RIVER or LIFE: Goalkeepers

As voting on the DC United defenders draws to a close, we seem to have finally found the most polarizing player on the United roster. No one should be surprised that that player would be Marc Burch, who is currently sitting at exactly 50% River and 50% Life at the time of this posting. Moving on now to our final edition of River or Life for DC United players, we turn to the goalkeepers, where there may be a few more difficult voting decisions to make. A reminder for those who are new, a vote for River means to send him down the river, and a vote for Life means to keep him around next year.

Joining the team in 2009 to very little fanfare, Josh Wicks was acquired via trade as what most of us thought would be a stopgap while Louis Crayton recovered from injury. As it turned out, Wicks did so well to impress the coaches and fans that he was named the team's regular starter. He made some big saves for us this year, but his occasional lack of discipline and mediocre 1.40 goals against average might not be enough to keep his job safe in 2010.

poll by twiigs.com

Milos Kocic was drafted by United in the second round of the 2009 MLS Superdraft to be the team's goalkeeper of the future. Apparently the future is not now, because DC didn't have enough confidence in him to give Kocic a starting role late in the season after Wicks' injury, turning instead to a USL player as a temporary replacement. Kocic did look good at times though when given a chance in early Open Cup and CCL matches.

poll by twiigs.com

United acquired Steve Cronin via loan from Portland in a last ditch effort to make the playoffs and advance in the CCL. While the USL Goalkeeper of the Year allowed only 3 goals in 3 matches, it still wasn't enough to do either. DCU might have a hard time retaining Cronin for the 2010 season since he is not under contract with the team and will surely garner interest from other clubs after a great year. Makes you wonder what our record would have looked like if he was in a United jersey from the start...

poll by twiigs.com

Signed late in September from the DCU Academy, Bill Hamid didn't see any action with the first team in 2009, but could be given a chance to compete for a spot on the gameday roster in the near future. All we've heard from the front office is that Hamid is big, quick, and has excellent leadership ability. I don't know about you, but it sure makes me feel old to look at Hamid's bio and see that he was born in 1990.

poll by twiigs.com

Award 8: The Popie

By definition, the Popie award goes to United's best defensive player in 2009. The award's namesake is former national team defender Eddie Pope. Not only is Pope widely recognized as the best defender in United's history, but he is also responsible for the most important goal in United's history.

Last year's winner was Bryan Namoff with over 50% of the vote. It's also telling of DC's defensive struggles in 2008 that the runner-up for this award last year was Devon McTavish, and he had not started a single game in central defense all year until last night.

1. Bryan Namoff is a strong contender to defend his title in 2009 with another great year. He's also contributed to the team with his most productive offensive year to date, with 2 goals and 4 assists.

2. Dejan Jakovic has been the first central defender in years to solidify his position in DC United's lineup, starting every game while healthy. He has exhibited great vision, anticipation, movement, and strength, placing him among the best central defenders in MLS.

3. Clyde Simms may not be a true defender by trade, but he is the team's best ball-winner, and he won the "Defender of the Year" award at last year's team reception.

4. Josh Wicks started 19 regular season games for DC United this year and earned 5 shutouts. His 1.40 goals against average is not among the best in the league, but he appeared to have locked down the starting goalkeeper position for the team before getting injured.

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 Esky - Who is United's most valuable player?

Benny Award 6: The Freddy

By definition, the Freddy Award goes to the biggest story for DC United this year. This award should go to the individual who has created the biggest stir around DC this season. The award's namesake Freddy Adu wasn't only the biggest story in DC when he was on the team, he was also the biggest story in MLS. Still to this day, the most frequent question we United fans get from non-soccer-fans is "Does Freddy Adu still play for them?"

Last year's award went to Santino Quaranta after Goff's article on his struggles with painkillers gained national attention.

1. Kevin Payne and his very public argument with Adrian Hanauer of the Sounders sent waves through the DC sports community, starting with the full page ads the team ran in every newspaper they could find. This propaganda was a huge success by marketing standards, resulting in attendance of over 17,000 at the US Open Cup Final, but unfortunately did not result in a win.

2. Josh Wicks and his short temper earned him some bad publicity nationwide after stomping on Freddy Montero in the Open Cup Final. And that was just a week after he had a shoving match with Marc Burch in the middle of a game.

3. Christian Gomez returned to DC this season after being an incredible disappointment in Colorado, and he returned with something to prove. Gomez was cast aside last year in favor of fellow Argentinian Marcelo Gallardo, but returned to the team in 2009 earning 6 goals and 4 assists to easily surpass Gallardo's production.

4. Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace may be stars in the making for DC United. These two rookies have taken the league by storm, and are respectively #1 and (tied for) #2 on the team in appearances this year.

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.

Up next: The Harkesy - Who is the team leader?

