The End

As United's season draws to a disappointing but not unexpected completion, you can't help but wonder about what could have been. There are plenty of "what ifs" we could discuss for the entire year, but there's no point in going back and mentioning Moreno's missed penalty in August against the Red Bulls. Namely, it's difficult to look at this game and the three times we struck the post. Plus there was the goal by Brad Evans that also struck the post. Two inches difference and the score could have been 3-0! The most troubling one to me was Khumalo hitting the crossbar from the 6 yard box. You shouldn't miss from that distance! I wasn't happy with the Khumalo for Doe sub to begin with, but really... Do you think a red hot Francis Doe would have missed that shot? Had we taken a single goal lead, the rest of the match would have been much different, and I don't see us giving up the Evans goal if we were leading.

Some other thoughts... What if our Argentinian central midfielder played with as much heart as Schellotto? What if Rod Dyachenko had been taken in the expansion draft and sent to Columbus instead of Brian Carroll? What if the Crew had started these 11 guys against New York last week instead of a bunch of scrubs? Now there's an interesting one! With the way the amazing Will Hesmer played against us, no way he lets a goalkeeper score on him! Had the Crew tried during that match, and earned a draw instead of rolling over to a lesser opponent, we would have been tied with the Red Bulls going into this weekend. We would have only needed a draw against the Crew instead of a win. That changes everything, as we would have been more content to settle for the 0-0 scoreline instead of sending everyone forward.

This just wasn't our week, and it just wasn't our year. We'll talk a lot more about United's future in the coming weeks/months.


1. Greg Janicki is turning out to be a great find for this club. He made several great tackles. My only concern is that our announcers are hyping him up too much that he's now maybe on Seattle's radar.


1. Luciano Emilio really played hard, and probably deserved a goal, but couldn't convert any of his chances.

2. Same goes for Jamie Moreno, who missed high on a ball at the top of the box that I thought for sure would have put us in the lead.

3. All the Ben Olsen comparisons may have been just a bit over the top, but we saw a lot of effort from Santino Quaranta last night.


1. See above for my thoughts on Thabiso Khumalo. I don't know if I could shoot the ball off the crossbar from 6 yards out if I tried.

2. I'm not sure if we can really fault him for the goal, but was it just a coincidence that Columbus scored not more than a minute after Gonzalo Peralta entered the match. Somehow, I'm not the only one who felt that coming.

Wednesday night's Champions League finale will be some interesting "Sport as Theater". You'll see a lot of guys playing hard to earn contracts for next season. But most of all, you'll see Tom Soehn in what we all expect to be his last match as DC United head coach. Where else in life do you get to watch somebody doing his job, moments before he will be handed his pink slip?

One down, one to go

What a wild ride. How is it possible that after all the injuries, all the mistakes, all the questionable decisions, and all the unlucky breaks, I can still go to mlsnet.com right now and see United currently in the playoffs? Pretty strange turn of events. It just seemed so fitting for this season to officially end on a stupid individual mistake that cost us a goal to a team that didn't deserve one. But no! DC came fighting back! And if this game is at all analogous to our season (and there's really no reason to believe that it is), then there's still hope for us yet.


1. Francis Doe scores big goals in big games. He impressed me tonight though even before his first goal. At the end of the first half, I was ready to say that we may have found our long term replacement for Jaime Moreno.

2. The decision by Tom Soehn to start Doe ahead of Moreno, and then bring Jaime on in the second half, turned out to be perfect. If Moreno, Doe, and Emilio all remain on the team next year, and are all healthy, I think this might be the dynamic we see more often going forward.

3. Devon McTavish and Marc Burch both had great games in defense. McTavish had his best game in a while and didn't miss a beat when having to switch from right back to center. Burch was solid in the back also, and had some pretty good free kick service.

4. I've been ragging on him and Vide too much lately, but Clyde Simms had a noticeably good game while wearing the captain's armband for the second week in a row.


1. Thabiso Khumalo and Luciano Emilio were a force for about 25 minutes in the first half, but disappeared most of the rest of the time. Khumalo definitely got the best of Khano Smith, which I always like to see, but his crosses still need some work before I'll be happy with him on the wing. Emilio created some good chances, but needs to get back into finishing mode. This is going to be way too boldly optimistic, but I think I could maybe see Emilio going on a scoring spree in the playoffs.


