The replacements

Just when it appeared that United had found its best starting XI, we have to go and get two players ejected. I guess we all know that players are going to have to sit out a game here and there for disciplinary reasons, but two at once can be brutal. Especially when those two are your highest paid player and most consistent player. So who should step into the starting lineup in place of Marcelo Gallardo and Bryan Namoff? Pick two of the following:

Franco Niell
Rod Dyachenko
Dan Stratford
Ryan Cordeiro
Marc Burch
Quavas Kirk
Domenic Mediate

What I do NOT want to see is Tom Soehn simply inserting the guys who play CAM and right back for the reserve squad. That would be Rod Dyachenko and Quavas Kirk respectively, but neither have enough of my confidence to start a first team match. I'd rather see the team try something just a bit "out of the box".

As for my choices, I'll go with the two guys pictured on the left border. Yeah, the Terps. I've got Mediate in central defense next to Peralta, with McTavish in Namoff's slot on the right. But more importantly, I've got Burch on the left side of midfield to help Martinez with the most dangerous player on the Red Bulls right now in Dane Richards.

But my idea of trying something new involves a couple of things. First of all, it's Jaime Moreno as the chief playmaker, a role for him that I think we can all agree was pretty fruitful in the final 35 minutes at Chicago. And secondly, I'd like to see Santino Quaranta in the middle. But not as a forward or a CAM per se, but as more of a holding midfielder in front of Simms but behind Moreno. Quaranta has good vision to take advantage of space when its shown to him, but where he's failed this year is in sending quality crosses from the outside, and in tracking opposing wide midfielders into the box. I think giving Tino a chance in the middle could take advantage of his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. And if we find that he is actually a good fit in that role, then Soehn should take note and use him there in those RARE circumstances where United needs to use a 3-5-2 formation.

So my starting lineup for Saturday looks something like this:
----------------Wells----------------
McTavish-Mediate-Peralta-Martinez
----------------Simms----------------
Fred---------Quaranta---------Burch
---------------Moreno---------------
----------------Emilio---------------

What's yours?

Outplayed and outcoached

I'm slowly starting to calm down enough to admit that that was a pretty exciting and fast-paced game. But for United it was again a tale of two very different halves. Or maybe I should say a tale of the first 30 minutes and the last 60 minutes. Preki made tactical changes at halftime that clearly worked. Tom Soehn made the tactical change of deciding to sit back and try to preserve a 1-0 victory for 60 minutes against a team with some good attacking players. He decided that it would be best to play a possession game, even though his possessing midfielder wasn't 100%.


1. I considered leaving this space blank again, but Marcelo Gallardo does deserve some recognition for his goal. He's still learning to play with the 'Merricons around him. Which is hard to do when you're on the ground most of the match. Although Blanco doesn't seem to have the same problem.


1. At the end of the first half, I thought that Gonzalo Martinez was having his best game of the season. The 4-4-2 formation was really allowing him to use his speed to get forward into the midfield. He was aggressive as hell and held his own against Harris for most of the match. But he missed a crucial stop on Chivas's second goal, which could have cost the team the match, and I'm not sure that he crossed the center line once in the second half.

2. After being specifically called out by management and the coaching staff last week, I thought Santino Quaranta put out a much stronger and more energetic performance tonight.


1. Domenic Mediate looked like... well... he looked like a right midfielder who was forced to play center back. I guess we shouldn't have expected much better? I was really disappointed to see Mediate standing around with his hand up calling for offsides on the third goal instead of marking his man. I hate that! Does a player calling for offsides ever actually influence a referee?

2. I really think that we might need to put to rest the idea of bringing in Rod Dyachenko as the first substitute in midfield every match. All year he has looked to be one second too slow every time he has to make a decision. This leads to a lot of fouls and a lot of giveaways. I understand that Gallardo isn't fit enough yet to go 90 minutes, but I'm at the point where I'd rather see Stratford than Dyachenko.

3. I was all ready to come on here and give Tom Soehn props for putting together a good starting lineup that played really pretty well for 30 minutes. But that's about as far as it went. Because the tactical decision to sit back and defend a single goal lead has NEVER WORKED in this league.

So we might as well start the countdown. If this persists, and there's no reason to believe that anything will change over the next few days, it will be exactly one week from today that Tom Soehn will be out of a job. That's Sunday May 25. And that will already be too late.

