DC United tie vs Real Salt Lake, 0-0

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


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

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


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

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


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

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

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

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

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

What I missed

I've been pretty busy with house additions and family functions the past couple weeks, so without the capability to DVR matches that frustatingly are not on television, my reactions to these past two matches are coming only from video highlights and the written opinions of other fans, bloggers, and reporters. But I promise to resume my normal weekly match discussions Friday night. In the meantime, here's some quick thoughts...

April 4: 1-0 Win over Houston
Top Shelf: Bryan Namoff (An assist and a game-saving clearance off the goalline to preserve the win and the clean sheet), Louis Crayton (Didn't have to do too much, but a shutout in week 3 is much better than waiting until week 17 like last year), and Luciano Emilio (Nice touch on the goal.
Call: Chris Pontius (Earned himself many good opportunities, but needs to convert).
Rail: Jamie Moreno (A sliding tackle from behind at midfield is a highly unnecessary reason to play the remainder of the match down a man).

April 10: 2-1 Loss to Real Salt Lake
Top Shelf: Luciano Emilio and Chris Pontius (Continue to be the stars of the 2009 season for us)
Call: Andrew Jacobson (A lot of mixed opinions on Jacobson in his first start as he did well on the ball, but maybe failed in some of his defensive responsibilities) and Dejan Jakovic (BDR touted a couple of nice pokes by Jakovic to extinguish opportunities, but a couple scary moments from him as well).
Rail: Louis Crayton (He is allowed exactly one blown save per season - this needs to be the only one), Christian Gomez (Third game in a row that I have not seen him appear in the highlights even once), and Devon McTavish (Did very little in his return).

The best analysis so far goes to D with this expert analogy:

So we arrive at United's first loss of the year, and it feels as if an annoying acquaintance has shown up to your party, but an hour late, just as you were hoping that he might not remember the invitation you extended out of some strange social obligation. But in your heart, you knew he was coming, and he'd tell his bad jokes, and hit on your friends, and double-dip into the guacamole. All we can hope is that he didn't bring a sleeping bag, and leaves next week at RFK.