Award 6: The Freddy

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

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

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

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

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

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Embarassment

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


None


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


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

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

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

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

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

Award 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)

Award 2: The Nelly

By definition, the Nelly Award goes to the player who is new to the team this year and has made the most significant positive impact. The award's namesake Ryan Nelsen emerged as a star defender in the MLS shortly after joining the team, and served as United's captain during the 2004 championship run. The United backline has never been the same since Nelsen's departure to Blackburn.

Going into the season, you'd have to think the frontrunner for this award would be Marcelo Gallardo, but he has not necessarily made as significant an impact on the club as many had hoped. When healthy, Gallardo is often the team's catalyst in the attack. Although he's still adjusting to the MLS style of play, Gallardo was brought to the team to give them a shot in international competitions. The level of success though has varied.

Though no other acquisitions have made quite the splash that Gallardo's did, another new contributor for United this year has been Gonzalo Martinez. Martinez is a versatile back, playing mostly on the left, but also sometimes in the center or on the right. Though his passing occasionally lacks consistency, Martinez is our fastest defender and has had the heart to play through a couple minor injuries.

There's another defender with the same name who we should mention, and that's Gonzalo Peralta. During the limited amount of time he's been healthy this year, Peralta has displayed skill, height, and leadership traits that the team sorely misses when he is absent. However, Peralta can also be prone to injuries, and mistakes (see Real Salt Lake, road match). Not entirely unlike our last Argentine defender.

Making a late entry into the competition is our newly acquired goalkeeper Louis Crayton. With 3 shutouts in 5 league appearances (as opposed to Wells' 1 shutout in 17 appearances), Crayton has clearly established himself as the immediate starter. This Liberian international is quickly becoming one of the top goalies in the league.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny awards)

Feel free to argue in favor of your choice in the comments section.

When did the Red Bulls get good?

Who ever said that 0-0 matches aren't exciting? That had to be the most competitive match between these two clubs in a couple years. Usually we dominate these matches, and the last one against the Red Bulls should be thrown out, but I can't think of a time we've ever played them to a scoreless draw. But I was pretty surprised by the score, even after Moreno's uncharacteristic penalty kick miss in the 80th, I still felt that this game was not going to end scoreless. Especially with Gallardo on the field.


1. That was probably the best game in a United uniform for Joe Vide. He is all effort, all the time. And was one of our best attacking options for most of the match.

2. Even when switching to the middle, Bryan Namoff was our best defender in yet another shutout. I'm starting to like him in the middle. As our veteran defender, he should be the one to step up and be the leader in the back, and this is the first season that I'm starting to see that from him.

3. Another good performance by Marc Burch. I think most of us were more scared of Dane Richards than anyone else going in, but Burch kept him at bay for the entire first half.


1. That would be Louis Crayton's third shutout in four matches, but this one gets credited more to the back line than the keeper. Crayton's positioning was excellent and he made 2 key saves, but he was beaten once by Angel on a shot that went just inches wide from a tough angle, and he is likely to give someone in RFK a heart attack by the end of the year the way he dribbles out of the box.

2. Santino Quaranta looked dangerous last night, and controlled the ball well. As our only real attacking midfielder for most of the match though, I'd like to see him distribute more instead of taking sometimes unnecessarily long shots. But I did like how he immediately seemed to take a more defensive approach as soon as Gallardo came on.


1. Clearly he's not fit enough to play 90 minutes, or even 45, but I didn't see enough effort out of Francis Doe in this match. Just before Doe came out, there was one cross from Vide to him in the middle that I'm fairly sure Emilio would have scored on.

2. Not that he played poorly per se, but Ivan Guerrero was not a factor in this match.

Where does this leave us going into the Open Cup final on Wednesday? We might have lost Emilio, but it looks like we've got back Gallardo. If he shows up motivated, Marcelo Gallardo should be able to run all over a USL side. My only worry is who he will pass to without Looch. Let's all keep our fingers crossed that Emilio will be able to give it a go for at least a half. But regardless of who our attackers are, after the last 4 matches, I'm starting to get pretty confident in our defense. This could be another low scoring match, but with Crayton and Namoff around, I'm feeling pretty good about our chances.