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 2: The Nelly

By definition, the Nelly Award goes to the United player who has made the most significant positive impact in his first year with the club. The award’s namesake Ryan Nelsen became a starter shortly into his first season with United, and would go on to guide the team to an MLS Cup in 2004.

It’s a testament to the total failure of our 2008 acquisitions that not one of last year’s nominees is still on the team. The winner, Louis Crayton, was the only player to make it onto the roster at the start of 2009, only to lose his job to one of this year’s contenders.

1. Josh Wicks has earned 5 shutouts in 18 starts for DC this season, and has at times looked like one of the top goalkeepers in MLS. Wicks is a good shot stopper and controls his box well. It’s only because of some mental errors and a bad temper that leads some fans to question whether or not he is a long-term solution. I’d put my money on Josh Wicks to win a fight against any other goalkeeper in the league.
2. Dejan Jakovic joined the team this off-season from the famed Serbian club Red Star Belgrade, and also looks to have earned a starting role for the Canadian National Team. This young defender has taken a leadership role in our backline, and has the patience to distribute out of the back without turning the ball over (a rare quality on this team). It’s hard to imagine how poor DC would be without Jakovic, but it might also be hard to give this award to any defender when United is still the fourth worst team in the league in goals against.


3. Chris Pontius the rookie from UCSB has appeared in all but one league match this season, and gives the team a versatile option at either forward or midfielder. With 4 goals and 2 assists on the season, Pontius has looked best when playing up front with good service from Quaranta on the wing.


4. Rodney Wallace the rookie from Maryland has appeared in all but one league match this season, and gives the team a versatile option anywhere in the midfield. Wallace’s aggression, speed, and fitness level has benefited him even when occasionally filling in at CDM, but he has done the most damage (3 goals, 3 assists) from the left wing.

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 Convey – Who is DC United’s rookie of the 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.

The Fifth Sixth

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

Results: 2-1-2. 4 GF, 4 GA

Standings: Third place in the Eastern Conference

Statistical Leaders: Josh Wicks (3 clean sheets); Namoff, Burch, Moreno, Emilio (1 goal each), Gomez (1 assist)

Most frequent lineup:


What we liked:

• Discovering our starting XI – I’ve often wondered during this season if we’re ever going to have a single consistent lineup that can be used every week. It looks like we’re finally stating to see that, and surprisingly enough, that lineup is going to be a 4-4-2. While I might not necessarily agree with all of the starters in every match, at least the coaching staff is finally starting to decide who they want to count on to be their regular starters, and that is happening at the perfect time with the playoffs just over a month away.
  
• Josh Wicks, the savior – Wicks has come a long way since emerging from the three-man goalkeeper competition to be our starter. And while the team only earned 5 clean sheets in all of 2008, Wicks alone has now earned 5, including 3 in this set of matches. He made a lot of key saves to preserve the scoreless draw late in the Galaxy match. We saw two on-field blowups from Wicks during this period, which is something to look out for, but his play speaks for itself.
  
• United can score on corner kicks – Throughout this team’s history, they have struggled to score from corner kicks. Prior to 2009, I think maybe the only corner kick goal ever scored by United came off the head of Eddie Pope in 1996. But suddenly every corner kick is now a scoring opportunity for United. Bryan Namoff scored his second corner kick goal of the year in United’s win over Chicago, and the winning goal sequence against KC also started with a corner.

What we didn't like:

• Lack of scoring – United did not score in the run of play during these five matches. It’s incredible that we had a winning record during this stretch when the team was only able to score on corners, free kicks, and a penalty kick. With the attacking firepower of the likes of Emilio, Gomez, Quaranta, and Pontius, that’s just not acceptable.
  
• Coaching inadequacies – Some of this is due to injury, but Coach Soehn continues to play some of his players outside of their best positions. Simms at CB? Wallace at LB? Olsen at RW? Quaranta at forward while Pontius is in the midfield? And what was Fred doing on the field anyway while Chris Pontius was sitting on the bench? It’s sad to point out that Jaime Moreno only started 1 league match during this stretch, and Pontius only 2.

Defining moment: The moment that sticks out to me most clearly from this five-game stretch is unfortunately the handball by the LA Galaxy that was not called. And that was after Emilio was shoved over in the box earlier in the match. Maybe someone could debate the foul on Emilio, but the handball was indisputable, and it was even used as an example of a bad call by the USSF. We saw so many non-calls in that match that I think we may have won if only a United player could have picked up the ball and ran rugby-style into the goal. Anyways, a penalty kick in the 85th minute of a scoreless game would have virtually guaranteed us a victory, and two extra points in the standings sure would have looked nice about now.

