Our first recipient in the inaugural Benny Awards is Clyde Simms, who won the Richie Award with 53% of the vote. I thought this award would be much closer with heavy competition from Bryan Namoff early on, but Simmsy eventually pulled away for the victory.

In a bit of a surprise, the Nelly Award for the biggest contribution from a newcomer went to Louis Crayton. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

It seems like everyone in the stadium knew that this was a must-win game for DC United, except for anybody wearing black. What ever happened to being "hard to play against"? Wasn't that always Soehn's philosophy? This team was fairly easy to play against last night, making bad passes all over the field, including one that probably cost us all hopes of continuing our season. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

I'm a bit behind at halftime on TiVo. But what can Coach say to the team at halftime that is down 1-0 with no offense on the field?? What good is defense at this point?

I'm brainstorming:
1. "Martinez - push forward at will." Thompson for Doe is confusing me.
2. "Simms - shoot from anywhere. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United Wins the U.S. Open Cup

Well, all along I said the U.S. Open Cup was an important trophy for United to win. Okay, except for that time when I said that I wanted them to start reserves so we could keep a focus on the season. Or the other time when I called it the least important trophy we could win this year.

Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Richie Award goes to the hardest working, most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams is probably most famous for his diminutive stature, but he is second most famous for his work rate. The dude just went nonstop, constantly interrupting plays for the opposing team. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Simms showing La Norte some luv!!! We hardly get visits by the players, so we try to make the most of it when they do. Big ups to Simms! Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Previous Updates

#1 4/14 68 players remaining #2 5/18 40 players remaining #3 6/8 25 players remaining
OTFATT is short for "On the field, all the time." In this post and subsequent updates throughout the season, I'll be keeping track of which MLS players have played every minute of every game (regular season only). Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Throwing this up for the couple of you that like to comment on this here blog. Lineup: *CRAYTON*; Namoff, McTavish, Burch, Martinez; Fred, Simms, Quaranta, Guerrero; Moreno, Emilio. Subs: Wells, Zaher, Kirk, Vide, P. Carroll, Thompson, Cordeiro. You read that right. A goalie, who has trained with the team for a week, and has just signed [. Click to continue reading...

Greetings from RFK Stadium, home of D.C. United. The stadium is old but comfy for the home side usually, but they've struggled recently at home.

Will Daniel is in town for this match again. If you don't recall a story from earlier this year, check it out here. Daniel first met Jimmy Conrad back in 1997 when Conrad was a member of UCLA's NCAA Final 4 team. Click to continue reading...

We bring you this brief interruption to the MSR with the news that DC United has acquired Ivan Guerrero from the Earthquakes. The best endorsement of Guerrero has to be this one (http://blog.washingtonpost.com/soccerinsider/2008/07/greetings_from_rfk_1.html) from Bryan Namoff: "He took us apart in the playoffs [with Chicago].

Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

DC United 2 v Atlante 3
* Well so much for Atlante not taking this competition seriously. No shape in the back at all for DC United and Wells was going to be beaten 1 v 1. A minute later, it should have been 2-0 to Atlante but Wells was right there to catch it. At least United players tracked back this time.

Click to continue reading...

Surrender.

I hate to say it, but some people are right, we're done with Superliga, regardless of the result of the Houston-Chivas match. Yes, I know there might be a mathematical chance, but we don't deserve to advance. Run up the flag, play the subs, we're done like a Five Guys burger. Sometimes you need to know when you're throwing good money after bad, and so it is with Superliga this year.

Click to continue reading...

For those who have been following my blog from the very early outset, you are familar with the Stream of Conscious blog. For those who have only started following my blog since moving to CSRN, the premise of the blog is simple. I watch a game live and as I'm watching it just whatever comes to my mind about a particular situation during the game you'll see my opinion of it.

Click to continue reading...

BLANCO REDUX: I want to revisit the Blanco story, especially because Luis Arroyave in the Chicago Tribune has a good write-up on the fracas. Now, while I'm pleased that United is not issuing much in the way of commentary, I am a tad surprised that Chicago has elected to go on record with a defense of Blanco:

According to Fire spokesman Gregg Elkin, Blanco wanted to get the ball back because the Fire was down a goal in overtime and he thought Simms was stalling.

Click to continue reading...

Ah, yes, welcome back to the Marc Burch show, starring him, Marc Burch. This is why I write long posts debating the role of Marc Burch on the team, what it means to have Marc Burch rally the offense after being shut out in the first half. What I'm saying is, thank goodness I had the foresight to write about Marc Burch today.

Click to continue reading...

With United's Open Cup debut scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Maryland SoccerPlex, the coaching staff has some really interesting roster decisions to make. Last year, United took a Harrisburg Islanders squad way too lightly, and supposedly have learned their lesson. Even though the Rochester Rhinos are currently struggling in USL, DC should take this opportunity to earn a Champions League birth seriously. Click to continue reading...

With the July 1st salary guarantee date looming just a week away, that is the question that we ask about two players: Jose Carvallo and Franco Niell. Both were brought to this country in the offseason that saw the additions of five new South American players. Three of those players (Gallardo and los Gonzalos) have earned regular roles in the starting XI. Click to continue reading...

Our players are really good at scoring sick goals. This week, it was Gonzalo Martinez who unleashed an absolute rocket from the left side of the box to the far post. And now, the defender is one of five nominations for Goal of the Week. Remember how Simms won last week? Well, the possibility exists that we could bring home our fifth - FIFTH - Sierra Mist Goal of the Week of 2008.

Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Luciano Emilio nabbed a hattrick for United in a 4-1 romping at RFK stadium. Emilio got his 5th goal of the season to open up the scoring in the 23rd minute and then added his second right before the half. By that goal it was 3-0 United as Simms had scored the 2-0 goal just 3 minutes after Emilio's opening goal. Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

Finally, two steps forward. For weeks United would allow us to flirt with hope, only to step backwards with another game where you left wondering if anyone learned anything.

However, United came out of Chicago and managed to put together a win that helped consolidate the progress that they had been making recently.

Click to continue reading...

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. Click to continue reading...

BASIC NUMBERS  Week Avg. Season Avg. Games 7 77 Players 191 27.3 2,105 27.3 Goals 18 2.6 218 2.8 Assists 16 2.3 201 2.6 Shots 173 24.7 1,780 23.1 Shots on Goal 78 11.1 778 10.1 Fouls 175 25.0 1,932 25.1 Offsides 40 5.7 418 5.4 Corners 76 10.9 731 9.5 Saves 60 8.6 562 7.3 Cautions 32 4. Click to continue reading...

Good game. But then again, games between these two rivals usually are.

I think I lost a bit of respect for New England tonight though. It was as if Nicol told a couple chumps like Larentowicz, Cristman, and Smith at half time: "Just throw your bodies around. Hack some dudes! The ref won't call it. Click to continue reading...

The New England Revolution came out flat and fell to an early 2-0 deficit against a surprisingly impressive D.C. United side before rallying for two strikes in the second half to salvage a 2-2 tie.

D.C., currently last place in the Eastern Conference, saw their offense ignite early and pounded the Revs goal with shots.

Click to continue reading...