Mid-Season Review part 1: Acquisitions

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The win they needed

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


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

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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

The replacements

Just when it appeared that United had found its best starting XI, we have to go and get two players ejected. I guess we all know that players are going to have to sit out a game here and there for disciplinary reasons, but two at once can be brutal. Especially when those two are your highest paid player and most consistent player. So who should step into the starting lineup in place of Marcelo Gallardo and Bryan Namoff? Pick two of the following:

Franco Niell
Rod Dyachenko
Dan Stratford
Ryan Cordeiro
Marc Burch
Quavas Kirk
Domenic Mediate

What I do NOT want to see is Tom Soehn simply inserting the guys who play CAM and right back for the reserve squad. That would be Rod Dyachenko and Quavas Kirk respectively, but neither have enough of my confidence to start a first team match. I'd rather see the team try something just a bit "out of the box".

As for my choices, I'll go with the two guys pictured on the left border. Yeah, the Terps. I've got Mediate in central defense next to Peralta, with McTavish in Namoff's slot on the right. But more importantly, I've got Burch on the left side of midfield to help Martinez with the most dangerous player on the Red Bulls right now in Dane Richards.

But my idea of trying something new involves a couple of things. First of all, it's Jaime Moreno as the chief playmaker, a role for him that I think we can all agree was pretty fruitful in the final 35 minutes at Chicago. And secondly, I'd like to see Santino Quaranta in the middle. But not as a forward or a CAM per se, but as more of a holding midfielder in front of Simms but behind Moreno. Quaranta has good vision to take advantage of space when its shown to him, but where he's failed this year is in sending quality crosses from the outside, and in tracking opposing wide midfielders into the box. I think giving Tino a chance in the middle could take advantage of his strengths while minimizing his weaknesses. And if we find that he is actually a good fit in that role, then Soehn should take note and use him there in those RARE circumstances where United needs to use a 3-5-2 formation.

So my starting lineup for Saturday looks something like this:
----------------Wells----------------
McTavish-Mediate-Peralta-Martinez
----------------Simms----------------
Fred---------Quaranta---------Burch
---------------Moreno---------------
----------------Emilio---------------

What's yours?

United escapes with a deserved victory

Who would have thought that United's first road victory of the year wouldn't come until June, against the Alpha Dog of the league Chicago? In the first half, this match felt like a couple earlier in the year, where DC dominated possession and had probably double the scoring opportunities, but failed to finish. But the team pulled ahead in stoppage time, with both goals scored without our supposed best player.


1. Everyone across blogland is lamenting the return of goalscorer Luciano Emilio. If you had showed United's first goal to me without identifying which player is which, no way I would have guessed that Emilio was the set up guy and Moreno was the finisher. But that great play by the Golden Boot winner is what may have triggered the start of a playoff run.

2. Maybe I'm just a bit nostalgic during DC United Championship Week on Comcast, or maybe I regret a bit of my criticism of his captaining abilities earlier in the year, but I was really happy with the performance of Jaime Moreno last night. His leadership up front made a huge difference.

3. I'll give a shoutout to Ryan Cordeiro for his role in the winning goal. He earned credit for the assist. And even though I was yelling at the tv for Emilio to reward Cord when he was wide open, knowing that the rookie has the ability to beat a keeper, Cordeiro still deserves credit for being in that position to keep Busch in the middle of the net instead of cheating towards the near post against Emilio.


1. I actually thought Zach Wells had his best game in weeks. Can't necessarily fault him for the first goal, and maybe this comparison is a bit unfair, but I can't help but think that Troy Perkins would have stopped it. Other than that though, I thought the backline was much more organized and Wells was effective at stopping crosses and corner kicks.