Overall impression: Last time I wrote the following: “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.” This time its exactly the opposite. United had a winning record through the fifth Sixth in MLS action, but while also losing two CCL matches and the Open Cup Final. Despite our current place in the standings, United remains in a precarious position because every other team but one has played fewer matches than us. But with four out of the last five matches at RFK in front of its adoring fans, DC definitely is in control of its own destiny during the final playoff push.

DC United lose to Seattle Sounders, 2-1

We win trophies. But not all the time.

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

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

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

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

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

2. FREDSUX

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

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

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

DC United lose to Toluca, 3-1

I had my doubts about this lineup going in because it just seemed way too defensive. I'm in favor of continuing with the 4-4-2 formation for the duration of this tournament, but my vision of a 4-4-2 involves attacking wingers, and maybe a creative attacking central midfielder. McTavish and Allen aren't really what you think of in terms of attacking wingers, and Andrew Jacobson isn't really the most creative CAM either.

This would have been the perfect match for Danny Szetela. I understand he's in the doghouse, and obviously Coach Soehn knows more about why than any of us so I give him the benefit of the doubt, but it really would have been nice to see his creative skills on the field in place of any one of the previously mentioned midfielders. And if not Szetela, either Gomez, Fred, or Quaranta should have started this match. Oh yeah, and I guess Ely Allen is ahead of John DiRaimondo on the depth chart for now? I guess that might have changed after this match.

As for the back line, I'm fine with Namoff-Jakovic-Burch as our top lineup and Habarugira-James-John as our B squad. I'm also perfectly fine with Marc Burch as a CB in a four-man back. But if we have to add one of the A squad members to the B line each match, do we really want it to be Burch? Why is Burch more capable than Jakovic or Namoff at playing two matches per week?

As I stated, I liked the four-man back line. But from the 28th minute on, I was calling for Gomez to come in for Habarugira. Dude as AWFUL.


1. I've said before that some of DC United's best moments in 2009 have come from the combination of Santino Quaranta and Chris Pontius. These two immediately connected for a goal as soon as the Phoenix entered the match. I wonder if Soehn has been misusing these two in the regular season when he often puts Quaranta up top and Pontius on the right wing. It really should be the other way around.


1. Goal-saving play by Julius James in the 80th minute, and pretty consistently good defense throughout the match. It looked like he might have been the competent backup CB we've been looking for, that is until the deflection that led to the third goal.

2. There have been some mentions on this blog and others about the seemingly increasing number of giveaways from Clyde Simms this year. Well if you watch him closely, you'll see that he wins more balls than he loses. And winning balls is what the man is paid to do.


1. I've been a little bit of a Greg Janicki apologist over the past week, because I have tendency to believe that his terrible match against Marathon was more of an aberation than the norm. Because we've seen better from him before. Thefore I believe that the mistake by David Habarugira that resulted in an early goal for Toluca was much worse than the mistake by Janicki that resulted in an early goal for Marathon. Janicki's error seemed like more of a fluke mistake. I just don't get the impression that Habarugira knows any better! Maybe Wicks should have done better to call him off, but there's no way that goal would have happened with Namoff or Jakovic in that position instead. Habarugira also made several bad passes, left a man unmarked at the back post that led to a free header on goal in the 33rd minute, and earned a really bad yellow card early in the second half. I wonder which defender will have an awful match in our next Champions League appearance? My money is on Avery John.

2. Josh Wicks is usually pretty vocal, but I didn't see or hear him yelling "KEEPER!" to Habarugira on the first goal. He also misplayed the ball in the 80th minute, forcing a great goal-saving tackle by James. And the third goal was a bit unlucky, but if I'm going to blame any player for it, I might put some blame on Wicks.

3. Marc Burch got beat on the winning goal, plain and simple.

4. Removing Ely Allen at the 33 minute mark was more than just a tactical substitution in my mind, as the commentator suggested. I just can't think of one positive contribution that he made. At least it was good to see that it only took Soehn one third of the match to realize how poor his starting lineup was.

5. The more I think about it, the more I'm against the starting lineup used by Tom Soehn in this match. I've been definitively and consistently against the "Fire Soehn" crowd for all of 2009. This is the first match when I've began to consider how much longer I want him coaching this team. I just don't see how this lineup really had any chance of winning.

The next week and a half might be the most important of the season for us. Our road match against Chicago on Saturday is winnable. If they can lose 2-0 to the Beckham-less and Lewis-less Galaxy last week, I think we have a good chance of earning at least a point. And then Wednesday is of course the Open Cup Final (now offering $10 student tickets!), which has suddenly become the most important match we'll play in 2009 based on our nascent rivalry with the Sounders. The week ends with another winnable road match against FC Dallas. Earlier this week I wrote about how a long line of poor officiating has kept us from earning points this year. Now would be a really nice time for kharma to pay us back and shoot some luck in our direction for once.