One more thing... All of the fouling on Gallardo isn't going to stop anytime soon. And that's because the opposing teams know that they can get away with it. That would NEVER happen with Ben Olsen on the field! Atiba Harris's second foul on Gallardo wouldn't have happened, because Olsen would have already shoved him to the ground after the first foul. We need a player to step up and fill that enforcer role. Early in the year it looked like that would be Peralta, and sometimes I think that it might be Burch, but he draws yellow cards too easily.

Ugh. It's hard to lay your heart on the line for a team that doesn't have one.

Legs, thighs, and breasts, but no wings

So Goff reported from practice yesterday that with the potential absence of Peralta, United will be switching back to a 4-4-2 for the match tomorrow night in LA. I guess the thought of Domenic Mediate as his lone center back in a 3-5-2 was enough to force Tom Soehn to face reality. But with Marc Burch moving to the back line, and with Fred still gimpy, Goff is also reporting that rookie Ryan Cordeiro may get his first start at left midfield.

Loyal readers should already know my thoughts on Cordeiro. Along with Stratford and Zaher, Cordeiro has been among the most impressive players I've seen on the Reserve squad. He's left-footed, he's got decent crossing ability, and he can even shoot from the outside. Others have pointed out that he's likely to lose the ball a couple times each match, but similar to Quaranta, Cordeiro has got the energy and the heart to chase down opponents to try to win the ball back.

But the idea of starting a rookie has got me thinking… How many wingers does DC really have on their roster? Or maybe a better way to ask this would be… If you were to put every player on United's roster in their BEST position, how many of them would be playing on the wing?

I'd say that given his production last year, Ben Olsen's best position is on the wing, but you can't really include him in this discussion due to his injuries. Fred's preferred position is clearly CAM. Santino Quaranta is best as a withdrawn forward. Devon McTavish might be best on the wing, but he's also a pretty damn good central defender, so that might be a toss-up. I think Marc Burch is better at left back than left wing. Mediate's a utility guy who can play in many different spots, so his best position *might* be on the wing, but it's hard to say. Gallardo, Dyachenko, and Simms all definitely are better off in the middle.

Did I miss anybody? That's the entire senior roster midfield, and not one besides Olsen is definitively a true winger. Maybe McTavish, and maybe Mediate, but keep in mind that both of these guys are earning only the senior roster minimum salary. When is United going to start spending money on the wings? In the offseason they spent a lot of money in central defense, central midfield, and up top, but not a dime out wide. Obviously the team didn't know the severity of Olsen's injury at the time, but surely it was obvious to all of us that Olsen couldn't have more than a couple years left, and his history of injuries has always been troubling. Even if they didn't know that Olsen would be out the whole year or most of the year, the front office should be smart enough to realize that he was never going to be able to play 30 games. So despite Olsen's injury history, and despite the loss of Josh Gros, the front office's solution to our deficiency of wingers was to draft Ryan Cordeiro and acquire a 20 year old developmental project in Quavas Kirk?

I'm starting to lose faith.

But still. If only because of Chivas's ineptitude in defense, I'm predicting our first road goal, but not our first clean sheet. I'm gonna go with a 1-1 draw tomorrow, with United's goal coming from the run of play from a poaching Jaime Moreno.

Good riddance Rice-Eccles

After such a tiring and emotionally draining match just three days earlier, I guess it was pretty easy to see this coming. Especially once you saw the starting lineup. Gallardo, Martinez, and Wells deserved the rest, so I won't complain about the lineup, especially since I don't think that starting our true top XI would have even really made a big difference in this game.


1. Devon McTavish - Continued to show well. Especially liked his in-swinging left-footed shot with pace at around the 32nd minute. McTavish plays his position well, knowing when to hang out wide in the open space and when to cut into the far post.


1. Domenic Mediate - I thought he played well in left back, and didn't appear to make any big mistakes, but didn't have a huge impact either. What does it say about Marc Burch that he was taken out for Quaranta instead of Mediate?

2. Rod Dyachenko - Also played pretty well. I like his aggressiveness, but I have a feeling that he's going to earn himself a couple of red cards this year.