1. A bit of lazy marking by Gonzalo Martinez came pretty close to costing us the season. Not only did he keep Twellman onside on the goal, but he also hesitated before trying to catch up, allowing TT to be free on goal.

2. I certainly appreciate the effort, but Santino Quaranta had a poor match when it came to shooting. Pretty sure he didn't get one thing on target all night.

So where does that leave us in the playoff race? One point ahead of NY and KC, but with one less game to play. Let's hope that Columbus puts such a beating on the Red Bulls and their reserve goalkeeper this Saturday that the Crew have nothing left when they face us next week. I have a little bit less faith in the Earthquakes going against the Wizards, but we really only need one of those two teams to lose as long as we do get another win in our final match.

Oh yeah one more thing. I'll be in the bleachers for the Reserve match tomorrow, rain or shine, cheering our boys on. Anyone with me?

Award 6: The Freddy

By definition, the Freddy award goes to the player who created the biggest story this year. Not necessarily as a distraction, but just a story that created a lot of buzz and got people talking about the team. The award's namesake Freddy Adu was easily the biggest story for MLS as a whole in the 2004 season. Even though he was never a regular starter for United, he will always remain a part of the team's history as the youngest player ever to play a professional sport in the US at age 14.

The best piece of soccer journalism this season was Steve Goff's piece on Santino Quaranta and his past struggles with drug addiction. This article was mentioned numerous times during United broadcasts on television. My favorite part of the article was about how Olsen and Moreno vouched for Quaranta and convinced the front office to give him another chance. Quaranta's play this year has shown that he deserved it.

Another big story this season revolved around Ben Olsen's ankles, but most of all, his only 15 minutes played this year, emerging to a standing ovation from a packed RFK Stadium. This brief appearance inspired a blog post by Dan Steinberg, which was eventually blown to new proportions with weeks of arguing between soccer fans and elitist fans of other sports. This was followed up eventually by an above-the-fold front cover WaPo Sports story comparing the TV ratings of United and the Nationals.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the theme of the season, which was bringing in foreign acquisitions to replace proven quantities at several positions, highlighted most by the replacement of Christian Gomez with Marcelo Gallardo. This season has of course had its share of highs and lows which, coincidentally or not, also tend to follow the pattern of Gallardo's injuries.

Another underlying theme would be the trials and tribulations of Tom Soehn as head coach of United. There were pleas from United fans to fire Soehn up until around week 8 (not the least of which came from this blog). Soehn then helped rally the troops as they enjoyed a 6 game winning streak, but then has since hit rock bottom once again, with his job remaining in jeopardy going into the final 3 weeks of the regular season.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Embarassment

It seems like everyone in the stadium knew that this was a must-win game for DC United, except for anybody wearing black. What ever happened to being "hard to play against"? Wasn't that always Soehn's philosophy? This team was fairly easy to play against last night, making bad passes all over the field, including one that probably cost us all hopes of continuing our season. Over 28,000 fans showed up to give this match a playoff atmosphere, and our team let them down.


None


1. If every player on the team gave as much effort as Santino Quaranta then we may have stood a chance.


1. Possibly the worst mistake in the history of this franchise was Louis Crayton's inability to clear Peralta's passback. I guess we all knew that he would flub one of those eventually, but it had to be in THIS match?!

2. This is pretty much a rehash of what I said about him last week... But when you're at the end of the line in an absolute MUST-WIN game, Tom Soehn needs to put his best most proven lineup on the field. This was the WRONG time to experiment again with the 3-5-2. We finally had all 5 of our top defenders healthy, and he chooses to only start 3 of them? Gonzalo Peralta hasn't played a meaningful game SINCE JUNE and Soehn chooses to start him as our ONLY central defender? Yes, I'm bitter. And with the decisions he's made the past few weeks, Soehn is receiving a vote of no confidence from me.