DC United tie vs LA Galaxy, 0-0

If I was going to look at our remaining schedule and pick one match that would probably end scoreless, this would not have been it. You know the league has got to hate when two of its marquee teams finish with a scoreless draw. I certainly expected a couple of goals once the match seemed to open up late in the first half, but some good defending combined with quality performances from two of the lesser known goalkeepers in the league preserved clean sheets for each team.

But should it have been a scoreless draw? The offside call which disallowed a goal by Emilio from Fred early on looked too close to call for me. And then there was the shove on Emilio midway through the second half, which could have easily been called a PK. Maybe Geiger didn't have a great view, but if the side judge sees outstretched arms by the defender, he's got to call the penalty. I also rewound the tape a couple of times to confirm that in the 84th minute there was definitely a handball from Miglioranzi in the box. DCU could have scored 2-3 goals with a more lenient referee.


1. Bryan Namoff made two sliding saves, had a couple good steals, and almost scored with his head on a corner kick. He seemed to be in Donovan's head a bit too.

2. A couple good late saves from Josh Wicks to keep this one scoreless. If nothing else, I hope that shutting out Donovan and Beckham gives our defense some confidence.


1. Santino Quaranta looked like the best attacker on the field for most of the match, and that includes Donovan.

2. I have a feeling that some fans are going to criticize Luciano Emilio for this match, but keep in mind that he could have scored 1 goal and set up 1 penalty kick had the referees been watching the game more closely instead of admiring Beckham's good looks.


1. Rodney Wallace was the worst of the 3 national champion Terps on the field tonight. Sullivan said late in the match that Wallace has had a lot of chances from the wing. But very few of those chances resulted in shots on goal.

Speaking of Sullivan, I have to admit that he and Bretos did a pretty good job announcing this match impartially and without blunder, which is a bit rare, but a nice improvement over the terrible Christian Miles from the Marathon match.

So where does that leave us? Still out of the playoffs for now, but I'm not too discouraged quite yet. DC has 29 points, which puts them in 9th place overall. But they are only 1 point behind Toronto, Chivas, and Colorado who each have 30. Toronto is a good team, but I've got to think that Chivas and Colorado are going to fade at some point, and with 5 of our final matches at RFK where we're still undefeated, I still think United has a good chance of making the playoffs. But before we can continue with the regular season, we first have a midweek home match against Toluca, and then of course the Open Cup Final next Wednesday!

DC United lose at Toronto FC, 2-0

Thomas Rongen said early in the match that since both teams were playing with a 3-5-2 formation, it was likely that the team with the most individual talent would win. If you add up all the talent on United's roster and all the talent on Toronto's roster, United might prevail. But unfortunately games aren't actually won and lost that way. There are other elements that come into play. Like teamwork. Motivation. Desire.

What Rongen also missed is that although United might be the more talented team overall, the most talented individual soccer player on the field was clearly Dwayne De Rosario, and this game was in the books from the moment he ran around Jakovic to score the first goal. DC never looked like they had enough hustle to get back in it.


None


1. I had my eye on John DiRaimondo for part of the first half because I wanted to see what the coaching staff saw in him to grant him his first league start. What I saw was a lot of good movement off the ball, and what seemed like pretty good vision. I would have liked to see him do better on stopping the cross that led to the first goal, but it's good to see that he's at least serviceable as a replacement winger.

2. We've seen some pretty good things out of Andrew Jacobson this season when he has a chance to get forward. I think he's at his best when Simms is also on the field so he doesn't have as much responsibility defensively.


1. Maybe this is just a minor gripe about Josh Wicks, but when the goalkeeper gets beat, wouldn't you at least like for him to look like he's trying to make a save? He may not have been able to stop DeRo's header, but at least make a dive for it! Don't just stand there and watch it go into the net. He did the same thing earlier in the match too on a Jim Brennan header that hit the post.

2. Very disappointing match from Dejan Jakovic, who might actually be regressing over the course of the season? Fullback hits on all the right points with him. Jakovic is usually pretty good at breaking up plays and escaping out of the back, but I would sure feel more comfortable if he had another central defender next to him.

3. Apparently Christian Gomez shaved off his passing ability in addition to his hair. No creativity from him in this one. It seemed like most of our decent scoring opportunities (and they were rare) came from Quaranta, not Gomez.

4. Good ol' brickfoot Luciano Emilio drew a couple fouls, but that was about his only positive offensive contribution. Fullback hits on all the right points with him.

5. I've been saying for weeks that this match would be an appropriate time for Tom Soehn to start with a 4-4-2 formation. I believe that formation will suit us best when used on the road against teams with multiple skilled attackers. Sadly, our back three were much worse than the back three of Toronto in this match, and that was ultimately our downfall. How about giving the 4-4-2 a try on the road next week against the speedy Marathon?

