The team announced the sixth coach in team history today. It can be debated whether this was a good
move, but I, for one, will put faith that the club has done it's due diligence in making the
decision to have Curt Onalfo lead the charge starting this season. I believe there are reasons for
optimism:
1) Youthful, energetic coach, 2) His familiarity with the team ideals and staff, 3) His history of
working with young players in his time directing our United Youth Development program for two
years.
D.C. United's fading playoff hopes heading into tonight's match up with the Columbus Crew received
a jolt of good fortune as Luciano Emilio's 17th minute strike held up through heavy pressure and
keeps the Black and Red's playoff chances alive.
D.C. United coughed up yet another lead and allowed the previously winless on the road San Jose
Earthquakes to come into RFK and take away a potential playoff killing win over the Black and Red.
United has now lost two consecutive home matches after going the first 11 matches of the season
without allowing a loss.
DC United has 2 goals in their match against Marathon in the CONCACAF Champions League match at
RFK Stadium. Those goals? They need to score 2 goals and win for a chance to continue in the
Champions League. Sounds simple right? Take a look at DC and their goal scoring opportunities as of
late.
The last goal that DC scored in the run of play was an Emilio goal in their 2-1 loss to Seattle
during MLS league play on Sept 12.
D.C. United's defensive effort was unquestioned in their 0-0 draw with the Galaxy last night at RFK
Stadium. Offenisvely though it was a different story as the Black and Red struggled to carve out
opportunities.
D.C. United are currently mired in their worst stretch of form for the season. A win against the
high-flying Galaxy would go a long way towards restoring confidence in the side.
D.C. United's history in Houston has been horrific. Although United almost pulled off another
miracle comeback, giving up three goals in three minutes in the first half were their ultimate
undoing in their 4-3 loss tonight in Houston.
With all the lineup changes and the tinkering we've seen in the first four matches of the 2009
season, I figured this would be a good time to bring back an old favorite feature from 2008.
This matchup pits a grizzled veteran against a rookie for the withdrawn forward role, lining up
next to Emilio.
Yeah I'm jealous of the Caps, and it's not just because they're actually winning playoff games. The
Caps are the biggest story in town these days, and rightfully so. Every casual sports fan in the DC
area that I know has started following the Caps. And that's awesome. I'm one of them. I grew up
watching the Caps, going to a couple games a year, but haven't paid attention to them for the last
decade or so, until the second half of this season.
I missed this match in favor of a family function, so the notes below are purely based on highlight
clips, news articles, blog posts, and fan comments. What's worse, my DVR inexplicably failed to
record the USA WCQ match too.
When I opened up the laptop this morning and saw that the result was a 1-1 tie, I was satisfied.
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.
Maybe it's just me, but I found most of that match to be pretty boring. What I saw were two teams
who didn't seem inspired, and a whole lot of players on each side who may have been content with
just one point while still at or near the top of the Eastern Conference, and with another game just
three days away.
A disturbing early season trend continued as D.C. United gave up a lead for the third time in four
matches so far this season in their 2-1 loss to Real Salt Lake in Sandy, Utah tonight.
Ten man D.C. United desperately held on for a narrow 1-0 win over the Houston Dynamo tonight at RFK
Stadium. Luciano Emilio's 47th minute goal held up and United survived the questionable sending off
of Jaime Moreno in the 71st minute to gain their first win of the 2009 MLS campaign.
A tale of two halves as both D.C. United and the Chicago Fire took turns dominating the action.
United owned the first 45 minutes while Chicago owned the last 45. Naturally and deservedly, both
teams left with a point in the 1-1 draw.
Open Cup victory aside, 2008 was not a very memorable year for DC United. Surely there's something
that the front office and coaching staff can learn from their mistakes during that forgettable
year. So in stealing a page from Fullback's playbook, here's a little holiday themed post. The
following are my recommendations for new year's resolutions for 2009:
This will be the first in a series of posts this offseason with trade suggestions for DC United.
I'll try to post one every other week or so. It's your chance to act as the GM and voice your
opinion about what roster moves the team should make this offseason. All the trade proposals will
be fairly balanced in a way that could conceivably help both teams.
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.
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.
As United's season draws to a disappointing but not unexpected completion, you can't help but
wonder about what could have been. There are plenty of "what ifs" we could discuss for
the entire year, but there's no point in going back and mentioning Moreno's missed penalty in
August against the Red Bulls.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Emilio has left the building! As had been hinted at by Mr. Goff at the Washington Post, Emilio has
left the team. The 2007 MVP and Golden Boot winner has signed with a second division Brazilian
club. Was Emilio the victim of his own early success? He could never live up to the expectations he
created with his first season.
I could only imagine the title of this post said in a Brad Pitt, Inglorious Basterd accent. Thus,
the picture. So there is quite a lot going on right now, so lets recap.
New coach- CHECK
Roster- not so much check
Draft- soon to be check
Stadium- ZZZZZZZZZZZ (hopeful 2014 check)
Please refer to some earlier posts regarding the coaching position.
Jaime Moreno's second half inclusion into the match was the difference as United scored three times
in 14 minutes to start the second half and roll to a 3-1 win over Colorado
Luciano Emilio and Santino Quaranta scored late goals to earn United a hard fought 2-2 draw away to
Chivas USA. The Cardiac Kids were at it again, this time overcoming their second two goal defecit
of the season to get a result and stretch their unbeaten streak to six matches.
This off season has seen its share of changes so far. Players of fans affection and objection are
on the move to and from the club. Below are a couple of videos to help you keep track and for your
viewing pleasure. Let your imagination run wild and your eyes tear up as you become reminiscent of
good times.
