The End... of the CCL

Remember how our trusted front office brought in all these talented foreign players with the hope of giving us a better chance to advance in international competitions this year? With United finishing the Champions League with just 1 point in 6 matches, that seems like a distant memory. This was more like the team we've all grown used to after watching the Champions Cup and Superliga earlier in the year. We played well, and looked like the better team at times, but ultimately lost because of some lackluster defending, individual mistakes, and counterattacks. Same old story.


1. From the moment he walked on to the moment he left the field, Francis Doe was our best attacking option. Yes, and that was true even while Emilio was playing next to him.

2. Not only did he defend well, but Marc Burch also made us a threat on free kicks and corner kicks, which is rare for a United team.


1. He's not necessarily the most skilled player on our team, but Ivan Guerrero can be a huge asset when it comes to playing smart and maintaining possession.

2. Greg Janicki was hung out to dry, and didn't really look like the game changer in defense that he has sometimes been. But it was nice to see the guy earn his first goal with the team.


1. I'm not sure how to feel about the chances of Zach Wells returning next season. I guess he's as good as any other backup in MLS, but he sure doesn't inspire confidence.

2. Fred should have been our most skilled player on the field in this match, but that just didn't show. I'd like to see a bit more effort out of him.

3. Devon McTavish didn't do much to help the team in defense here.

Thus ends the 2008 campaign for DC United. The front office has some big decisions to make this offseason, the first big one of which comes at the end of this month when the expansion draft rolls around. We'll start looking at the season in review and prepping for next year later this week.

Award 9: The Etchy

By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to the team's Most Valuable Player. The winner of this award should be the player who had the biggest influence in driving the team to victory. The award's namesake Marco Etcheverry helped deliver 3 MLS Cups to the club, and was named League MVP in 1998. He's also a member of the all-time MLS Best XI.

1. A great candidate for this award is our captain Jaime Moreno. With 10 goals and 10 assists this season, Moreno continues to be one of the most productive players in the league, even at age 34. A lot of people said his career was over before this season, and a lot of people have already been saying it after this season, but don't let them fool you. Because there is no doubt that DC United is a better team when Moreno is on the field.

2. Last year's league MVP Luciano Emilio was once again one of the top scorers in the league with 11 goals. Although he was quiet early in the year, and probably never fully recovered from injuries late in the year, Emilio is still one of the best strikers in the league, and this season even added 5 assists.

3. Our best defender this year has been Bryan Namoff. With so many new faces on the back line, Namoff was forced to take on more of a leadership role than in years past. The team struggled at times in defense, but it was rarely due to any faults by Namoff.

4. Clyde Simms displayed his best year to date with 2 goals and 2 assists while playing a central defensive midfield role. Simms was the model of consistency this year, being the only player on the roster to start all 30 games.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

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?

Can we laugh about it yet?

Last night I was pissed. Today, I'm over it. We weren't going anywhere in the CCL anyway, so unless Martinez's injury is significant, we really didn't lose anything important yesterday. I'm ready to just look back at that match and laugh. Because really, what a freakin embarassment for CONCACAF that was. That match was hardly a representation of what any competition called the "Champions League" should look like.

The best part of all though is that if you go to google and type in "referee roberto moreno" (with or without the quotes), the first link you get is my blog post from last night. Guess what... He deserves it! It will take Moreno a long time to live that one down.

And that was even before the second goal! And before the second United keeper was ejected! Has anyone ever seen a match before where two goalkeepers on the same team were given red cards? Hilarious is how I'll remember this match. Hopefully the players feel the same way and won't let this demotivate them at all. When Martinez was on the ground, I would have loved to see all the other United players, including Crayton, just take a seat on the ground also. I wonder if that would have gotten Cruz Azul to stop play. Probably not. I'm sure they still would have celebrated, the fans still would have sang, and that stupid train horn still would have blared.


1. Our center backs Gonzalo Martinez, Bryan Namoff, and Marc Burch all played admirably. I'm not 100% sure that Martinez wasn't to blame on the first goal, although Miles and Dunseth felt certain that it was Zaher's responsibility to mark two men. But obviously no one was to blame on the second goal besides a bit of poor sportsmanship.

2. It's such a shame that James Thorpe wasn't given an opportunity to play the whole match, because he was playing well, and I'm sure his confidence was building. I think it's safe to say that Thorpe played his way back onto the roster for next year, so United won't have to use any draft picks on keepers for once. And if for some reason Wells didn't return, I might even be satisfied with the Division II keeper of the year as our #2.


