New Years Resolutions for 2010

On the day that DC United's 2010 campaign officially began with the formal introduction of Curt Onalfo as head coach, let's embark on our yearly tradition here at DCUMD and unveil our New Years Resolutions. The following five recommendations should be high on Curt Onalfo’s to-do list:

1. Identify your starting lineup and stick with it. United players young and old complained that it was hard to get in rhythm when you never knew if you were starting or not. It may be nice to have a couple versatile utility players, but when you’re asking a rookie to go from a forward one week to a holding midfielder the next, you’ve got an issue. The team’s inability to establish a consistent starting lineup last season was certainly due in part to injuries and the additional international matches. So with a solid core group of players, and with fewer matches on the calendar now, this should be an easy revision for 2010.

2. Get more playing time for the most productive players. My favorite statistic from 2009 was Jaime Moreno’s 0.0073 goals per minute average, which was far higher than any other player on the team, and among the best in the league. A piece of that stat though is that Moreno was only on the field 45.92% of the time. No one is going to argue that Moreno should be asked to play 90 minutes in every match, but if he’s fit, he should be playing.

3. No more pre-half time substitutions. I can’t think of a more demoralizing thing to say to a player than to tell him that he’s not even worthy of finishing the half. One of the defining images of the Soehn years would be Jaime Moreno standing at the scorer’s table with something like 41:00 on the clock. And it’s an image I’d like to forget.

4. Bury the 3-5-2. Sound familiar? Maybe that’s because this was one of our resolutions for 2009. And like most of my personal resolutions, it ended by the first week. The problem with a three-man back-line is that it requires three defenders with good speed and a high positional sense. While this formation is nice because it allows you to utilize a central attacking midfielder and two defensive midfielders, United just doesn’t have the right defensive personnel to support it.

5. Make some progress on the stadium. The fanbase craves a real soccer stadium to watch our team, and we’re all tired of being envious of Toyota Park, Home Depot Center, and Red Bull Arena. We need a place to call home. I don’t have any expectations that construction will start this year, or even that a deal will be in place. All I’m asking for is some enduring piece of good news before the end of 2010.

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: The forwards

The first round of River or Life with the DC United front office has gone pretty much as expected so far, with Tom Soehn just 0% Life, Dave Kasper over 50% but not convincingly, and Kevin Payne somewhere between 50 and 100. Now let's see where the forwards on the roster stand.

The thing about playing River or Life is that its somewhat up to the voter's discretion how you want to interpret the two choices, and I think that's going to come into play for a lot of us with some of these forwards. For example, if you think that the team should retain Luciano Emilio but only at a substantially decreased salary from his 2009 earnings, is that a vote for River or a vote for Life? That's totally up to you. Just remember in general, voting Life means that you want the player back with the team next year, and voting River means that you don't want to see him in a United jersey any more.

Since winning the MVP award in his first season in MLS, Luciano Emilio has failed to approach the 20 goal mark that he set in 2007. His 11 goals last year and 10 this year still make him the highest scoring player on the team, but it's questionable whether or not United has been earning a high enough return from Emilio to justify his $750,000 yearly salary.

poll by twiigs.com

The team captain Jaime Moreno constinues to be one of the most visionary players in the league, and even though his playing time has decreased substantially, Moreno's 9 goals and 3 assists seem to indicate that he's not done yet. This 14 year veteran is eager to return to the team for at least one more season.

poll by twiigs.com

After a promising start to his MLS career in 2008, Boyzzz Khumalo's 2009 season was unfortunately shortened due to a nasty wrist injury. He hasn't quite been able to nail down a regular starting role with the team yet, but has looked good at times playing mostly as a substitute either at forward or on the right wing.

poll by twiigs.com

Ange N'Silu started the 2009 season strong with United, earning a goal and an assist in some early appearances filling in for Moreno or Emilio, but he faded pretty quickly from the team's plans, due most likely to his apparent lack of teamwork with other players. Many of us continue to question the team's decision to let Francis Doe depart in favor of N'Silu for roughly the same salary.

poll by twiigs.com

Tiyi Shipalane won a spot on the United roster late in the season after impressing the coaching staff when playing against us with the Harrisburg City Islanders in the Open Cup. He didn't get much of a chance to establish himself since joining the team on loan, but his speed and creativity could give the team a different attacking style from what we are used to seeing.

poll by twiigs.com

Revisiting the ADRs

When posting the 2009 ADRs earlier this week, I asked what jumped out at you. Well here's some questions that jumped out at me:

1. Is Dejan Jakovic really all that good? The biggest surprise for me on the whole was Jakovic's even 3.00 rating. After winning three Benny Awards, you would have thought his rating would be among the best on the team. But in reality, a mediocre rating is probably appropriate for the leader of the United defense that gave up more goals than 10 other MLS teams.