1. Marcelo Gallardo's inability to control his temper lands him down here. Compare Gallardo to what Blanco would have done in the same situation. Blanco wouldn't have retaliated against Prideaux; he would have stayed sitting on the ground for three minutes and complained when the referee finally decided to come over. Also, is it just a coincidence that both United goals were scored after Gallardo left the field? Just something to think about. Of course the counterpoint is that playing 10-on-10 meant there was more space in the midfield, but a part of me feels that the team became more organized in the attack once Gallardo left the field and Moreno assumed the responsibility of playmaker.

2. Not that he had necessarily a poor game, but I really hope that the absence of Gallardo next week doesn't lead to the automatic insertion of Rod Dyachenko to the CAM spot. I hope Soehn has learned now that Dyachenko is barely up to that role for 20 minutes, and is not the answer for 90. I'd rather see either Fred move into the middle, or Moreno move back with Quaranta moving up top. Either way, it's an additional winger like Cordeiro that should be added to the starting XI, not Dyachenko. And by the way, what happened to the mohawk? I kind of thought it fit his style of play pretty nicely.

So with that, United earned 4 points out of 2 road games against who everyone thought were the two best teams in the league. Not too shabby. Now with the team returning home for three straight against New York, San Jose, and LA, I'd like to avoid overconfidence, but there's no reason to believe that the team can't come away with 7 points, which should put them squarely back into the playoff race, as early overachievers Toronto and Columbus continue to return to earth. The next test will be against the Red Bulls, without Gallardo and Namoff, but a team that we have a tendency to dominate at home. Who will get a hat trick without Olsen?

Reminiscing

Really cool of Comcast to showcase DC United Championship Week in primetime all this week. I missed the 1996 MLS Cup yesterday because I got caught up in the hockey match, but I thoroughly enjoyed watching the 1997 match tonight.

It's hard to compare these classic teams with the teams of today when you're trying to do it just by memory. But watching the '97 team play again, even when compared with the current DC United team that is seemingly returning to form the past two matches, they're still light years away from matching the 1997 Championship team, a team that was maybe the best ever in MLS history. It's pretty cool too when you think about it that Jaime Moreno is the only guy who played in that game and is still playing in MLS. Although his English definitely wasn't as good then.

So there I was watching this classic match, thinking about what I miss the most about the way United was playing... Was it the chemistry and teamwork of Marco Etcheverry and Jaime Moreno up front, along with Raul Diaz Arce and Tony Sanneh? The sheer energy and work-rate of Ritchie Williams? The leadership of John Harkes? The fantastic organization and sure-tackling of the awesome back line with Eddie Pope, Carlos Llamosa, Jeff Agoos, and David Vaudreuil? The consistent goalkeeping and distribution of Scott Garlick? Or even the coaching of future national team heads Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley? Or maybe the incompetent officiating of Brian Hall? (No wait... That's the one thing we do still have.)

For me, it's gotta be El Diablo. In his prime, Marco was the ultimate difference maker. For all his talents, I just don't see Marcelo Gallardo ever reaching the level as a playmaker that Etcheverry played at every game. And the same goes for Christian Gomez. In terms of his vision and drop-on-a-dime passes, neither can compare to Etcheverry.

Oh yeah... One more thing that I miss that I had totally forgot about. How about the prime seating directly behind the South end goal at RFK?

All for you, Brian

This has been reported earlier in other places, but like most United fans should, I tend not to believe anything I read until I read it here. After five seasons playing for Fulham in the EPL, Brian McBride has announced his intentions of returning home to play in the MLS.

Here's where I'm confused though, and maybe one of my intelligent readers (HA!) can explain this to me... Goff is saying that Toronto is first in line for McHead's rights because they are at the top of the allocation table. Well mlsnet.com's Allocation List link still shows Columbus at the top, but with an expiration date of 5/15/08. But more importantly, on their main Roster Regulations page, you find this: "The allocations will be ranked in reverse order of finish for the 2007 season, taking playoff performance into account. San Jose, as an expansion team, will have the top-ranked allocation at the beginning of 2008."