3. We suffered from an inability to hold the ball, and frequently had way too much trouble advancing the ball out of the back. For that I blame Marcelo Gallardo, Clyde Simms, and Joe Vide. We had 5 midfielders to their 4 and STILL lost the battle in the midfield.

4. Some pretty poor and lazy defending throughout this match from Gonzalo Peralta and Bryan Namoff.

If the team is looking for a reason to keep fighting, then they need to look no further than the group of fans that stayed to the very end of this match, cheering and singing. In any other sport, you would have been hearing BOOs after the third goal, but not from United supporters! If those fans won't give up, then the team can't either. And the most ridiculous thing about it all is that we still actually have a chance! Even while blog commenters all over the land are calling for Soehn to be fired and for a complete roster overhaul (yeah, because that worked soooo well for this year), United still sits just 2 points out of fourth place in the East, and 1 point out of fourth place in the West. DC wasted this chance to get back into the playoffs with a home game against the weakest opponent left on the schedule. So with games against Houston, New England, and Columbus coming up, our chances are very slim. If we play the way we played last night, then our season is over, and so is Tom Soehn's career in DC. But if these players and this coaching staff somehow find a way to wipe the last month from their memory and embrace their underdog position after everyone else has written them off, they might just do something special.

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.

Benny Vide delivers the victory

With his one-time shoe-string shot to give the team a 1-0 lead, I could have sworn I was watching Benny Olsen. Or maybe Benny Feilhaber. But definitely somebody named Benny. Nope, it was Joe Vide. That goal really made me wish I was listening to Dave Johnson and Thomas Rongen do the broadcast. I could just hear Rongen saying his usual "Shoelaces... Thanks for coming..." line.

Anyway, up until around the 80th minute, this felt like it was going to be a very underwhelming victory. We looked noticeably mediocre, playing against a middling Western Conference team whose coach had just resigned. DC dominated possession for the most part, but could only generate one goal, and that one was off of a rather spectacular atypical shot. We rightfully pulled away at the end, but it wasn't quite the victory I was hoping for. Once again, it was Gallardo's presence that was missing.


1. Obviously it was the goal by Joe Vide that allowed us to knock the ball around more in the second half. The other two goals would have been much harder to come by if it wasn't for Vide's.

2. Our two stalwarts Brian Namoff and Clyde Simms had their usual awesome performances. I'm thinking that the final 5 minutes after Simms was subbed out was actually the first time all season that either of these guys have come off the field.

3. Playing once again in a CAM role, Santino Quaranta's goal was a beaut. Not often in the MLS do you see someone score from the top corner of the box like that.

4. I'm not likely to take back everything bad I've said about him quite yet, but it was cool to see Quavas Kirk score his first MLS goal in his first minute on the field.


1. How about our new assist machine Luciano Emilio? I don't think we're going to be comparing Looch to John Stockton anytime soon, but I liked seeing him share the wealth with his teammates.


1. It's hard for me to put a defender down here after a clean sheet match, but I was once again a bit disappointed with Gonzalo Martinez. His passes are sometimes too lazy and his dribbling is sometimes too wild. If we ever have Peralta, Burch, and McTavish available all at once, I don't think Martinez should be an automatic starter anymore.

So it wasn't quite a domination as the score suggests, but it was a victory nonetheless. Now let's see if, for the first time in a while, DC can string together multiple wins. They've got the potential to do it, with matches coming up against New York at home and San Jose on the road, with the Open Cup final against Charleston mixed in. Hopefully the team can build on this game and gain some confidence, because I'm not sure the kind of lackluster first half that we had will be enough against an energized USL opponent.

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.

Mid-Season Review part 1: Acquisitions

Given the focus that this blog has given to United's roster this year, I thought it would be appropriate to base our Mid-Season Review specifically on the roster moves that the team has made. In part 1, we will look at United's acquisitions, meaning the players that the team added since the end of last season that they didn't have to give up anything for. Then we'll move on to look at players who departed since last year and United didn't receive anything in return for. Then in part 3 we'll look at the trades that the team has made. Then we'll end the review with a summary.

