Continuing the series where we vote "River" for players that we want to see DC United cast away and we vote "Life" for players that we hope will return, let's take a look now at DCU's defenders. I have a feeling this group will prove more interesting than the defensive midfielders, who received mostly favorable ratings.

Following their 1-0 win at San Juan Jabloteh on Sept 15th, the guys have been resting up, practicing, and hopefully getting some tactical and finishing work in before their next game on Thursday, against Marathon. I've been doing much of the same, save for the practicing or working on my finishing.

All right, we've had a night to reflect, we've seen the post-game interviews, and it's time to pose a few questions... (1) Tommy lays the blame on Simms for the double swap at halftime, claiming he wouldn't have made the Quaranta for Burch move if...

This 1-0 win reminded me a bit of another 1-0 win less than a week ago against the Wizards. United was clearly the better team, and our defense did well in shutting down some opportunities, but a big part of the victory can also be attributed to a weaker team failing to get any quality shots on target.

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.

The fine folks at American University recently sat down with defender Avery John for an 'American Minute.' D.C.'s left back discusses his beginnings in soccer, representing Trinidad & Tobago and playing at AU. Wait until you see the mini-dreads Avery was rocking during his college years...

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.

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

We've seen debates emerge a couple times over the past few weeks as to who should be our starting left back. The reality of the situation is that Tom Soehn is likely to continue rotating players at just about every position for the foreseeable future. Marc Burch and Avery John each started one match last week, and they're probably going to continue to split time as long as both are healthy.

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.

United Head Coach Tom Soehn and defender Avery John discuss Wednesday night's 1-1 draw in Kansas City.

United defender Avery John has been called-up by the Trinidad & Tobago National Team for two World Cup qualifiers. T&T will play Costa Rica on June 6 and Mexico on June 10. John, who travelled to New England for tomorrow's game, will leave directly for Trinidad after the match. The veteran defender has earned 82 caps in his career and saw time in the Soca Warriors' 2006 World Cup campaign.