I wanted a place online to talk about my new adventures in Chicago, but I didn't want to turn this into a personal blog. Instead, I've created another blog, DC To Chicago.

After a two-year absence, it's time to break out one of my all-time favorite MLS stats. With the Red Bulls advancing to MLS Cup, they re-ignite the tradition of having a coach in MLS Cup in the first full year of control of his team.

1996: Arena v. Osiander
1997: Arena v.

Just wanted to give a shout-out to my friends at UnitedMania for the nice things they said about me on the latest episode of their excellent podcast. In case you weren't aware (i.e., the readers among you whom I don't know personally), I am moving to Chicago next week. This is the reason why I have barely posted since mid-August.

While watching the game eysterday, I was reminded of the game that ended the 2002 season. United were playing Dallas at home on a Thursday night, and, in addition to winning, also needed a two or three results to happen to get United to the playoffs for the first time since the MLS Cup win in 1999.

At the beginning of the season, I was a guest on John Dyson and Aaron Stollar's short-lived podcast a few times. On the season preview, I picked Chivas USA to go all the way this year. Admittedly, at the time I didn't realize that Guzan would be gone midway through the season, but I felt they were a good team that also knew it let itself down in last year's playoffs.

It now seems that most of my fellow bloggers have joined me in giving up on this season. After yesterday's loss, United Mania's podcast declared the season over, and now Aaron follows suit. But I want to deal with a couple of minor points they made in trying to come to Tom Soehn's defense. Admittedly, I haven't seen the last two games because I'm still out of town and haven't had access to those channels.

After the results of the past few months, I've come to the unfortunate conclusion that Tom Soehn should not be United's head coach going into the 2009 season. After the win on June 29 against the Galaxy, I felt Soehn  had shown his worth. But the current collapse tells me that he has finally lost the team, the point of no return for a coach.

I haven't been posting too much lately for a bunch of reasons. One of them is that I feel I have already said everything about DC United's problems earlier this season, and I have seen nothing from them to suggest otherwise.  And since I don't believe in piling on with the same criticism week after week after week, I have chosen to let others do so.

Join me here tonight at 7:15 for coverage of tonight's final between D.C. United and the Charleston Battery, direct from the RFK press box. Will United win its first tournament since 2004? Will Charleston become only the second lower-division team to win the Open Cup? Will the WiFi at RFK hold out?

I filled in for Charlie Boehm at MLSNet last night. Here is my recap and wrap.

I'm still reading a lot of complaining about Orozco's red card, most recently Fullback, who remembered some particularly dubious anti-US officiating by Wolfgang Stark, who sent Orozco off.  And almost immediately after the game, Ives, being more mild-mannered, wrote:

Orozco can't throw an elbow of any kind, but the referee did not have to give a red card that early in the match.

Aaron says Nowak covered his ass:

Next, let's move on to Peter Nowak. Today was the day that we saw Nowak exposed as yet another feckless wuss more interested in covering his own ass than actually going out and winning that match. Obviously, down a man, a forward had to come off for defensive cover.

I wasn't too thrilled with his performance in Qualifying or the first two games, and figured he was just nervous. But now I think he may have been planted by the FMF to sabotage us. They knew we'd be so thrilled to have a kid choose the US over Mexico that we wouldn't care if he was actually good or not.

Check in around 7:00 tonight for my liveblog of tonight's US Open Cup semifinal between DC United and the New England Revolution. I'll be going from the RFK pressbox, so I doubt I'll have the same WiFi problems that I had at the SoccerPlex last month (you never know, to be honest). But I am faster than MLS' matchtracker.

Lalas fired, Gullit resigns. Ruud officially becomes the biggest high-profile MLS coaching bust since Bora in 1999. Maybe even bigger, because a) there was no attention paid to the 1999 Metros in the national media, and b) at least Bora lasted a season.

For all my issues with Cobi Jones, in fairness I think he can be a very good MLS coach.