So I don't quite understand why Toronto and not San Jose has the rights to McBride, but we'll take that as the truth, since "MLS Rules" is pretty much an oxymoron anyway since they don't always seem to matter all that much and can be revised at any time.

What's up with the whole damn allocation system anyway? Is there any other league of any sport in the world with a system like this? Isn't it a bit... um... communist? If more than one team is interested in a player, assuming that each team has enough salary cap space and/or a designated player slot if necessary, then I would think that whoever is willing to pay more for a player should be able to get him. That's capitalism baby! I guess Don Garber didn't learn about dollar votes in ECON-101?

Anyway, regardless of who has the rights to McBride, the word on the street is that he wants to play for Chicago, and that the Fire want him. With him, the Fire instantly become the favorites to win MLS Cup.

But I want him here.

Brian McBride could really be the perfect complement to Marcelo Gallardo where Luciano Emilio has failed. He is a bit more physical, he knows how to position himself well to receive crosses, and he knows how to finish them. He also brings some of the heart that we've all been complaining has been missing this year. But how might DC go about acquiring such a player? We don't have a lot of young talented players to offer, although I wouldn't mind losing Quavas Kirk. I doubt Toronto would be very interested in acquiring a midget, or one of our several crappy goaltenders.

I would trade...

Hold up. I'm about to be really controversial. Ahem.

Fred.

Yes, I dare offer up one of the most popular players on United not named Olsen! Fred has never been quite the best suited for the left wing, and would surely be a better option than Rickets or Robert in Toronto. And others might disagree, but I would say that left wing is actually one of the very few positions on the field where we have a slight bit of depth with Burch and Cordeiro.

The only problem then is what do you do with Emilio? McBride would probably command the Designated Player salary that we've presently delivered to Emilio for unknown reasons. I'm not really ready to deal last year's MVP to another MLS team, because we all know that he can still be very dangerous.

I doubt this is really possible, but a McBride/Emilio/Gallardo combination would be absolutely lethal. Ah well. A man can dream, right?

And so the countdown continues

Am I the only one who feels like watching that game was a waste of my time? Really an ugly match, with a lot of giveaways by each team. Neither team looked like they should be in the playoff hunt, save for maybe Toronto's defensive unit. At least last week at Chivas it appeared that both teams really wanted to win.


None


1. It was good to have Fred back certainly. Good energy, good creativity, but also too many giveaways. Fred was a header towards either side of the goal rather than right up the middle away from earning top honors.


1. Sorry but Devon McTavish has to be the goat for the most bone headed play by a guy in a DC uniform yet this year. How come these things always happen to us this year, but not against us? Shouldn't karma be turning by now? Or does karma want us to fire our coach too?

2. Jaime Moreno looked like the worst player on the field. If the MLS kept "turnovers" as a stat like the NBA, then Jaime would have had at least 6 of them in the first half. Not to say that this is a comment on Moreno's future in general because he's played some good games this year, but I'd like to see Quaranta get a chance next to Emilio in the home leg.

3. Do you think Marcelo Gallardo feels like he's the only good player on an otherwise crappy team? Like he's the Lebron James to United's Cavaliers? I figured that Gallardo would be the only player unaffected by the streamers on corner kicks, being the only guy with enough international experience to have seen that before. When we have our own stadium, can we locate seating near the corners like at BMO? Except that in typical southeast DC tradition, the fans will shoot guns instead of throwing streamers.