1. This was my first time seeing Ryan Miller, and he was alright. Seemed to be very cool and composed. He needs to do a better job of marking though. It was Miller's man who got a free header on goal that hit the crossbar somewhere around the 15th minute or so. If Miller's defensive abilities don't improve, I don't see him supplanting Cordeiro on the depth chart at left wing.

2. How about Quavas Kirk earning his first clean sheet in 4 minutes of action between the pipes! I honestly thought the ref would give Q-Nasty a straight red for taking too long to put on the keeper gloves.


1. Troubling that this isn't the first time I've had to say that Craig Thompson was the weak link in this match, but again, it's not really his fault. Hopefully the coaching staff will learn soon enough that he isn't tall enough, quick enough, or aware enough to be a defender. Why not play McTavish at right back?

Ah well. At least now we're officially eliminated from this thing so we don't have to worry about it interfering with league play again until next year. Oh wait, we still have another meaningless match against Marathon? Dammit!

Anyway, I'm just ready to suck up my pride and pour my support into the Chicago Fire tomorrow night. Let's hope old No-Neck can deliver a victory over NY and help us into the playoffs!

Referee Roberto Moreno

Dear Mr. Austin "Jack" Warner,

Since when is it the referee's right to decide the outcome of a match after just 30 minutes? That is essentially what Roberto Moreno did tonight in DC United's match against Cruz Azul. Here's what happened...

In the first 10 minutes of the match, Roberto Moreno issued a yellow card to United goalkeeper James Thorpe for a slide tackle against a Cruz Azul player. No complaints can be made about that call. But in the 30th minute, while expeditiously moving the ball from one side of the line to the other on a goal kick, Thorpe received his second yellow from Roberto Moreno and was ejected from the game. United, while holding on to only slim chances to advance to the next round of the Champions League, saw those chances slip away, as they were forced to play the remainder of the match with only 10 men.

There are several reasons why we believe the second yellow card should not have been issued to James Thorpe:
1. Goalkeepers are allowed to move the ball along the 6 yard line prior to taking goal kicks. If that is somehow against the rules, then multiple yellow cards should be issued to goalkeepers in every match, because that is a fairly frequent practice.
2. It was only the 30th minute of the match, so time wasting was not a concern of either club at that time.
3. Thorpe JOGGED with the ball from one side of the line to the other. He didn't walk. If Thorpe's intention was to waste time, then he would not have jogged.
4. Thorpe had already been issued one yellow card. Referees should be encouraged to use just a bit more discretion in issuing yellow cards if a player has already received one card.
5. Thorpe had not been issued any warnings for time wasting, and had taken every kick prior without any delay.

The only reasons I can think of as to why Roberto Moreno would make such a poorly inclined call are as follows:
1. Roberto Moreno is biased against DC United.
2. Roberto Moreno is biased against all teams from the United States.
3. Roberto Moreno may have forgotten that he had already given a yellow card to Thorpe.
4. Roberto Moreno has not received proper training to be a CONCACAF referee.
5. Roberto Moreno has not received proper training to be a referee of a youth travel league.

Regardless of the explanation, I see no reason why Roberto Moreno should be permitted to officiate any additional games in the CONCACAF Champions' League.


Anyway, I turned off the game in protest and I'm going to bed. I figured it would be a better use of my time to draft a letter to Concacaf than to watch any more of a match with clearly biased officiating. Probably do some player ratings sometime late tomorrow. I'll read the Insider for updates, but based on the first half, I'd say maybe top shelf for Namoff and Thorpe, calls for Miller and Khumalo, and rails for Zaher and Thompson.

Award 8: The Popie

By definition, the Popie Award goes to the DC United defender of the year. I think this category is pretty self explanatory. The award's namesake Eddie Pope was the MLS Defender of the Year in 1997, and anchored our team in central defense from 1996 to 2002. Pope remains a member of the MLS All-Time Best XI. It's a bit hard to make an argument that any of United's defenders this year reach Pope's stature.

1. Ironman Bryan Namoff has been our most consistent defender, if nothing else. Earlier in the year I would have argued that he was having his best season as a pro, but I'm not sure that's still the case. Namoff should be considered one of the best right backs in the league, and even played well in central defense this year when he had to.

2. Maybe not the biggest, but certainly the tallest signing this offseason was Gonzalo Peralta. He had some great games this year in shutting down some good offensive players, but also made a few too many individual mistakes that led to goals. Hard to say whether or not the voting for this award would be any different had Peralta been healthy the entire year.

