DC United got back in this thing called CONCACAF Champions League. With a 7-0 walloping of Marathon by Toluca, DCU is tied on goal differential with Marathon and a win on Thursday would put them in a strong position. The way the rest of the CL schedule works out, a win Thursday, coupled with a Win against San Juan at home and an away draw with Toluca would see them through. Based on the fact that the next league game is San Jose on Sunday, DC SHOULD be able to get 3 points in that game at home without throwing out their best 11. My hope is that they take the next two CONCACAF games seriously, and then put 11 behind the ball away at Toluca on October 20th.

Other News:
Goff says that we MIGHT be opening away at FC Dallas, home opener against New England, and then we will plays Philadelphia’s home opener (most likely at the Link).

By my math, we should be seeing both Marc Burch and Dejan Jakovic back from surgery soon. This should help matters, if only because it means we won’t see anymore Avery John.

Also, in somewhat old news, DCU roster moves have put Ely Allen, Ange N’Silu, and Greg Janicki on the inactive list, which means they are only available for CONCACAF play. Out of those there, I’d only like to see N’Silu get another run out, perhaps at Toluca. Boyzzz Khumalo is also activated, though he’s not ready for game action.

Also, I probably forgot to mention this too, but the team signed Lawson Vaughn, formerly of Chivas USA. This move is a cover pickup, with our centerback situation being so bad lately that Clyde Simms has started three games in the middle.

DCUMD does the first of his Benny Awards, this time for the most underrated player on the team this year.

I should be in attendance on Thursday, despite a night class and a pending assignment that will be explained in said class. Never question my dedication (to United. To Graduate School….I guess that’s debatable).

This team has been nothing this season if not frustrating. Performances have bounced between exciting, to dour, to promising yet unfulfilling. The season is on the back end, and fans are not sure who this DC United team is, and what we can expect going forward.

The Good:

Fred- Constantly dangerous, hard working, and aggressive. I think that we have to accept that Fred isn’t going to be a prolific scorer, and we should instead expect games like the one last night. He took players on and used his technical ability to make players miss. We lack that for the most part.
Moreno- He only had a cameo, but he held the ball well and added to the creativity of the team. He’s slow, but that’s no surprise. I hope he gets hot down the stretch and can help us advance in CONCACAF and play few but quality minutes in League play.
The Defense- We can’t complain tonight. I’m thinking back trying to remember major errors, and I think aside from an errant pass by Burch, the backline was pretty flawless. Long may it continue.

The Meh:
Quaranta- Maybe its because I expect a lot from Tino, but I thought he was very poor in the final third. Aside from a strong effort on frame, he wasn’t dangerous and often put ball where noone was. Because of the lack of our forward depth, he’s going to need to step up and start putting the ball in the net.
Emilio- His touch is embarrassing, and was stranded for service, which isn’t really his fault. But he can’t create, and on this team right now, we need someone who can. Maybe a little unfair, but he hasn’t been great this season.

The Bad:
Finishing- I don’t know how to fix this. I’m sure they practice, but isn’t happening right now. Maybe sacrifice an animal? I have no idea.

Wednesday night United plays in CONCACAF play against Toluca at home. After losing on the road last week 3-1, DC needs to get three points in this home match. Recently, Mexicans teams have dominated DC, so hopefully Soehn or whoever is leading the team out, can mix in starters and reserves and find the formula to get three points.

The thing you’ll hear most from any reports you’re bound to read about this match is that Josh Wicks did well, and RSL bunkered. Honestly, that’s about all I could tell you about it, too. DC started out bad, and finished bad.

Fred is continuing his habit of squandering easy chances that need burying. He did well at creating, but that’s not his role, or it shouldn’t be. He was a league scoring champion in Australia, and he’s putting himself in good positions, but he’s just been snakebitten. For like, 2 years. I would say this is the last year he should be in the Black and the Red at his salary, unless he starts putting them away at a prodigious rate.

Jaime was ineffective, and I was glad that Tommy pulled him when he did. Due to the way that RSL had set up, you need an active and physical presence up top, and when Jaime is not supercharged, he is neither physical or active. I wanted N’Silu to get more than a late cameo, as he didn’t have time to settle into the game. He will have to get better at that, because I don’t see him as starting 11 player.

Tino did okay, having decided to play provider at almost all times. Whereas last year I had to yell at him to pass up the shot, that is very much not the case this year. I’d like to see him more aggressive in the final third.