2. Why can't we manage to secure a decent goalkeeper? Outside of Steve Cronin's quality performance at the very end of the season, the three goalkeepers that saw action for United in 2009 didn't fair too well on average. And this seems to be a continuing problem, as this is the second year in a row where we didn't have one regular starting goalkeeper earn higher than a 3.00 ADR.

3. How long will Chris Pontius stay in MLS? Pontius's 4.19 ADR led the team among regulars, and is the highest score we've seen from any player in the two years I've been doing this. Surely European clubs, as well as the USMNT, will start to take notice of his talents soon.

4. I guess Brandon Barklage should be our starting CAM next season? Well no. Reader DM pointed out in the comments section that we shouldn't read too much into any ADR with less than 5 ratings, and I agree. But Barklage's perfect 5.00 ADR from 2 ratings tells us that at the very least, he should be invited back to training camp next year to compete for a developmental roster contract (not just cut in the offseason like the team did to every one of its rookies last year).

5. Weren't Jaime Moreno and Ben Olsen supposed to deteriorate this season? Because they didn't. Moreno's 3.62 and Olsen's 3.73 are still well above average. Both have said that they want to return to the team next season, and I see no reason why not.

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.

Award 9: The Etchy

By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to DC United's most valuable player. The winner of the award should be the player who United can least afford to live without, and who gives the team the best chance of winning. I'm going to present this award a bit differently because I want to give you more choices and less bias.

Last year's rightful winner was Jaime Moreno, whose 10 goals and 10 assists set him apart from the rest of the field. It's much harder to make an argument this season for any player to have set himself apart as much as Moreno did in 2008.

1. Jaime Moreno (8 goals, 3 assists, 23 games)
2. Christian Gomez (6, 4, 26)
3. Chris Pontius (4, 3, 22)
4. Santino Quaranta (2, 6, 22)
5. Ben Olsen (1, 1, 19)
6. Clyde Simms (0, 0, 27)
7. Dejan Jakovic (0, 0, 22)
8. Bryan Namoff (2, 4, 26)

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through Monday, and remember to post in the comments section to be eligible for the exciting prizes that I announced last week.

Next up: The Benny - Who has been the best player on average this season, as tracked via this blog? Your chance for voting is done. This one is all on me!

Benny Award 7: The Harkesy

By definition, the Harkesy Award should go to the DC United player who has been the strongest leader for our team this season. On-field leadership is important, but for this award, it isn't everything. And that would be evidenced by the fact that Ben Olsen won the award last year after playing only 15 minutes. The award's namesake is captain for life John Harkes who was United's captain for the first three years of the team's existence.

1. Jaime Moreno is the team's captain this season, and has always had an uncanny ability to hold the ball, distribute, and take over a match. However, Moreno has apparently only been worthy of 11 starts this season, despite his 8 goals and 3 assists.

2. Ben Olsen leads by example on the field, exuding courage, heart, brains, and whatever Dorothy was looking for too. Olsen has been one of the few players on the team who looks like he has given all he's got every match of the year.

3. Santino Quaranta appears to be poised to take over as the leader of the next generation of players on the team. He has been the most vocal in the media, and has set a fine example for the rookies and other younger players.

4. Tom Soehn is by title the technical leader of the team. Parts of this season have certainly been a challenge for Soehn in assembling a strong lineup every week with injuries to key personnel and international appearances to fend off, but he was able to guide the team to first place for much of the first half of the season before being faced with these issues. Late in the year though, with United falling from playoff competition and dropping multiple home matches, Soehn may have lost his team.

poll by twiigs.com

Please enter your votes now through the end of the season, and remember to post in the comments section to be eligible for the exciting prizes that I announced last week.

