DC United 2009 expansion protection list

With MLS Cup 2009 now behind us, the league turns immediately to 2010. While congratulations are due to Real Salt Lake, with a nod in particular to two of my favorite non-DC players Nick Rimando and Kyle Beckerman, the celebration won't last long for that club, because they are likely to be losing a player just three days later. Each MLS team will submit a list of 11 players today and the Philadelphia Union will be selecting 10 players in the expansion draft on Wednesday. Generation Adidas players (Rodney Wallace) and homegrown players (Bill Hamid) are excluded.

I've been thinking a lot over the past few months about which players DC United should place on their protection list. My conclusion was that I was thinking too much. There are really only two questions that should be asked about each player on our roster:

1. Is he likely to play an important role for us in 2010?
2. Is he likely to be an attractive pick for Philadelphia?

If the answer to both of these questions is YES, then that player needs to be protected. If the answer to both questions is NO, then the player should not be protected. That much seems very simple.

I answer YES to both questions for: Bryan Namoff, Dejan Jakovic, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Chris Pontius, Julius James, and Jaime Moreno. Any surprises there? I don't think anyone is going to disagree with me on the first five. Others have left James off of the "Must-protect" list, but I think he has proved to be a valuable member of our team and could also be seen as attractive to PU. Moreno is the only guy I've seen missing from some other lists, but he is definitely still an important player for this team. Even if he doesn't start every match, he raises our level of play when on the field. And despite his advanced age, you're crazy if you don't think Piotr Nowak would strongly consider taking the MLS all-time leading scorer who was at his best when playing in Nowak's system.

I answer NO to both questions for: Josh Wicks, Milos Kocic, Avery John, David Habarugira, Greg Janicki, John DiRaimondo, Ely Allen, Tiyi Shipalane, Brandon Barklage, Boyzzz Khumalo, and Ange N'Silu. Any disagreement? Some have mentioned Wicks because of his shot-stopping or Kocic because of his age, but I don't think United is sold on either one being our #1 GK next season, and I don't think either is likely to be selected by PU for the same reason. Habarugira may have a lot of upside, but he's years away from being a regular starter, and I don't think the Union are going to take a flyer on him when other proven defenders will be available. How about Khumalo? He is sometimes important to our team as a reserve forward, but hasn't made enough of an impact in MLS yet to be considered a building block for a new team.

So then we are left with 4 slots remaining to be awarded among the following 8 players: Lawson Vaughn, Marc Burch, Devon McTavish, Danny Szetela, Andrew Jacobson, Fred, Christian Gomez, and Luciano Emilio. Let's look at each player a little closer.

Of the three defenders, Marc Burch has been the most valuable to the club over the past three years, due mostly to the extreme lack of quality left backs in MLS. Surely DC United will hope to upgrade at that position in the offseason, but I question our chances of finding a more skilled replacement. If the team is able to upgrade though, then Burch would be relegated to defensive depth, putting him in the exact same category as Vaughn and McTavish. McTavish was drafted by Nowak in 2006, so there might be a little bit of sentimentality there, but probably not. The good news is, if we happened to decide to leave all three unprotected, we're only going to lose one at most.

The competition for starting holding midfielder for DC United just got a little bit more intense with Olsen's retirement, and so we have to consider whether Danny Szetela or Andrew Jacobson is more vital to the team's future plans. Both have shown good promise at times for us in 2009, but neither has fully established himself as a capable starter. So without really knowing which one is more likely to win a starting job in 2010, we're just left to question which one would look more attractive to PU. Got to give the nod to Szetela there.

Lumping Fred, Gomez, and Emilio all together, we have a few very serious unresolved questions. And while others have disagreed with me, this is where I'd really hoped that we would have a new head coach in place prior to the expansion draft. Deciding between keeping Burch, Vaughn, and McTavish might not be a critical decision that will have a huge impact on our season, but deciding between keeping Fred, Gomez, and Emilio is. All three have been great players for DC United at some point in the past, and any one of them might be great for us again in the future. It's just hard to say which. So again, without having further insight into the mind of Dave Kasper to determine if any of these players is even going to be offered a contract for 2010, we're left to look only at what value Philadelphia might place on each player when starting from scrach. Could Fred be deemed as an important building block and allowed to play in his most natural position with the new club? Probably. Gomez had 14 goals and 11 assists and was named the league MVP when playing for Nowak in 2006, but is the coach likely to select a player that has so obviously lost a step (or two)? Probably not. And then there's Emilio. No one knows yet if he'll be back in MLS next season, or what salary he will command if he is back. But if he is left exposed, he will undoubtedly be the only 2009 10-goal scorer exposed.

I honestly didn't have a list in mind when I started writing this, but the right choices are starting to become more clear to me. I'm set on 10 out of 11 players: Namoff, Jakovic, James, Simms, Quaranta, Pontius, Moreno, Szetela, Fred, and Emilio. And finally, an argument could be made for either Jacobson or Burch, but this just wouldn't be the DCUMD blog if I didn't settle on Marc Burch in the end.

RIVER OR LIFE: Attacking midfielders

We've covered the forwards, and we've covered the front office. Heck, our front office results actually have been 100% correct so far, with Tom Soehn leaving the team and Kasper and Payne set to return. We'll have to wait a while to find out if our forward results are correct, but in the meantime, let's see what everyone has to say about our attacking midfielders.

Just remember, a vote for River means that you want the player banished from DC, and a vote for Life means you hope to see the player back next year.

