Contrary to popular belief, I don't give player ratings each game just for fun. I also use these ratings to formulate the yearly Annual DCUMD Ratings, or ADRs. Each Top Shelf is worth 5 points, each Call is worth 3, and each Rail is worth 1.
Soehn C R C C R T T R T R C R R R T R R (2. Click to continue reading...

I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing a game we should of won big that we did win big. I saw some good things. And here we go...
Good Stuff!
- Christian Gomez. Every time I think that DC should cut ties with Gomez, he'll play like he dad last night. He definitely elevates his game in tournament play, and teams need players that can do that.

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With DC United in the process of finalizing a loan for Tiyi Shipalane from the Harrisburg City Islanders, I was pretty darn confused as to the status of our roster, since we'll now have 27 players listed on our first team roster when the league maximum is 24. Sounds like a good time for a late season roster reset!

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Never before that I can think of has DC United made so many roster moves so late in the season. It's obvious that the team is trying to make a strong push for the playoffs, and trying to put together the best roster possible before the acquisition window closes for the season.
Since we last spoke, the team has made a couple new moves, including the signing of Lawson Vaughn. Click to continue reading...

That wasn't exactly how I wanted to see us play against one of the worst teams in the league, but a win is a win, and somehow I still feel like we earned this one. It definitely took this team 30 minutes or so to settle in, and gave up way too many chances during those first 30 minutes, but we looked like the better team in the second half, and ultimately we prevailed. Click to continue reading...

Were there regulation in MLS, this would be called a relegation 6 pointer. DC United stinks on the road, but FC Dallas stinks everywhere. Dallas sits second to last in the Western Conference with 23 points, and DCU has 32 points which puts them in 4th in the East. Rapidly losing ground in the playoff race, with teams above them with games in hand, DC United needs to take care of business on the road and come back with all three points.

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                                                                Photo by ISIphotos.com

By TRAVIS CLARK

The jovial cheer in the visitor's locker room pinged through the hallways of RFK after Seattle's 2-1 triumph.

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Â

                                                                Photo by ISIphotos.com

By TRAVIS CLARK

The jovial cheer in the visitor's locker room pinged through the hallways of RFK after Seattle's 2-1 triumph.

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¡La Noche de Copa... Campeones! SIMMS 89´                           MONTERO 67´ WICKS-Tarjeta Roja 69´               [...] Click to continue reading...

The last 10-15 minutes of regular time and stoppage time was amazing. It was totally frantic and United supporters were rewarded with a goal at the end of regulation. I was actually telling my wife that the set play off of that free kick should have been to fake it at goal and just slot it to Simms who was faking that run anyway. Click to continue reading...

United's offense was MIA once again and the hungry and motivated Seattle Sounders took full advantage in their 2-1 win last night at RFK Stadium. Click to continue reading...

Tonight's US Open Cup final showed yet again that DC United is quite simply a club in decline. An organization that once prided itself on winning MLSCups and succeeding abroad now pounds its chest about consolation trophies and about its increasingly distant successful past.
Tonight, United looked like a team that both was not as good as its opposition and one that simply is not listening to its coach anymore. Click to continue reading...

Greetings from the nation's capital. It's been what seems like months of build up to this evening. Barbs have been traded between each club, helping to spawn one of the biggest marketing campaigns for an Open Cup final.

More than a month after the U.S. Open Cup semifinals concluded, the Dewar Cup will finally be awarded tonight.

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And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the last CONCACAF Champions League game my fiance and I will be attending until things change. The lineup put on the field to start was a sham. That backline had no prayer of stopping goals, as they had never played together, and one of the worst defenders I have ever seen, Avery John, was at center back.

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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. Click to continue reading...

Thomas Rongen said early in the match that since both teams were playing with a 3-5-2 formation, it was likely that the team with the most individual talent would win. If you add up all the talent on United's roster and all the talent on Toronto's roster, United might prevail. But unfortunately games aren't actually won and lost that way. Click to continue reading...