The backline was phenomenal. Jakovic is not long for this league, mark my words. Namoff and Burch, to a lesser degree, were dominant. Combine that defensive presence and goalkeeping against a team with some interest in attacking and you have a recipe for a United victory.

I would be remiss if I didn’t single out Josh Wicks for kudos. I’ll admit, when I saw him in the starting 11, I said, “Well, we won’t see Crayton ever again, then.” I’ll stick by that. I’m pretty sure, as I’ve said before, his mixture of high salary, average performance, and attitude are making him be exit bound. If we can get this kind of performance out of some combination of Wicks and Kocic, we’ll be okay. I’m sure we’d all like to see a more steady hand back there, but we’ll see what the summer window brings us.

I’ve kind of fallen off the map here, and I apologize. I was looking for a co-blogger, but I haven’t really been seeing any output. So, I’ll get back to business here and give you folks something to read at work.

Non Sequitur: A cool post about Dunny’s trip to RFK.

Starting 11
I think Soehn will come out with his normal 3-5-2 like so:

———————-Crayton—————————
————Burch—–Jakovic—–Namoff—————-
——————–Olsen—Simms———————-
——Wallace——————————Pontius——
————————Gomez————————–
—————Emilio———–Moreno——————

If this line-up looks familiar, its because it is the same line-up Soehn has been using all year and will likely never change. I can see Fred, Quaranta, and Barklage coming in for Wallace, Moreno, and Gomez in the 2nd half if we have the lead.

Tommy Talks some Smack:
I came across this quote today on the examiner website: “We thought about training in our parking lot to try to emulate what our game is going to be like,” said Soehn. “But there was a little too much gravel. It’s hard because even if we go onto our [artificial turf] field it’s not even close to how it plays there… it plays too much like grass.”

Hey Tommy, talking smack about the field at Giants Stadium before the game doesn’t count as a reason for you not to prepare the team and then use the turf as an excuse for us losing tomorrow

Houston is not considered to be a contender this year, with losing DeRo, and not many more additions. The team is getting older, and not any faster. DC needs to get on them early, and then close the game down. Wicks should be out with a hip flexor, so either we will see the return of the great Louis Crayton, or we see the debut of Milos Kocic and the exploding head of Louis Crayton on the bench. According to Goff, Crayton said he was 150%, but Soehn had his doubts.

In case you’re curious, we’re 2-3-1 all time against Houston, and 2-0-1 at home.

MLS Net preview.

This preview recounts the rainy horrors of last year’s attempts to play Houston at RFK.

OFFICIAL DC UNITED THE OFFSIDE PREDICTION:
Last week, I called the draw and got the score way wrong. For accounting purposes, we’re going to just count the result, and I’ll keep a goal differential between what I thought we’d score, and what we did.
Since thats the case, I’m 1-1 for the season, with a -3 goal differential.
THIS WEEK: Houston 1- DC 2. Let’s go United.

What do you think?

This Sunday, United travels to the Home Depot Center to visit one of the sadder cases in MLS in the last 2 years, the Galaxy. LA, who have been reorganized and retooled an extent by former USA and DC United head coach Bruce Arena, are moving forward this year with a more “experienced” team than last year, with an average age around 30. This never bodes well for a long season, but its better than playing Josh Tudela every game.

LA strengthened its backline through the draft, picking Omar Gonzalez, and thru the transfer market, picking up Donovan Ricketts, the Jamaican National Team keeper.

Goldenballs is set to return in July, and until then, LA is free of the obligation of his salary. However, they’ve yet to spend that money. So, it’s just a gap in their team.

Landon Donovan, fresh off of his German adventure, brings the only constantly threatening force to a team that will be lacking in attacking bite.

Dema Kovalenko has been added, most likely for his oftsited “grit” in the defensive midfield. But enough about LA.

DC travels across the country, already with its usual complement of injuries. Not making the trip, Santino Quaranta and Fred are already sporting hamstring injuries that will keep them out at least until the home opener, in Fred’s case, and the Houston game, in Santino’s case.

Louis Crayton and Bryan Namoff, who suffered leg and rib injuries respectively, will be fit and in the starting lineup on Sunday.

All week, Tom Soehn has said that he expects that DC will come out in a 3-5-2, at least until their attacking width is healthy. Below would be my expected lineup…

Crayton
Namoff———Jankovic———–Burch
Simms—McTavish
Khumalo—Gomez—Wallace
Emilio—-Moreno
I’d like to see Moreno as a withdrawn Forward, in sort of a dual playmaker roll with Gomez, but we’ll see how it rolls forward.