Next up: The Popie - Who is United's best defender this season?

DC United lose to San Jose Earthquakes, 2-1

This weekend had set itself up really nicely for DC United. After losses by Seattle and RSL, and ties by Colorado, Chivas, and Toronto, DC United only needed a home victory against the worst road team in the leauge in order to move into 5th place. But the underdogs continued to impress. Not only did United lose, but they really deserved to lose. They were a close offsides call away from being tied at the half.

The turning point seemed to come when Josh Wicks dislocated a shoulder, the latest in a string of injuries that has made our playoff run much more difficult. With our two best defenders out, and now our best goalkeeper walking to the locker room wearing an arm brace, United apparently lost all confidence, and gave up two unnecessary goals. And now we'll finish the season with a grand total of 1 point in 2 matches against the Earthquakes and their Western Conference worst record.


1. Chris Pontius was our most dangerous player today. His overlapping run and cross to Moreno set up the first goal. But it was his bicycle kick late in the match that really set Pontius apart, as it should have tied the match if not for a goalline save by a San Jose player. When all of the other older United players faded away, Pontius was the only player still running hard and getting himself into good positions. It was just earlier this week that I suggested that Pontius should be our regular starter at left wing for the rest of the season, but his best position is still forward, so it's kind of hard to say.

2. For two matches in a row now, our hardest working player has been Ben Olsen. His creativity and high soccer IQ started the play that led to Pontius's bike, and he also started the sequence that led to Moreno's goal.


1. Jaime Moreno scored our lone goal in this one, but then he was entirely absent in the second half, which isn't what I like to see from our captain.


1. Really poor effort from Lawson Vaughn. Twice Ryan Johnson should have been marked by Vaughn when he put the ball into the net. One of those times the goal was disallowed for offsides, but Vaughn was just standing around on the winning goal instead of marking Johnson on the rebound. Before the Marathon match, I thought that McTavish would be our regular replacement for Namoff at right back. I'm not sure why our coaching staff thought that a guy who hasn't played a league match in 2009 was a better option.

2. Apparently Luciano Emilio isn't one to believe in momentum. Nor I guess is the entire United team. After an epic two-goal performance earlier in the week, Emilio couldn't get a ball on target despite multiple chances.

3. It's hard to truly fault him for either goal, but I don't think it's just a coincidence that Josh Wicks was pitching a shutout, but San Jose scored two goals as soon as Milos Kocic came on.

4. Julius James really didn't need to give up a foul at the top of the box in the 58th minute. It was that foul that led to the Quakes' first goal. And Marc Burch's defensive gaff leading to the Quakes' winning goal could be a huge detriment to our playoff chances.

And with that loss, DC United's playoff chances just got a whole lot tougher. With a win, we would have been in fifth place, the first wildcard slot, and would have been in complete control of our destiny for the remainder of the season. But with a loss, we remain one point behind the Revolution (who have still played two fewer matches), and two points behind Seattle and Chivas.

The good news though is that we play against Chivas USA at home next week, while Seattle are on the road against the red hot Columbus Crew. So with the right results, we still have a good shot, but we can't keep letting good chances slip away. Regardless, it looks like everything is going to come down to the last weekend again. And I guess we shouldn't really be surprised by that.

DC United win vs Marathon, 3-0

This win was exactly what we needed. Nothing will inspire confidence in a team fighting for playoff position like a multiple goal victory in which we were clearly the better team.

The offense is clicking, and oh yeah, that's 3 shutouts in our last 4 matches. With a makeshift backline at that. Is it possible that DC United is peaking at exactly the right time? In 2006 and 2007 we peaked too early and faded late in the regular season, only to bust out of the playoffs before advancing out of the Eastern Conference. With the talent that this team has up front, and with Jakovic and Burch both hopefully to return to the starting lineup on Sunday, I see no reason why we can't be one of the leading contenders to reach MLS Cup.


1. When Luciano Emilio is hot, he's hot. How's that for analysis? Within the first 10 minutes of the match, Luci was getting chances, but missing them. In the second half, he just didn't know how to miss. His first goal came from a well directed header off a John cross, and the final goal was all Emilio, beating the Marathon keeper 1v1.

