Remember that New Mexico womens soccer player Elizabeth Lambert that displayed some 'roid rage a couple weeks ago against BYU?
Well she got all dolled up for a New York Times story in response to that game.
Pretty interesting stuff.
Now the links:

• Don't fart in the refs face.

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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...

The list of things to do in the nation's capital grew even longer today, as D.C. United keeper Josh Wicks underwent successful surgery to repair his dislocated shoulder that ended his 2009 campaign. Wicks injured his shoulder in a nasty fall during United's 2-1 loss to San Jose on September 27.

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The list of things to do in the nation's capital grew even longer today, as D.C. United keeper Josh Wicks underwent successful surgery to repair his dislocated shoulder that ended his 2009 campaign. Wicks injured his shoulder in a nasty fall during United's 2-1 loss to San Jose on September 27.

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Gregg Berhalter is all business!

While Landon Donovan and David Beckham bask in the aftermath of the Galaxy making the playoffs, the real story in their turnaround is their defense.

31 goals given up in 2009. That is half of the 2008 total!

That is right. In 2008, the Galaxy gave up 62 goals even as they set the scoring ablaze with 55 goals.

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Given the unfortunate results of the Chicago/Chivas and Marathon/San Juan matches last night, a WIN for DC United on Saturday has now become all the more crucial. The number of playoff spots at stake just dropped from 3 to 2 with the Fire's victory. What's worse though is that the loss by Chivas USA means that Columbus has now clinched the Supporter's Shield, and therefore will have nothing to play for in their final match against the Revolution on Sunday.

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By definition, the Popie award goes to United's best defensive player in 2009. The award's namesake is former national team defender Eddie Pope. Not only is Pope widely recognized as the best defender in United's history, but he is also responsible for the most important goal in United's history.
Last year's winner was Bryan Namoff with over 50% of the vote. Click to continue reading...

After dropping three straight matches at home to MLS opponents, and with our most consistent defender and our two most dynamic attackers out, most fans didn't really expect DC United to win this match. Especially not against the soon-to-be back-to-back Supporters' Shield winners. And it may not have been an attractive victory, but it was a victory none the less. Click to continue reading...

Well, the long winding MLS season has come down to this: needing 6 points from 2 games and needing a host of other things to go our way in MLS play for the chance to advance into the playoffs. Last year around this time, Columbus was eliminating us at Crew Stadium, and I was happy that the elimination might lead to sweeping changes in the team.

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Eric Brunner trade turned into a solid deal for Columbus. (Getty Images)

Since we are nearly done with the 2009 regular season I figured it was high time we started looking back at the best deals that were made that shaped this season into what it has become. I say going into every year that there will pretty much be a trade that shakes up things a bit when it happens and really helps push a club towards the playoffs instead of an early start to winter.

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The suspension of Josh Wicks came down as fairly hefty (5 Open Cup games, play in don't count). Considering what the USSF determined were his total offenses it seems fair. He was violent when he stomped on Fredy Montero, berated an official and honestly I won't miss him in next year's tourney. I will [. Click to continue reading...

That's what I heard at the end of the DC United vs Chivas USA match. I made the trip up to RFK Stadium and took in the 2-0 loss in person. It is time to give up on this season and start to look at changes for next season. The first 2 changes are find a new goalkeeper and a new head coach. Josh Wicks is looking at a suspension by the US Soccer Federation from his actions during the US Open Cup final.

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A crowd approaching 25,000 is expected tonight for D.C. United's must-win battle versus visiting Chivas USA. With only three games remaining in the regular season, and United on the outside of playoffs (standings) looking in, the team is looking to go on a run beginning tonight. Chivas USA currently sits in the second (of four) wild card spots, but with every team within a few points, they're in need of a win, too.

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- The Number #1 QPR site? Certainly this site wouldn't make that claim! But take a look at the cutting edge, all-encompassing QPR Report Messageboard. Simply for the QPR (and other football) informational posts. Or feel free to offer your own views (whatever they are)! The combination quasi-blog and messageboard provides up-to-the-minute news about QPR, combined with QPR nostalgia and articles of broader football significance. Click to continue reading...

Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win in the competition.

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Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win in the competition.

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There is a caveat to this post: we don't have it near as bad as Red Bull fans have it. True, they have a new stadium coming, but that team is a disaster from top to bottom, with little hope of immediate recovery. Now that I've cleared that up, this is a bad time to be a United fan.

The breadth of this experience was on display Sunday afternoon.

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As some have heard at this point, Josh Wicks is going to be out 4-6 weeks because of a dislocated shoulder and torn MCL. Milos Kocic is the next in line for goalkeeper. Bill Hamid is not available for league matches, only CONCACAF Champions League.

With Kocic in goal, how does DC work with this?

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By TRAVIS CLARK

The race for the final MLS playoff spots continued to heat up over the past weekend. A number of contending teams failed to grab the appropriate result needed in order to maintain confidence in a late playoff run. The three teams on the outside looking in, Real Salt Lake, D.