Here are the team's acquisitions since the end of the 2007 season, in order from most important to least:

1. I could dedicate an entire post to the trials and tribulations of Marcelo Gallardo, but that's already been done. Specifically here though, we should be discussing what Gallardo adds to United that they didn't have last year. In that regard, he is a playmaker with creativity that has not been seen here since the retirement of El Diablo. But there are doubts about whether or not that creativity is really what the team needed to add. Because with Christian Gomez last year, the team may not have been as creative, but they were certainly more successful. Before the season started, I was insistent that Gallardo was brought to DC because he gave us a better chance in international competitions than Gomez. So how's that going for us? Perhaps it's difficult to truly grade Gallardo's impact since he's been injured for two out of the three tournaments we've played in this year, but if he can guide us to an MLS Cup, or better yet a Champions League title in the months to come, all will be forgiven.

2. United completely rehauled the defense in the offseason with the acquisition of Los Gonzalos. So far, it has been Gonzalo Martinez who has appeared to be the most consistent new addition to the squad this year. He has quickly become one of the best left backs in the MLS, and despite calls for him to play centrally as he did at the start of the year, the left is where he is likely to stay. Gonzalo Peralta had some good games and some bad before going down to injury, and in that regard the early comparisons to Facundo Erpen seem appropriate. He won't have to fight very hard to regain his starting job in central defense from Burch when he returns to the field. But with the new look to United's backline, even though they SHOULD be better than the backline we had last year, why can we still not earn a clean sheet? The team had 8 last year.

3. Maybe the biggest surprise this year has come from the return of Santino Quaranta. With Olsen out, Quaranta has been a revelation (or am I going too far with that word?) on the right wing. He added some attacking flare opposite Fred that was an important part of the team's winning streak prior to his most recent injury before Open Cup. But has his 23-year-old body suffered too many injuries in his career for United to count on him long term? A return to health of Peralta and Mediate might push McTavish ahead of Tino on the depth chart at right wing.

4. Francis Doe has emerged of late as a talented attacking option next to Emilio. I had my doubts about him early on, but with two goals in the Superliga, Doe seems to have learned how to adjust to his new team quite nicely. And with Gallardo injured, Doe's continued production at forward will allow the team to move Moreno into the CAM role without losing too much.

5. Three rookies in Ryan Cordeiro, Dan Stratford, and Pat Carroll have been able to earn quality minutes with the first team this season. I wasn't the only one who criticized the team for drafting Cordeiro over other proven midfielders like Stephen King, but he instantly grabbed my eye in the reserve division, and looked pretty good against Houston in the Superliga finale. Stratford was the first rookie to earn first team minutes, and despite being pulled before half time in that game, the coaching staff certainly sees him as having a lot of potential. Strats picked a poor time to get injured though, because without Gallardo, I think a healthy Stratford will move above Dyachenko on the depth chart very shortly. The youngest Carroll has looked pretty good in Open Cup and Superliga appearances lately, but will likely lose playing time once Peralta, Mediate, and his brother Jeff return from injuries.

6. Three more rookies in Dane Murphy, Jeremy Barlow, and James Thorpe have yet to earn any first team apperances. Murphy has been on the 18-man gameday roster a couple of times, and I think he even got some action in the Rochester match. He's tall and a bit versatile. He seems to play mostly a central midfielder, but I wouldn't be surprised to see Soehn try to convert him into a defender. I saw Barlow score a goal in the opening Reserve Division match this year, but it doesn't seem like the club rates him too highly. He's got a good work rate, but will have to fight to keep his roster spot this offseason. I haven't seen Thorpe play yet, but at least he gave us the depth needed to be able to cut Carvallo from the roster.

7. I have my doubts about the acquisition of Joe Vide. I mean he was cut by San Jose of all places! I don't mind giving Vide a shot, since he was good enough to earn quite a few starts for the Red Bulls last year (yeah, but so could some of the women on my wife's team). But I feel like it might have been too much to give Vide a precious senior roster spot.

8. Let's not waste too much time by talking about these guys who aren't on the team anymore: Franco Niell, Jose Carvallo, and Jeff Curtin. Niell was not horrible in a United uniform, that is the few times that he was standing up (how could you tell?). But his salary was just too much for the team to keep around. I still feel like Frank O'Neal's biggest claim to fame should be this picture. Or this one. Carvallo stunk, we'll just leave it at that. It was unfortunate to lose Curtin due to injury, because he certainly could have been getting some minutes ahead of Burch in central defense if was still with the team.