2. I'm not sure if DC was poised to pull away in the second half already, but the insertion of Jaime Moreno couldn't have hurt. He got off to a slow start, but his goal was just classic Moreno. He is still one of the best in MLS in that position in front of the goal because he is just so cool and collected.

3. So a 4-4-2 formation with two attacking wingers and two holding midfielders? I think this is what a lot of us had envisioned when United moved away from the diamond 4 midfield, but it's never looked as good as it looked tonight. The combination of Chris Pontius on the left and Santino Quaranta on the right is perfect for this formation. Pontius started the sequence that led to the first goal with a run up the left side, and Quaranta's smart touch to Moreno earned him an assist on the second. These two should be starting in these positions for the remainder of the MLS season. It's telling that Fred wasn't even on the 18-man roster.

4. Avery John and Lawson Vaughn both played well as our two fullbacks. John conjured up his inner Burch on his assist to Emilio for the first goal, and also shut down every attack on that side of the field. In his United debut, Vaughn certainly didn't look like a guy playing his first match in 2009, and he did well in replacing the unreplaceable Namoff.

5. Give credit to Josh Wicks, Julius James, and Clyde Simms for earning 3 clean sheets in our last 4 matches.


1. I didn't quite understand the removal of Tiyi Shipalane before halftime, but it seemed to work in Soehn's favor. Shipalane performed well getting forward, as I think we all expected against an inferior opponent. It probably won't be until next season that we get to see what he can do against another MLS team.


None.

In the Insider's poll earlier this week, only 23% of voters predicted that United would advance in the Champions League. Now all it will take next week is a United victory at home over SJJ and a Toluca victory on the road over Marathon. Both are very likely at this point, and then all that will be left will be a meaningless faceoff between the B teams of DC and Toluca, with both having already clinched a spot in the next round. The quarterfinals won't be held until the week before the start of the 2010 MLS season, so no need to worry about fixture congestion at this point. It will be tough to advance further than that, but I think most United fans would be satisfied with the progress of at least moving past the group stage.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. The more important match is this weekend against San Jose, who have already done us a lot of good by tying the Rapids twice in the last week. Look for United to put out the strongest starting lineup we've seen in months on Sunday. A win is all we need, but I think I'll be surprised if we win by anything less than 2 goals.

Benny Award 1: The Richie

By definition, the Richie Award goes to the most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams was probably the hardest working player on our championship teams in the 90s, but flew mostly under the radar when compared to the better known players.

Last year’s winner by a wide margin was Clyde Simms, earning over 50% of the vote. This year’s nominees are:

1. Clyde Simms continues to be one of the best defensive midfielders in MLS, while still going virtually unnoticed in the national scene. Simms is a great ball-winner, and this year has even done well when occasionally forced to take on a new role as central defender and leader of the back line.


2. Bryan Namoff was the runner-up for this award last year, and has very quietly had his most productive season ever with two goals and four assists, all while being our most consistent defender. It still makes no sense to me that Namoff is repeatedly passed up for USMNT duty in favor of guys like Marvel Wynne.


3. Marc Burch earns his first Benny Award nomination by virtue of being the lowest rated DC United starter in the eyes of most fans. But does he deserve to be rated higher? Burch has improved defensively every year since being converted to a left back, his left foot continues to be a weapon when serving long crosses in from the back, and let’s not forget the Burchie bomb, which earned him a goal against Dallas just a couple weeks ago.
   
4. Jaime Moreno owns the record for most career goals in MLS, but this year he hasn’t really gotten the respect that he deserves, even from the coaching staff. Moreno has only started 10 games so far this season, but he is still second place on the team with 7 goals (just 2 behind Emilio, who was started 20 games). Sure, some of those goals may have come from penalty kicks, but Moreno has scored 2 more goals than Blanco this year, and has the same number of goals and assists as Ching, yet he only gets a fraction of the national media attention that they get.
   

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 Nelly – What new addition has made the biggest impact for United this year?

DC United lose to Seattle Sounders, 2-1

Feels like I just wrote that same headline 2 weeks ago. I don't mean to try to use this as an excuse, but it's worth pointing out that the last match Seattle played was here in DC on 9/2. In the mean time, United played two other matches during that week and a half that the Sounders were resting.

