Quick Reaction: 6/28 vs. Colorado

By: Max J. | June 28th, 2007

Rarely have I missed RFK more than during tonight’s lightning delay: a chant of “This Isn’t Baseball”? Barra, Eagles, La Norte…I love you guys. If only there’d been a “Let Them Play!” shout-out to the Astrodome scenes in The Bad News Bears II, it would have been perfect.

Oh, right. The actual game.

I think we can all agree this was a solid win, but not as solid as the score suggests. Troy turned in a gorgeous performance with the defense hurting (if anyone has seen Facundo Erpen, please tell him he can return to the field any day now), one that I would call the deciding factor in keeping us in the game. Moose had the energetic, hustling, productive performance we’ve come to expect. His touch was a little rough, but there was a lot of that going around tonight and he had as good of a shot at scoring as any of his regular-starter teammates. And finally, up top, there were definite flashes of brilliance and great first goals from Fred and Addlery. I was a nervous wreck after seeing Kpene go off, but I think what we saw late in the game and after the delay proves that the offensive subs can step up nicely. Scoring off a corner is an odd but very reassuring feeling.

On the negative side, Colorado easily could have put two or three by United tonight, and it’s clear that we need Namoff to hold the line. Erpen was simply ball-watching on the Colorado goal, and more than being his problem, it’s a symptom of a more general problem of loose marking. Both tonight and against Salt Lake, attackers had space to work with rather than having a defender close. There was also a noticeable return of One Touch Too Many Syndrome. With fairly technical players starring up front, United needs to relearn how to play one-touch soccer or it’s going to cost us goals in bad situations over the next month.

On the whole, a pleasant game to watch and a good result. There should actually be a torrent available this time, so more thoughts soon.