Burch - Most popular for 2008
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Definitively yes! Or at least the potential is there for Marc Burch to really emerge as a weapon
this year. For a few reasons...
I had a moment of realization during the Harbour View game last week. It was in the second half,
and Burch had just gone on a long overlapping run behind Fred.
Since I didn't witness the match myself, the following player ratings are based on excerpts taken
from comments written about the game on the Soccer Insider:
1. "For me, Marc Burch was by far the player of the match, and not just
because of the 2 goals. Through much of the game, he was among the most active player on the field.
The MLS Players Union just released the annual salary figures for the league. For easy reference,
below are the guaranteed salaries for each DC United player currently under contract as of
3/31/08:
DC Barlow Jeremy D $ 12,900.00
DC Burch Marc D $ 33,000.00
DC Carreiro da Silva Fred M-F $ 242,000.
I missed the match entirely. Wound up going shopping with Mrs. Shatz in advance of our Ocean City
trip. First full-team match that I've missed all year.
But we did get some answers to the questions that I posed yesterday:
Does [Soehn] choose to start the highly paid Quavas Kirk in this match, or keep using him only in
the safety of the Reserve division?
Just got finished watching the match immediately following my three hour drive home from Virginia
Beach. At least I should say I just got finished watching 81 minutes of the match. I missed the
rest thanks to the lights at RFK delaying the match past 10:00 pm. What's with that anyway? That's
just embarassing.
In a match where we were missing Emilio, Moreno, Namoff, Fred, Vide, and Peralta, a loss wasn't
necessarily surprising. I guess the bright side is that we escaped without any more injuries! Also,
I saw tonight that we've got some young players with a lot of heart, and that's got to count for
something, even if it didn't earn us any points.
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.
Our boy Burchie gave an interview on the Junkies yesterday morning. Listen to it here (4/4, Segment
10) or download it here. For a transcript of Marc's previous interview with the Junkies, check out
the Edgell archives.
Burch on Ben Olsen: "He could shave before he gets to practice and then by the time he leaves
he's got a full grown beard.
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.
Despite knocking on wood as often as possible, I hate to admit that I called this. DC United was
consistently crappy early in the year, and was consistently victorious just before the start of
Superliga, but at all other times of the season, we've been horribly inconsistent. The team once
again failed tonight to string together victories.
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.
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.
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.
Due to a limited budget, I haven't made it to too many United games this year, but this was a game
that I feel was probably much better to watch in person than on tv. Good atmosphere at RFK as
always (and the lights stayed on!), but it seemed like less attendance than usual. All in all, a
pretty exciting game, including a frantic final 10 minutes that had my usually quiet section
standing throughout.
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.
What a wild ride. How is it possible that after all the injuries, all the mistakes, all the
questionable decisions, and all the unlucky breaks, I can still go to mlsnet.com right now and see
United currently in the playoffs? Pretty strange turn of events. It just seemed so fitting for this
season to officially end on a stupid individual mistake that cost us a goal to a team that didn't
deserve one.
I was really surprised to see United's players so happy after this match. Earlier in the year, the
team was knocked out in the home leg of the Champions Cup after a victory that wasn't enough to
earn them the aggregrate win. And the same thing happened tonight, as United falls 5-4 on
aggregrate goals in the 2008 Ben Cup.
With the MLS Season 1/4 over, my domination of the "DCU Bloggers Unite" fantasy league
continues! Actually, I lie. The Decimators started the year in sixth place out of seven when the
seventh place team has yet to earn any points, and I've been in second place to our pal Six Yards
North up until just this weekend.
I'm a bit late writing this due to numerous festivities that resulted from my sister-in-law's
wedding this weekend, not the least of which included a couple of hangovers, so I'll keep my
comments brief since several other smarter analysts, wittier writers, and merciless bloggers have
already opined on the match.
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.
In a season that's had its fair share of ups and downs, we've finally got something to show for it!
Maybe a title in the US Open Cup wasn't necessarily the goal for this season, but it's certainly an
accomplishment the team should be proud of, and most importantly, its great that United has fought
its way back into the international picture.
A tie at home against a lesser Western Conference opponent certainly should feel like a loss.
Somehow for me though, this one doesn't. Maybe it's because we outplayed Dallas, to the point where
I think we really deserved the win. This felt like it should have ended at 2-1. Oh well. I guess
we'll just have to steal back those extra two points when we play them again on the road in two
weeks.
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.
Last night's match saw the debut of my new player ratings system. And tonight: the debut of my
player rating icons...
1. Marc Burch - So energetic in both halves of the field. I see a theme developing this year with
the Burch/Fred combo. More on that later.
2. Clyde Simms - Looked like the best player on the field at times.
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.
DC United can now boast of a 4 game unbeaten streak. But how about a streak of 2 underwelming wins
at home against weaker opponents? Makes you wonder how this team will fare against a much better
team in the Galaxy next week.
1. Clyde Simms extends his goal scoring streak to 2 games, and has another solid
performance in the midfield.
After a couple of underwhelming victories the past few weeks, this win was just what United needed
to not only continue their unbeaten streak, but also gain some confidence going into Superliga.
Recently, United has been beating lesser opponents while giving up too many goalscoring
opportunities. But in this match, against inarguably one of the most talented offensive teams in
the league, DC dominated possession, dominated the scoreline, and performed admirably well on
defense.
To finish in last place in the tournament that we all had charted as our lowest priority this year
isn't exactly a tragedy. It's a little bit disheartening, but not discouraging. Because I think the
team played quite well, considering our current injury status and packed schedule. And I also think
we showed more and maybe deserved better than the 3-1 loss last night and zero overall points in
Superliga.
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.
Win, loss, or tie, the result of this match didn't matter much to me as far as the CCL goes. We're
just not a better team than Saprissa or Marathon, so even if we'd managed to beat Cruz Azul at
home, we still had relatively no chance of advancing out of the group stages. But this match had a
larger meaning than that.
Remember how our trusted front office brought in all these talented foreign players with the hope
of giving us a better chance to advance in international competitions this year? With United
finishing the Champions League with just 1 point in 6 matches, that seems like a distant memory.
This was more like the team we've all grown used to after watching the Champions Cup and Superliga
earlier in the year.
In my last post, I claimed that Tom Soehn had an ADR this year of 3.11. What does that mean? Is
that good or bad?
Well as readers of this blog know, I've been passing down player ratings of either "Top
Shelf", "Call", or "Rail" to players after every match. I've also been
tracking those ratings over the course of the year, and displayed all of them here.
I feel like a disgrace for neglecting my wonderful but few readers during this time of year when
there is so little else to read in MLS circles. With this blog's constant focus on United roster
developments, this should be my Super Bowl! But instead I've been wasting away on the pine. A few
life changes have revised my priorities slightly (I'm a new father!