After a terrible start from United, I felt similar to the way that BDR felt earlier this week - like this match could have easily gotten out of hand. We were lucky to only be down 1-0 at halftime after a totally lackluster performance where DC had no shots on goal.

The second half was a different story though. The second half appeared to be showcasing two of the better teams in MLS in a fight for home field advantage in the playoffs. That may not be entirely true, but United was getting the better of play, and going into the 70th minute or so, there was a certain sense that this match was not going to end 1-1. It didn't.


1. Rodney Wallace gives the team something out of deep central midfield that Clyde Simms does not. They both bring a lot of aggression and awareness, but Wallace's superior athletic ability was definitely on exhibit tonight. He might not have Simms' ball-winning ability, and doesn't distribute as well either, but Wallace's quickness, athleticism, and scoring touch earned him a goal single-handedly.


1. While the stats haven't been showing it lately besides his poached goal against KC, Luciano Emilio has been fighting hard for us up front the past couple weeks, although he hasn't necessarily shown the greatest touch or speed.


1. Josh Wicks should have done better on the early 1v1 goal by Zakuani, and was beaten high to the near post by Montero for the game winner. When a goalie gets beaten at the near post, he's probably not going to get a very high rating on here.

2. We are continuing to miss Jakovic while learning that Julius James is not the answer we've been looking for at center back. James should not have allowed Montero to get off such a clean shot for the game winner.

3. It's hard to truly blame him for the first goal when he obviously doesn't have the speed of Steve Zakuani, but Bryan Namoff was beaten fair and square for Seattle's first goal.

4. Just not enough attacking flair from Jaime Moreno or Santino Quaranta in this one. Both were more likely to give the ball away than to create a scoring chance all game. I'm ready for Chris Pontius to take over as our regular starter at withdrawn forward. Moreno has been better as a sub most of the season.

And with that, United finishes the week with just 3 points from two home matches. I would have been satisfied with 4, but we sure could have used the full 6. Still, all is not lost with two more winnable home games upcoming against San Jose (family day) and Chivas USA (college night / WCQ deal). The final team to get into the playoffs in 2008 did so with 37 points. And while it looks like it may take more than that this year, United is currently sitting at 36. Toronto's win over Colorado hurt a bit, but we still control our own destiny.

DC United lose at Marathon, 3-1

A loss is pretty much what we expected on the road in Honduras, but it's disappointing all the same because it could have been so much more. And we're once again reminded of 2008. If you're unfortunate enough to recall the 2008 Champions' Cup and Superliga, you'll remember that DC United looked to be of fairly equal caliber to most of their opponents, but ultimately flunked out of the tournaments due to several individual mistakes and unlucky breaks.

Well the same thing happened tonight, only this time there was one lone target of blame: Greg Janicki. Which is really too bad because he showed a lot of potential towards the end of last year. And once again we're left wondering, as we do in all international tournaments, what could have been if our league allowed larger rosters and a bigger salary cap. Sure would have been nice if we had another reserve forward on our roster to bring in for Emilio late in the match. Marathon on the other hand substituted in multiple additional forwards, and we could only counter by bringing on extra defensive midfields. Not exactly the best tactics for a win.


1. Luciano Emilio looked like a freakin' warrior! Scoring and bloodying his face all in the same motion. Even at the 93 minute mark, Emilio was still going at goal. This performance just might earn Luci a Grosy nomination.

2. Maybe it took him a little while to settle in, but Andrew Jacobson has looked much better the past couple weeks. Surprisingly, he took on more of an attacking midfield role than Moreno for a lot of this match.


1. I had my doubts, but the starting lineup used by Tom Soehn turned out to be pretty darn effective. Other than one massive mistake by Janicki, we escaped the first half scoreless, and held our own until the final 10 minutes. The four-man back line worked exactly how it should in limiting chances, and our midfield won most of its battles. I do question the tactics towards the end though. Mainly, I didn't understand taking out Habarugira in favor of Simms. This move forced Simms to play in the backline, where he has not played in over two years. If we needed to insert another defender, why not Burch? Or why not move McTavish back instead, who at least played defense in 2008.