1. Gonzalo Peralta - Since when did Bobby Lightning grow his hair out and put on the number 2? Peralta looked Boswellian on the second goal, and the fourth goal was just a joke. Peralta has never been shy about yelling at/to his teammates, but where was the communication with Carvallo?

2. Jose Carvallo - DC continues the tradition of starting reserve goalkeepers at Real Salt Lake, with little success. Carvallo doesn't appear to be challenging Wells for the starting job very strongly.

3. Fred - Love the dude, but that was easily his worst game for us so far this short year.

4. The 3-5-2 - I was hoping Tom Soehn would have read my previous post before this match, but I guess he didn't. The 3-5-2 is good in certain situations, but as DCenters and Fullback have already pointed out, this wasn't one of them.

This game was ugly, but I wouldn't necessarily call it a predictor of anything else that will happen this year. This is the second game this year where the offense has been anemic, but I'm not counting on that happening very often. Just like a lot of other people, I was expecting DC to come up soft in this game, but I'm also expecting them to shoot out of the gates against Columbus on Thursday. In fact, I'll go so far as to predict that Thursday's match will be the start of yet another early season DC United sprint into first place and a considerable lead ahead of the rest of the Eastern Conference.

And so with that we bid farewell to Rice-Eccles Stadium, quite possibly the worst stadium in the MLS. Yes I put you below even a minor league baseball field. Attrociously adorned with bleachers, astroturf (why not just go one step farther and play on concrete instead?) football markings, and about 3 feet between the sidelines and barriers, I don't think I'll miss this field at all. Oh yeah, and with 3 goals in his last 2 matches against us, remind me to start fellow Arundel High School alumnus Kyle Beckerman on my fantasy team next time RSL plays against DCU.

The season started? That wasn't just another scrimmage?

Someone must have forgotten to tell the DC United players that last night's match against Kansas City was actually the season opener, and not just another scrimmage. Really though, I can see why they would make that mistake. Maybe it was that the stadium reminded them of the high school field that they played in in Texas. Or maybe it was the lack of live television coverage. Maybe they just figured that since they're playing a much more important game in a few days, this game probably didn't matter all that much. Regardless, it was not a very pretty sight, and yet no one is apparently all that upset about it.


1. Bryan Namoff - Was his usual consistent self on defense, and was a cheap offside flag away from notching an assist to Peralta in the box.


1. Marcelo Gallardo and Clyde Simms - With these two pitted against Carlos Marinelli and Kerry Zavagnin, we really should have dominated the midfield. No such luck.

2. Franco Niell - Not a strong game. I have a feeling that he will be much more of a weapon coming off the bench than is he when he starts. If Moreno isn't fit enough to start, I'd rather see Quaranta in the starting XI and Niell as a super-sub.


1. Luciano Emilio - I thought it was a tale of two halves for him. In the first half he had one great shot on goal that forced Hartman into a diving save, and even got more involved in the defense than usual. But he seemed to lack any bit of motivation in the second half, and his giveaway led to the second goal.

2. Marc Burch and Dominic Mediate - Not a great game for the two Terps who grace the left border of this blog. Either one of them could have done more to stop the first goal. Jewsbury should not have had a clean pass to Trujillo like that.

3. Zach Wells - Can't fault him for the first goal, but the second goal is exactly what I've been afraid of since we first got word that our boy Troy was bolting for Scandinavia. Perkins would have been off his line quicker and would have made a sliding tackle before Lopez was able to get off that chip shot.

One lesson learned though... Kansas City is probably better than I thought. Claudio Lopez really seems to have been embraced by his team, and Ivan Trujillo seems like a bit of a jackass, but will probably score a lot of goals this year.

Dev versus Dom versus Tino

On this the first actual week of DC United's 2008 campaign for international domination, we take a look at the probable starting lineup for the opening Champions' Cup match Wednesday against Harbour View.