The biggest question before the season was whether Christian Gomez would be more like his usual self in United uniform, when he used to earn around 10 goals and 10 assists every year, or more like himself the year before in a Rapids unifom, when he earned only 3 goals and 6 assists. The answer was somewhere in between.

poll by twiigs.com

Santino Quaranta started the season fast with 5 assists in the first third of the season, and earned a return to the US National Team picture with an appearance in the Gold Cup. But he faded later in the year, and injury forced his season to an early end.

poll by twiigs.com

The MLS Rookie of the Year candidate Chris Pontius was tied for the team lead in games played, but more importantly, he also won the prestigious Benny Award for the highest average player rating on this blog.

poll by twiigs.com

Scoring just 2 goals and 4 assists in each of the past two seasons, Fred has found the MLS to be a bit more difficult than Australia's A-League. Fred is a talented player who has never really fit into DC United's system. Hard to say whether or not that's really his fault though.

poll by twiigs.com

One of the few benefits of finishing so poorly in 2008 was that we received an allocation slot high enough to acquire Danny Szetela when he returned to the league mid-season. Szetela had an apparent falling out with the coaching staff and only had limited playing time, mostly outside of league play.

poll by twiigs.com

DC's third round draft pick Brandon Barklage had a very promising start to his MLS career, scoring goals in two consecutive Open Cup matches, and looking good in relief of Gomez as a central attacking midfielder in his 4 brief MLS appearances, before falling to injury.

poll by twiigs.com

Ely Allen was selected in the second round by the Galaxy and started 11 matches for them last season. This former U-18 National Team player didn't see any time in MLS this season, but did have a few appearances in the Champions League.

poll by twiigs.com

DC United tie at KC Wizards, 2-2

Plenty of fans were saying last night that this match was like a microcosm of our season. I disagree. A microcosm of our season would have included DC United grabbing an early lead and taking it into halftime. It also would have included many chances to go even further ahead, but we would have had multiple goals disallowed and/or our opponent would have scored after some poor officiating. And then we would have failed to put away chances to avoid everything coming down to the wire, and we would have been held back by injuries (ok, maybe that last part is true).

What we saw instead was a team that clearly wanted a victory. They fought hard, which is something that we weren't saying much during our three straight home losses just a short time ago. The team unfortunately left too many points on the table over the course of the season, and those opportunities will be second guessed from our couches, rather than from the bounching seats of RFK Stadium. Because our season has come to a premature end.


1. Julius James played well defensively as the center of our three-man backline. But after limping around on one foot and being moved to forward, it was his go-ahead header that will be a lasting image. I'm tempted to throw out all voting for the Grosy Award and hand it to James for that performance.

2. There's no doubt that the game changed at half time with Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno joining the lineup. Olsen was able to hold more possession in his first 5 minutes than Szetela had in his 45. Moreno scored on yet another PK, and both players seemed to motivate the team to give their all. Which makes you wonder why they both weren't starting in the first place...


1. Steve Cronin made some very good saves in this match, despite looking a bit shaky at times in the first half. I'm not sure what the team will need to do to get him back next year, but they need to find out.

2. I was once again impressed with the effort of Fred. He earned the foul that led to the tying PK goal, and also made some positive contributions defensively despite some obvious cramping late in the match. His red card for a handball to keep the ball out of the net was the correct call, and I think every one of us would have done the same thing.


1. Rodney Wallace was getting beat nonstop by Kei Kamara in the first half, including getting beat on the Wizards' first goal. Wallace came within 2" of total redemption when his potential game-winning shot struck the post, but unfortunately it wasn't in the cards.

2. There were some questionable roster decisions by Tom Soehn, as has been typical over the course of this season. Even the players have complained about the coach's inability to establish a consistent starting lineup. And I just don't understand the decision to leave Olsen and Moreno home from Mexico mid-week, and then start both of them on the bench. It's doubtful though that we will have the chance to question Soehn's lineups ever again.

When the final whistle blew, it didn't feel real. And you could see that on the players' faces as well. It was as if they were each asking themselves: "How did we get here?" How did we take a team with this much talent, and drop so far so fast? You'd be hard pressed to find somebody who would argue that the 2009 DC United team was not better than the 2008 DC United team, yet they were in the same exact position at the conclusion of the season. One point out of the playoffs. Was that because of mismanagement? Poor coaching? Lack of production? Lack of effort? Officiating? Injuries?

You could chalk up our underperformance this year to any of those things. I'm not sure which one was the most crucial, but it doesn't really matter what I think. I'm much more curious about what Will Chang and Kevin Payne think.

Tom Soehn's career in DC will likely end any day now. This makes you wonder if anyone else's career in DC is about to end also. Dave Kasper? Moreno and Gomez? Emilio and Fred? Bryan Namoff?

Surely I'm going to have a lot of write about over the next few weeks. I would much rather be writing more match reactions, but this organization is sure to still keep us bloggers busy.

Last note: I've said it before but I'll repeat it here: If we are changing head coaches we need to do it NOW. The expansion draft is exactly one month away. And I want our new head coach to be the one making the important decisions about who to protect.

DC United tie at Toluca, 1-1

Finishing 1-1 against the leader of the Mexican Primera Division on the road is a better result than most of us expected, and probably a better result than we deserved. Still, thanks to some inspired play by a few individuals, and some poor shooting by Toluca, we emerged with a single point.

