United 0 - Galaxy 0 August 22, 2009

This team has broken my heart on a number of occasions, but Saturday's tie-that-felt-like-a-loss was not profoundly wrenching.

It should have been, given that it establishes DC on a downward trajectory toward not making the playoffs for a second year in a row. Nevertheless, the result seemed preordained. Although the team looked more aggressive and coordinated than in other recent games--and it never gave up until the end--I simply could not believe that United would pull out a win.

Random observations about the Galaxy:

• David Beckham: a lazy bastard. He dawdled around midfield most of the time.

• Bruce Arena: has epic man-boobs. We're talking Zeppelins here.

• Cobi Jones: I saw this girl walking down the sideline in LA gear and thought, who's that girl on the field? Then I realized it was Cobi Jones, standing around expectantly like Landon Donovan's fluffer.

United consistently gets lost in the final third. (Yes, there was a ridiculous offside call that disallowed Emilio's goal--we'll get to that in a second.) All of these interchanges and movements lead to naught, as the players get to the opposing end and then look like they don't know what to do with each other when they arrive. As a result, they fail to create scoring opportunities. On Saturday, DC managed to sustain pressure against the Galaxy for almost the entire match, yet, except for the one goal that wasn't, lacked an incisive killing touch.

To be sure, DC played at a high tempo, made penetrating runs, and shifted the field dangerously on a number of occasions. Still and all, in the final third there was an awful lot of standing around, too many touches per player, and a sad lack of ideas.

Do you know what would help this situation? Meaningful flank play. Get wide, spread the defense, make room in the middle to shoot. I thought Wallace and Quaranta could be our guys for this, but apparently not. Maybe, as Fullback argues, we just don't have the people for it:

Wallace shows promise as a two-way wide midfielder that can cover an entire flank, but he's not there yet, and we've got nobody else who can play like that. So why do we insist on trying?

And what of this timid "3-6-1" formation which, frankly, sucks? I mean, we're more than halfway through the season for christssake, when is the coaching staff going to figure this team out?

Goff's player ratings:

Wicks 6.5; Namoff 7.5, Jakovic 7, Burch 6.5; Fred 7, Simms 6, Olsen 7, Gomez 5.5, Wallace 6; Quaranta 6, Emilio 7. Subs: Moreno 6, Pontius 5, Jacobson 5.

These ratings are generally way too high.

Quaranta played well, with good touches and his head up looking to feed his teammates, who all-too-often did not show up.

BDR captures my sentiments about Tino precisely:

I've a new working theory about Quaranta: he operates at a higher speed and level than his teammates, it's not that he makes bad passes, it's that his teammates either don't understand where they're supposed to be or know but don't have the physical skills to get there. He makes the rest of United look as old and slow as United are old and slow.

Wicks, Namoff, and Jakovic also stood out. But 7s for Fred and Emilio?  Really????  Fred had a better game than usual, and on a number of occasions had great touches, but also made a number of terrible give-aways in dangerous positions.

And Emilio? It seems like his new MO is not just to stand around, but to do so in offside positions. Watch him. Maybe it's because he recognizes that he's slowing down, but for whatever reason, his slowness, poor first touch, and lack of off-the-ball movement is really killing this team. He simply is not DP-worthy. The counterpoint to this argument is well-stated by DCUMD:

I have a feeling that some fans are going to criticize Luciano Emilio for this match, but keep in mind that he could have scored 1 goal and set up 1 penalty kick had the referees been watching the game more closely instead of admiring Beckham's good looks.

And Gomez? Totally disappeared for most of the game. Very disappointing. Moreover, here's a question of tactics: if you're going to build a team around an attacking number 10, then shouldn't you have tactics that emphasize getting him the ball? Maybe the tactics are there and Gomez just is not getting open and showing for the ball, but it also appears that his teammates are not looking very hard to find him.

What about the referees? Emilio's goal was disallowed for offside, and although in real time this appeared to be the case, replays showed that the Brazilian was onside when Fred slotted through his excellent pass. But for that call it would have been 1-0 early on and the game would have changed. Later, Emilio was pushed down in the box. A PK could have been called. It would have been a very soft PK, but a PK nonetheless.

Here's the thing: I hear the cries that DC was robbed, and the referees sucked, etc.  I agree. But, when a team consistently, game in and game out, creates as few good scoring chances as DC United, bad things are going to happen both in the short term and the long run.

Life is not a dress rehearsal and you create your own luck, so stop whining.

Talon Rating:  2 1/2 out of 5 birds.