3. The most versatile player on our roster has got to be Devon McTavish. This year, he has played center back, right back, right midfield, and center holding midfield. The problem is that no one seems to know which position he's best at. McTavish began the year as our fifth option at the back, but has since won his starting job back from Martinez. Although not the most physically talented player on the team, Devon has mostly held his own in defense.

4. Sure, he's not exactly a defender, but Louis Crayton also deserves your consideration. Since joining the team, Crayton may not have a winning record (the team is 3-5-3), but he has already helped the team earn more clean sheets than Zach Wells.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Sigh...

So that was pretty much the worst possible result. With New York and Kansas City both earning wins tonight in two fairly wild matches, DC United now is currently OUT of the playoffs.

KC needed a corner kick goal in the last minute of stoppage time (in front of less than 10K people) to beat what appeared to be a pretty weak San Jose team. I watched most of this match on mlslive.tv, and really, the Quakes' offense is so unorganized. Several times in the second half a player with the ball could have laid the ball off to a teammate, but decided to shoot himself instead at a poor angle. Without Joe Cannon, this team wouldn't have a chance. Which of course makes me wonder about what could have been had we managed to trade for Cannon instead of Wells this offseason, as we had originally tried to do.

NY's win was mostly off the foot of Juan Pablo Angel, but it was the goal by reserve keeper Danny Cepero that put this game away. What?! The announcers were calling it the first goal in MLS history by a keeper. I can't decide if this result gives me hope that United will also be able to punish the Crew's backup keeper if they start him again, or if it worries me because now the Crew will probably be playing pissed off.

With these two results, DC is back to being 2 points out of the playoffs, making a win absolutely necessary. To be fair though, it's interesting that the 3 teams still in contention in the East all have to play the only 3 teams in the East that have already clinched playoff spots. The Wiz play at the Revs, the Bulls play at the Fire, and United plays at the Crew. It makes me nervous that the two teams we have to count on are our two arch nemeses who always seem to knock us out of the playoffs. This year, they could knock us out just by rolling over and losing (or tying).

So the playoffs essentially start one week early this year. It's like a play-in game for each team. But with these three matchups next weekend, one thing is for sure. The teams that DESERVE to be in the playoffs WILL BE in the playoffs. Right?

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 7: The Harkesy

By definition, the Harkesy award goes to the United player who has demonstrated outstanding leadership ability. The award's namesake John Harkes is known as Captain For Life. Not only was he our team's first captain, but he was literally our team's first player.

1. United's captain this year is Jaime Moreno, and although Jaime is not the typical in-your-face Beckham style captain, I think he gets his point across. Moreno is usually cool and collected, and leads by example with his level of dedication and work ethic.

2. The other nominal leader of the team is the coach Tom Soehn. Soehn guided the team to a US Open Cup win (it's so easy to forget that). But his tactics and lineups this year have sometimes been questioned, and some indications late in the year may point to a theory that Soehn has maybe lost the support of his players.

3. Despite playing for a very short amount of time, a major leader in our locker room is Ben Olsen. One of my favorite memories of this club this year was the week that United announced the signings of Gallardo and los Gonzalos, Olsen took the group to see a Washington Wizards game as a sort of bonding experience. On and off the field, Olsen is our leader and our talisman.

4. It's not really worth even putting anyone else on here, is it? Early in the year I had Peralta penciled in as a nominee because he was a vocal leader in the defense, and I even considered adding Crayton. Gallardo, Emilio, and Simms have all worn the armband at some point this year, but really no one else is going to beat the above three for votes. If you disagree, please let me hear it in the comments.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

I'll be back probably tomorrow with something on the games from last week.

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.

Even when we deserve a point, we don't get one

Win, loss, or tie, the result of this match didn't matter much to me as far as the CCL goes. We're just not a better team than Saprissa or Marathon, so even if we'd managed to beat Cruz Azul at home, we still had relatively no chance of advancing out of the group stages. But this match had a larger meaning than that. A win in this match would have been a great start towards building some momentum for the final 4 games of the MLS season. It would have reminded the players that we are actually still a good team. But for a totally unlucky and undeserved goal. It's kind of nice for the reserves to be able to say that they should have beaten a Mexican team. But it would have been nicer if they actually had.


1. Our center back pairing of Marc Burch and Greg Janicki had a really good first 80 minutes. The final 10 were a bit hectic, but I think you can probably attribute that to the whole midfield staying farther up to try to grab a goal back.

