Deja Vu All Over Again?

Weren’t we here last year?  A pedestrian first half of an MLS season, a US Open Cup run, and the CONCACAF Champions’ League?  (A quick reminder about 2008 – United won the US Open Cup, the wheels totally fell of the cart in MLS, and they got totally blown out of the water in the Champions’ League).

This year, we’ve seen obvious attempts at trying to manage minutes.  Tommy Soehn has put a great emphasis of trying to rotate players on the field and give key players rest, lest they get hurt.  Sometimes it’s maddening.  The MLS game last week at Toronto would have been an improvement if it was maddening.

United is in a stretch where they play 10 games in 31 days.  That’s a lot of miles on the legs and a lot of bumps and bruises.  It’s also a huge wear on the psyche.  While there is talent to go around the lockerroom at RFK, there apparently is still a deficit of heart and character.  Because that deficit was on display in the Great White North.  The game was ‘must win’ Toronto was right behind DC in a very tight Eastern Conference race.  United had the edge in talent, and even though were down by one goal at the half, just couldn’t muster up the energy and drive to pull even.  What’re we going to blame that on, the Canadian late afternoon heat?

Soccer’s not a tough game.  In fact, here’s the formula for success: score goals, don’t give up goals.

Simple.

But right now, United’s attack is toothless.  And it’s defense is getting picked apart on a regular basis.

Scoring

Look at scoring.  You can break it down to two types of scoring: Primary and secondary.  The team leans heavily on Luciano Emilio, Jamie Moreno, and Christian Gomez who are the three primary sources of scoring on the team.  The secondary scorers, well, is everybody else, but Tino Quaranta, Fred, and Chris Pontius are the bigger names in this group.   In August, United has played four games so far against teams that don’t have salaries that ignore the fact that the world’s economy is in the midst of a recession.  In that span United has scored 5 goals (3 after Houston went home early) and given up 11.  That’s not going to get you much success (see the formula for success above for reference).

Defense

Who do you point fingers at? Individual players? Formations? Motivation? Organization? Skill? A little bit of all the above?

What to do?

United can change formations.  But if they go from the 3-5-2, to the 4-4-2, they need to take out Christian Gomez.  Or at least take him out of midfield.  He’s the player that runs out of gas first (can’t the team look into how Cash for Clunkers could apply?) that’s not a total knock on Gomez.  He’s a fantastic player, he’s hard to disposses.  But he goes hard and runs out of gas early.  He’s like a jet plane from the fifties.  But there is no clear cut answer.  There’s no magic wand to wave to make things ‘click’.  Every change will come with tradeoffs.  The key is for the team to identify the proper balance in these tradeoffs.

The advantage of all of the games is that it allows United to get right back on the field and get things fixed.  A repeat of last year isn’t going to cut it.  United can turn things around the LA (H1N1) Galaxy.  In case you haven’t heard, they’ve got this guy who came up through Manchester United’s youth system, along with greats like Ryan Giggs.  He’s sinced moved on, played in Europe and wound up with the Galaxy.  They’ve also acquired one of Jovan Kirovski’s chums (look, Europosuer language), in David Beckham.  And Beckham’s best friend in LA (read Grant Wahl’s book), Landon Donovan (he with H1N1…..or at least that’s his excuse for not stepping up in Mexico)…..also United fan-fave (not being sarcastic here) Alecko Eskandarian.  Hopefully, Eski makes the trip, he banged up his nose a few weeks back and as been out of action.  This game is big.  Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is.  Not just because it’s LA (who DC has beaten twice for MLS Cups), not just because LA has big egos stars, and a United alumni squad (Sanneh, Dema, Esky coached by Arena and Sarachan).  DC needs the points, they need the momentum.

The team knows the stakes, and according to Steve Goff’s Soccer Insider, Ben Olsen‘s got something more than just hair on his chest and Chris Pontius and Tom Soehn have something to say.   Which is all fine, but let’s make it mean something on the field.  LA’s been a resurgent team of late, but United’s at home and it needs the points.

Other Things

United’s taking the US Open Cup on tour!  Check out www.wewintrophies.com to find a spot to find it.  Take your picture with it, raise a drink to it.  Spread the word about it.  The Open Cup is a great competition that goes undernoticed (that’s an understatement).  Let’s help raise awareness, and more importantly, give those Seattle Sounders fans a nice little slap of reality.

The DC United   hall of Tradition is looking to expand.  This year’s candidates are Raul Diaz Arce (RDA) and Ritchie Williams (ABMOD)*.  Go here to vote.  Both men are deserving and helped instill the team identity that we enjoy today.

* ABMOD = Ankle Biting Midget of Death/Doom