So with all of those acquisitions, DC United should be a better team than last year. Right? Not so fast. Check back in the next few days for a look at all the players that United has lost.

The win they needed

After a couple of underwhelming victories the past few weeks, this win was just what United needed to not only continue their unbeaten streak, but also gain some confidence going into Superliga. Recently, United has been beating lesser opponents while giving up too many goalscoring opportunities. But in this match, against inarguably one of the most talented offensive teams in the league, DC dominated possession, dominated the scoreline, and performed admirably well on defense. United struggled early in the year in international play, but after this big win in a great atmosphere over a good team, the team may finally be ready to make something happen in Superliga.


1. Luciano Emilio extends his goal scoring streak to 5 games by adding another 2. Now with 10 goals on the year, Emilio is back on pace to score 20 for the second year in a row, and is tied with Buddle for 2nd place in the league. With Donovan likely to miss a good bit of time on national team duty, Emilio should now be considered the favorite to win the Golden Boot for the second straight year.

2. What a perfect cross to assist Emilio on his first goal by Marc Burch. I gave him a hard time in my review last week, but in this match, when Quaranta left the pitch and Fred moved to the right, DC was able to take advantage of LA on the left side moreso with Burch than they had with Fred. Burchie was also just an inch or two away from a free kick score that rattled the crossbar.

3. It was disappointing to see Santino Quaranta come out after 25 minutes of fantastic soccer. He earned the penalty kick in the 5th minute, and made several great runs in his short time, and also made a good stop on defense. There was a very noticeable drop-off in play on the right side once Quaranta departed and Fred moved over.

4. Props to Tommy Soehn for rolling out his top lineup and using his substitutes I thought much more effectively than LA.


1. Although they all made some key stops during the match, I think any one of Zach Wells, Gonzalo Peralta, or Devon McTavish could have done better to stop Buddle's goal. Wells looked confident making some great saves, and for the first time looked like a decent starting keeper. Peralta's whiffed clearance and McTavish's inability to get a touch were the main causes of the goal, but Wells could have reacted a bit sooner too. This defense was just inches away from their first clean sheet, and it would have been wonderful to earn it against the top scoring team in the league.

2. Marcelo Gallardo was largely uninvolved for most of the first half, at least at times when he wasn't smacking Donovan in the nose. By the way, shouldn't ABC have done better to dump out Landon's cursing? Anyway, Gallardo redeemed himself later in the match with a well-taken goal.


1. In my love of creating controversy, I'm going to put Fred down here today. This was his second match in a row that I think he underperformed. My comments about Burch and Quaranta above show clearly that Fred was the weakest link on the wings in this match. His assist to Emilio's second goal was well-placed, but I think Emilio could have had a hat trick today had Fred played the ball across the front of the goal to him instead of taking a weak shot right at Cronin earlier in the second half.

With this win, United moves solidly into the playoffs, now sitting in third place in MLS with 22 points. But more importantly, they are now beaming with confidence, ready to go on a run in Superliga, and are once again finally a reasonable candidate to win the Supporters' Shield. Also, how great was it to see our talisman Ben Olsen running around on the pitch again? And so unexpected. I'm curious to see how Soehn will use Olsen in the Open Cup match on Tuesday.

With this match being shown on national TV before the Euro final, with the obvious draw of David Beckham, I bet that DC United earned a lot of new fans across the country today. People who tuned in to see Donovan and Beckham didn't see very much of them in the second half, did they?. Any fan of the sport who isn't necessarily a big MLS fan who watched this match saw two good teams, but only one team good enough to pull off the victory, and only one team that fought hard for 90 minutes instead of giving up after 75.

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?

Scaping the goats once again

Good game. But then again, games between these two rivals usually are.

