Award 9: The Etchy

By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to the team's Most Valuable Player. The winner of this award should be the player who had the biggest influence in driving the team to victory. The award's namesake Marco Etcheverry helped deliver 3 MLS Cups to the club, and was named League MVP in 1998. He's also a member of the all-time MLS Best XI.

1. A great candidate for this award is our captain Jaime Moreno. With 10 goals and 10 assists this season, Moreno continues to be one of the most productive players in the league, even at age 34. A lot of people said his career was over before this season, and a lot of people have already been saying it after this season, but don't let them fool you. Because there is no doubt that DC United is a better team when Moreno is on the field.

2. Last year's league MVP Luciano Emilio was once again one of the top scorers in the league with 11 goals. Although he was quiet early in the year, and probably never fully recovered from injuries late in the year, Emilio is still one of the best strikers in the league, and this season even added 5 assists.

3. Our best defender this year has been Bryan Namoff. With so many new faces on the back line, Namoff was forced to take on more of a leadership role than in years past. The team struggled at times in defense, but it was rarely due to any faults by Namoff.

4. Clyde Simms displayed his best year to date with 2 goals and 2 assists while playing a central defensive midfield role. Simms was the model of consistency this year, being the only player on the roster to start all 30 games.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Can we laugh about it yet?

Last night I was pissed. Today, I'm over it. We weren't going anywhere in the CCL anyway, so unless Martinez's injury is significant, we really didn't lose anything important yesterday. I'm ready to just look back at that match and laugh. Because really, what a freakin embarassment for CONCACAF that was. That match was hardly a representation of what any competition called the "Champions League" should look like.

The best part of all though is that if you go to google and type in "referee roberto moreno" (with or without the quotes), the first link you get is my blog post from last night. Guess what... He deserves it! It will take Moreno a long time to live that one down.

And that was even before the second goal! And before the second United keeper was ejected! Has anyone ever seen a match before where two goalkeepers on the same team were given red cards? Hilarious is how I'll remember this match. Hopefully the players feel the same way and won't let this demotivate them at all. When Martinez was on the ground, I would have loved to see all the other United players, including Crayton, just take a seat on the ground also. I wonder if that would have gotten Cruz Azul to stop play. Probably not. I'm sure they still would have celebrated, the fans still would have sang, and that stupid train horn still would have blared.


1. Our center backs Gonzalo Martinez, Bryan Namoff, and Marc Burch all played admirably. I'm not 100% sure that Martinez wasn't to blame on the first goal, although Miles and Dunseth felt certain that it was Zaher's responsibility to mark two men. But obviously no one was to blame on the second goal besides a bit of poor sportsmanship.

2. It's such a shame that James Thorpe wasn't given an opportunity to play the whole match, because he was playing well, and I'm sure his confidence was building. I think it's safe to say that Thorpe played his way back onto the roster for next year, so United won't have to use any draft picks on keepers for once. And if for some reason Wells didn't return, I might even be satisfied with the Division II keeper of the year as our #2.


1. This was my first time seeing Ryan Miller, and he was alright. Seemed to be very cool and composed. He needs to do a better job of marking though. It was Miller's man who got a free header on goal that hit the crossbar somewhere around the 15th minute or so. If Miller's defensive abilities don't improve, I don't see him supplanting Cordeiro on the depth chart at left wing.

2. How about Quavas Kirk earning his first clean sheet in 4 minutes of action between the pipes! I honestly thought the ref would give Q-Nasty a straight red for taking too long to put on the keeper gloves.


1. Troubling that this isn't the first time I've had to say that Craig Thompson was the weak link in this match, but again, it's not really his fault. Hopefully the coaching staff will learn soon enough that he isn't tall enough, quick enough, or aware enough to be a defender. Why not play McTavish at right back?

Ah well. At least now we're officially eliminated from this thing so we don't have to worry about it interfering with league play again until next year. Oh wait, we still have another meaningless match against Marathon? Dammit!

Anyway, I'm just ready to suck up my pride and pour my support into the Chicago Fire tomorrow night. Let's hope old No-Neck can deliver a victory over NY and help us into the playoffs!