Links and OPO:
Sports Illustrated says that DC will finish in last. I will eat a soccer ball if that happens. The text for those who don’t want to boost SI’s ad revenue..

• D.C. United will finish in last place. Christian Gómez is back, but he lost his form a while back. Gómez and Luciano Emilio formed a strong partnership in ‘07, but two years later, the two players are fighting to recover from poor seasons. D.C. had a terrible regular season but managed to win the U.S. Open Cup. That triumph set United up for failure this year, as it once again will compete in the CONCACAF Champions League, a tournament that sunk D.C.’s regular-season hopes in ‘08.

Soccer America thinks DC loses to LA this weekend.

The Examiner offers all you need to know about the game, including injury updates for both squads (Ricketts, Buddle questionable, Lewis probable, Todd Dunivant and Leonard Griffin (who?) are out. )

MLSNet’s Charles Boehm has a nice piece about the young defense, and the decision to go with the 3-5-2. Here’s Benny,

“The 4-4-2, sometimes with a young back line, it’s confusing,” acknowledged Olsen, moments after his tongue-in-cheek attempt “to duck what formation we’re going to play this weekend” drew laughter from the media in attendance.

“Sometimes three in the back makes it a little bit more concrete for them as far as their decisions,” he continued. “But we’re working on that stuff this week and the coaching staff will take care of that.”

Steve Goff’s paper preview.

Donovan is still sleeping over at DCenters. I’m sure he’ll having something up soon.

Ok, that’s it. It’s game time, huahh!

Official Prediction!!!

The Official DC United Offside Prediction: 3-2 DC.
Your thoughts?

Do we, A) eek into the playoffs, lose early, lose late, or somehow win with a $300k ball chained to our collective ankle or B) lose, or be eliminated by two victories by NY and KC, and make real changes that need to be made in order for this team to compete in all competitions next year?

There is of course the middle ground I’m neglecting to mention here, that we do well in the playoffs, and still make some changes for next year. But, in my sports watching experience, I’ve come to notice that when a team makes the playoffs and reaps the financial benefits of those extra games, they are less likely to address the real, and sometimes costly decisions that need to be made. In my mind, I’m hoping for a merciful end to this injury plagued “season” and for a number of changes to be made this offseason. What changes? Funny you should ask…

1) Fire Tom Soehn.
Injuries happen, that’s fine. Not his fault. But on numerous occasions, the team quit on him. Other times, he showed unwillingness to alter strategy either out of fear of catastrophe or maybe he didn’t know what else to do. He was short handed much of the season, so I could be convinced that he can get a 4 game stretch at the beginning of next season to show his stuff, but I’d like a successor ready to assume the role should shit hit fan yet again.
2) Pawn our $300k gold plated ankle weight.
Again, injuries. I’ve heard the arguments. But guess what? He’s old, he’s injury prone, and he’s not getting any cheaper or more impervious to injury. Some might argue that Benny is in a similar situation, but he’s much cheaper. His departure leaves a hole in the team that only can be solved by…
3) Bring back Christian Gomez.
He’s riding the pine pony in Colorado. I’m going to bet he didn’t forget how to play immediately. Think he’d rather play for less money, or waste away the last years of his prime on a crap team in a city where people don’t care about soccer? I think it can be done.
4) Spend some money/time, and make smart draft picks.
Maybe we need to get rid of Dave Kasper and steal the FO’s of New England or Houston, but our draftees have been garbage. I’d buy it if it was only 1 year of poor choices, but we’re nearing Matt Millen-esque territory.
5) Blackmail the DC Council, or become drop the DC from United
The time for talk is over. In this next year, I want golden shovels in the dirt. I don’t care where that happens anymore.
6) Protect Santino in the Expansion draft.
At the conclusion of the season I’ll have a full rundown on this, but for now, Quaranta is too good of a bargain to let go. For his production, relative durability and overall inspirational qualities, Tino has proved his worth to the squad, and deserves the stability of a longer term deal. This guy was/maybe still is USMNT caliber, and we need to keep him.
7) Assess the goalkeeping situation
Louis Crayton is pretty good. Is he great? I don’t think so. Is he worth being the 2nd highest paid keeper? No. Show Wells the door or send him to the shrink and find out why he’s such a shrinking Daisy. I like him (in the minority there), and think he still has some value to the team. Loan out Thorpe to a USL side.
Make a decision on the flying Gonzalos.
The juries out here, but Martinez has been the more stable and dependable Gonzalo, so I’d bet he’d stay. Peralta (who I ran into at Kettler Iceplex) showed some mental lapses over the season and was injury prone. I’d give him some time, but I wouldn’t pencil him in as THE CB.
9) The Emilio conundrum
Ready for this? Here’s my solution to this. Sign Emilio to a 1 year contact at the DP level, wait for him to hit one of his streaks, hopefully while we’re playing a Mexican side in CONCACAF, and sell him. This is contingent on our ability to have a replacement ready (can you say, Shevchenko?), but he’s entirely too hot and cold to depend on anymore.
10) The ageless wonder
Sign Moreno to another year. Unless we can clone El Diablo, Moreno IS DC United’s offense, and as long as he can walk, hold the ball up, and pass it, he’s on this team. If you can give him unlimited free headbands instead of money, that’d be excellent, but I’m not holding my breath.