A win would have secured our spot in the Champions' League quarterfinals, but let's not count ourselves out yet. That spot will now come down to the result of the Marathon at San Juan Jabloteh match on Thursday night. SJJ won't want to finish the CCL with zero points so they are going to try their hardest to earn a positive result, and they played both DCU and Toluca to 1-0 losses. Hopefully Marathon's plane gets delayed again.


1. Chris Pontius opened the scoring in the sixth minute with a brilliant strike. And despite taking what I thought was an injury off a hard Toluca challenge (that went un-whistled of course), he fought hard for 90 minutes.

2. The best defender for United tonight was Devon McTavish. I actually thought removing him around the 60th minute was the wrong move because he'd played so well, and because he's done so well in Champions' Cup/League matches in the past.

3. Steve Cronin continues to raise his transfer price with another excellent performance in net.


1. I mentioned that Pontius fought hard for 90 minutes. Unfortunately that wasn't true for every member of the team, but it was true for Julius James and Fred. Wasn't the best performance for either of them, but each contributed when necessary, and were running until the end despite being clearly gassed.


1. The penalty kick call against Lawson Vaughn was a bit unlucky because the foul was definitely not intentional. But if the player hadn't run around him so easily to begin with, he never would have been in that position. Vaughn was right up there next to McTavish after the first half, but he dropped off considerably in the second.

2. Other than Fred, our first half midfield combination of John DiRaimondo, Danny Szetela, and Boyzzz Khumalo was the worst we've seen all year from DC United. Toluca had no problems dribbling through our midfield, and we weren't able to build any considerable amount of possession. The presence of Simms/Olsen/Jacobson was sorely missed.

With a tie and two days wait until the conclusion of the group stage, the CCL is now out of our hands. Maybe we'll advance, maybe we won't.

What's not out of our hands though is our MLS playoff potential! It's do or die at Kansas City on Saturday. I'm not going to waste my time attempting to write up any playoff scenarios again (you can get that here), but let's just say that a loss or tie leaves us with very little chance of survival.

Two important matches Thursday night - Chivas at Chicago and Marathon at Jabloteh. Each could have a huge impact on our team's future. All we can do on Thursday night though is hope for the best. Saturday is when it's time to take care of business.

Benny Award 4: The Donnety

By definition, the Donnety Award goes to the player who has been the biggest disappointment for DC United in 2009. The award's namesake Matias Donnet came to United in 2006 and was seen as a potential all star due to his pedigree after playing for Boca Juniors, as well as spending some time in Serie A. But Donnet turned into a huge disappointment, playing in only 8 matches for United.

Last year's "winner" by just a hair was the star-studded combination of Zach Wells and Jose Carvallo. These two were brought to DC with high hopes of establishing a goalkeeper competition. Wells won the competition, but then took 17 matches to earn his first clean sheet. Meanwhile, Carvallo looked awful in his few appearances.

1. Luciano Emilio has been a scapegoat for a lot of fans this season. His 9 goals this season leads the team, but that's down from 11 in 2008 and 20 in 2007. Emilio may be a big disappointment when you consider his $750,000 salary, but is he really the biggest disappointment this year?

2. Fred has demonstrated a noted drop-off since joining MLS from Australia's A League. His 2 goals and 4 assists this year is identical to his stats from 2008, but he has not had the impact on games that he was having in 2007, and he now sits solidly behind two rookies on our depth chart.

3. Danny Szetela joined United via the allocation system in mid-July, but has only played in two league matches. Initially we heard that he was benched because of the "coach's decision", which seemed to indicate that he had done something to piss Tommy off. But lately all we've heard is that he isn't playing because he just isn't as good as the other players in front of him. Regardless, Szetela has yet to make an impression on the team, which some might call disappointing.

4. Greg Janicki earned himself a starting job in central defense last year and was in position to be Jakovic's chief backup this year. Uninspiring play and one terrible performance against Marathon instead earned himself a regular spot on the "Not in 18" list, and then eventually on the DL.

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and feel free to argue for your choice in the comments section.

Up next: The Grosy - Who is DC United's gutsiest player?

DC United win vs San Juan Jabloteh, 5-1

Last week I made a big mistake in reading too much into the results of a win against a weak opponent. Learning my lesson, let's just say that this match was a pleasure to watch. This is the second time this season United has scored five goals, and it looked like the boys were having fun out there.

Does that mean though that they will carry this momentum into the match Saturday against Chivas? Given recent history, probably not. But for now, let's just enjoy the moment.


1. Christian Gomez looked like an MVP last night. He scored two goals, but it was his run leading to the assist on the third goal that impressed me the most.

2. The energy of Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace was a big part of our victory. I'm moving away from the idea that CP should be our starter on left wing and am solidly back on advocating him as a starting forward. Wallace also added two assists and looked great making overlapping runs throughout the match.

3. Sure it was a weak opponent, but Fred and Boyzzz Khumalo took advantage of opportunities when they were there. Each had a couple flubs also, but our two wingers combining for 3 goals is nice to see.

4. He didn't have to do much, but when called upon, Milos Kocic answered.


1. Danny Szetela played well as a second half sub in a holding midfield position. He actually broke up a couple Jabloteh attacks. I don't think he's really close to playing himself into a spot as a regular starter, but this was definitely an improvement.


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We're heading back to reality now though with a huge MUST-WIN match on Saturday against Chivas USA. I don't see any possible way for us to make the playoffs with a loss this weekend, so hopefully Tommy will have the boys ready to play. The Revolution loss to Dallas last night continues the theme of potential playoff teams losing to teams out of competition. It's nice to get that help, but we need to do this on our own. If things go right this weekend, we could find ourselves in fifth place. If things go wrong, well, season over.

