Well, at least it was nice weather.  It’s a treat to not have a muggy oppressively hot August match.

Yeah.  Avoiding talking about the match.

3-1 other guys.  And the other guys scored for United.  But going to take the high road on this. 60+ minutes of soccer and that’s all United got, and frankly they didn’t earn much more when you look at the total game.  Yeah, 60 minutes.  Figure that’s what they actually played when you figure in the amount of time that Abbey Okulaja stood over players rolling around on the ground (sometimes actually hurt).  No he wasn’t motioning for the player to get up.  He wasn’t talking/lecturing players (as he’s apt to do).  He wasn’t updating his Facebook status (though, that at least would have been productive on some level).  He would just stand there.  Eventually, he’d motion for a trainer to come out, or the stretcher bearers to retrieve the body.  But he just stood there.  The man is a mystery.  He kills games.  Some refs just seem to have it out for United.  Compared to what Okulaja does to the game in its entirety, I’d take a ref with a grudge.  At least the game moves on, or there aren’t super mysterious calls.

Scoring (What’s that?)

United is still snakebit in the scoring department.  With the score 0-0 both Hernandez and Allsopp got great scoring opportunities, but Kevin Hartman made good saves to keep them out of the net.  And with United pushing forward, and possibly concentrating too hard on scoring, neglected to mark attacking players moving through the middle of the field.

The team’s not scoring, and that magnifies any defensive miscue.  To break out of it, the team must do the simple things.  Shoot.  And shoot on frame.  They need to NOT try and make the perfect shot, that only keeps the drought going.  Trying to be cute and tucking it in the post is what a goal scorer with CONFIDENCE does.  To get confidence you need to just get the ball in and around the net.  Good things will happen if you do that.

Case in point: the own goal against Dallas.  You can call it lucky.  But Tino put the ball into a dangerous place and Andy Najar made a dangerous far post run, defender Jair Benitez was forced to make some sort of play on the ball.

But keeping it simple is how the team will work its way through it.  Trying to dribble through 4 defenders isn’t.

Najar

Without a doubt, Andy Najar is the best story of the season.  But he’s now making is second trip through the league.  Everybody’s played against him, and there’s plenty of video of him.  In short, teams are learning to adjust to him.  What we’ve seen is Najar’s raw talent.  What needs to happen next is the progression of his development and maturation to see how he handles the new pressure and tactics.  What’s evident though, is his strength of character.  You don’t see him slump his shoulders in frustration or disgust.  You see a competitive fire to stay in plays, to win the ball, and to contribute.

Next up the Philadelphia Union and a traveling contingent from the Sons of Ben.