I think I lost a bit of respect for New England tonight though. It was as if Nicol told a couple chumps like Larentowicz, Cristman, and Smith at half time: "Just throw your bodies around. Hack some dudes! The ref won't call it. Who cares if you injure somebody!" Not a bad strategy considering Okulaja was at the post, but that's not really what I want our little league to be about. And I'm sure the Revs don't want to be considered the Philadelphia Flyers of the MLS.

I'll keep my player reviews brief because I want to get into some deeper issues later on...

1. I haven't mentioned him in a while, but it was the play of Clyde Simms that brought us the early lead and he really did well in the midfield as we dominated possession in the first half.


1. A bit of an up and down game for Fred. He got the well-placed goal early in the second half, but it was his failed clearance that led to Cristman's goal shortly afterward.


1. Santino Quaranta looked like the weak link to me tonight. Watch the replay of Dube's goal if you dare, or just take my word for it that Larentowicz was Quaranta's man and got by him cleanly to earn the assist.

In the end, two things stood out to me tonight. Two striking differences between these teams. They're both similar, and they're related to the two biggest scapegoats who have seen the most criticism this year: Zach Wells and Tom Soehn. The two big things that stood out to me that kept New England in this game were (1) the oustanding play of Matt Reis and (2) the changes made by Steve Nicol. While I don't think that United's failure to earn the win can be called Soehn's fault or Wells's fault, I'm also really tired of saying that things aren't their fault. Both can be deemed adequate, but nothing more. The fact is that I have never seen Zach Wells play well enough where I'd be able to say "Boy, Wells sure kept us in that one" like Revolution fans are all saying about Matt Reis tonight. And I've never seen Tom Soehn make tactical changes during the course of the game that made me say "Boy, Soehn really deserves credit for this victory" like can be said about many other coaches.

Tonight, DC had better forwards than NE, better midfielders, and better defenders. But we did not have a better goalkeeper, and we do not have a better coach. If Wells and Soehn are adequate, then I guess adequacy will occassionally earn you ties on the road against good teams when your field players are up to the task. But it won't earn wins.

Is this the start of a turnaround? Or just a brief interruption from despair?

I'm not going to write an introduction, because D already wrote the intro I wanted to write, and did so probably much more eloquently than I would have:

If United was truly to start reassembling this season, this is the kind of game they needed. Not a competent 1-nil victory, not a 5-2 thrashing of someone, both of those would lend themselves far too easy a comfort to a team to fall into self-delusion, to dismiss the first third of the season as just a bad dream. But a game where the team plays well, and fights back twice to ultimately take a victory, that's one that might mean something in a way that keeps us all realistic about how far off we are.

1. Give some credit to Tom Soehn for sticking with the same starting lineup from earlier in the week. A lineup that I think is the best we've used all year. I'll admit that if I was the head coach, United would have probably lost this game because I would have pulled Santino Quaranta in favor of Marc Burch before Tino had the chance to set up two goals.

2. Jaime Moreno really performed the way a captain should in this match. He has a different way of leading from how I think Olsen would lead, and how some other captains like Beckham lead. Jaime doesn't get in the referee's face after every foul. He's quiet for most of the match, but then when he does finally speak up (like after Guevara's girlish slap to McTavish) its more effective. And with one assist and one goal, Moreno was the man of the match (as well as a standout for my fantasy team!)

3. Bryan Namoff continues to have the best year of his career.


1. Santino Quaranta's play in this match could be viewed as an analogy to the entire team's performance in this match, and hopefully it will also serve as analogy to the team's performance for the duration of the year. After much adversity and frustration early on, Quaranta fought hard to set up two goals. I was disappointed in his constantly being offsides in the first half, and being a step or two too slow on a ball from Martinez in the 15th minute that either Olsen or McTavish probably would have scored on if they were playing right wing. But Tino did really well to win the penalty kick by pushing into the box, and rightfully taking the contact from Wynne.

2. I thought Luciano Emilio's nickname for the rest of the year was going to be Brickfoot, but I liked Limarzi calling him the Predator. Emilio was aggressive to finish off the gift of a game winning goal from Sutton's save on Quaranta's shot, and let's not forget that he also finished off another rebound from a shot from Moreno that was called back for Jaime being offside.