Award 8: The Popie

By definition, the Popie Award goes to the DC United defender of the year. I think this category is pretty self explanatory. The award's namesake Eddie Pope was the MLS Defender of the Year in 1997, and anchored our team in central defense from 1996 to 2002. Pope remains a member of the MLS All-Time Best XI. It's a bit hard to make an argument that any of United's defenders this year reach Pope's stature.

1. Ironman Bryan Namoff has been our most consistent defender, if nothing else. Earlier in the year I would have argued that he was having his best season as a pro, but I'm not sure that's still the case. Namoff should be considered one of the best right backs in the league, and even played well in central defense this year when he had to.

2. Maybe not the biggest, but certainly the tallest signing this offseason was Gonzalo Peralta. He had some great games this year in shutting down some good offensive players, but also made a few too many individual mistakes that led to goals. Hard to say whether or not the voting for this award would be any different had Peralta been healthy the entire year.

3. The most versatile player on our roster has got to be Devon McTavish. This year, he has played center back, right back, right midfield, and center holding midfield. The problem is that no one seems to know which position he's best at. McTavish began the year as our fifth option at the back, but has since won his starting job back from Martinez. Although not the most physically talented player on the team, Devon has mostly held his own in defense.

4. Sure, he's not exactly a defender, but Louis Crayton also deserves your consideration. Since joining the team, Crayton may not have a winning record (the team is 3-5-3), but he has already helped the team earn more clean sheets than Zach Wells.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

Embarassment

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

Award 5: The Grosy

By definition, the Grosy Award goes to the player with the most cajones. In general, the nominees for this award are players who aren't afraid to play through injury and leave it all on the field. The award's namesake Josh Gros was famous for his work rate, and his career with DC United has seemingly ended way too soon, thanks to the numerous concussions he'd received throughout his time here. Gros's energy and consistency has been sorely missed this season.

1. The only United player to wear any head protection this season was Bryan Namoff. His reputation as the team's "Iron Man" makes him a strong candidate. Or maybe this is all just an excuse for me to link this picture again.

2. Santino Quaranta is another guy who has played through pain multiple times this year. He's spent most of the season with a cast on at least one of his arms, and even finished one recent match with a bloody sock. Tino returned to DC this year as a kind of polarizing figure, but his heart has never been questioned.

3. Team newcomer Ivan Guerrero is nominated purely due to one play in a match earlier this season, in which Guerrero lunged to cross a ball that was about to go out of play for a corner. Quaranta wound up scoring on the cross. Guerrero wound up falling into the advertising boards and injuring himself.

4. Despite participating in only 15 minutes of action all season, Ben Olsen certainly deserves a nomination for playing through injury. As the team's emotional leader, Olsen displayed a bit of bravery that a lot of other players on this team could learn a lot from, and those 15 minutes may have been the high point of the season.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny Awards)

A respectable performance, but still no points

After 60 minutes of this match, I was all ready to come on here and say I was wrong about wanting to punt the CCL. A goalless draw would have been a wonderful result. But as is typical with this club, we let up 2 soft goals off of shotty defending. And now we're staring up from the bottom of a fully stacked group.


1. The best man wearing black last night was again Bryan Namoff. Once we have 5 healthy eligible defenders, it's hard to predict who the 4 starters will be. But we do know for sure that Namoff will be one of them.

2. Gotta give some credit to Tom Soehn. He sent out a pretty good lineup that played admirably well, while still allowing Quaranta to rest, and removing Fred and Simms early. Of course I'd be singing a different tune if Emilio or Guerrero or somebody had gotten injured.


1. Two reserves stepped up and played well, and that's Craig Thompson and Rod Dyachenko. Thompson saved a goal early with a clearance that went off the post, but he was the one who got beaten on that play anyway, so it's hard to rave about it. Dyachenko played well as the transitionary player between the defense and attack. Thompson may have earned a few more Convey votes in this match, and Dyachenko may have earned a few less Donnety votes.


1. Gonzalo Martinez was constantly getting beaten on the left side throughout the entire match.

2. When the tallest players on the field are Marc Burch and Gonzalo Peralta, that second goal really should NOT happen. Pretty sure it was Peralta's man who got a head on it.

3. I expected more out of Luciano Emilio and Fred. Anything really. Like maybe at least a few more shots on goal? With their keeper clearly being uncomfortable, it would have been nice if we'd been able to test him.