2. In our first glance at David Habarugira (Spanglish translation: "Habarooga") and Julius James, we saw some things to be happy about, and some things that made us nervous. The Habarugira dude has got speed, and likes getting forward. And when he does get forward, he doesn't leave huge gaps behind him like Avery John does. But he also committed a lot of fouls, including a yellow card that could have been a red with some other referees that we've faced. James was decent, and definitely had his highs and lows. He almost gave up an own goal in the first 10 minutes, but also started the sequence with a header that led to Emilio's goal.

3. The organization of Jaime Moreno and Ben Olsen was precisely what was missing from this team on Saturday.


1. It's not often that a single player is responsible for all three goals allowed, but that was the case tonight with Greg Janicki. He made a terrible mistake in misplaying the first goal, and his poor slide tackle in the box set up the penalty kick for the third goal. Marathon's second goal was a bit more deserved, but it was still against the run of play, and I still feel like Jakovic would have stopped it if he were playing instead.

2. Did you happen to notice that every good chance Marathon had in the first half came from their right flank? That would be the territory of Ely Allen and Avery John. Allen had a couple decent touches early, but was ultimately beaten too often, and John had just too many giveaways, although he did alright defensively for most of the match.

So hopefully the team can keep their heads held high going into Saturday's home match against the Galaxy. Hopefully we won't be starstruck and make the same stupid mistakes against Beckham and Donovan. And let's keep in mind that this could have easily been a 1-1 result if not for those mistakes. This team still has a lot left to fight for in the CCL. I'm very interested to see how we do against Marathon in the home leg on 9/24.

The Fourth Sixth

This is the fourth in a recurring series where we look at the DC United season, five games at a time.

Results: 1-2-2. 9 GF, 11 GA

Standings: Third place in the Eastern Conference

Statistical Leaders: Christian Gomez (3 goals, 2 assists), Luciano Emilio (3 goals), Bryan Namoff, Jaime Moreno, and Fred (1 goal, 1 assist each)

Most frequent lineup:

What we liked:

• The Christian Gomez of 2007 - In the first half of the season, there was a wide variety of candidates for DC United's MVP: Quaranta, Pontius, Moreno, Gomez, maybe even Wicks or Jakovic. But at this point, I think Christian Gomez has emerged once again as our all-around best attacker, and the legitimate force that we'll need to stay level with our Eastern Conference competitors who each have dynamic attackers of their own in Chicago (No-neck), Columbus (GBS), and Toronto (DeRo).
  
• The return of the 4-4-2 - One of my New Years' Resolutions for 2009 for the club was to bury the 3-5-2. The club has yet to embrace that recommendation, as our personnel this year has been more appropriately aligned with a three-man backline. But the second half of the Houston match saw the return of the 4-4-2, with surprising success. Only time will tell though whether or not we start using this formation more often than just after giving up three goals in five minutes. I've hypothesized that it might be best to use a four-man backline when playing on the road against a strong attacking team (like maybe against Toronto next week?). Never the less, surely it's a good thing that we now seem to have the ability to play in multiple formations at different times, and that we're able to adjust when necessary.

What we didn't like:

• Where is the star power? – To put things in perspective, during this five game stretch, Jaime Moreno and Santino Quaranta each only started one match, and Luciano Emilio only started two. Those are three of our top scorers who didn’t see nearly enough time on the field. Of course this isn’t entirely the coach’s fault for keeping them away. Quaranta was out fighting for his nation at the Gold Cup and Emilio was suspended for one match due to a certain water bottle incident. I understand the desire to involve the rookies more, but Soehn should look at these disappointing results and take it as a signal that he should be getting Moreno onto the field as much as possible.


• Conceding multiple goals – Not only have we now gone seven straight league matches without posting a shutout, but we also had three multi-goal matches in this stretch of five games. Relinquishing a two goal lead in San Jose is indefensible.
  
• Disappointing reserves - We knew this would be a difficult part of the schedule when Quaranta and Jakovic were called up for Gold Cup duty, and that problem was exacerbated by minor injuries to Moreno, Emilio, and Simms. So we were counting on reserves like Ange N'Silu, Boyzzz Khumalo, Andrew Jacobson, and Greg Janicki to step up while filling in for our regular starters. Some of these players were adequate while on the field, but N'Silu and Janicki were particularly disappointing in their appearances.

