Where United is

Sometimes, it’s hard enough to explain the US Open Cup to fans, especially fans of other sports.  The concept that the team is in more than one competition at a time isn’t the norm for most of us growing up.  Where United is now, is another level in complexity.  Yes, United played Dallas in a Open Cup-ish game.  It was an Open Cup Qualifier.  MLS has 8 spots in the US Open Cup competition.  Six are given to the top six teams from 2008.  The remaining two are up for grabs by the remaining US based MLS teams from last season (sorry Seattle and Toronto….you’ll need some other wierd thing to figure out this summer). 

So United drew Dallas as a first opponent, and the winner will take on the winner of the San Jose/New York match next week…..at a site to be determined, because that’s the way US Soccer does these things.

So to recap, it wasn’t an MLS game, and it wasn’t an Open Cup game…..but United needed to win it to begin its defense of the Open Cup.  Got it?  Yeah, don’t worry about the details, just accept it and move on.

The Game Itself

These games are usually at the Maryland Soccerplex in Germantown/Boyds.  Which adds a bit to some of the Open Cup charm, but it’s still a normal experience to go to RFK.  One advantage to watching United in the Open Cup is that you’ll see some players that don’t get a lot of playing time, and potentially, you can see players that are desperate to prove that they deserve MLS minutes.  The flip side of that is that you can also see why some players don’t get MLS minutes.  And with the demise/suspension of the Reserve Division, this offers fans an opportunity to see some new faces.

Milos Kocic kicked off his United career in Goal, Brandon Barklage got his first start and significant minutes, Andrew Jacobson got his first home start, Boyzzz Khumalo saw his first action since LA (thanks to his Pebbles/Snork hair), Janicki and McTavish were both on the field since their horrific collision in LA. 

Also of note, Andrew Peters came on as a second half defensive substitution leaving John DiRaimondo as the only player on the roster not to see action in 2009.  The Nest Liner believes that DiRaimondo has only been left out because the United equipment staff has yet to figure out how to cram in his 10 letter name on the back of his shirt.

Dallas had 4 or 5 MLS caliber starters, but it was clear from the get-go that United had the edge.  There were many positive elements to take from this game, maybe the biggest was the obvious chemistry between Pontius, Fred, and Quaranta.  Those three were quickly and effectively moving the ball and playing off of each other quite well through the first half hour of the game, and again in the second half.   And both of United’s goals can be attributed to these players.

The first goal was a great sequence with Pontius emerging from midfield along with Tino and Fred.  The proved to be too much for 4 or 5 Dallas defenders, Pontius passed to Tino who left a nice return backheel to Pontius who found Fred on a through ball.

The first goal was critical as it alleviated pressure from the team.  Contrast it to the New England game, where United had plenty of chances that it didn’t cash in, and the team had to scramble back for a tie.  But the team only pressed for a couple of minutes after that goal, and Dallas created some pressure, aided by United’s shift in strategy from "ball control" to "kick and chase."  Sometimes, discretion is the better part of valor and a defender must be certain in clearing the ball, but United had a 10 minute or so stretch of every player not looking for passes and just putting the ball upfield only for Dallas to regroup and re-attack.  Also Kocic had some Nick Rimando moments flailing at high crosses, he’s supposed to be an aggressive keeper, and the swirling winds at RFK may have played tricks on him and fortunately, the worst things that happened were a few hundred skipped heartbeats, and a couple of corner kicks.

This was evidently a ‘discussion’ at half-time, becuase there were no hints of that sort of play in the second half. The second goal, in the came after a long diagonal ball from Pontius (who was playing some hybrid defender/midfielder role in the second half) to Tino in the area.  While falling backwards, Tino laid a pass to an on-rushing Brandon Barklage (who had unleashed several nice shots during the game) who found the back of the net near post. 

It’s one thing to see rookies making an impact, it’s another when they start showing chemistry and confidence.  No United players had any sort of timid nature to their play.  Every player seemed to understand that they had an opportunity, and it was for them to capitalize, and they did.  Many took shots from outside the area (contrary to the unpopular and unwritten tradition of DC United to walk the ball into the net).  Now, hopefully, players are making Soehn’s job harder as to who gets on the field.  And this sort of play from young players is going to mean that United isn’t going to need to ride Crayton, Emilio, Moreno, Olsen, and Gomez into the ground.  It’s going to be a long summer, and the more that the team can rely on these young players, the more productive the older ones are going to be.

The PK

United got lucky on the late handball call on Janicki in the second half.  It was an unfortunate bounce that you can’t really blame him for.  But it did put one the MLS’s best strikers on the spot against an untested rookie keeper.  Fortunately, Kocic guessed the wrong way.  It’s rare that you thing that when talking about a goalkeeper defending a PK, but if Kocic dove the right way two things could have happened.  1. The ball bounces off of the post and into the net (this happened to Troy Perkins), or 2) the ball bounces off the post and off of Kocic……right to Kenny Cooper with a gaping net.  As it turns out the ball just bounced straight out to Cooper who couldn’t touch the ball because he was the person to restart play, thus killing the play when he did trap the ball (and bury it).

Oh Captain, my Captain

Another interesting tidbit in these games is the Captain’s armband.  The unleashed Namoff was the team’s captain at the start of the game, but he was subbed off in the second half.  He then handed the armband to designated armband delivery guy Devon McTavish who handed it off to Tino Quaranta.  Which, when you think about it, is really something special.  Think of where Tino was 13-14 months ago struggling with his personal demons, and now not only to come back, but to wear the captain’s armband.  Just can’t think of why he wasn’t Comback Player of the Year in 2008.  But the growth of Tino can’t be measured by just his wearing the armband.  Even before Namoff left the field, Tino was one of the ‘old guys’ on the field, and he was communicating with players behind the play, directing them, advising them, propping them up…..the stuff a leader does.  Then when Jamie Moreno came on, Tino dutifully handed the armband to Devon, who delivered it to Moreno.

On the Horizon

On Sunday, there’s a bus trip (not a taxi trip) to United’s Auxiliary field: Giants Stadium.  Where they’ll take on the defending Western Conference Champion (how freakin’ weird is that?) Red Bulls.  The game will also be on Telefutura at 3PM.

After that is an actual MLS game against F*C* Dallas on May 3 2 (it’s nearly May!?).  They’ve had a tough stretch, and United hasn’t made it better, maybe they’ll be angry this time.