So what does everybody feel now about our chances of advancing and what our lineup should be for the remainder of the tournament? It would not be looked on kindly by Management (and by the home fans at RFK) if we rolled out a starting XI filled with reserves next Wednesday. But I have no problem adding one or two more reserve players to the starting lineup as the CCL continues, and as our chances of advancing get slimmer, and as the playoffs draw closer.

On the bright side, DCU's play was inspirational, despite earning 0 points. And going into Sunday's match at Dallas, we're just one Designated Player shy of full strength.

Continuing the downward spiral

As frustrating as it was to watch this team on a roller coaster ride that had its share of ups and downs the past few months, I would trade the past three weeks for that roller coaster. I'm not going to argue that we deserved to win this match, because clearly we didn't, but it sure made it hard for us to have a chance when we suffered from the worst display of officiating that we've seen all year. And for the second match in one week, we saw a red card go to a central defender on a challenge that deserved a yellow at worst.


1. Boyzzz Khumalo scored his first MLS goal, and was maybe our only attacker to look dangerous for any sustained period of time. What do you guys think of the nickname "Z3" for him?


1. As pissed off as I was at the midfield in general, I've got to hand it to Santino Quaranta. He showed a lot of heart, clearly playing through some significant pain, even a eliciting a Curt Schilling bloody sock reference from Bretos. I'm just worried though that some longer term damage could have resulted from Soehn leaving him in too long.


1. Sorry, but I will not be joining the Louis Crayton apologists from this match. Sure he made some great 1v1 stops, and maybe there was only one goal that you could truly blame on him, but he let in five goals, which hasn't happened to us in over two years. That's unacceptable.

2. This is one of those matches where you'd tend to hold the entire backline accountable. But McTavish did manage to score a goal, so it's just Marc Burch, Bryan Namoff and Gonzalo Martinez for this one.

3. But worse even than the defense was the midfield. And that's Clyde Simms, Ivan Guerrero, and Fred. I have a feeling that the team of Fred/Simms/Quaranta/Guerrero is the best foursome that we've got for most of the rest of the season, and this was their worst match collectively. Simms looked like he belonged back in Richmond the way he was abused by Donovan. The wingers didn't have horrible matches, but I expected much more. When the speedy Guerrero is on the same side of the field as David Beckham, we should be using that to our advantage. Becks may still be a world class crosser, but Guerrero should have been able to beat him up the left side all night, if only the team had tried. And I only saw Fred make one of his patented diagonal runs in this match, and he was called offside for that one.

4. Tom Soehn was straight up out-coached by Bruce Arena. Arena knew enough to take advantage of our lack of speed in defense, and Soehn did nothing to adjust. Of course he was hampered for most of the second half thanks to the Beckham Rule (You know, the one where you automatically get sent off if you knock him over?). I also thought the 77th minute was way too long to wait to bring in your first offensive substitute.

I'm normally very optimistic about this team, but I think we've reached an obvious crossroads here. Even with the 3-7 start, and the mid-season roller coaster, I never really had any doubts that we'd miss the playoffs. Until right now. This is the first time all year that I'm thinking DC has about a 50-50 shot at making the playoffs, and that's scary.

So with that said, I'm ready to punt the CCL. We really have no shot of winning at Marathon, even if we sent our best lineup. So really, why bother? I would have no problem with Moreno, Emilio, Fred, Quaranta, Martinez, Namoff, and Crayton all heading home to DC until the weekend. None of these players should be forced to see action during the remainder of the CCL, as they need to be as healthy as possible for the playoff push. And I sure hope Peralta is close to recovered, because Burch's suspension really necesitates his availability for our big road match this weekend.

By the way, what kind of shitty scheduling would cause the only two professional sports teams that I'm emotionally attached to to both be playing Sunday afternoon in Dallas this weekend?

Another international disappointment

I was wrong when I suggested earlier that DCU would probably be taking the CCL seriously, since they had rested Emilio and Fred for the Dallas match. Instead we sent out an even weaker team tonight, that included the reappearance of Zach Wells! Goff says it's because Crayton had a sore knee, I'm not so sure. A 2-0 loss to the best team in Concacaf isn't necessarily an end to our international play this year though. As long as Saprissa beats up everyone else too, we've still got a chance. That is if we want one.