DC United lose to Seattle Sounders, 2-1

We win trophies. But not all the time.

Great atmosphere at the stadium. My section was in between the Barra Brava and the Seattle supporters, and it was cool listening to the fans trying to out-sing each other. The fans in the sections who don't normally stand and sing were all standing and singing a lot more than usual.

I hate to say it but I guess the Sounders deserved to win. Which is disappointing after all the trash we talked. But Seattle won a trophy in their first chance just like DC United did. Now if they can just win 13 more, maybe they'll have an argument at being the greatest club in MLS.

1. Clyde Simms was in the right place at the right time to score DC's only goal.

1. Josh Wicks was the reason we were still in this match through 70 minutes, but then he was also the reason why we didn't have a good chance to get back into it after we went behind. Wicks looked like a superhero in the first half with all those great saves, but it was absolutely inexcusable for him to stomp on Montero afte giving up the goal. We learned from the Blanco incident last year that MLS will not suspend players for their actions in the Open Cup, but I wonder if United benches him temporarily as punishment.

1. I'm not going to make up my mind as to what I think Tom Soehn's fate should be until after the season is over, and neither will ownership, and neither should you. But this loss certainly makes it much more likely that he will not make it into 2010 as our head coach. His only chance at this point is to win the Eastern Conference Championship. Numerous issues with Soehn's starting lineup. If you were following me on Twitter, you'd know that my starting lineup included Wallace and Quaranta ahead of Olsen and Moreno, and I stand by that. This team is best when Quaranta is playing right wing and Pontius is playing forward. When is the coaching staff going to realize that? And at some point, Moreno and Olsen are no longer to be among our best 11 players. I'm not exactly sure if that point has come yet, but I'm also not certain if the coaching staff is going to be willing to start either of these guys on the bench when necessary. The other issue was the formation. It became clear to me about 15 minutes in that the 3-man backline was not working. But the team made zero adjustments. And I didn't feel like having a fifth midfielder was doing us much good either. Makes you wonder what the lineup would have looked like if Julius James was available.

2. FREDSUX

3. I wonder if the game would have gone into overtime at 1-1 if Wicks was still in instead of Milos Kocic on the second goal. He's much less decisive and doesn't distribute effectively either.

4. The free kicks of Christian Gomez were a constant disappointment. For as many chances as he had, I would have expected at least a couple shots on goal.

That's all. Time to concentrate on the league. As with any professional sports team, DC United has a tendency to let us down immediately following an emotionally draining match like this one. It will be up to Soehn to make sure that doesn't happen on Saturday. And then we actually have a full week off (!) before we get a chance for revenge against the Sounders.

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 lose at Houston Dynamo, 4-3

Two main points learned from this match: 1) Houston is really good. 2) The DC defense isn't.

Can you imagine how great this team would be if Dwayne De Rosario was still on the roster? This is already an all-star midfield, with Stuart Holden, Brad Davis, and Ricardo Clark all playing the best of their careers. I'd say that we really missed Clyde Simms again here, but I'm not sure he even would have made a difference tonight. We were dominated in possession.

But where I was most disappointed was in our defense. With Wicks and Jakovic playing in place of Wells/Crayton and los Gonzalos, our defense was supposed to be better this year. That just doesn't seem to be true though. After 20 matches in 2008, United had allowed 34 goals. Now through the same point of the season in 2009, we've allowed 32.


1. Bringing on Luciano Emilio for Gomez to start the second half turned out to be the most important call of the match for Soehn. Emilio was clearly hungry, and although his first goal was a bit lucky after getting a deflection, his second goal was well deserved after he almost scored on a backheel. Hopefully the best thing we'll take from this match is that Emilio is back in business.

2. This was a Gros-esque performance from Fred, who covered a lot of ground in the first half, and then added a goal in the second after being allowed to roam free a bit more, which was an important result from the formation shift


1. Two of Houston's goals came off Bryan Namoff's side of the field, and he may have been at fault on their third, although I would argue more that it was just an awesome goal. Regardless, Namoff still had some really good defensive plays, and he also earned an assist on Emilio's first.


1. This was the worst match we've seen from Josh Wicks in a United uniform. It seems that just like Crayton, he started off strong, but the fanbase will eventually lose confidence in him. Wicks might be above average by MLS standards, which is something we haven't been able to say since the departure of Perkins, but I just think it's rare to see that type of disappointing performance from the more consistent MLS keepers like Onstad, Busch, and Reis. In order to remain our long term starter, we need to see more consistency from Wicks.

2. Not the best night for Dejan Jakovic. If not for his penalty kick foul, this match may have ended in a 3-3 tie.

3. Santino Quaranta was a total non-factor in this one. He looked like a guy who's only played one match in the past month. You can thank Bob Bradley for that.

4. It was Ben Olsen's fault that Brad Davis had so much space to shoot for Houston's first goal, and he also turned the ball over on the play that led to their second.

The big question that remains though after one of the most exciting MLS matches of the season is whether we should be using a 4-4-2 formation more often. United won the second half 3-1. Now that's not exactly fair to the Dynamo because they weren't pushing as hard since they had a 3 goal lead for the majority of the period. But at the same time, it seemed as if our backline was much stronger after adding a fourth defender, and we didn't lose much in the midfield. As with any other tactical decision, I think it depends on the situation. On the road against a team with several strong attackers might be a good situation for the 4-4-2. Let's see if DC goes to this formation again in their next league match on the road against Toronto in two weeks.