Defining moment: I've got two of 'em. Bryan Namoff's own goal, followed later in the same match by his diving header against Colorado at home. These two goals epitomize the back-and-forth nature of four out of the five games we faced in this stretch. Namoff's resiliency was what propelled the team to a win in that match, and we saw that same sort of resiliency two weeks later from Emilio, coming off the bench with a head of steam to bring us one goal away from tying Houston after being down by 3.

Overall impression: United's 1-2-2 record in the fourth Sixth is a bit misleading, because this stretch of the season also included three Open Cup victories to return DC to the Final, and a home-and-home series victory over Firpo to return DC to the Champions League group stage. These wins have now guaranteed that DC United will play more matches within the 2009 season than any other MLS team. DC will play 45 matches (not including preseason), while the most any other team will play is Houston with 39. There's certainly pros and cons to that fact. Fatigue will be an issue during much of the playoff push over the next two months. But when the CCL and Open Cup are all over, our players should be in better shape than anyone else, and the international experience should benefit these guys for years to come. As for making the playoffs though, a lot is going to depend on the form of some other clubs. There is some new competition out there from teams like Toronto, Seattle, and Colorado who aren't normally in the MLS playoff hunt, and if they can maintain consistency, we could be in for a tough fight at the end of the season. I can see already some potential must-win matches in our future (10/3 Chivas, 10/17 Columbus).

DC United tie vs Firpo, 1-1

Boy did I miss the feelings of 2008. Poor motivation in international tournaments, decent possession but few shots on target, costly individual mistakes... This is deja vu all over again.


1. In his first bit of extended time, Danny Szetela stood out in an otherwise mediocre midfield. He looked like the best player on the field for the first quarter, with some nice passing. Center attacking midfield was a good position for him, although the coaching staff apparently did not agree.


1. I liked the constant energy and pressure from Rodney Wallace. I don't like when he tries to take impossible long range shots.

2. Jaime Moreno did not look like his usual self for the first half, other than his penalty kick goal.

3. It's kind of frustrating watching Milos Kocic. He doesn't miss any saves - that's very positive. But he still struggles to hold onto balls or come out at the right times.


1. Greg Janicki was undoubtedly the worst player on the field. Maybe he's been watching Jakovic too much. Jakovic has the ball skills to dribble calmly out of the back. Janicki doesn't. His mistake early in the match might cost us a spot in the next round.

I've very curious to see what kind of lineup Soehn will use in the away match in this series. The same roster likely won't get much of a better result, because this team has historically underperformed on the road in international tournaments. But to put it in a different perspective, we would have won this match were it not for one individual mistake by Janicki. If we can limit mistakes and play our possession game, we've still got a chance to advance.

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 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 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 tie vs Toronto FC, 3-3

What an incredible contrast from the previous match. Even though they both ended in ties, this was a much more inspired DC United club, playing against a much more inspired opponent. The match against Kansas City earlier in the week saw two offensive subs (Gomez and Emilio) enter the match and have no impact. This match saw two offensive subs (Moreno and Pontius) enter the match and score two goals.

I watched this match online at the same time as I was the watching the Capitals on mute. Funny coincidence that both games ended regulation at almost exactly the same time, and the score of each at that time was 3-3. Unfortunately for the Caps, it couldn't end that way. But for United, a tie seemed like a fair result to a really exciting match.


1. That was a real nice team setup on the opening goal by Ange N'Silu. His first goal of his MLS career, and a good overall match.

2. Jaime Moreno and Chris Pontius should have started. I'm still trying to figure out who was playing where when we had Moreno, Pontius, Emilio, Gomez, and Quaranta in the match. That's some firepower!


1. Milos Kocic and Dejan Jakovic each had their best halves of the season in the first. Kocic looked comfortable grabbing every cross that entered the box. And Jakovic had several nice tackles, and was calm in distributing out of the back. But their total lack of communication led to the first goal.

2. Bryan Namoff looked good wearing the captain's armband (which was a bit of a surprise since Gomez, Simms, and Emilio have all worn it ahead of him in the past). Namoff is having a fantastic season so far, but his failed toe poke on Toronto's third goal just isn't going to cut it against DeRo.