1. Clyde Simms was the best player on the field last night for us. And he had our best scoring chance of the night with a header off of a Burch cross in the 72nd minute.


1. That was another quality match from Boyzzz Khumalo. He certainly gave a lot of effort.


1. I don't agree that the challenge by Devon McTavish deserved a red card, but he sure did hang his team out to dry. Even though it looked like we were playing something like 8 v. 13, not just 10 v. 11.

2. I debated in my head for a while where to put Marc Burch. His defending was poor, but he was our best offensive threat. I'd almost forgot he had that kind of crossing ability, and is really much more of a left back than a center back.

3. Craig Thompson looked like a rookie reserve player who has been asked to play way too many minutes for the first team. Oh wait, that's exactly what he is, and it's not really his fault.

4. Minor demerits to Bryan Namoff for his second below average performance in a row.

Now I usually reserve space in this blog only for discussions of in-game developments and thoughts on particular players, but let's take a step back and look at the broad league-wide political issues that this and other tournaments have raised. Fixture congestion, the salary cap, and roster restrictions are major impediments to the success of MLS teams in international competitions. The best example is New England's somewhat comical home loss to Joe Public. The league needs to set its priorities straight. If the priority is still to make the league and the teams profitable as soon as possible, then I understand the cap restrictions, but then why play so many damn games? If the priority is make the league better respected internationally, then the league needs to give the teams more incentive to try to do so in international tournaments, instead of just rolling out the reserves, and needs to give the teams the tools (cap space, increased roster spots) to do it.

Award 1: The Richie

By definition, the Richie Award goes to the hardest working, most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams is probably most famous for his diminutive stature, but he is second most famous for his work rate. The dude just went nonstop, constantly interrupting plays for the opposing team. And yet he received much less recognition for his role in those three championships than many other players on those teams (Harkes, Agoos, Pope, Diablo, Stewart, etc).

By virtue of playing the same central defensive midfield position as Williams, Clyde Simms would probably be the favorite to win this award. He's made every start this season, and has played a critical role with the team since beating out Brian Carroll for the CDM job last year. Simms has even developed a little bit of a scoring touch this season with two goals. Nonetheless, he's still virtually unknown in the national press when compared to players like Joseph, Mastroeni, and Clark.

Challenging Simms would be our Ironman Bryan Namoff. He's played almost every minute of every match this year, and has been definitely our most consistent defender, if not also our most talented. If you're looking for proof that Namoff is underrated, look no further than the fact that he's had only 1 cap for the national team, while Marvel Wynne continues to get called up.

Also throwing his name into the race this year is Devon McTavish. This Champions Cup scoring machine has probably made more appearances in all competitions combined than any other player this year. And you can't question his work ethic when you realize that he's started in at least 3 different positions this season.

And rounding out the Richie Award nominees is a newcomer to the club Joe Vide. Since joining United in July, he's fought his way into the starting lineup and leaves it all on the field every match, even eliciting comparisons from some to Ben Olsen. Obviously the guy is underrated too when he's been cut by two lesser teams like the Red Bulls and Quakes in the last year.

poll by twiigs.com

(the 2008 Benny awards)

When did the Red Bulls get good?

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


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

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

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


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

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


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

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

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

Benny Vide delivers the victory

With his one-time shoe-string shot to give the team a 1-0 lead, I could have sworn I was watching Benny Olsen. Or maybe Benny Feilhaber. But definitely somebody named Benny. Nope, it was Joe Vide. That goal really made me wish I was listening to Dave Johnson and Thomas Rongen do the broadcast. I could just hear Rongen saying his usual "Shoelaces... Thanks for coming..." line.

Anyway, up until around the 80th minute, this felt like it was going to be a very underwhelming victory. We looked noticeably mediocre, playing against a middling Western Conference team whose coach had just resigned. DC dominated possession for the most part, but could only generate one goal, and that one was off of a rather spectacular atypical shot. We rightfully pulled away at the end, but it wasn't quite the victory I was hoping for. Once again, it was Gallardo's presence that was missing.


1. Obviously it was the goal by Joe Vide that allowed us to knock the ball around more in the second half. The other two goals would have been much harder to come by if it wasn't for Vide's.