I posted before that this was a "must-not-lose" game. Apparently the players and coaching staff don't read as much DCUMD as they should, because they didn't seem to understand the importance of this match. With Toronto just 1 point behind us in the standings prior to today, I would argue that this was our most important league match since 6/13.

Not a good start to the most hectic portion of our 2009 schedule. If the team looked slow today, how are they going to look after an 8 hour flight to Honduras in just three short days? Then it's back home for a tough match against the resurgent LA Galaxy (Fellas, it's Ladies Night!)

Oh yeah and one more thing... Did that really look like anything close to a crowd of over 20,000 people? Or was my hearing off when Dave Johnson announced that as the attendance?

DC United lose vs Real Madrid, 3-0

If you think about it, this result actually makes a lot of sense. DC United's starters at full fitness were able to admirably shut down Real Madrid's starters for the entire first half. But as our players grew more fatigued in the 95 degree heat, our defense was worn down by some of the world's best players. You could see this coming when Real Madrid turned to their bench to bring in substitutes like Arjen Robben and Christoph Metzelder, and United countered with Milos Kocic and Ely Allen. And once DC allowed Madrid to score their first, as has happened to our club before, the flood gates opened, the levees broke, the dam collapsed, and any other water related clichés you can think of.

Hopefully, DC United won over a few new fans yesterday. If our average attendance this season is somewhere in the range of 16-18 thousand, yet 72,368 showed up to see Real Madrid, it's easy to do the math here. I don't know that we're going to sell very many new season ticket packages to those 56,000 additional attendees, but maybe some of them wind up going to one or two DCU matches a year? It would have been nice to see United get a few more chances on goal. Zero shots on target in the first half doesn't make for an exciting match to the casual fan. And it's a bit of a shame that the most exciting moment for DC came from Christian Gomez scoring while clearly offside.

I'm with Goff when he says that player ratings are tough for this kind of match. I'm hesitant to give anyone a low rating after shutting out Madrid for 45 minutes, and no one really separated themselves from the pack in either direction. Therefore we're left with…

and:
None

1. Josh Wicks, Greg Janicki, and Marc Burch were all strong candidates for Top Shelf at the halftime whistle. Wicks made two or three really good saves in the first half, before getting beat twice by Higuain in the second. Janicki's first half may have been his best of the season, but he failed to stop Higuain's run straight down the middle of the field for the first goal. Burch also looked good breaking up several plays in the first half, but was utterly abused by Robben in the second.

2. Hopefully this will be our last time seeing Rodney Wallace in Simms' CDM role for a little while. He was seen running behind the play in two out of the three goals. But he was tasked with keeping Kaka scoreless in the first half, and succeeded at that.

3. It's become customary for me to rate new acquisitions in their first appearances for United (see John, DiRaimondo, and Szetela). How about Ely Allen getting his first appearance in a DC jersey against Real Madrid? Allen had some positive touches and didn't look out of place on the field with the rest of our reserves. He also gets credit for being the leading candidate to win a Bryan Namoff lookalike contest.

So with this heavily promoted friendly behind them, DC United now has six days of rest before heading up to Toronto for an important league match. What's troubling is that this six day break is the longest break that our players will get until after the match on 9/15. The coaching staff will have some pretty tough decisions to make in weighing starters for the Toronto match, and then a long trip down to Marathon just three days later. I'm not going to go so far as to call TFC on Saturday a "must-win", but I think it might be a "must-not-lose" match. With them trailing us by only 1 point with 10 games remaining, we cannot let Toronto emerge with a full 3 points.

DC United lose at Houston Dynamo, 4-3

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

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

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


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

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

DC United tie at San Jose, 2-2

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

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


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


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

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

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


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

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

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

Mid Season Review part 3: Trades

So now that we've already reviewed and analyzed DC United's acquisitions and departures since the close of the 2008 season, let's take a look at the trades. Basically just one big one, and a couple players swapped for late-round draft picks.

1. The biggest offseason move was DC United trading Ivan Guerrero, Colorado's own designated player slot, and a 2010 2nd round draft pick to the Rapids for Christian Gomez and goalkeeper Mike Graczyk. And of course the other player impacted, although not directly involved, would be Marcelo Gallardo, who had previously occupied that DP slot for United. If you're interested in some light reading for additional context, take a look back at my 2008 Gallardo/Gomez analysis, my 2009 Gomez/Gallardo analysis, and some additional analysis of the Gomez trade. The last post provides some real interesting insight into the frame of mind we were all in following this trade. Of course there were concerns about whether Gomez would be closer to his form from 2007 or from 2008 (verdict: 2007). There were also a lot of fans (including myself) who thought Guerrero and a 2nd was too much to give up (verdict: nope, Guerrero didn't play a single game for the Rapids in 2009 before returning to Honduras). And as inconsequential as the Graczyk acquisition was, this was the first sign that United was not pleased with its current set of goalkeepers (Crayton and Kocic). But the biggest outcome from the dual DC/Colorado swaps of 2008 and 2009 might be that the first trade got us the draft pick that turned into Chris Pontius, who is set to make a lasting impact on our club for years to come.