Well there ya go. Either way this week plays out, DC has work to do. I’ll be watching, and cheering, with my heart fighting my brain.

From what I can gather, DC is using this game as a chance to work back in some players coming off of injury. On turf, I’d have to imagine this is not the ideal scenario for such a rehab plan, but you gotta do what you have to do. Marc Burch, who is not eligible for the Open Cup game on Tuesday due to his Red Card in the Chicago match, will be getting a full 90 no doubt. The surprising news, which came in two days ago, that Joe Vide and Ivan Guerrero are not cup tied (due to the extreme early stage of the tournament that San Jose played, and lost, in) and will be available for selection on Tuesday. This is great news for Tommy, when drawing up a lineup that can stifle the hot Revolution. Not to mention the fact they were hard luck losers last night against Chicago, I have a feeling they’ll be out for blood on Tuesday.

But there I go again, talking about New England, instead of the task at hand. Can you tell that I’m not valuing this game very highly? That said, I wouldn’t mind three points, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Santino in his new forward position scoring. New York is coming off of an ego deflating thrashing at the hands of Barcelona. So, maybe we can pile on a little. Or we could steal Samuel Et’o.

Predictions: Despite DC’s (and mine) mind being elsewhere, I predict a 2-0 shutout on the road, with Zach Wells making another statement. Tino scores the first goal, and Fred gets off the schnide with a laser. What do you think?

Update: Lineups…Zach Wells, Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Pat Carroll, Marc Burch, Fred, Clyde Simms, Joe Vide, Ivan Guerrero, Jaime Moreno and Luciano Emilio

Where’s Tino? Peralta?

Disclaimer: I am a Nationals fan, one that knows we suck. A lot. I used to blog about them, but then the suck was overpowering, and I’d prefer to watch them suck in virtual silence

Dan Steinberg over at DC Sports Bog just posted this nugget.

You read that right. An MLS team get more viewers on TV than does a team in the Nation’s Capital playing the National Pastime. Granted, one team is in ascendance, and the other is in ruin, but it’s a nice accomplishment for MLS however you slice it. I’d even trumpet this if I was DC United.

There are many factors for why this is the way it is, which I don’t have time to fully get into (such as HD vs standard cable, availability of MASN, etc), but I’ve gotta say I haven’t missed a DC game on tv yet, and can’t say I’ve watched more than 10 games this whole season.

Also, in a sad note, Benny O went under the knife today, and will be out at least a month. My guess is he’s done for the year, but we’ll see. I hope I’m wrong.

A movie from Steinberg:

Dan Stratford also had knee surgery today, and will miss 3-4 weeks.

You know how I said I was going to write my recap of the Cup? I’m not going to.

Why? Because it’s been done to death. Some funny things of note…

-I had tickets that did not exist. Row 19 in section 508 is either invisible, or it doesn’t exist. After fighting with numerous senile or toothless individuals, I got compensated, and found myself in the VIP section. Very nice.
-Jimmy Eat World was ok, but I’m sure someone told them they had to play “The Middle”, and then they probably said some swear words.
-Khano Smith is cool. I like his fire, although I heard he’s a bit of an ass. Not sure if it was on TV, but when Ngwenya was taking his sweet time getting off the pitch, Smith was pushing him out of bounds. Good stuff.
-I can’t wait for next season, hopefully living in or around DC, and making nearly every home game.

The Expansion draft is in a few days, and the protected list is all over the place on the Offside. I know for a fact that Melissa has it over at San Jose Offside.

Some things of note, we protected Boswell, and not Vanney. We didn’t protect any of our forwards other than Emilio and Moreno (fine with me). I’m hoping we finalize a deal with Gomez, sign Veron, sign a pair of strong bench strikers, and maybe draft some depth in D.