2. Our two stalwarts Brian Namoff and Clyde Simms had their usual awesome performances. I'm thinking that the final 5 minutes after Simms was subbed out was actually the first time all season that either of these guys have come off the field.

3. Playing once again in a CAM role, Santino Quaranta's goal was a beaut. Not often in the MLS do you see someone score from the top corner of the box like that.

4. I'm not likely to take back everything bad I've said about him quite yet, but it was cool to see Quavas Kirk score his first MLS goal in his first minute on the field.


1. How about our new assist machine Luciano Emilio? I don't think we're going to be comparing Looch to John Stockton anytime soon, but I liked seeing him share the wealth with his teammates.


1. It's hard for me to put a defender down here after a clean sheet match, but I was once again a bit disappointed with Gonzalo Martinez. His passes are sometimes too lazy and his dribbling is sometimes too wild. If we ever have Peralta, Burch, and McTavish available all at once, I don't think Martinez should be an automatic starter anymore.

So it wasn't quite a domination as the score suggests, but it was a victory nonetheless. Now let's see if, for the first time in a while, DC can string together multiple wins. They've got the potential to do it, with matches coming up against New York at home and San Jose on the road, with the Open Cup final against Charleston mixed in. Hopefully the team can build on this game and gain some confidence, because I'm not sure the kind of lackluster first half that we had will be enough against an energized USL opponent.

Stealing an ugly one

I remember writing before the season started that we would probably have to win a lot of games 1-0 this year. Well it took five months and a goalkeeper change to finally do it.

I got back from a great week at Ocean City today and opted to purchase the discounted $9.95 MLSlive package, which will probably be used only to watch tonight's match and next Saturday's. There's nothing like some out-of-town commentators to make you really appreciate Dave Johnson.


1. Despite being referred to as lazy once by the Chicago announcer (yeah, because running for 90 minutes straight is a sure sign of laziness), I thought Bryan Namoff may have been our man of the match. Lots of good tackles and clearances.

2. The goalscorer Fred was very active tonight. Less educated fans would tell you that his goal was easy because he was completely unmarked, but many other players would have headed that over the bar, or straight at the keeper. Fred hit it hard and low.

3. I was also very impressed once again with the play of our other winger Ivan Guerrero. The dude just doesn't stop. He made several plays on both sides of the field.

4. In his MLS debut Louis Crayton proved to be incredibly competent, and a force to watch for. He was plucking down crosses all over. It took Zach Wells 16 matches to earn his first shutout. It took Crayton 1. But I'm still not sure if this will mean a permanent switch at the keeper position. I guess the question is, would Wells have earned a clean sheet tonight also?


1. I'd say any game that we play against Chicago where Blanco doesn't score is a good game for Clyde Simms. Would be nice if he stopped giving the ball away sometimes though.

2. Neither really stood out as an outstanding performer, but the all American team of Devon McTavish and Marc Burch earned their second clean sheet together in central defense. And this time it was against a really good team. Give the guys some credit. I think its time to stop shuddering every time you see Burch starting in the middle, as these two have proved themselves adequate.


1. Is it just me or is Gonzalo Martinez still off his game a bit? Maybe he's got some nagging injury that hasn't been disclosed?

2. Not a horrible game from him, but I'd like to see more out of Santino Quaranta. It was over two months ago that I was advocating to see Tino in a CAM role, but he didn't seem to produce much offensively, aside from a decent long range shot early on. But to his credit, Quaranta did track back defensively more than Gallardo usually does, which gave Fred and Guerrero a bit more freedom on the outside.

This match won't be remembered for it's beauty. It was entirely too chippy from the start. But DC took advantage of their opponent's mistake to steal the victory. Which is great to be able to say, because I feel that we've been the ones losing games because of stupid mistakes far too often this season. The roller coaster ride continues.

I'll be back some point later to give player ratings for the two games I missed last week, based only on the opinions of Goff, other bloggers, and Chest Rockwell comments.

Cleaning the sheets

How's that for a confidence booster? With only 7 of our normal starting 11 in the lineup, and only 6 guys starting who started against KC in the season opener, United somehow came together to produce a big win and their first shutout of the year. With a first look at the starting lineups and the revelation that Ryan Pore was starting at forward, I kind of had a feeling that this could finally be THE ONE, and the team did not disappoint.