Of the 11 starting roster slots, I think 10 are pretty much locked up, and the last 1 is only available due to the injury of our hero. Although Wells and Carvallo may rotate at times during the year, and Jaime Moreno probably shouldn't be counted on to start more than around 70% of our matches, there is really only one position where we have a truly open competition for the starting job, and that's at right midfield. Here are our top options:

Devon McTavish
Strengths:
1. Defensive ability - Although McTavish entered the league as a wide midfielder, and played there in college, his greatest asset for United has proven to be his quick reads on defense. Great tackler too.
2. Looks - With Bobby Boswell departed, Devon had within his grasp the title of most popular player among the ladies. That is until Santino came to town. Might this be the motivation that Devon needs to beat out Tino for this position?
Weaknesses:
1. Defensive ability - Like I said, McTavish's greatest asset is his defense. And as the club's only legitimate defender substitute, he might be more valuable on the sideline in a warmup suit, ready to enter at any time if there is an injury.
2. Offensive ability - McTavish remains unproven thus far in the wing position. In the few outings he had there last year, he wasn't overly impressive.

Dominic Mediate
Strengths:
1. He's a Terp - Obviously a huge strength when it comes to this blog.
2. Better at offense than McTavish
3. Better at defense than Quaranta
Weaknesses:
1. Worse at offense than Quaranta
2. Worse at defense than McTavish

Santino Quaranta - See this previous post

Those are the three possibilities that I think could get the job for the Harbour View match, but there are also some underdogs who could emerge as key Olsen substitutes as the year goes on. Justin Moose was our opening game starter at right wing last year, but he just barely made the team this year, so he's probably got a ways to go before cracking the top XI again. Although a few more performances like this and he'll be there quick. Quavas Kirk is another option, although I think Soehn is grooming him to be Namoff's backup instead (Who was it that predicted that?) I almost included Kirk in this post JUST so I could use one of his totally entertaining pictures from myspace.

So if I'm Tommy Soehn, I'm gonna play it safe and give the start to Dom this week. Quaranta could turn out to be the better player, but he's still only been with the club for a couple of scrimmages and I don't quite think he's earned it yet. But the outcome of the away leg could definitely affect who we start in the home leg. If we're behind, Tino gets the nod. If we're up, you might just see McT.

Ryan Cordeiro

How come this year we had two draft picks from the Big East (Cordeiro-UConn, Stratford-WVU) and two from the Pac-10 (Jacobson-Cal, Owens-UCLA), but not a single player from the ACC? So Maryland and Virginia aren't good enough for DCU anymore? I see how it is.

I know I probably just sound bitter, given my blog's namesake, but how do you pick Ryan Cordeiro when Stephen King of Maryland is available? King was a first-team All American, finished his career at Maryland ranked second all time in assists, and has had several call-ups to the U23 national team. Burchie and Dom certainly would have welcomed another Terp to the team.

Instead, United selected forward/midfielder Ryan Cordeiro, a guy who some experts referred to as "a disaster pick." Cordeiro finished his career at Connecticut with 18 goals and 19 assists, and was second team All-Big East in 2007.

This is usually the type of player that United tries to convert to a defender, but so far in the two scrimmages, it looks like Cordeiro has been a second half winger in each game. With so many guys like Kpene, Dyachenko, and Moose turning 25 this year and losing their "Developmental" status, Cordeiro has a good chance of making the roster. Actually, Moose looks to be the best comparison as far as I can tell, because he's an attacking guy who doesn't play too much defense. But hopefully I'm wrong and Cordeiro will turn out to be more well-rounded, like a Mediate.

New blog

Welcome to my brand new blog: DCUMD

This is a soccer-only spinoff from my other most recent blog The Good Fight. As of right now, I plan to continue the TGF blog for all other non-soccer topics like the Redskins, politics, movies, and whatever other dumb stuff I've written about over the years. But this blog will just be about DC United and other soccer topics. The reason for the change is that no one freakin reads my TGF blog anymore, and I figure a big reason for that is that it skews all over the place instead of focusing on just one topic. Soccer was one of the few topics that I ever received response to, so I guess I'm just a whore for readers by devoting an entire blog to soccer.

Anyway, the name of the blog is obviously a combination of DCU and UMD, and it's inspired by the two current DC United players and Terrapin alums Marc Burch and Dominic Mediate. I need to do some more research to see if any other former DCU players were also Terps. I am a big fan of DC United, but I am not much of a fan of Terrapin soccer, although I wish I had been while I was going to school there so I could have seen these guys play.

It's probably going to take me a little while to get up to speed on this new blog, but I plan on it being a pretty frequent thing. Hopefully I will get the design finalized by the end of this week before the playoff push!