2. When DC United acquired Josh Wicks from the LA Galaxy, few of us were very excited. His 1-2-3 record with a 2.18 GAA in LA was less than impressive. But Wicks has now emerged as our clear starter, and could be a top 5 MLS keeper. According to dcunited.com, we gave up a 2010 4th round draft pick to get Wicks, but I think I recall Goff reporting that it was either a 3rd or a 4th depending on how many games Wicks started. If that's true, then it will surely turn into a 3rd, because Wicks is likely to start 20-22 games for us this year.

3. The final two trades each involved left backs and some conditional draft picks, with DC United losing Mike Zaher to the Earthquakes and gaining Avery John from the Revolution. With an eye on the future, it's hard to spin this exchange as a victory for United. John has been mostly terrible in his few appearances with United, unable to supplant Marc Burch from the starting left back slot as many fans had hoped. Zaher, on the other hand, has started 5 games for San Jose, and while that team is not exactly a defensive powerhouse, Zaher has apparently made some positive contributions. This isn't to say that Zaher would likely be starting ahead of Burchy either, but at least he earns less money than John and takes up a developmental slot (of which we now have two extras) instead of a precious senior slot like John.

That's all for the player movements. I'll do a summary by position of all the changes sometime next week. Quick programming note: I'll be in OCMD this weekend, so don't expect a writeup from the Colorado match until Monday or Tuesday night.

DC United loss at Colorado Rapids, 3-0

I can't remember the last time I've said this, but this Colorado Rapids team is actually pretty good. And they deserved this win.

Also, I think this might be the first team we've played this year where I'm actually jealous of their defense. Very underrated. And with Colin Clark and Omar Cummings, Colorado has two brewing stars. Speaking of defense though, I'm not sure that this was the best match to bring back back the 4-4-2. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think the 4-4-2 would have helped slow things down a bit in the Seattle match. It certainly wasn't effective here tonight.

And what a big difference between the atmosphere on Wednesday night and tonight. The vast majority of the crowd in Colorado was seated and silent, which is a huge contrast from Seattle. The same can probably be said about the action on the field. The Seattle match was fast-paced throughout. This match was slow and consisted of a lot of giveaways.


1. It seemed like every chance we had on goal came from the head of Chris Pontius. Here's hoping that Quaranta to Pontius will be one of our top scoring options for years to come.

2. I was admittedly harsh on him earlier in the week, but Clyde Simms played well tonight. Most of Colorado's chances came from balls over the top, bypassing the midfield where Simms was roaming.


1. Dejan Jakovic seems to be better suited for the 3-5-2 than the 4-4-2. If he isn't trusting someone else to help cover, he's running all over the place chasing down attackers. The defense was better in the second half.


1. Cummings abused Greg Janicki 1v1 on the first goal. We should all be worried about how the team will cope to the loss of Jakovic to Canada's Gold Cup team.

2. Was Avery John trying to improve his fantasy stats by giving an assist directly to Cummings on the second goal? And he was in no man's land standing in the middle of the box on the third goal, instead of looking to see if someone (Clark) was attacking the back post. John might also be better suited for a 3-5-2, where he played for so many years in New England. Meanwhile, I think Burch is better suited for the 4-4-2, so this lineup didn't really make sense to me. You guys all know where I stand on the Marc Burch versus Avery John debate, but hopefully now we can at least all agree that John is NOT the solution to our persistent problems at left back.

3. I didn't see any game changing saves from Josh Wicks in this one.

4. Ange N'Silu looked disinterested, and really not a part of the team. I counted three times in a row that he gave the ball straight to the Rapids on his first touch, and two times he should have made a run if he was correctly reading a play, but did not. We really thought this guy was better than Francis Doe?

Alright so United just didn't have it tonight. A tired team going up against a well-rested team in high altitude isn't a great excuse for a less than energetic effort, but the result wasn't entirely surprising. United was shut out only one time in the first half of the season. Let's hope this is the only time they get shut out in the second half.

The Third Sixth

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

Results: 2-1-2. 8 GF, 6 GA

Standings: First place in the Eastern Conference

Statistical Leaders: Christian Gomez (2 goals), Jaime Moreno (2 goals), Fred(1 goal, 1 assists), Santino Quaranta (1 goal, 1 assist), Luciano Emilio (2 assists),

Most frequent lineup:

What we liked:

• Goalkeeper controversy resolved - The only low point that I wrote about in both of my first two posts in this series is an issue no longer. Starting Josh Wicks ahead of Louis Crayton has earned us 4 points to date, and it's really nice to have a keeper that we can count on to come up big when we need him the most.