1. With apologies to Wellsy, the #1 performer in this match goes to Tom Soehn, who took a roster made of straw and spun it into gold. The straight 4-man midfield worked out surprisingly well, allowing the team to control possession for the majority of the match, and shifting the solid Namoff into central defense was the right decision here.

2. Zach Wells really earned the shutout in this match. He made two fantastic saves (one immediately after halftime, and one around the 66th minute) that easily could have been scores for KC, and if they had been scores, we all would have been sitting around saying that neither goal was Zach's fault. He put in a game changing performance last night, and to get his first clean sheet without los Gonzalos in the lineup might have made it feel even better.

3. Screw Budonovuddlen, I think the best forward-forward combination in the league right now is Luciano Emilio and Jaime Moreno. Moreno had a goal and an assist, adding to my plea that he be considered an MVP candidate. Is it just me, or has Emilio scored a lot of goals with his left foot this year?

4. Bryan Namoff really stepped up as the leader of the defense in this match. Made some great blocks and remained very involved in the attack, despite playing centrally. Hopefully no one in the USMNT camp watched this match, because if they did, Namoff might deserve some consideration.

5. Two very strong debuts from the two former Quakers Ivan Guerrero and Joe Vide. BDR makes a good point about how Guerrero's work rate (and I would add Vide's as well) helps free up Fred more, to allow Fred to be Fred. One assist in one game for DC is not too shabby for Guerrero. And although Vide can at times be a bit Dyachenkish in his challenges, he plays the enforcer role quite well. Maybe it's just the scruffy beard, but at times he almost reminded me of another UVA product.


1. Kudos to the rest of the defense Marc Burch, Devon McTavish, and Pat Carroll for helping the team earn its first shutout. Burch's biggest contribution came on the offensive end though with a perfectly placed free kick for Moreno's goal. But I agree with Fullback that the defense did make me a bit nervous a couple of times that we would lose the shutout because of a stupid mistake.

2. Hopefully everyone agrees that Fred just played his best game in many weeks. And he did it while playing on the wing, NOT in the middle. On the wing, where he belongs!


NONE

So DC turned in a great game, and one that they really needed against a team who we were tied with for points before the match. DC is now solidly in third place in the East, with one game in hand over Chicago and two over Columbus. But that comes with a very tough stretch of matches ahead. Following a winnable game against the improving Red Bulls, United then faces NE at home, Chicago on the road, and NE on the road. It's the Open Cup semi-final match next Tuesday though that we should all consider the first MUST-WIN game of the year. Really a shame that it won't be seen on tv anywhere - I'll be in Ocean City that week :(

Raining on the parade

This was the first non-Open-Cup game of the season that I didn't see either in person or on tv, and that's probably a good one. Because aside from maybe the match at RSL early in the year, this was easily DC's worst performance yet. I should have taken the Fullback approach and prepped for this game with some red wine, or better yet, I should have been taking in the game with my arch nemesis Jose.


None


1. It sounded like Bryan Namoff bailed us out quite a few times on the defensive end, although I didn't stay up to hear what happened on Ching's goal.


1. I was thinking early in the match that Gonzalo Martinez was having his worst in a United uniform, and then he caps it off with a red card. Not good. But that's okay, because we have loads of talented defenders waiting on the bench right?! It's not like Chalo was getting beat by Donovan or anybody of stature either. Brian Mullan? C'mon!!

2. Fred was given an opportunity to shine in his beloved CAM role, but he failed miserably. DC had no possession in the midfield, and I've got to think that the reason for Carroll being yanked was Fred's poor performance. As I've said before, we're just better off with Fred on the wing. Hopefully others will start to realize that too.

3. It's clearly a sad state of affairs when the answer to our problems in the midfield is Rod Dyachenko.

I'm still not ready to write this team off, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, obviously, is the injuries. Getting back Gallardo and Peralta will be huge. Secondly though, this team has already had its share of ups and downs this year. Right now they're down, but they'll go back up again. It's just really unfortunate that this match didn't happen when it was first scheduled when we were on a winning streak. But this was not a must-win game for us. Those are coming up immediately following the all-star break, when we've got 4 conference games in a row.