DC United tie at San Jose, 2-2

This match exhibited nothing but a lowly underperforming team working harder than a much more talented team. DC came out to a quick 2-0 lead, and apparently they thought they didn't need to do anything else for the next 70 minutes. That wasn't true.

There was also some definite bad luck for San Jose. The PK call for the first goal was questionable, although you can make a reall good case for it being a penalty. Then our second goal comes off an unlucky deflection. And it certainly didn't help the Earthquakes either that their most potent scorer got injured before the end of the first half. I was starting to worry that we may have used up all the kharma that we earned earlier in the year after all the faux penalty calls and such, but then we go and gift the Quakes a second goal with a freak handball.


1. Two easy goals from Christian Gomez. A very Morenoesque penalty kick, and a clean finish of the deflection for his second. Totally disappeared in the second half though when we needed him the most.


1. Luciano Emilio earned himself a lot of chances in this match. If he keeps up this kind of workrate, he will very quickly be back to his scoring form.

2. Also some good attacking work from Fred on both wings. He was constantly abusing our old friend Mike Zaher in the first half, and frequently found himself in dangerous spots. But every good chance the Earthquakes had in the first half came from their left. Once Fred shifted sides and Pontius moved to that wing, that was no longer the case.

3. Several very nice saves by Josh Wicks tonight, but Wallace's handball never would have occured had Wicks grabbed that cross first.


1. Marc Burch was beaten on San Jose's lone goal, and beaten a couple other times too. He did have some great service out of the back, but unfortunately there's more to playing fullback than long crosses.

2. What was Rodney Wallace's hand doing in the air?

So a pretty poor start to our toughest stretch of the season that includes 6 out of 7 regular season matches on the road, and 6 matches over the next 3 weeks, the first of which is a tough match against Firpo on Tuesday. Will be interested to see how the team does in this competition in 2009 after totally flunking out of all international competitions last year.

DC United win vs Colorado Rapids, 3-1

After a first half consisting of two major mistakes (Namoff's own goal and Khumalo's terrible chip shot miss), United was a bit unfortunate to be down a goal. The teams looked very evenly matched. But from the moment that the whistle blew to open up the second half, one team was clearly better than the other. What did Tom Soehn say to the players that so inspired that passion? Who knows. But I do know one thing he said: "Jaime - you're in". And that might have been the biggest factor contributing to the victory.


1. Even before the third goal, I was ready to come on here and write about the wonderful interplay between Luciano Emilio and Fred. Emilio did really well with his back to the goal and with multiple defenders on him to hold up the ball and distribute back to teammates. He was frequently getting into dangerous spots, and his goal was well earned by the team. Fred looked the best he's looked on the wing in quite a while, with some good crosses, and even won the ball a couple times in the defensive third. As Fullback suggested, Fred probably deserved to be ejected though.

2. The resident veterans Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez once again delivered a huge victory for the club. Gomez was instrumental on all three goals, earning the PK that Moreno ultimately converted, sending in the corner kick for Namoff's golazo, and putting Fred through to get the ball rolling on Emilio's goal. Moreno now has a goal in three consecutive MLS appearances.

3. Colorado's goal and pretty much every one of their chances came from long balls over the top. Credit Clyde Simms for shutting down every attempt in the middle.

4. Not the greatest starting lineup, but Tom Soehn sure did use his substitutes effectively. I didn't quite understand the decision to start Khumalo on the wing ahead of Wallace. But the team made adjustments when necessary, and maybe Moreno is best these days when coming off the bench.


1. This was obviously an up-and-down emotional match for Bryan Namoff. After the huge mistake of an own goal and a few other giveaways in the first half, Namoff unleashed the redemption on a beautiful diving header goal.


1. Really a poor decision by Boyzzz Khumalo to try to chip the ball over the keeper (and over the bar too as it turned out) instead of just taking a low placed shot at either corner. Luckily, this miss didn't change the result of the match, but it sure felt like it would at half time.

So after a well deserved and well needed week off, DC United now sets out on a very compacted portion of the schedule that will see us playing two matches per week for the next three consecutive weeks, including the US Open Cup semifinal on Tuesday (with tickets now discounted through dcunited.com), a home-and-home series in the Champions' League against Firpo, a couple trips to the MLS Western Conference (San Jose and Houston) mixed in, and of course the big matchup against Real Madrid on August 9th.

DC United tie at Columbus Crew, 1-1

A 1-1 tie would have been a pretty good prediction going in, and isn't a bad result for us. But it feels good to say that this team deserved better. DC United dominated in scoring opportunities, with 11 shots on goal to Columbus's 3. But they were a bit more effective at converting their few opportunities, as we let the Crew off the hook far too often with failed chances and weak shots straight at the keeper. After we missed out on scoring so often early in the second half, I'm sure I'm not the only one who felt a Crew goal was coming soon.

This is a tough part of the schedule, with a lot of multigame weeks coming up, and not the best time to be missing four starters in Moreno, Emilio, Quaranta, and Jakovic. But to be fair, Columbus was also missing their best defender in Chad Marshall and a dynamic midfielder in Robbie Roberts. We were the better side tonight. Which makes me feel good about our chances if we happen to run into the Crew in a home-and-home playoff series. But that doesn't get us any farther in the standings.