2. I loved this lineup from Tom Soehn. Finally, he is punting the CCL. And the starting lineup was smart anyway because (and I mean no offense to our veterans with this) guys like Thompson and Vide are always going to put forth more effort than guys like Peralta and Simms in this kind of match. Most of the players we saw tonight are unlikely to play on Saturday, so they had no qualms about giving their all. And Soehn is giving guys like Dyachenko, Wells, and Kirk the chance to fight for their rights to stay on the team next season.


1. If Jaime Moreno had given that kind of effort this past weekend, then we might not be in the same situation, and he probably wouldn't be suspended for two games.


1. I think it's unfair to fault him with the goal just because of a bad cross, because afterall, there were a lot of bad crosses in this match, but Craig Thompson got beat too many times. Just about every good opportunity our opponents had came on Craig's right side.

2. I wasn't as impressed with Quavas Kirk as Bretos was. A speedy winger that can't cross might be better suited for a track team. I much preferred the Zaher/Cordeiro combination to Thompson/Kirk.

3. I might as well copy and paste this into the post for just about every match he plays: Just too many giveaways from Rod Dyachenko.

There's no reason to get depressed about this result, because we weren't going anywhere in this tournament anyway. It's the MUST WIN match on Saturday that I really care about. Since we totally didn't deserve to lose this match, let's cross our fingers and hope that the Soccer Gods will repay us with a win on Saturday, and maybe losses by RSL and Colorado too!

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)

With our backs against the wall

Flight from LA to Honduras: 11 hours
Flight from Honduras to DC: 8 hours
Flight from DC to Dallas: 6 hours

So DC United has spent over 24 hours on airplanes in the last week. And those are three separate days in the past week that we did not have an opportunity to practice. I don't mean to make excuses, but it's hard to believe that a team playing in this situation really has a fair chance. Even when our team is close to full strength, we're still playing at a disadvantage.


None


1. Some decent possession by Fred in the midfield. But I again saw 0 of those nice diagonal runs behind the defense that used to be such a big part of his game.


1. That was the softest goal that Louis Crayton has given up since coming to DC.

2. Jaime Moreno just didn't have it today. And by uncharacteristically receiving a red card, he puts his team in an even tougher circumstance going into the final push for the playoffs.

2. Boyzzz Khumalo looked very out of position on the wing. Which brings us to...

3. Tom Soehn, did not make the best out of his healthiest lineup in months. It was not a good decision to start Khumalo on the wing (his third position since joining the team) and Guerrero at the back (ahead of Martinez). At this point in the season, we should be starting a proven lineup. This isn't the time for experimenting. And the tactical move of pulling Quaranta for Martinez might have costed us a trip to the playoffs. Sure, that might be a little overdramatic. But Tino has a tendency to take over in the second half, and I would have rather him stay in longer than Moreno or Khumalo.

And now, DC United is on the brink of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2002. Let's see how they do with their backs against the wall. It feels like a lifetime, but it was only 4 months ago that we were all talking about firing Tom Soehn. Those talks concluded when United went on an 8-game undefeated streak. Well embrace for the "Fire Soehn" talk to rightfully resume in full force this week. And this time, that will most likely come true if we do actually miss the playoffs.

I wonder if everybody still feels the same way about the CCL. I said a few weeks ago that I wanted to punt the CCL, and I haven't changed my mind. That doesn't necessarily mean that we have to start 11 reserves. It just means that when back in the familiar confines of RFK, United should spend all of the next week preparing for the MUST-WIN match against Chivas USA on Saturday. We can just treat the Cruz Azul match as a warmup for the only game in the next week that really matters.

A respectable performance, but still no points

After 60 minutes of this match, I was all ready to come on here and say I was wrong about wanting to punt the CCL. A goalless draw would have been a wonderful result. But as is typical with this club, we let up 2 soft goals off of shotty defending. And now we're staring up from the bottom of a fully stacked group.


1. The best man wearing black last night was again Bryan Namoff. Once we have 5 healthy eligible defenders, it's hard to predict who the 4 starters will be. But we do know for sure that Namoff will be one of them.

2. Gotta give some credit to Tom Soehn. He sent out a pretty good lineup that played admirably well, while still allowing Quaranta to rest, and removing Fred and Simms early. Of course I'd be singing a different tune if Emilio or Guerrero or somebody had gotten injured.


1. Two reserves stepped up and played well, and that's Craig Thompson and Rod Dyachenko. Thompson saved a goal early with a clearance that went off the post, but he was the one who got beaten on that play anyway, so it's hard to rave about it. Dyachenko played well as the transitionary player between the defense and attack. Thompson may have earned a few more Convey votes in this match, and Dyachenko may have earned a few less Donnety votes.