With the All-Star game looming tonight, and United now enjoying a week-and-a-half break, I'll be taking the opportunity to do some mid-season reviews. Stay tuned.

The replacements

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

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

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

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

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

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

What's yours?

Is this the start of a turnaround? Or just a brief interruption from despair?

I'm not going to write an introduction, because D already wrote the intro I wanted to write, and did so probably much more eloquently than I would have:

If United was truly to start reassembling this season, this is the kind of game they needed. Not a competent 1-nil victory, not a 5-2 thrashing of someone, both of those would lend themselves far too easy a comfort to a team to fall into self-delusion, to dismiss the first third of the season as just a bad dream. But a game where the team plays well, and fights back twice to ultimately take a victory, that's one that might mean something in a way that keeps us all realistic about how far off we are.

1. Give some credit to Tom Soehn for sticking with the same starting lineup from earlier in the week. A lineup that I think is the best we've used all year. I'll admit that if I was the head coach, United would have probably lost this game because I would have pulled Santino Quaranta in favor of Marc Burch before Tino had the chance to set up two goals.

2. Jaime Moreno really performed the way a captain should in this match. He has a different way of leading from how I think Olsen would lead, and how some other captains like Beckham lead. Jaime doesn't get in the referee's face after every foul. He's quiet for most of the match, but then when he does finally speak up (like after Guevara's girlish slap to McTavish) its more effective. And with one assist and one goal, Moreno was the man of the match (as well as a standout for my fantasy team!)

3. Bryan Namoff continues to have the best year of his career.


1. Santino Quaranta's play in this match could be viewed as an analogy to the entire team's performance in this match, and hopefully it will also serve as analogy to the team's performance for the duration of the year. After much adversity and frustration early on, Quaranta fought hard to set up two goals. I was disappointed in his constantly being offsides in the first half, and being a step or two too slow on a ball from Martinez in the 15th minute that either Olsen or McTavish probably would have scored on if they were playing right wing. But Tino did really well to win the penalty kick by pushing into the box, and rightfully taking the contact from Wynne.

2. I thought Luciano Emilio's nickname for the rest of the year was going to be Brickfoot, but I liked Limarzi calling him the Predator. Emilio was aggressive to finish off the gift of a game winning goal from Sutton's save on Quaranta's shot, and let's not forget that he also finished off another rebound from a shot from Moreno that was called back for Jaime being offside.


1. Let's mark this as the first time ever that a goalscorer wound up in the Rail category. Although Gonzalo Peralta's goal was quality, this match could have been 3-0 if he had been able to stay with Danny Dichio on those two goals in the first half.

To me, this really felt like a game we could build upon. As D pointed out, this wasn't a pounding, and that's probably a good thing. But this game showed the team that they DO have the resiliency, the talent, and the heart to come from behind. Because this team has a lot more coming from behind to do this year.

And you know what? I'm glad that we have another tough opponent to face next week with a matchup against New England on the road. If our next game was at home against San Jose or something, I feel like it would be tough to get in a rhythm. But our next three games are against the two MLS Cup finalists from last year, and the team that knocked us out of the playoffs last year. These are all winnable games, but these are also teams that United will have to again play their hearts out against. Let's keep it going.

Round 1 to Gomez

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


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


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

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

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

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

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

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

Hey, the season's still young

A 2-1 loss at home on national television? Not the result any of us were really anticipating. Especially playing against a back line that included Chad Marshall and Danny O'Rourke in the center. We've really got to do better on offense.


1. Bryan Namoff - He's having maybe the best season of his career so far. Hopefully he can stay healthy.


1. Fred - Great work ethic tonight. Did really well, and almost had an assist to Emilio's head early in the match. But for the most part Fred was shut down by, um, Hejduk?!

2. Gonzalo Martinez - You could tell he wasn't 100%, but still played his guts out. I was going to put him in the Top Shelf category, but then I decided I just couldn't justify two defenders there when we gave up two goals.

3. Tom Soehn - Soehn took the opportunity to start his best XI players, in their best formation. It just didn't work. Gotta love "Tommy's Army" though, with the giant Soehn head. Or was that the Pope?