1. The central midfield of Clyde Simms and Ben Olsen was supposed to be a part of our starting lineup all year, but unfortunately seeing them together in the middle of the field has been rare. The new aerodynamically cornrowed Simms was able to go forward more with a trusted holding midfielder next to him, and made two important runs that led to our goal: first a headed shot, and then a run that caused some confusion and knocked over a defender just before Gomez's touch. But maybe the most shocking aspect of this match was Ben Olsen going 90 minutes for the first time in close to two years.

2. Really great team work that resulted in Christian Gomez's goal. Simms to N'Silu to Pontius to Gomez.


1. Remember the two things we thought we learned about Boyzzz Khumalo earlier in the week? That he's not a right wing, and that he's not a starter. Well he started at right wing in this match, but I guess we didn't have too many other choices. Khumalo was once again terrible on crosses, but did well in using his speed to track back a couple times, including one last second shot-saving tackle on Ekpo.

2. Rodney Wallace displayed excellent movement off the ball, putting himself in good spaces. But twice this resulted in shots straight at Hesmer. I'm not exactly sure if it was Wallace's fault that Moreno was so open at the back post for the Crew's goal.

3. Pretty solid match from Greg Janicki filling in for Jakovic. The defense did well to keep the Crew off the board on their many set pieces.


1. I'm not sure whether or not it was a coincidence that the Crew's goal came immediately after Fred entered the match for Khumalo. Fred gave the speedy Ekpo too much space to send in an uncontested cross. With Pontius, Wallace, and Quaranta all playing so well, and now Khumalo also making a strong push, I wonder if Fred might be slipping even farther down the depth chart.

So another strong performance by a United team that remains in sole possession of first place, at least until the end of the Chicago/Colorado match. Also, it's so rare that we talk about decent officiating performances, but that was a very well called match by Baldolermo Toledo.

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 win vs Red Bulls, 2-0

Ah, the elusive 90 minute performance. Now I remember what a true victory feels like! It was easy to expect United to let up a late goal after clearly being the better team for the entire game, but instead they added another, thanks to our two veteran super subs.

All that glitters might not be gold here. This wasn't necessarily a domination, because New York had some chances. Luckily for us, they only have one player who knows how to finish those chances, and he was thwarted by Wicks on his only good opportunity. If we give the same chances to Chicago next week though, we might be looking at something closer to a 2-2 scoreline. Brian McBride is no John Wolyniec, and Chris Rolfe is no Danleigh Borman.

1. The best player on the field on this night was Fred. His set up to Santino Quaranta on the first goal was great. And he had at least two good tackles to help on the defensive side when moved out to the wing in the second half.

2. Some credit goes to Tom Soehn for rolling out maybe the best lineup of the year. The 3-5-2 worked well last night, and I liked him mixing things up with Wallace in the middle and Pontius playing, um, wherever. Also, Soehn proved that he's a better coach than Luciano Emilio, because even though the striker clearly disagreed with the move, inserting Gomez preserved the victory.

3. And how about those veteran super subs Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez? Within five minutes of entering the match, Gomez is wreaking havoc and hitting crossbars. These two combined to earn the final goal with Moreno's pass to Gomez in space, then Gomez initiating contact to draw the penalty, which Moreno of course had no problem putting away.

4. Santino Quaranta continues to have a quietly fantastic season. He probably deserves consideration for the All Star game. His finish on the goal didn't seem like much, but he made that run from just across midfield to get in the perfect position on the near side of the box to get on the end of Fred's pass.

5. That would be the second clean sheet in three matches for Josh Wicks. He was up to the task to stop everything thrown his way, including one great save on JP Angel late in the match. What would have happened had Louis Crayton been in net? He might have made that save, but there's also a good chance it would have gotten by him. However, none of us would have blamed him, because the shot from Angel was tough, and we'd instead be pointing fingers at one of the defenders. None of that has to happen now though. Wicks is a game changer.

1. Another solid defensive performance from our outside backs Bryan Namoff and Marc Burch, but not their best outings when it came to crossing the ball. With the 3-5-2 formation, when Namoff and/or Burch join the attack but miss on a cross, they leave the team susceptible to a quick counterattack from the opponents.

1. His play on the field was adequate, but I'm disappointed in Luciano Emilio for the water bottle incident. Was that really necessary? Emilio needs to understand that he's not going to play 90 minutes of every match this year. Our offense is just too deep for that right now. Some of the best players in the world sit on the bench because their teams have so much depth. Didier Drogba doesn't throw water bottles, so why should Emilio? It will be a real shame for him to miss the 1 versus 2 match against the Fire next week.

DC United loss at New England, 2-1

This one hurts. Hurts more than any other match this year. Losing 1 point here because of a faux penalty call hurts worse than losing 2 points to LA Galaxy earlier in the year because of a faux penalty call. Maybe that's because it was to one of our fierce rivals who look to be making a push up the table now that Twellman is back, or maybe it's because we deserved much better here.

I don't agree with the conspiracy theorists that this match, along with the Chivas-Chicago match on Thursday, is a result of the league encouraging fewer ties. I just think that MLS referees suck in general. But I can tell you for sure that I had no idea I was writing a premonition about United in Fullback's blog earlier today when I wrote "It was a shame to see such a great match between probably the two best teams decided by a terrible penalty call." That was written about Chivas-Chicago, but the same applies here. This was a really exciting and entertaining match. But matches like that need to be settled on the field. Not from the penalty spot after a little bump.


