DC United tie at FC Dallas, 2-2

So my DVR inexplicably taped nothing but a black screen, and calls to Comcast expectedly got me nowhere (their proposed solution: turn it off and turn it back on). So this reaction will be based solely on MLSnet highlights and comments in the Insider.

With our remaining schedule chock full of home matches, a tie on the road is certainly not the end of the world. And we're now technically in the playoffs if the season ended today (tied with New England and Chivas, but with a better goal differential) although there are several teams who have played less matches than us. So the overall result is fine. What is troublesome though is that we SHOULD be better than FC Dallas. Outside of Cunningham, we're a much more talented team. But from what I saw, these two teams were fairly evenly matched. And since FCD are not a playoff team, that's not good.


1. Our most dangerous player on the field was Santino Quaranta. He's really starting to put this team on his back and emerge as a leader for the younger generation of players. It's questionable whether that should have been a penalty kick when Tino was taken down in the box, but the ref certainly didn't have a good enough angle to be able to say that he dived, so it was well earned in my opinion.

2. Marc Burch hit three awesome free kicks in a row, each with a good chance at scoring. The first two resulted in chances for rebounds, and the third one went in. The good thing about hitting free kicks low is that they don't go over the bar that way. This might sound obvious, but it would be a lesson well learned for other players.


1. Interesting choice by Soehn to put Clyde Simms in as a central defender. At least he was the better of our two central defenders this night. I remember the team trying Simms as an outside back in 2007, but has he ever started as a CB before? Still not sure why McTavish hasn't played as a defender all year.


1. Joining Janicki and Habarugira in the list of defenders who have had a terrible match in the past month, please welcome Julius James. He was responsible for both goals, gave up another shot to Cunningham which went off the post, and could have been called for a penalty kick.

2. So what did you guys think of Tom Soehn's 4-6-0 formation? My back line would have been Namoff-James-Burch-John, but having Simms in there instead was fine defensively. The problem then though is that you lose Simms' ball winning skills in the midfield. This lineup was essentially 3 true defenders, 4 defensive midfielders, and 3 attacking midfielders. Not a winning combination, and not what in line with my recommendation. I mean it's fine to have a global strategy of going for 3 points at home and 1 point on the road, but did we really have to make it this obvious?

Well that's all I got from the five minutes of highlights. Anyone who watched the game care to elaborate more?

Next week brings two home league matches for us, first against the Wizards on Wednesday (college discount night) and then a rematch against the Sounders on Saturday (social sports night). Anything less than 4 points next week would be extremely disappointing, and 6 points is very possible as well.

DC United win vs FC Dallas, 2-1

DC United looked like the better team for all 90 minutes tonight, but the first 60 sure were scary. Even though they had threatened to score so many times, and it seemed hard to believe that they would end the night with a bagel, it was hard not to be nervous about witnessing another lost point or 3. But ultimately the better team prevailed, thanks mainly to the greatest player in league history.


1. Even before he scored, Jaime Moreno was clearly the best player on the field. And even before he scored AGAIN, there was no question that Moreno is back in top form.

2. Christian Gomez was constantly dangerous in his 30 minutes of action, including an awesome assist on the willing goal.

3. Bryan Namoff continues to be one of the best and most consistent defenders in the league. Screw the talk about Barklage, I think Namoff could be a candidate for our next #10 with now three assists on the season.


1. After missing the Open Cup victory, I understand now why so many fans were unsure about Milos Kocic, despite his clean sheet. Not much Kocic could have done about the goal tonight, but he misses balls that he should punch, and he punches balls that he should catch. Increased experience will help as he continues to gain more chemistry with his back line, but I'm not willing to crown him as our Varlamov quite yet.

2. That wasn't quite as productive of a match as Chris Pontius is used to, but I just like the fact that we've got a guy who can fill in at central holding midfield when necessary, in addition to also playing on the wing, CAM, and withdrawn forward.


1. That's at least two goals this year that I think can be blamed on Rodney Wallace. I'm ready for Fred to return to the starting lineup.

This match was interesting in that we went in thinking that we had a big advantage on the wings, but both of our goals came right up the middle of the park. Credit our veterans Gomez and Moreno for that, showing the rookies how its done.

Another interesting piece mentioning: In the FSC pre-game show, Chris Sullivan said that he had spoke to Will Chang earlier, and Chang said that he'd had conversations with Tom Soehn about a three-year plan that involved rebuilding with youth. That comment probably raises more questions than answers. Did the three-year plan start this year or last? Because this is the first year that we've made much of an attempt to rebuild with youth. So does that mean that Soehn is pretty much guaranteed two more years? It makes a lot of sense to me that the team is making a concerted effort to rebuild this year with their collection of aging superstars.