1. Gonzalo Peralta - If you score an own goal, chances are you didn't have a great game. Remember the first couple of matches when we would see Peralta talking to the ref after every foul? And yelling at his teammates to get into position? What happened to that guy? The defense was unorganized for the second game in a row. If Peralta is going to be the vocal leader on defense then he needs to communicate better with his keeper and with the rest of the line.

2. Luciano Emilio - I wasn't too upset at him about the header off the cross from Fred that Emilio shot straight at the keeper despite having 90% of the goal open. I was much more upset about Emilio trapping the ball and then trying to slowly turn on a ball that he could have one-timed into the net from Moreno around the 36th minute.

It's not just Emilio though. And it's not just this game. The whole team seems way too tentative on offense. Instead of taking the quick cross or the one-time shot, United is more often holding the ball waiting for a play to develop, or sending it in to Emilio posting up with his back to the goal (which never works). In the first 10 minutes against TFC, and the last 10 minutes of the home leg against Pachuca, DC took advantage of their opportunities with some quick shots from the run of play. Other than that, they haven't been able to produce.

I'm ready for a shake up. And I DON'T mean the coaching staff. Tom Soehn can certainly not be blamed for this loss, as he put what we all thought was the best XI players on the field, and he made the tactical switch to the 3-5-2 at the right time. No, for this loss I blame the players. And it was at this point last year when Soehn started holding his players accountable. Benching Erpen for one match, benching Moreno for one match. To send a message.

So let's shake things up. As well as he has played on the wing, I'd like to see McTavish get a try in central defense again, in place of Peralta, if even for just one match. And I don't think he will be supplanted in the starting lineup permanently, but I think it's time to give Emilio a game off, and try Quaranta and Moreno as the combination up front.

Blah. The season's still young. Hopefully this won't discourage too many fans from showing up tomorrow morning at the auxiliary field. I'll still be there. BYO suntan lotion. But more than anything else, I was just disappointed to see two Terrapins (Burch and Rogers) starting in a game on ESPN2 and both of them named their hometowns instead of giving shoutouts to the University of Maryland.

The 3-Whatever-Whatever

I still don't know whether to call it a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3, but whatever it is, it seems to be working pretty well after a game and a half. For a couple of reasons.

One is just the overall talent on United's roster. The team easily has 12 players who are worthy of starting every match, and that number will be 13 when Olsen is healthy. And it's also good that several of these potential starters (Burch, McTavish, Quaranta) are flexible enough to play in a couple different positions.

Another reason is the speed at the back. The main reason DC did not use the 3-5-2 much last year I think was that Boswell was too slow to be the lone center defender. But we talked earlier about how the newly acquired speed of los Gonzalos will allow Marc Burch and Bryan Namoff to get forward more. Well now the team is eliminating that transition and just going with 3 backs to begin with.

I think there's a point that got lost in the excitement of the 2-1 "victory" on Wednesday. We know that two substitutes Dyachenko and Niell scored the two goals, but there was a third substitute too: Marc Burch. And his insertion may have made a bigger impact than we really saw. This seemed at the time like a strange move. Bringing in a defender Burch for a forward Quaranta? But Burch played the left wide midfield role, and pushed Fred more into the middle. When Burch came in, right away he fired off two left-footed crosses. If Fred was still on the left, he probably would have tried to cut and dribble those balls inside. So a true left winger instead of a left winger who likes playing in the middle forced Pachuca to spread out a bit more on defense, once they learned that they had to respect Burchie's crossing ability. Also, Fred then had more freedom to roam the field, which may have helped allow him to set up Niell's goal.

So I like the new formation, mostly because of the options it brings. But what I don't want to see is DC United reverting back to using a 3-5-2 permanently for every game, like they did in 2006 and like the Revolution have been doing for years. This can be a risky formation, especially when one of the back 3 go forward, which Namoff, Peralta, and Martinez all have a tendency to do. But I think it's very valuable to the team in certain situations, like when you're down 2 goals in an aggregate series (Pachuca match), or when you're playing well defensively but keep losing possession in the midfield (Toronto match). So with DC's current roster, it's great that the team will have the ability to work well in different formations, and will definitely keep opposing teams on their toes, not knowing what lineup to expect.

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

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


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


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

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


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

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

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

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