This is plain and simple now. If United earns anything less than 3 points on Saturday, Tom Soehn should and will be let go. Which is actually a bit unfortunate because I don't think he can be blamed for this loss whatsoever. I liked this starting lineup. But I wouldn't be surprised to see a switch back to the 3-5-2 in despiration on Saturday. But with Dyachenko not seemingly in the team's immediate plans, who will occupy the central midfield spot next to Simms? Here's my lineup:

---------Wells-----------
Namoff-Peralta-Martinez
---McTavish-Simms-----
Mediate-Gallardo--Fred-
--Quaranta--Emilio------

Outplayed and outcoached

I'm slowly starting to calm down enough to admit that that was a pretty exciting and fast-paced game. But for United it was again a tale of two very different halves. Or maybe I should say a tale of the first 30 minutes and the last 60 minutes. Preki made tactical changes at halftime that clearly worked. Tom Soehn made the tactical change of deciding to sit back and try to preserve a 1-0 victory for 60 minutes against a team with some good attacking players. He decided that it would be best to play a possession game, even though his possessing midfielder wasn't 100%.


1. I considered leaving this space blank again, but Marcelo Gallardo does deserve some recognition for his goal. He's still learning to play with the 'Merricons around him. Which is hard to do when you're on the ground most of the match. Although Blanco doesn't seem to have the same problem.


1. At the end of the first half, I thought that Gonzalo Martinez was having his best game of the season. The 4-4-2 formation was really allowing him to use his speed to get forward into the midfield. He was aggressive as hell and held his own against Harris for most of the match. But he missed a crucial stop on Chivas's second goal, which could have cost the team the match, and I'm not sure that he crossed the center line once in the second half.

2. After being specifically called out by management and the coaching staff last week, I thought Santino Quaranta put out a much stronger and more energetic performance tonight.


1. Domenic Mediate looked like... well... he looked like a right midfielder who was forced to play center back. I guess we shouldn't have expected much better? I was really disappointed to see Mediate standing around with his hand up calling for offsides on the third goal instead of marking his man. I hate that! Does a player calling for offsides ever actually influence a referee?

2. I really think that we might need to put to rest the idea of bringing in Rod Dyachenko as the first substitute in midfield every match. All year he has looked to be one second too slow every time he has to make a decision. This leads to a lot of fouls and a lot of giveaways. I understand that Gallardo isn't fit enough yet to go 90 minutes, but I'm at the point where I'd rather see Stratford than Dyachenko.

3. I was all ready to come on here and give Tom Soehn props for putting together a good starting lineup that played really pretty well for 30 minutes. But that's about as far as it went. Because the tactical decision to sit back and defend a single goal lead has NEVER WORKED in this league.

So we might as well start the countdown. If this persists, and there's no reason to believe that anything will change over the next few days, it will be exactly one week from today that Tom Soehn will be out of a job. That's Sunday May 25. And that will already be too late.

One more thing... All of the fouling on Gallardo isn't going to stop anytime soon. And that's because the opposing teams know that they can get away with it. That would NEVER happen with Ben Olsen on the field! Atiba Harris's second foul on Gallardo wouldn't have happened, because Olsen would have already shoved him to the ground after the first foul. We need a player to step up and fill that enforcer role. Early in the year it looked like that would be Peralta, and sometimes I think that it might be Burch, but he draws yellow cards too easily.

Ugh. It's hard to lay your heart on the line for a team that doesn't have one.

Round 1 to Gomez

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Highlights from the RSL match

Strong win isn't enough to secure the Ben Cup

I was really surprised to see United's players so happy after this match. Earlier in the year, the team was knocked out in the home leg of the Champions Cup after a victory that wasn't enough to earn them the aggregrate win. And the same thing happened tonight, as United falls 5-4 on aggregrate goals in the 2008 Ben Cup.

Seriously though, it's strange how starkly different this match was from the match played by the same two teams just two weeks ago. DC United dominated, especially in the second half. Let's just hope this result won't be followed up by a series of letdowns like the last time we had a 4-1 victory at home. Still, despite the resounding victory, I would have liked to see Emilio notch a goal, to get his confidence up, and I would have liked to see the team earn a clean sheet, to get the back line's confidence up.