• Rotating attackers - The biggest different so far between 2008 and 2009 is our wealth of attacking depth. Last year, if just one player was injured, we suffered major setbacks. But now, hearing the news that Moreno or Fred will be out for a couple weeks doesn't even seem to phase the United community. Because between Christian Gomez's surprising return to form and the versatility of Quaranta, Pontius, and Wallace, we've got plenty of players who can fill in without skipping a beat. This year, our bigger problem has been trying to find enough playing time for all these talented guys, which is a good problem to have.


• Defensive progress - Bryan Namoff has consistently been one of the best and most underrated outside backs in MLS over the past several years. It's looking like you might be able to add Dejan Jakovic to that list also. He continues to fly under the radar, while emerging as one of the league's best center backs.

What we didn't like:

• Stupid fouls - In reaction to the two penalty kicks we gave up in these five games, the team needs to be a bit more careful when defending in the box. Clearly the MLS officials have been directed to award penalties at the slightest hint of contact (reference Namoff on Twellman, and Jakovic on Nyarko), so we need to make sure that we don't give them any reason to think about calling fouls in the box.

Defining moment: Josh Wicks' penalty kick save on Brian McBride to preserve United's lead against Chicago and move back into our rightful position in first place. A major theme of this sixth of the season would have to be Wicks' heroics, including several spectacular saves and two clean sheets.

Overall impression: After the second sixth of the season when we finished tied for first place, it didn't really feel right. United wasn't playing like the best team in the Eastern Conference at that time. Now though, I think we deserve it. Closing out the first half of the season with a huge victory over Chicago and a tie at Seattle should provide the team with steady momentum as we head into a rough portion of the year that includes Open Cup and Champions League matches in addition to the regular season

DC United tie at Seattle Sounders, 3-3

"What an advertisement this has been for Major League Soccer here tonight". I heard Glenn Davis speak that line twice during the broadcast, once in the 68th minute on ESPN2, and once before the game was being shown on television (thanks atdhe.net). At first I was thinking that that was a terribly hypocritical thing to say. That if ESPN really wanted to advertise MLS, they might think about broadcasting the entire game. But then I realized that ESPN was just thinking of that literally. They treated this match as if it were nothing but "an advertisement". It was 11:55pm ET when ESPN2 joined this game in progress. That's when cable stations are usually showing Paid Programming right? But then later from Allen Hopkins I heard "This is exactly what MLS was hoping for." Really? MLS was hoping ESPN2 would only show 30 minutes of this match?

And that's really a shame. A high scoring match between the two most exciting teams in MLS, playing in undoubtedly the stadium with the best atmosphere in MLS, is the type of match that should be shown in HD in primetime on national television. It's a shame that ESPN doesn't agree. With hockey and basketball done for the year, and the NFL still a couple months away, sports fans are dying for something exciting to watch. The College World Series doesn't qualify. It would really be in ESPN's best interest to treat soccer as if it were a major sport, but I don't see this country's perception of soccer changing until the media's coverage of soccer changes.

OK let's actually talk about the match some. I'll be honest, I actually went into this one expecting a loss. After an emotional victory over the supposed best team in the league Chicago last week, I figured it would be hard to keep up that momentum. And I was right for most of this match. But then... In the match that concludes the first half of United's 2009 campaign, as we've seen so many times already this season, we stormed back. Thanks to some continuous pressure up top, Sigi's decision to take his foot off the pedal, and a little bit of luck.


1. Right now Christian Gomez is playing the best he's played in two years. Here's hoping that he is healthy enough to start on Saturday. He sure looked like he will be.

2. Chris Pontius was our only attacker who looked dangerous for all 90 minutes.

3. What a perfect cross by Santino Quaranta to set up Pontius's goal. That would be his 6th assist of the season, putting him in second place in the league, and just 1 behind Brad Davis.


1. I think it might be time to start counting the number of points that we owe to Josh Wicks. I count 1 in the tie against RSL, 2 in the win against Chicago, and now 1 tonight. Wicks could have done better on the second goal, but didn't have much of a chance on the other two. He had several great saves to keep us in it.


1. Dejan Jakovic and Marc Burch seemed to feed off each other's mistakes. This was the worst performance by the DC defense this season, by far. These two need to wash their memories of this match quickly, because I'm expecting much better this weekend.

2. The link between the defense and midfield was missing tonight. That would be Clyde Simms and Andrew Jacobson. After this match, I'm officially moving Devon McTavish up above Jacobson on my depth chart.