1. Let's mark this as the first time ever that a goalscorer wound up in the Rail category. Although Gonzalo Peralta's goal was quality, this match could have been 3-0 if he had been able to stay with Danny Dichio on those two goals in the first half.

To me, this really felt like a game we could build upon. As D pointed out, this wasn't a pounding, and that's probably a good thing. But this game showed the team that they DO have the resiliency, the talent, and the heart to come from behind. Because this team has a lot more coming from behind to do this year.

And you know what? I'm glad that we have another tough opponent to face next week with a matchup against New England on the road. If our next game was at home against San Jose or something, I feel like it would be tough to get in a rhythm. But our next three games are against the two MLS Cup finalists from last year, and the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year. These are all winnable games, but these are also teams that United will have to again play their hearts out against. Let's keep it going.

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.

Round 1 to Gomez

In the first match between the two players who will be linked in the minds of DC fans for the rest of their MLS careers, Christian Gomez dominated United and Gallardo with two assists. Even Facundo Erpen scored a revenge goal, in a match where he had shockingly zero bicycle kicks.


1. Bryan Namoff - Had a couple goal saving tackles, and looked totally badass with the bandage over his head in the second half.


1. Francis Doe - His first touch of the game, he got the ball around midfield, carried it all the way up the left sideline with three Colorado players on him, and won a corner kick. He then immediately went into the locker room and was never seen again. At least as far as I could tell.

1. Let's just make this simple and list the entire midfield. Marcelo Gallardo, Clyde Simms, Rod Dyachenko, Santino Quaranta, and Marc Burch - Gallardo was ineffective, not even challenging the keeper on corner kick or free kick attempts. Simms seems out of place in the 3-5-2. I like him better in the bruiser role in the 4-4-2. Not sure he knows what to do with himself with Dyachenko next to him. Speaking of the Russian, I don't think he had as poor a game as a lot of the overreacters on the Insider are claiming, because he did win two free kicks in good spots, but he also gave the ball away a lot. Quaranta kept up the hustle, but did nothing on offense. Burch played alright, but his crosses were always off the mark.

So despite playing with one more midfielder than the opposition, we were still dominated in the middle third. That right there is a really bad sign. But a worse sign is that Soehn continues to roll out the 3-5-2 regardless of the situation. Coaches always talk about how its important to be able to play successfully in more than one formation. I believe we have the team to be able to do that. So why not take advantage of our personnel and tailor the formation to the situation. Playing at home against a team that is weak offensively: that's a good time for the 3-5-2. But playing on the road against a team with a proven (and vengeful) MVP leading the attack, in a game where we would probably have been happy with a nil-nil draw: not a good time for the 3-5-2.

Also, with Chivas's 0-0 draw against Houston yesterday, DC United is now officially THE ONLY team in the league without a clean sheet. And with Blanco, Rolfe, and Chicago coming to town in just four days, it's hard to be confident. But now I've also done a bit more research and stumbled across another jaw-dropping stat. DC United is also THE ONLY team in MLS with no away goals.

It's not really hard to see where the team should go from here. The injuries to Olsen, McTavish, Fred, and Mediate are certainly cutting down on our options. But still, I feel like we're all just sitting here, waiting for the chemistry to develop on its own. Well we've been waiting for almost two months now. How much longer is it going to be? For me, I'd like to go back to the proven strategy that worked so well last year. It's simple, really. It's Burch and Namoff as the wing backs, with two regular starting center backs, but with an occassional rotation of McTavish into that position. It's Clyde Simms as the lone defensive midfielder, behind our #10, with Fred on one wing and Olsen on the other when he's healthy, and any number of other talented options when he's not (Quaranta, McTavish, Mediate, Kirk). And of course, it's the Godfather of Goals and the Golden Boot winner up top. We're out of the crowded portion of our schedule, so I think that with a single solitary starting lineup, with only minor changes when necessary, we will see the chemistry develop much quicker than we have with the frequent changes that we've seen over the past two months.

It will be hard to overcome the negative though in a short week of practice before a game against a quality Chicago opponent. So for now, I pose the following question to the public... Which stat is more troubling... That DC United has ZERO clean sheets, or that DC Untied has ZERO away goals?