DC United win at Chicago Fire, 1-0

This is the best our team has looked in quite a while. DC United just worked harder in this match, which is great to see. We won most of the 50-50 balls tonight, which has been rare the past few months. The team's first win against an MLS opponent since 7/18 couldn't have come at a better time.

The only thing I didn't like about our performance was the number of fouls given in close range. It continues to be part of Chicago's strategy to go down at the smallest hint of contact near the box. We were a bit lucky that Blanco didn't test Wicks more in his numerous chances.


1. Bryan Namoff continues to have maybe his best season, playing quite well on defense, and adding his second goal of the year on a header from a Gomez free kick.

2. I had my doubts about starting Ben Olsen at right wing against the very underrated Marco Pappa, but he did great, and it turned into a bit of a fluid role as he was moved into central midfield towards the end of the first half. Olsen looked awesome going forward, and came pretty close to scoring on a Burch to Quaranta cross in the 62nd minute. I could almost hear the "YEESSSS!" before the ball went just wide.

3. The reason that the 4-4-2 looked so good in this match was because Clyde Simms was doing the job of two defensive midfielders. Dude was all over the place!

4. Julius James and Dejan Jakovic were an excellent combination as the center backs. James broke up several plays, and gave Jakovic the freedom to advance the ball into the midfield, as he often does so calmly. James was the leading offender of commiting fouls near the box though, so that's something to keep our eyes on.


1. Give some credit to some of the other attackers like Christian Gomez, Fred, Santino Quaranta, and Luciano Emilio. These guys worked tirelessly to make sure it wouldn't be easy for the Fire to advance the ball out of the midfield, and made some defensive contributions too. The chemistry among our entire team was clearly evident tonight.


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Notice the only two starters I'm not rating are Josh Wicks and Marc Burch. The feud between these two guys had me worried for a minute. We already knew that both of these guys are sort of hotheads. But is it really a problem for two passionate guys to go at it like that? I have no doubt that they will work it out in the locker room, but we'll all be watching for comments on the Goffblog.

I've been ragging on referees a lot lately, so let me point out that this was a really well officiated match by Kevin Stott. We probably deserved all of our yellow cards, and he kept control of a match between two teams that have broken into fisticuffs in previous meetings. My only complaint comes from the time keeping. Four minutes of stoppage time when there weren't any injuries?

I don't know if we could have picked a better time to beat a tough Eastern Conference opponent on the road. We've finally broken our long winless streak. But more importantly, now we've got some momentum going into the Open Cup Final on Wednesday. Look for our best eleven to start this match. I've got my tickets. Do you?

DC United win vs Chicago Fire, 2-1

This was my first journey to RFK this season, and boy did I pick a good one. It sure did feel right for this to be a battle for first place, because United and the Fire did look like two of the best teams in MLS tonight. Great atmosphere in the stadium.

Just a shame for a really well-played competitive match between two good teams to be influenced so heavily by the officials. In the end though, the two soft penalty calls balanced each other out. D makes a good point about the symmetry in the officiating. I'll wait until the video highlights are posted online, but in person, I didn't see a foul worthy of a penalty in either case. The difference tonight though, was in the goalkeeping.


1. Ladies and gentlemen we have a goalkeeper! Josh Wicks earned us 2 extra points in this match, not only with his penalty kick save on McBride, but also on a couple other point blank saves, and total control of the box on corner kicks.

2. It wasn't just Wicks though that held Chicago to one goal. The strong defense of Marc Burch and Dejan Jakovic also helped preserve the victory. Brian McBride is the best aerial attacker in US Soccer history, and Burch was marked up against him on every corner and free kick. Great job. Jakovic singlehandedly shut down numerous scoring opportunities, including quite a few from the speedy Nyarko.

3. Christian Gomez isn't going to let the starting central attacking midfield job get away from him that easily. Dude was awesome tonight. It's been far too long since we've seen United score directly off a free kick like that.

4. All of the loud side was buzzing in response to the play of Boyzzz Khumalo after he entered as a second half sub. He put in some hard work during the final minutes to keep Chicago honest.

5. Despite missing Emilio, Tom Soehn did well to put together a great starting XI. Wallace had another strong match in central defensive midfield. And the subs did well to close it out (finally we saw the reapperance of the 4-4-2!) Soehn was also smart to switch Fred and Quaranta after Rolfe and Pappa had already switched, and Pappa was clearly abusing Fred.


1. While putting in a good effort whether on the wing in the first half or up front in the second, Santino Quaranta should have made the final score 3-1 if he was able to finish off Khumalo's perfect cross late in the match.


1. I had a good view of Fred's multiple giveaways in the first half. It wasn't pretty. I think the only passes he completed were backwards to Burch.

Ah, first place. It feels good. This team is really starting to come together. We all were counting on United to score plenty of goals in 2009, but now that they have an above average starting goalkeeper, along with maybe the best center back in the league, this team could be in for a very good year.

DC United tie vs Chicago Fire, 1-1

I missed this match in favor of a family function, so the notes below are purely based on highlight clips, news articles, blog posts, and fan comments. What's worse, my DVR inexplicably failed to record the USA WCQ match too.

When I opened up the laptop this morning and saw that the result was a 1-1 tie, I was satisfied. Missing 5 starters against the team that's the favorite to win the MLS Cup this year, a point is a decent result. But then after seeing that we dominated possession for most of the match, and had a great number of opportunities, a tie feels like it could have been so much more.


1. Even though he may have disappeared for a good part of the second half, Luciano Emilio's early strike was well taken and fantastically placed.

2. When so many fans on Goff's blog are calling for United to get the ball to Chris Pontius more often, and Tom Soehn is saying "I don't think we used him as much as we could have", I'm thinking this kid has a real bright future.


1. Josh Wicks definitely could have done better at stopping Nyarko's goal, and his fumbling of a long range shot in the final minutes almost cost us the match. Other than that though, he seemed fairly competent. But I'm ready for Crayton to return hopefully next week.

2. The highlight of the match may have been Ben Olsen knocking over Chicago's fragile DP shortly after he entered the match, and then yelling at the referee to watch Blanco's diving. Now that's leadership!


1. Dejan Jakovic was our biggest liability in this match. He failed to knock Nyarko off the ball on the goal, had too many giveaways, and was involved in some other defensive breakdowns.

2. Was Christian Gomez actually in uniform for this match? I saw his name listed in the lineup, but didn't see him in any of the highlights.

In general though, this actually looks like a pretty good team. Am I right? For some reason, I'm feeling much better about our chances this year than I felt for most of the previous season. The returns of Fred, Quaranta, Janicki, and McTavish will be a huge help, and Soehn is going to have some real tough decisions to make when he's got all of our regulars available. How do you bench Pontius after the opening he's had? I'm also thinking that we may see Jakovic fall behind Janicki, McTavish, and Burch on the defensive depth chart in no time.