3. I didn't like Tom Soehn's lineup from the start. I figured that if Ben Olsen is healthy enough to play only one out of the two games this week, it should be this one. And we definitely missed his leadership out there tonight. But my bigger issue with Soehn was bringing in N'Silu when Fred had to come off, instead of just making a straight swap with Gomez. I understand occassionally resting Gomez, but if the plan was to bring him on at some point in the second half, why not just move that up instead of wasting a sub?

4. And speaking of that wasted sub, Ange N'Silu was rarely involved in this match, and when he was, he was usually giving the ball away. United has a recent history of cutting its reserve forwards after each season (Addlery, Kpene, Doe), and I doubt 2009 will be any different with N'Silu.

So that's twice as many Rail as Top Shelf players in a road draw? Seems sort of odd, but then again, this point was a bit of a gift. And this is an important stretch of the season where we've got 3 matches in 8 days, and Chicago has none. With the chance to increase our lead in the East, what was the most points we could expect from this two game road trip? 4? 3? Well we're on our way towards that.

Saving penalty kicks

According to Wikipedia, roughly 76% of penalty kicks result in goals. Then how come so many of us standing in front of our seats at RFK Stadium on Saturday night had a good feeling that Josh Wicks was going to make a save against Brian McBride? It really defied logic, but I absolutely felt like there was better than a 50% chance that Wicks would come up with the stop, and reading some of the comments on the Insider, I wasn't alone with that feeling.

Wicks says that he picked the direction he was going to dive before McBride had even stepped up. I buy that, but I also think there's more to it than just picking a side. For me, it's all about confidence. And confidence is something that Wicks clearly has plenty to spare of these days. If the goalkeeper actually THINKS that he is going to save the ball, and based on how things had been going in the match, if the shooter actually THINKS that the goalkeeper might save the ball, there's got to be a greater than 24% chance that the goalkeeper IS going to save the ball. All about confidence. Wicks was in the head of the Fire attackers on this night, and he's probably still in McBride's head 48 hours later.

One last thing thought… Josh Wicks was not the only MLS goalkeeper to save a penalty kick on Saturday. Danny Cepero of the Red Bulls also had a penalty kick save, yet it still resulted in a goal. The difference there was in the defending of the rebound. United's match saw Bryan Namoff charge into the box after the shot and knock the rebound clear out of play. Toronto's match saw a handfull of Red Bulls standing around watching as their savior of 2008 made a great stop on Amado Guevara, and then continuing to watch as Danny Dichio easily tapped in the rebound. A good goalkeeper will only get you so far if you have a terrible defense in front of him.

DC United win vs Chicago Fire, 2-1

This was my first journey to RFK this season, and boy did I pick a good one. It sure did feel right for this to be a battle for first place, because United and the Fire did look like two of the best teams in MLS tonight. Great atmosphere in the stadium.

Just a shame for a really well-played competitive match between two good teams to be influenced so heavily by the officials. In the end though, the two soft penalty calls balanced each other out. D makes a good point about the symmetry in the officiating. I'll wait until the video highlights are posted online, but in person, I didn't see a foul worthy of a penalty in either case. The difference tonight though, was in the goalkeeping.


1. Ladies and gentlemen we have a goalkeeper! Josh Wicks earned us 2 extra points in this match, not only with his penalty kick save on McBride, but also on a couple other point blank saves, and total control of the box on corner kicks.

2. It wasn't just Wicks though that held Chicago to one goal. The strong defense of Marc Burch and Dejan Jakovic also helped preserve the victory. Brian McBride is the best aerial attacker in US Soccer history, and Burch was marked up against him on every corner and free kick. Great job. Jakovic singlehandedly shut down numerous scoring opportunities, including quite a few from the speedy Nyarko.

3. Christian Gomez isn't going to let the starting central attacking midfield job get away from him that easily. Dude was awesome tonight. It's been far too long since we've seen United score directly off a free kick like that.

4. All of the loud side was buzzing in response to the play of Boyzzz Khumalo after he entered as a second half sub. He put in some hard work during the final minutes to keep Chicago honest.

5. Despite missing Emilio, Tom Soehn did well to put together a great starting XI. Wallace had another strong match in central defensive midfield. And the subs did well to close it out (finally we saw the reapperance of the 4-4-2!) Soehn was also smart to switch Fred and Quaranta after Rolfe and Pappa had already switched, and Pappa was clearly abusing Fred.


1. While putting in a good effort whether on the wing in the first half or up front in the second, Santino Quaranta should have made the final score 3-1 if he was able to finish off Khumalo's perfect cross late in the match.


1. I had a good view of Fred's multiple giveaways in the first half. It wasn't pretty. I think the only passes he completed were backwards to Burch.

Ah, first place. It feels good. This team is really starting to come together. We all were counting on United to score plenty of goals in 2009, but now that they have an above average starting goalkeeper, along with maybe the best center back in the league, this team could be in for a very good year.