1. Jaime Moreno - Two goals and two assists for the Godfather of Goals! Might Jaime be in the running for player of the week?

2. Marcelo Gallardo - The 3-5-2 worked well here, allowing Gallardo and United to really control the midfield. And a rocket of a finish on the fourth goal. Might Marcelo be in the running for goal of the week?


1. Santino Quaranta - Nice work to find space and get open for his goal, and to finish it smoothly. Tino proved that we don't necessarily need McTavish in to score from the right wing. His crosses and long distance shots left a lot to be desired though in this match.

2. Marc Burch - Really a nice cross to set up Gallardo's goal. Looked like Burch and Martinez were having some trouble communicating at times though, leaving an RSL player open a couple times.

3. Rod Dyachenko - Still needs to control himself a bit more to resist some of those cheap fouls. But I thought Rod played pretty well. I didn't like the move of bringing in an attacking midfielder for a defensive midfielder (At the time, I would have preferred the left-sided Ryan Cordeiro), but Rod proved that he has the ability to play holding midfielder behind Gallardo.


1. Dan Stratford - I'm not going to give Strats a hard time, but he could have played better, and I doubt this will be his last start this year. Stratford was employed as a means to shut down Kyle Beckermen. Well as it turns out, the team didn't really need anyone to shut him down, because he sucked in this game. Which won't help the ol' fantasy team.

Last comment... Take a look at this image, and then take a look at the tagline that has always graced the heading of this blog. Does Thomas Rongen read DCUMD?




Highlight video coming soon once YouTube learns to handle it.

Salaries

The MLS Players Union just released the annual salary figures for the league. For easy reference, below are the guaranteed salaries for each DC United player currently under contract as of 3/31/08:

DC Barlow Jeremy D $ 12,900.00
DC Burch Marc D $ 33,000.00
DC Carreiro da Silva Fred M-F $ 242,000.00
DC Carroll Jeff D $ 12,900.00
DC Carroll Pat D $ 12,900.00
DC Carvallo Jose GK $ 49,250.00
DC Cordeiro Ryan M $ 12,900.00
DC Dyachenko Rod M $ 33,000.00
DC Emilio Luciano F $ 313,125.00
DC Gallardo Marcelo M $ 1,874,006.00
DC Kirk Quavas F $ 136,500.00
DC Martinez Gonzalo D $ 244,750.00
DC McTavish Devon M $ 33,000.00
DC Mediate Domenic M-F $ 33,000.00
DC Moose Justin M $ 17,700.00
DC Moreno Jaime F $ 275,000.00
DC Namoff Bryan D $ 98,750.00
DC Niell Franco F $ 152,500.00
DC Olsen Ben M $ 215,000.00
DC Peralta Gonzalo D $ 199,000.00
DC Quaranta Santino M $ 35,000.00
DC Simms Clyde M $ 59,000.00
DC Stratford Dan M $ 17,700.00
DC Thorpe James GK $ 12,900.00
DC Wells Zachary GK $ 52,920.00

Some comments... I think it's far too easy to look at this list and say that McTavish is underpaid at $33K and Niell is overpaid at $152K. Realistically, there's a lot more to it. Franco Niell was probably earning around the same amount or less while playing in Argentina last year. So it costs more to bring him to the team than it does McTavish, who joined the league straight out of college.

Plus, (they'll probably hate me for saying this but...) you also have to consider the age/experience of Devon McTavish and Marc Burch, and the fact that DC United *could* have left them on the Developmental roster last year if they wanted to. But no, out of good faith, respect, and appreciation, United rightly gave promotions to these players who were making significant contributions. So what I'm getting it is... it *could* be worse...

