got another Cup to win!!!

When did the Red Bulls get good?

Who ever said that 0-0 matches aren't exciting? That had to be the most competitive match between these two clubs in a couple years. Usually we dominate these matches, and the last one against the Red Bulls should be thrown out, but I can't think of a time we've ever played them to a scoreless draw. But I was pretty surprised by the score, even after Moreno's uncharacteristic penalty kick miss in the 80th, I still felt that this game was not going to end scoreless. Especially with Gallardo on the field.


1. That was probably the best game in a United uniform for Joe Vide. He is all effort, all the time. And was one of our best attacking options for most of the match.

2. Even when switching to the middle, Bryan Namoff was our best defender in yet another shutout. I'm starting to like him in the middle. As our veteran defender, he should be the one to step up and be the leader in the back, and this is the first season that I'm starting to see that from him.

3. Another good performance by Marc Burch. I think most of us were more scared of Dane Richards than anyone else going in, but Burch kept him at bay for the entire first half.


1. That would be Louis Crayton's third shutout in four matches, but this one gets credited more to the back line than the keeper. Crayton's positioning was excellent and he made 2 key saves, but he was beaten once by Angel on a shot that went just inches wide from a tough angle, and he is likely to give someone in RFK a heart attack by the end of the year the way he dribbles out of the box.

2. Santino Quaranta looked dangerous last night, and controlled the ball well. As our only real attacking midfielder for most of the match though, I'd like to see him distribute more instead of taking sometimes unnecessarily long shots. But I did like how he immediately seemed to take a more defensive approach as soon as Gallardo came on.


1. Clearly he's not fit enough to play 90 minutes, or even 45, but I didn't see enough effort out of Francis Doe in this match. Just before Doe came out, there was one cross from Vide to him in the middle that I'm fairly sure Emilio would have scored on.

2. Not that he played poorly per se, but Ivan Guerrero was not a factor in this match.

Where does this leave us going into the Open Cup final on Wednesday? We might have lost Emilio, but it looks like we've got back Gallardo. If he shows up motivated, Marcelo Gallardo should be able to run all over a USL side. My only worry is who he will pass to without Looch. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that Emilio will be able to give it a go for at least a half. But regardless of who our attackers are, after the last 4 matches, I'm starting to get pretty confident in our defense. This could be another low scoring match, but with Crayton and Namoff around, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.

Stealing an ugly one

I remember writing before the season started that we would probably have to win a lot of games 1-0 this year. Well it took five months and a goalkeeper change to finally do it.

I got back from a great week at Ocean City today and opted to purchase the discounted $9.95 MLSlive package, which will probably be used only to watch tonight's match and next Saturday's. There's nothing like some out-of-town commentators to make you really appreciate Dave Johnson.


1. Despite being referred to as lazy once by the Chicago announcer (yeah, because running for 90 minutes straight is a sure sign of laziness), I thought Bryan Namoff may have been our man of the match. Lots of good tackles and clearances.

2. The goalscorer Fred was very active tonight. Less educated fans would tell you that his goal was easy because he was completely unmarked, but many other players would have headed that over the bar, or straight at the keeper. Fred hit it hard and low.

3. I was also very impressed once again with the play of our other winger Ivan Guerrero. The dude just doesn't stop. He made several plays on both sides of the field.

4. In his MLS debut Louis Crayton proved to be incredibly competent, and a force to watch for. He was plucking down crosses all over. It took Zach Wells 16 matches to earn his first shutout. It took Crayton 1. But I'm still not sure if this will mean a permanent switch at the keeper position. I guess the question is, would Wells have earned a clean sheet tonight also?


1. I'd say any game that we play against Chicago where Blanco doesn't score is a good game for Clyde Simms. Would be nice if he stopped giving the ball away sometimes though.

2. Neither really stood out as an outstanding performer, but the all American team of Devon McTavish and Marc Burch earned their second clean sheet together in central defense. And this time it was against a really good team. Give the guys some credit. I think its time to stop shuddering every time you see Burch starting in the middle, as these two have proved themselves adequate.


1. Is it just me or is Gonzalo Martinez still off his game a bit? Maybe he's got some nagging injury that hasn't been disclosed?

2. Not a horrible game from him, but I'd like to see more out of Santino Quaranta. It was over two months ago that I was advocating to see Tino in a CAM role, but he didn't seem to produce much offensively, aside from a decent long range shot early on. But to his credit, Quaranta did track back defensively more than Gallardo usually does, which gave Fred and Guerrero a bit more freedom on the outside.

This match won't be remembered for it's beauty. It was entirely too chippy from the start. But DC took advantage of their opponent's mistake to steal the victory. Which is great to be able to say, because I feel that we've been the ones losing games because of stupid mistakes far too often this season. The roller coaster ride continues.