1. Gonzalo Martinez was constantly getting beaten on the left side throughout the entire match.

2. When the tallest players on the field are Marc Burch and Gonzalo Peralta, that second goal really should NOT happen. Pretty sure it was Peralta's man who got a head on it.

3. I expected more out of Luciano Emilio and Fred. Anything really. Like maybe at least a few more shots on goal? With their keeper clearly being uncomfortable, it would have been nice if we'd been able to test him.

So what does everybody feel now about our chances of advancing and what our lineup should be for the remainder of the tournament? It would not be looked on kindly by Management (and by the home fans at RFK) if we rolled out a starting XI filled with reserves next Wednesday. But I have no problem adding one or two more reserve players to the starting lineup as the CCL continues, and as our chances of advancing get slimmer, and as the playoffs draw closer.

On the bright side, DCU's play was inspirational, despite earning 0 points. And going into Sunday's match at Dallas, we're just one Designated Player shy of full strength.

Award 4: The Donnety

By definition, the Donnety award goes to the player who has been the biggest disappointment this year. Yes, harsh, I know. But this award's definition could probably be interpreted in a couple different ways. And because I love controversy, of course I will leave that interpretation up to you. Do you give the award to a guy who has played well at times, but hasn't lived up to the hype or to his high salary? Or do you give the award to a more marginal player who was expected to take a step forward this year, but instead took two steps back? The award's namesake Matias Donnet came to United in 2006 with star potential, having previously played in the Serie A, and having won numerous championships with Boca Juniors. But he made only 8 appearances in DC.

1. Many fans have expressed their disappointment with Marcelo Gallardo this year. There's no question that he's made some positive contributions this year while on the field, but does his 4 goals and 3 assists in 14 league appearances justify his Designated Player status and his $1.8 million salary?

2. After some really encouraging minutes toward the end of the 2007 season, I don't think I was the only one who felt like Rod Dyachenko was poised to have his breakout season in 2008. But now he seems less and less likely to be invited back to the team next year. As a quick reminder, not only did we trade a first round draft choice to Toronto (which they used on Pat Phelan, now of New England), but we also chose to protect Dyachenko last year over Brian Carroll in the Expansion Draft.

3. We heard a lot of hype this offseason from Payne and Kasper about the possibility of having a goalkeeping competition between Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo. As it turns out, the competition was over who could get cut first. Carvallo won. And Wells now seems to be restricted to Champions League duty for the remainder of the season.

4. The forward who made the smallest contribution this year was Franco Niell, who spent only a short time with the club. Niell did manage to score a goal in the Champions Cup, and had a wee bit of success in the Reserve Division, but he spent most of his time with United on the ground.

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?

Award 3: The Convey

By definition the Convey award goes to the team's Rookie of the Year. But there's a couple of different ways you could interpret that. Do you give the award to the young player who has made the biggest contribution so far this season? Or do you give it to the guy who has the best chance of being a star in the MLS? Or maybe those both describe the same player? The award's namesake Bobby Convey played for United from 2000-2004, starting 18 matches for the club his rookie year.

The man from the mines Craig Thompson has made the most appearances for the team this season, and his work rate and willingness to contribute on both offense and defense has been impressive. He's a decent fill-in player, but it's questionable whether he has enough upside to be a starter in the MLS.

Not only has Ryan Cordeiro been lighting up the Reserve division (for whatever that matters), he's also the only rookie with much to brag about on his league stats. Cord has earned one assist (on Emilio's gamewinning goal against Chicago in June), and almost notched a goal while we were in the process of running up the score on the Rapids last month. In order to get more playing time though, Cordeiro has got to learn to play better defense. Straight up.

Another big contributor this year has been Pat Carroll, with 3 league starts and 4 appearances. He's provided adequate depth in league play and in Superliga when we were hurting for bodies in the back. Time will only tell whether he will end up being a lifetime fringe starter like his brother Brian or his constantly injured soon-to-be-cut brother Jeff.

And finally, the last remaining rookie on the team is Mike Zaher. He's made two starts for the club and played pretty well during those limited chances. Could have a future in this league, if he can work hard enough to overcome his size disadvantage. His look makes me wonder whether he will seek a trade to return to LA this offseason.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny awards)

The first two weeks have surprised me so far in that one player in each poll is still currently receiving over 50% of the vote. This week though, I won't be so surprised...

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.