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A heart-breaking Sounders FC loss to New England was sad not just as a result. But it might have been the last time Revolution midfielder Steve Ralston took the field.
The league's all-time leader in games and minutes played tore his ACL on Saturday.
At 35 years old, he could be done. Click to continue reading...

The team got some bad news today when it learned that goalkeeper Josh Wicks will be out 4-6 weeks after suffering a dislocated shoulder and MCL sprain in Sunday's 2-1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes. Wicks' injuries came on the same play in the second half.

The injury to Wicks leaves United with one active goalkeeper in Milos Kocic.

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United dropped three points at home for just the second time this season, falling to the San Jose Earthquakes 2-1. With the loss, the team falls to 8-7-12 and remains out of the MLS Cup playoffs with three games remaining.

Josh Wicks left the game in the second half with a dislocated shoulder and will get an MRI tomorrow and be further evaluated to determine how long he'll be out.

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By definition, the Nelly Award goes to the United player who has made the most significant positive impact in his first year with the club. The award's namesake Ryan Nelsen became a starter shortly into his first season with United, and would go on to guide the team to an MLS Cup in 2004.
It's a testament to the total failure of our 2008 acquisitions that not one of last year's nominees is still on the team.

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Needing a win to avoid falling completely out of touch in Group B of the CONCACAF Champions League, DC United rode an early Christian Gomez penalty kick to a crucial road victory against Trinidadian side San Juan Jabloteh on Tuesday evening. The result was especially encouraging, considering that DC was missing several regulars through injury or a decision to rest, including Jaime Moreno, Santino Quaranta, Fred and Josh Wicks. Click to continue reading...

When you're working with young defenders, it's important that they grasp a key idea: there's no particular shame in it if the guy you're responsible for is faster than you. Happens all the time. The only thing to be ashamed of is not recognizing that fact and compensating for it positionally instead of letting yourself get into a foot race with a player who you know good and well can burn you. Click to continue reading...

Feels like I just wrote that same headline 2 weeks ago. I don't mean to try to use this as an excuse, but it's worth pointing out that the last match Seattle played was here in DC on 9/2. In the mean time, United played two other matches during that week and a half that the Sounders were resting.
After a terrible start from United, I felt similar to the way that BDR felt earlier this week - like this match could have easily gotten out of hand. Click to continue reading...

This is the fifth in a recurring series where we look at the DC United season, five games at a time.
Results: 2-1-2. 4 GF, 4 GA
Standings: Third place in the Eastern Conference
Statistical Leaders: Josh Wicks (3 clean sheets); Namoff, Burch, Moreno, Emilio (1 goal each), Gomez (1 assist)
Most frequent lineup:
What we liked:

• Discovering our starting XI – I've often wondered during this season if we're ever going to have a single consistent lineup that can be used every week.

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By Andrew Dixon - MIAMI, FL (Sep 11, 2009) USSoccerPlayers -- Time to open up the One Grown Mailbag. Our first letter comes from a J. Wicks in DC. He asks: "Have I become the new villain in MLS?" In Seattle, I suppose and maybe in certain parts around the DMV.People might have thought you were a little nuts after your tussle with Mark Burch at the end of the Chicago game. Click to continue reading...

Kansas City had all the chances in the world last night to not only take 1 point from their game in DC, but to take all 3. Unfortunately poor finishing from the Wizards, particularly Davy Arnaud ended up costing KC as they fell 1-0 to DC last night. KC could have been on top inside the first five minutes, as Claudio Lopez picked out Arnaud with a low cross, but Arnaud's one time effort was right at Josh Wicks in the DC net and easily saved. Click to continue reading...

United dodged a few bullets and came away with a very important three points tonight at RFK Stadium. Luciano Emilio's first half goal was enough, as United topped the visiting Wizards 1-0 in an Eastern Conference battle. Josh Wicks made several important stops and earned his third MLS shutout in four games.

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Former USF man, Jeff Cunningham [left, in action for FC Dallas], tied Ante Razov for second on the MLS all-time goal scoring list. Eighteen minutes into the match on Saturday at Pizza Hut Park Cunningham chipped United goalkeeper Josh Wicks for his tenth goal of the season, his 114th of his career. 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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In the US Open Cup final earlier this week, I (and plenty of other soccer fans) witnessed one of the dirtiest plays in soccer since the last World Cup. Although this play was not as legendary as the infamous Zidane headbutt or even the classic Wayne Rooney stomp of Christiano Ronaldo's family jewels, it was still shocking to see.

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I was curious what the repercussions of the stomp by D.C. United goalkeeper Josh Wicks on Seattle's Fredy Montero would be.
Who better to provide the info than the Washington Post, and here's what Paul Tenorio had on Goff's blog.
Here's a team statement followed by some inside stuff:

Here is the statement:
"D.

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We win trophies. But not all the time.

Great atmosphere at the stadium. My section was in between the Barra Brava and the Seattle supporters, and it was cool listening to the fans trying to out-sing each other. The fans in the sections who don't normally stand and sing were all standing and singing a lot more than usual.

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