Generally, in a typical MLS season, we would see it all. Yet, we pretty much saw it all in this past
week. A great game against Chicago, a bad game on the road in Seattle, and a truly ugly game in Colorado.
The Emerald City
United took it’s act on the road for its first ever regular season game in Seattle (United travelled there a couple of years ago to play some squad from Spain…..can’t remember their name….). Credit to the folks that both brought MLS to Seattle, and to the fans for proving them right. Seattle had an energitic and packed house (The House that Steve Largent Built?). Chris Pontius got United on the board first, then Seattle roared back with three goals of their own, including an Own Goal. Seattle plays a with an overly aggressive attack, which stretches their team, and they’ve made a habit of squadering leads. Which played well into United’s ‘Cardiac Kids’ comback style. Christian Gomez found space above the 18 moved the ball into the area, and found the goal just inside the far post. Then, Pontius served in a cross that Tino Quaranta had skim off of his head and let Tyrone Marshall just bury the tying goal. What? Marshall is a Seattle defender? Oh well. It was a beautifully taken goal, even if it wasn’t what he wanted to do.
Key things to take from this game, however, was that Pontius and Quaranta used the entire width of the field. Combine that with Seattle’s silly thought process of trying to stretch a 2 goal lead late in the second half, results in a lot of usable space for United’s attackers.
The Ugly
There’s no other term for United’s game against Colorado. Well, none that are even remotely polite. United tried to rectify some defensive faults (like giving up three goals against Seattle) by changing their formation from the now familiar 3-5-2, to the more traditional 4-4-2. This was doomed from the start. But why? While it’s easy to point fingers at Greg Janicki (with a big enough swing and a miss that Washington Nationals fans would find familiar) or at Avery John (and his David Stokes-like through ball…..for the other team), the real fault is moving to the 4-4-2 and having Christian Gomez as one of the central midfielders. Gomez is NOT a two way player….at least not for more than, say, five minutes or so a game. Perhaps Gomez starting as a striker and either Pontius of Quaranta sliding back to central midfield is a better option, or starting Devon McTavish…..two more defensive minded players fits that formation better than Gomez, who effectively made the formation a 4-3-3. Which is fine if you’re the Women’s National Team, not so much if you’re an average MLS team. When interviewed at halftime, Ben Olsen mentioned that United couldn’t keep possesion and push the ball up and wide on the wings. The issue was that United was essentially down a man in midfield, meaning that Colorado could keep possesion more and attack more space, and United couldn’t use the width of the field to attack.
At least the team has a weak to rest weary legs and get back to the way they were playing before the roadtrip, next game is against the Ocean City Barons at the SoccerPlex next Tuesday.
On a postive note….
Just can’t end on Ugly, now can we? It looks like Tino Quaranta is going to get a well deserved call up to the National Team for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. To say that Tino’s been resurgent in the last couple of season’s is an understatement. He’s also arguably MLS’s best American born player this season. Maybe a good showing will get him onto later World Cup Qualfying squads and maybe beyond. Something thought squandered a couple of years ago.