First off, if you only click one link in this blog post make it this one, a 16-picture gallery by readers of English newspaper The Guardian illustrating the Landon Donovan-David Beckham soap opera. Some hilarious stuff in there.

Donovan was still addressing the issue Friday in Kansas City before today's nationally televised game (live at 6 p.

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16 games in to the season, with a two week break from MLS action, I can think of no better time to deliver to you the second annual installment of the Mid-Season Review. In this space over the next 10 or so days, we will take a look at the Acquisitions, Departures, and Trades that United has made since the end of the 2008 season, and then wrap it all up with a Summary. Click to continue reading...

I suppose the major debate is whether United lost this match or Colorado won it, and the easy answer is both. Fatigue was a factor, altitude was a factor. It showed up in obvious ways like tired legs and players running out of gas. It showed more poignantly mentally: United could not execute this match at all.

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There was a bit of an off-hand comment from a user on the Soccer Insider this morning when Goff revealed the news that Josh Gros had been offered a position in the front office by Piotr Nowak and the Philadelphia Union. The commenter b18bolo suggested that Nowak might also go after some of his other former players like Ben Olsen and Bobby Convey.

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Tomorrow evening in Rome, Manchester United and FC Barcelona will play in argubaly the biggest soccer game of the year when they face-off in the Champions League final. With the likes of Barcelona's Messi, Eto'o, Henry and Iniesta squaring off against Man U's Ronaldo, Rooney and Giggs, it's sure to be a memorable battle.

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Post-game interviews:

• Tom Soehn's press conference
• Josh Wicks in the locker room
• Clyde Simms in the locker room

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After vanquishing FC Dallas at home a few weeks back, our Reserve squad will again look to beat NYRB at home in the second of two US Open Cup play-in matches. I can't say for sure, but I'd imagine in the thirst for finally getting a trophy, the NYRB plays the big boys to knock us out of the competition.

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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. Click to continue reading...

I'm having a real hard time figuring out how to feel about this tie. The ending kind of makes it feel like a win. I can tell you with certainty that that was the loudest I've yelled at my tv this year with Benny scoring a goal in extra time. But apparently the recurring theme of the season to date is earning ties against teams that we are better than. Click to continue reading...

What an incredible contrast from the previous match. Even though they both ended in ties, this was a much more inspired DC United club, playing against a much more inspired opponent. The match against Kansas City earlier in the week saw two offensive subs (Gomez and Emilio) enter the match and have no impact. Click to continue reading...

It is an absolutely gorgeous night out at the ballpark. The teams are out for pre-game warm-ups, and the fans are starting to file in for tonight's battle for 1st place. D.C. enters tied with Toronto FC atop the Eastern Conference standings. The Wizards will assume the top spot with a victory tonight. Click to continue reading...

Tonight sees DC United travel to Kansas City, Kansas to face the Wizards. Having just played on Saturday, it's a match on short rest, and we know that we can't expect to see all of the familiar faces in the starting lineup. Fred, Ben Olsen, and Marc Burch all stayed home from the trip, With that in mind, I'd expect to see the following lineup:

GK: Kocic
D: Namoff, Janicki, Jakovic
M: Wallace, Simms, Gomez, Jacobsen, Pontius
F: Emilio, Quaranta

Avery John is a possibility in the back, pushing Jakovic to the middle for Janicki, and Jaime Moreno would be the first attacking option off the bench.

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The great thing about living in Kansas City is I can finally go to little Wizard's promos and talk to players. Tonight I went to a combined SPCA and Wizard's event at a sports bar that was promoting dog night at the next Wizards home game. Wizard's long time player turned Assistant Coach Kerry Zavagnin and injured backup goalkeeper extraordinaire Eric Kronberg were sitting around chatting. Click to continue reading...

Tradition
Ah, the annual trip to the concrete jungle, the armpit of america, RFK North. With Red Bull Arena under construction and supposed to open for the 2010 season, this could be the last time United plays the metroscum/pink cows in the spectacularly horrid Giant Stadium.

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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... Click to continue reading...

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! Click to continue reading...

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...