1. I felt like I'd just stepped into a time machine and traveled back to 2008 watching the chemistry between Fred and Luciano Emilio. They set each other up multiple times throughout the night, including Emilio's assist on Fred's goal. And if the crossbar was set just two inches higher, we would have won 3-2 because each of these guys hit the post in the first half.

2. That was probably Rodney Wallace's best match as a pro. He had one diving header just barely kept out by Matt Reis, and turned in easily his best performance defensively. Hopefully Wallace has hit the turning point and will actually emerge as DC's "best two-way player" as he was referred to by Rongen.


1. Josh Wicks had another productive start, making some key saves, despite giving up two goals. This was another positive step towards earning a permanent spot in the starting lineup.


1. I didn't see much of the usual sizzle from Chris Pontius in this one, despite consistently good service from Burch. And where was he on Shalrie Joseph's goal? Was he sprinting to keep up with Kenny Mansally so he wouldn't be able to get a quality cross off? No. He was jogging, and then stopped once he got to Ralston (who was already marked well by Jakovic) instead of running with Mansally.

2. Andrew Jacobson had a pretty good first half, but I would expect that from a defensive midfielder with the lineup that Nicol put out. He made it way too easy for Shalrie Joseph to score though on the first goal. Not only did Jacobson fail to mark up when Joseph should have been his man, but he actually knocked Wicks out of the way in the process.

3. I actually liked the starting lineup from Tom Soehn. It was nice for him to give Fred a chance at CAM again for the first time in around a year. But he was probably too late to make adjustments once New England brought in Kenny Mansally. We were getting beat nonstop by Mansally and Nyassi. I was thinking it would be good timing to switch to a 4-4-2 and bring in Janicki or McTavish as another central defender. Or how about Khumalo for Pontius to add a bit more speed on the wing? Soehn was right to make a change when he did, but a straight swap of McTavish for Jacobson and N'Silu for Emilio wasn't enough.

We can blame the referees all we want, but we need to look in the mirror a little bit as well here. A recurring theme this season seems to be a failure to punish our opponents by scoring more than just one goal when we're clearly the better team. It happened against Chicago, and now it's happened twice against New England.

Late breaking news! I just saw a replay again of the penalty call on FSC and Bretos seemed to think it was called a handball, not a foul. Rewinding and sure enough, the ball may have hit Jakovic's arm. I still feel like it's a crap call to hand the game to New England on a silver platter with a PK in the 90th minute on an unintentional handling, but it doesn't hurt quite as bad anymore.

DC United tie vs Real Salt Lake, 0-0

Let's put this in a different perspective. It makes sense that eventually DC United was going to go a full match without scoring a goal. Wouldn't you rather that match happen when we also don't allow a goal? And so I don't feel terribly about this uninspiring match as we extend our unbeaten streak to 9 in all competitions.


1. Josh Wicks looked entirely competent throughout the entire match. That's a rare quality in our goalkeeping situation this season. Was that enough to supplant Crayton as our #1 though? No, but it was certainly enough to extend the ongoing competition at least another few weeks.

2. Another good match from Dejan Jakovic. The defense was good in general last night. Although every time Real Salt Lake had a corner or free kick, it was hard not to have the feeling that they were going to score.


1. A fairly productive night from Andrew Jacobson. He did well to break up several plays in the midfield.

2. Christian Gomez looked like our best attacker, including one 40 yard sprint that I didn't know he had in him. But in a scoreless game, it's difficult to rate any attackers very highly.


1. Luciano Emilio was like a black hole. Every ball that went up to him was never seen again.

2. If I was an impartial observer, I would find Fred's misses to be comical. His terrible miss in the Open Cup match was forgettable because of the final score. But his terrible miss in this match could have cost us 2 points.

3. Jaime Moreno just didn't have it for once. Soehn was right to remove him at halftime.

So what did you think of this lineup anyway? On a hot humid night like this was, it makes more sense to me to let the rookies run around for 90 minutes than it does to start all the older guys. That way, we wouldn't have had to endure the sight of Gomez massaging out muscle cramps for the last fifteen minutes.

Does anyone else get the feeling that if RSL had managed to score a goal at some point, DC United definitely would have scored in the last five minutes?

DC United win at NY Red Bulls, 3-2

This certainly felt like another one of those games where we outplay our opponent, but settle for a tie, or worse. Yet somehow, for the second week in a row, DC scores in stoppage time to secure the victory. That's four points that we've earned now in the final five minutes.


1. Great to see Santino Quaranta back to form. Each of his two assists in this match were among the best I've seen from a DC player.

2. For the second time this year, Bryan Namoff single-handedly saved a goal by clearing a ball off the line, and was solid throughout the match.

3. Chris Pontius looked good in the central attacking midfield role, but he was most productive when switching over to right midfield after Barklage entered the match. Pontius made up for all his misses the previous few weeks by burying the game winner.


1. Pardon the cliche, but it was a tale of two halves for Marc Burch and Dejan Jakovic. Burch handled Richards and Oduro very well in the first half without giving up any opportunities, but struggled at times against Kandji in the second. Jakovic kept Angel from having any effect on the match in the first half, but was outmuscled by JPA for a goal in the second.

2. I would have started Pontius at forward and Quaranta at CAM, Tom Soehn did the opposite, and it seemed to work out perfectly. Two of his substitutes Barklage and Khumalo made a big impact. But we gave up two goals during the fifteen minutes that Soehn switched the team from a 3-5-2 to a 4-4-2. In that formation, with Burch at LCB and Wallace at LB, and without Olsen on the field anymore, DC was at its weakest.