I'll be back some point later to give player ratings for the two games I missed last week, based only on the opinions of Goff, other bloggers, and Chest Rockwell comments.

Cleaning the sheets

How's that for a confidence booster? With only 7 of our normal starting 11 in the lineup, and only 6 guys starting who started against KC in the season opener, United somehow came together to produce a big win and their first shutout of the year. With a first look at the starting lineups and the revelation that Ryan Pore was starting at forward, I kind of had a feeling that this could finally be THE ONE, and the team did not disappoint.


1. With apologies to Wellsy, the #1 performer in this match goes to Tom Soehn, who took a roster made of straw and spun it into gold. The straight 4-man midfield worked out surprisingly well, allowing the team to control possession for the majority of the match, and shifting the solid Namoff into central defense was the right decision here.

2. Zach Wells really earned the shutout in this match. He made two fantastic saves (one immediately after halftime, and one around the 66th minute) that easily could have been scores for KC, and if they had been scores, we all would have been sitting around saying that neither goal was Zach's fault. He put in a game changing performance last night, and to get his first clean sheet without los Gonzalos in the lineup might have made it feel even better.

3. Screw Budonovuddlen, I think the best forward-forward combination in the league right now is Luciano Emilio and Jaime Moreno. Moreno had a goal and an assist, adding to my plea that he be considered an MVP candidate. Is it just me, or has Emilio scored a lot of goals with his left foot this year?

4. Bryan Namoff really stepped up as the leader of the defense in this match. Made some great blocks and remained very involved in the attack, despite playing centrally. Hopefully no one in the USMNT camp watched this match, because if they did, Namoff might deserve some consideration.

5. Two very strong debuts from the two former Quakers Ivan Guerrero and Joe Vide. BDR makes a good point about how Guerrero's work rate (and I would add Vide's as well) helps free up Fred more, to allow Fred to be Fred. One assist in one game for DC is not too shabby for Guerrero. And although Vide can at times be a bit Dyachenkish in his challenges, he plays the enforcer role quite well. Maybe it's just the scruffy beard, but at times he almost reminded me of another UVA product.


1. Kudos to the rest of the defense Marc Burch, Devon McTavish, and Pat Carroll for helping the team earn its first shutout. Burch's biggest contribution came on the offensive end though with a perfectly placed free kick for Moreno's goal. But I agree with Fullback that the defense did make me a bit nervous a couple of times that we would lose the shutout because of a stupid mistake.

2. Hopefully everyone agrees that Fred just played his best game in many weeks. And he did it while playing on the wing, NOT in the middle. On the wing, where he belongs!


NONE

So DC turned in a great game, and one that they really needed against a team who we were tied with for points before the match. DC is now solidly in third place in the East, with one game in hand over Chicago and two over Columbus. But that comes with a very tough stretch of matches ahead. Following a winnable game against the improving Red Bulls, United then faces NE at home, Chicago on the road, and NE on the road. It's the Open Cup semi-final match next Tuesday though that we should all consider the first MUST-WIN game of the year. Really a shame that it won't be seen on tv anywhere - I'll be in Ocean City that week :(

Ivan Guerrero

We bring you this brief interruption to the MSR with the news that DC United has acquired Ivan Guerrero from the Earthquakes. The best endorsement of Guerrero has to be this one from Bryan Namoff: "He took us apart in the playoffs [with Chicago]. Very skillful, very quick, good technically on the ball and he gives us some speed."

So does Guerrero step immediately into the starting lineup? With Martinez suspended Saturday due to a red card, I think he's got to. But not necessarily in the left back spot, because I don't think that's what he was brought here to play. That spot belongs permanently to Martinez, and I don't really want someone who has been with the club for only two days to be starting in such an important position so quickly.

I don't have a problem starting him in the midfield though, and if he's still got it, I think he should probably be our starting left midfielder for the rest of the season. DC United has lost plenty of games this season (and last) because of stupid giveaways, or generally poor possession in the midfield, or a failure to pass the ball adequately from the defense to the midfield. We've all become fans of Quaranta lately, but he is a culprit, and so is Simms, and most of all is Dyachenko. Guerrero adds experience and hopefully consistency to the mix in midfield that would be a solid step towards solving that problem. Less giveaways is the key!

With all the injuries, and now a new one to Francis Doe, it's still hard to put together a starting lineup for Saturday's home match against the Wizards. I still can't get over how unfortunate it is for Dan Stratford right now, because this would be a perfect game for him to step in and start in central midfield. With some regrets, here's my starting XI for Saturday:

-------Wells-------
Namoff-McTavish-Burch-Carroll
Fred-Simms-Moreno-Guerrero
------Emilio---Cordeiro-----

And then here's my starting XI for the rest of the season when healthy:
-------Wells-------
Namoff-McTavish-Peralta-Martinez
Fred-Simms-Gallardo-Guerrero
------Emilio---Moreno-----