A Day at Jack Kent Cooke Stadium FedEx Field

Puns with Real Madrid’s name are easy.  Marking more than half a dozen world class attackers in 90+ degree daytime heat, not so much.  There’s not too much to take from that game, nor should there be.  Real Madrid is in a whole other universe when it comes to depth.  They took off world class attackers at the half, only to replace them with fresh world class attackers, meanwhile United held fast with their rapidly tiring defense.  Though United held their own in the first half.  It would be an interesting academic exercise to see what the result would have been if the game had been played at night, and/or with standard subs.  But once again Arjen Robben (you may remember him as providing the game winning assist in the Chelsea match also played at FedEx), helped to decide the game with energetic runs and accurate passes leading to all three goals.

But who hitched up the Real Madrid bandwaggon?  Soccer fans came from all over the Eastern seaboard to catch this game.  Souvenir stands were selling $90 RM replicas at an incredible clip hours before the game began, of the 71,000 plus in attendance there must have been 30,000 brand spankin’ new white jerseys being worn.  Well, this game came off as advertised, decent entertainment, and probably more importantly, a money maker for DC United.

But really, they should have taken United on in 1998 (the greatest United squad to date) after it beat Vasco de Gama for the InterAmerican Cup. 

Something Completely Different

Now that the meaningless game is out of the way there are plenty of meaningful games coming up.  First, the US takes on Mexico in Azteca on Wednesday afternoon….it’s a goofy time (4PM), but whatever.  It’s World Cup Qualifying, and a positive result (tie or win) puts the US into a very favorable position after 6 games.  Keep in mind that Costa Rica plays Honduras (the first and third place teams), and Mexico travels to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks.

Then United takes on Toronoto (last year’s recipient of the "We think we’re all that " award…..likely to be supplanted by Seattle this year), in an Eastern Conference matchup this weekend.  Toronto is currently only one point behind in the standings so it’s an understatement to call this game critical in terms of playoff implications.  Toronto put down real grass so Real Madrid could run around in comfort , but the fake stuff should be back for United ( a marvelous stroke of luck for United that Ben Olsen is suspended due to yellow card accumulation….or was it luck?) Then it’s off to Marathon for a Champions’ League game before returning home against LA. next weekend.  So United better rest up and recover this week because after that, the schedule really gets congested.

From the Promo Department.

Have you seen the promotions for the US Open Cup final?  www.wewintrophies.com has been set up by DC United, because, well we win trophies, and pretty darned often.  United’s looking to win back to back Open Cups (heck it’s back to back at HOME).  Get folks to come out to the game and see the trophy get awarded.  It’s probably the coolest, and least known professional trophy in the US, giving all soccer teams at all levels a chance at winning some big hardware.  Of course, United has squashed the dreams of all but one team it’s faced so far, and is looking to extinguish Seattle’s hopes (look for a post about those folks soon).