3. Rodney Wallace scored his first MLS goal, was an Emilio miss away from adding an assist, and was a goal line clearance by his former Terp teammate Jeremy Hall away from a second goal. But Wallace continues to be a bit of a liability on defense.


1. I would have liked to see more out of Fred, who had little impact on this match.

Now for some quick housekeeping from the 2-0 Open Cup win over FC Dallas:
Top Shelf: Barklage, Fred, Kocic, Burch
Call: Quaranta, Janicki
Rail: None

Summing up, a 2-2 tie felt like it would have been the right result. But fortunately, DC grabbed a couple extra points thanks to more oustanding play from their rookies. Between Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace starting every match this season, Brandon Barklage emerging as a fan favorite, and Milos Kocic potentially being the starting keeper in waiting, is it possible that the 2009 draft class is our greatest ever?

The 2008 ADRs

In my last post, I claimed that Tom Soehn had an ADR this year of 3.11. What does that mean? Is that good or bad?

Well as readers of this blog know, I've been passing down player ratings of either "Top Shelf", "Call", or "Rail" to players after every match. I've also been tracking those ratings over the course of the year, and displayed all of them here. Now let's take it one step further.

"ADR" stands for "Average DCUMD Rating", and is calculated by taking the average rating of each player for the year, with "Top Shelf" being worth 5, "Call" being worth 3, and "Rail" being worth 1. So to look at this in its most basic form, an ADR over 3 is good.

Before we reveal the ADRs, let's make one distinction. It's important to divide the players up between "Regulars" and "Reserves". Otherwise, as you'll see, it would be too easy to argue that James Thorpe is the best player on the team. For the purposes of this entry, a Regular will be considered any player with more than 6 ratings.

Regulars:
Jaime Moreno: 3.94 (10 T, 5 C, 2 R)
Francis Doe: 3.86 (4 T, 2 C, 1 R)
Bryan Namoff: 3.71 (10 T, 3 C, 4 R)
Clyde Simms: 3.57 (8 T, 2 C, 4 R)
Ivan Guerrero: 3.44 (4 T, 3 C, 2 R)
Luciano Emilio: 3.29 (10 T, 4 C, 7 R)
Santino Quaranta: 3.21 (7 T, 7 C, 5 R)
Tom Soehn: 3.11 (7 T, 5 C, 6 R)
Marc Burch: 2.85 (8 T, 9 C, 10 R)
Fred: 2.76 (4 T, 7 C, 6 R)
Zach Wells: 2.54 (2 T, 6 C, 5 R)
Marcelo Gallardo: 2.50 (2 T, 2 C, 4 R)
Devon McTavish: 2.44 (3 T, 7 C, 8 R)
Gonzalo Martinez: 2.38 (2 T, 7 C, 7 R)
Gonzalo Peralta: 2.33 (2 T, 4 C, 6 R)
Louis Crayton: 2.33 (1 T, 2 C, 3 R)
Quavas Kirk: 2.33 (1 T, 2 C, 3 R)
Craig Thompson: 1.86 (0 T, 3 C, 4 R)
Rod Dyachenko: 1.71 (0 T, 5 C, 9 R)

Reserves:
James Thorpe: 5.00 (1 T, 0 C, 0 R)
Greg Janicki: 4.33 (2 T, 1 C, 0 R)
Ryan Cordeiro: 3.50 (1 T, 3 C, 0 R)
Joe Vide: 3.40 (3 T, 0 C, 2 R)
Mike Zaher: 3.00 (1 T, 0 C, 1 R)
Ryan Miller: 3.00 (0 T, 1 C, 0 R)
Thabiso Khumalo: 2.60 (1 T, 2 C, 2 R)
Pat Carroll: 2.60 (1 T, 2 C, 2 R)
Dominic Mediate: 1.67 (0 T, 1 C, 2 R)
Franco Niell: 1.67 (0 T, 1 C, 2 R)
Dan Stratford: 1.00 (0 T, 0 C, 1 R)
Jose Carvallo: 1.00 (0 T, 0 C, 1 R)

Pretty interesting, huh? There's a lot that you could read into these ratings, some of which is relevant, and some that isn't. Of course there's plenty of potential for these ratings to be sorely biased, and they're definitely subjective, but in some ways they paint a more realistic picture about how a player performed than any other statistic. For example, if you were to look at the team's stats, you might assume that Fred had a better year than Simms because they scored the same number of goals, but Fred had 2 more assists. But the ADR tells you that Simms' 3.57 is far superior to Fred's 2.76, and I think any fan would agree that Simms did actually perform better this year than Fred.

What else? No one should be surprised that Moreno earned the highest number, but how about the fact that Zach Wells earned a higher ADR than Louis Crayton? Didn't see that coming. Bryan Namoff's 3.71 ADR confirms that he's clearly the best defensive player on the team, but you might be surprised to learn that Marc Burch is our second best defender. Not only could you argue that Quaranta should be our regular starter ahead of Gallardo, but you also wouldn't be crazy to suggest that Doe should be starting over Emilio. It's hard to read too much into the ADRs for the Reserves because they haven't really seen enough action to make a strong conclusion, but you could at least make a point that Janicki, Cordeiro, and Vide should be granted more playing time next year, and Dyachenko and Thompson should be granted less.

Is there anything else here that caught your eye?

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.

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.