3. I liked Devon McTavish in central midfield. His left-footed cross helped set up the opening goal. I love how we have competition at just about every position right now. Olsen and Simms are the unquestioned starters at defensive midfield right now, but McTavish put in a strong challenge against Jacobson for the first backup in that slot.


1. This may have been out of character, but I saw too many giveaways by Clyde Simms in this match. And where was he on the last goal?

2. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that Serioux was Rodney Wallace's man to mark on the second goal. Which would mean that's the second time this year he's given up a goal on a free kick.

Five points from three matches in eight days was a couple short of our goal. But this stretch of matches was a huge credit to our early season depth. DC started 19 different players between the two matches this week. Only Namoff, Simms, and Wallace started both. And with KC falling today, and Chicago tying New England, we were still able to hold onto sole possession of first place for at least another week.

DC United win vs FC Dallas, 2-1

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

The First Sixth

As promised, this is the first of a new recurring feature here at the DCUMD blog. In the NFL, coaches and analysts often divide the season into four quarters when discussing how their team is doing. For example, the Redskins were a good 3-1 in the first quarter of their season, but finished 1-3 in their fourth quarter. In the MLS though, it's a little bit more complicated because 30 games doesn't easily divide by four. So I figured it would work out just as well to break the season into sixths, and we'll reflect back after the conclusion of each sixth to see where the team is standing. This will allow us to take a different perspective on the season and to track our thoughts on the team as the year progresses.

Results: 1-1-3. 6 GF, 6 GA

Standings: Currently in fourth place in the Eastern Conference

Statistical Leaders: Luciano Emilio (3 goals), Chris Pontius (1 goal, 1 assist)

Most frequent lineup:

What we liked:

• The Rookies - Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace each started every game and combined for a total of 892 minutes out of 900 possible. They have each contributed immediately, and have done a fantastic job at filling in for the injured Fred and Quaranta on the wings. Soehn will have some real tough lineup decisions to make when the team returns to full strength.


• Ben Olsen returns - United is at a big advantage over last season in that we've got Benny leading by example on the field instead of just cheering from the sidelines. It was Ben Olsen who scored the equalizing goal in stoppage time to tie New England at home. Hopefully this was a huge momentum boost that will carry the team forward into the next stretch of games.


• The Aging Triangle - The reunion of Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno, and Luciano Emilio has proven fairly effective in these five matches, including a three game goal scoring streak for Emilio in the middle.

What we didn't like:

• Failed opportunites - This stat says it all: Chris Pontius had 13 shots, but only 4 shots on goal. The team continues to put itself into good scoring positions, but has failed to convert far too often. Or how about Emilio deciding to shoot when heavily guarded, despite having a wide open Christian Gomez to his right in the Galaxy match? Missing your open opportunities is a terrible reason to miss the playoffs.


• Disappearing stars - As great as our attacking triangle has often been, we've also seen each of these three stars vanish from matches for long periods of time. Moreno and Emilio are occassionally at fault, but Gomez has been the main offender. Or is it the fault of the rest of the team for failing to get him the ball?


• The goalkeeping situation - I'm not quite ready to send Louis Crayton back to Liberia, and to be fair, he did earn one shutout, and gave up only 3 goals in his 3 games. But neither Crayton nor Wicks seems to have the consistency to be a top flight goalkeeper. Is it possible that Milos Kocic will eventually be our Varlamov and supplant the veterans?

Defining moment: This image says it all. The first sixth unfortunately was defined by Devon McTavish and Greg Janicki bumping heads while defending a Galaxy attack, and leading to two quick goals within the next 10 minutes as DC scrambled to adjust. The season to date can be summed up by DC United outplaying their opponents, but still giving away points unnecessarily.

Overall impression: At fourth place in the Eastern Conference, DC United is just about where we all expected them to be for most of the year. No longer the elite team in the league, but still very much in the thick of things. From what we've seen in the past five games, DC might be better than their record shows. But we need wins, not just solid performances. For example, at the conclusion of the first half of the Revolution game, all of the ESPN analysts agreed that that was the best half they'd seen out of DC all year, yet the game was scoreless. In each of our three ties, we had chances to put the game away and gain an extra two points, but either failed to convert our scoring opportunities, or failed to shore up defensively. Until United can start to grind out some victories rather than settling for draws against teams they can beat, this season may be likely to end in more disappointment.