It's also way too easy to say that Marcelo Gallardo ($1.874M) isn't worth four times as much as Christian Gomez ($430K). We've been through this and if you've ever read my blog before, then you know what my answer is going to be. Gomez couldn't get us anywhere in international tournaments, or in MLS Cup Playoffs the past two years. Gallardo was brought here to make the team more competitive internationally. So if DC United were to somehow manage to win the Champions Cup (seems unlikely at this point), then yes, Gallardo would be worth all that money and maybe more.

The Developmental salaries are kind of hard to follow too. All the rookies seem to be earning the minimum $12.9K, except for Dan Stratford at $17.7. I'm fine with that because it seems clear that he will be earning more playing time than the other rookies this year. But what jumped out at me was Justin Moose earning $17.7 while Jeff Carroll is still at $12.9. The answer here is easy too. Like Stratford, Moose started out earning $17.7 as a rookie last year, so United just decided not to give him a pay cut to come back.

Lastly, why did Gallardo insist on an extra $6 in his contract? $1,874,000 wasn't enough? I'm not sure if $6 will even buy you a beer at RFK anymore.

The season started? That wasn't just another scrimmage?

Someone must have forgotten to tell the DC United players that last night's match against Kansas City was actually the season opener, and not just another scrimmage. Really though, I can see why they would make that mistake. Maybe it was that the stadium reminded them of the high school field that they played in in Texas. Or maybe it was the lack of live television coverage. Maybe they just figured that since they're playing a much more important game in a few days, this game probably didn't matter all that much. Regardless, it was not a very pretty sight, and yet no one is apparently all that upset about it.


1. Bryan Namoff - Was his usual consistent self on defense, and was a cheap offside flag away from notching an assist to Peralta in the box.


1. Marcelo Gallardo and Clyde Simms - With these two pitted against Carlos Marinelli and Kerry Zavagnin, we really should have dominated the midfield. No such luck.

2. Franco Niell - Not a strong game. I have a feeling that he will be much more of a weapon coming off the bench than is he when he starts. If Moreno isn't fit enough to start, I'd rather see Quaranta in the starting XI and Niell as a super-sub.


1. Luciano Emilio - I thought it was a tale of two halves for him. In the first half he had one great shot on goal that forced Hartman into a diving save, and even got more involved in the defense than usual. But he seemed to lack any bit of motivation in the second half, and his giveaway led to the second goal.

2. Marc Burch and Dominic Mediate - Not a great game for the two Terps who grace the left border of this blog. Either one of them could have done more to stop the first goal. Jewsbury should not have had a clean pass to Trujillo like that.

3. Zach Wells - Can't fault him for the first goal, but the second goal is exactly what I've been afraid of since we first got word that our boy Troy was bolting for Scandinavia. Perkins would have been off his line quicker and would have made a sliding tackle before Lopez was able to get off that chip shot.

One lesson learned though... Kansas City is probably better than I thought. Claudio Lopez really seems to have been embraced by his team, and Ivan Trujillo seems like a bit of a jackass, but will probably score a lot of goals this year.

An early test of United's depth

3/29/08 at Kansas City
4/1/08 at Pachuca (Mex)
4/5/08 vs Toronto
4/9/08 vs Pachuca
4/12/08 at Real Salt Lake
4/17/08 vs Columbus

It all starts this week! With all of the competitions and tournaments that United is playing in this year, we knew this would happen eventually. I was just hoping it wouldn't be this soon!

Some have proposed just sending a "B" team to KC so our starting XI will be fresh to travel to Pachuca. While I would have no problem sacrificing the Supporters' Shield if it meant winning the Champions' Cup, resting ALL of our starters seems a bit unrealistic. Still, no player should play in every one of these matches. And I think we can even get by while trying to have no player start more than 4 out of these 6 matches.

Although there are some signs that Jaime Moreno might be back and healthy soon, and Jeff Curtin could possibly join the club soon too, I'm just going to assume that they are both out, along with Olsen and of course Jeff Carroll.

Hopefully most of you agree with me that the "C-Cup" has got to be the top priority. (The C-Cup! Haha! This is just like that time in guitar class when I couldn't keep a straight face any time the teacher said "G-String.") We definitely need to start McTavish and Emilio in both of the Pachuca matches because they are C-Cup gods! Anyway, as a free service to Tommy Soehn, here are the lineups that we here at DCUMD would use in the upcoming matches:

at KC: Wells, Namoff, McTavish, Peralta, Burch, Quaranta, Simms, Gallardo, Moose, Emilio, Kpene

at Pachuca: Wells, Namoff, Martinez, Peralta, Burch, McTavish, Simms, Gallardo, Fred, Emilio, Niell

vs TFC: Carvallo, Kirk, Martinez, Carroll, Cordeiro, Moose, Stratford, Gallardo, Mediate, Quaranta, Niell

vs Pachuca: Wells, Namoff, Martinez, Peralta, Burch, McTavish, Simms, Gallardo, Fred, Emilio, Niell

at RSL: Carvallo, Namoff, Carroll, Peralta, Burch, Quaranta, Simms, Dyachenko, Fred, Emilio, Kpene

vs Columbus: Wells, Kirk, Martinez, Carroll, McTavish, Mediate, Stratford, Gallardo, Fred, Quaranta, Niell

Alright, I failed a little bit because I've got Gallardo starting in five games, but he's (temporarily) our captain! I also think the team should showcase Gallardo in the opening match, the home opener, and the ESPN2 game against Columbus, so he doesn't get to rest. What's really cool though is that I've got McTavish playing in three different locations in four games. Not that I think Soehn will actually use these lineups, but it's just a testament to the depth and flexibility that we do have this year, and hopefully this will provide a bit of relief to some worry warts. I guess my only concern is that some of the reserves aren't quite ready for this kind of test.

Some would say that many of the moves this offseason were specifically made to prepare the team for stretches like this. But man do I miss Benny and Jaime right now...

Is Gallardo an upgrade over Gomez?

That's the question that is likely to define the success of DC United over the next two or more years.

With the Gomez to Colorado trade all but official, it looks like we'll now have a pretty good measuring stick that we wouldn't have had if Gomez went to the Middle East or back to Argentina. We'll be able compare Gomez and Gallardo's numbers side by side with them playing in the same league. And I have a feeling that Gallardo will not win that comparison.

But the more I think about it, keeping in mind our most frequent slogan ("I trust the front office. I trust the front office"), there's a different way to look at this. My new thought is… Gallardo wasn't brought here to get better numbers than Gomez. Gomez averaged almost exactly 10 goals and 10 assists in each of the past three years, and without guys like Moreno and Emilio around, I'd be willing to bet that his goal production might actually INCREASE in 2008. It would be nice if I'm wrong, but I doubt Gallardo will average 10 goals and 10 assists in league play over the next two years.

So if not for more productive numbers, why did the almighty all-knowing front office bring Sr. Gallardo to DC? Over the past three years, United had some pretty nice accomplishments with Gomez as our #10 - namely, a couple of Supporter's Shields. But they failed to reach the MLS Cup finals all three years. They couldn't advance past the semi-finals in the Concacaf Champions' Cup, or in the Superliga. And they fizzled out in the round of 16 in the Copa Sudamericana. DC United has been largely a failure internationally over the past three years. So with those three international competitions in mind, plus the new Champions' League starting in 2008, and with the exciting possibility that US Clubs could eventually be allowed to participate in Libertadores at some point in the future… The front office, and in them we trust, decided that the best way to proceed would be to bring in a man with the highest level of international experience. And that man would be Marcelo Gallardo.

So Gallardo might not be the prolific playmaker and scorer that Gomez has been for us. I'll refine some predictions as we get closer to the season, but I might even be as bold as to say that United will probably not win the Shield this year. But Marcelo Gallardo gives us a distinct advantage over every other team in MLS when it comes down to international competitions.

And that's why he's here.