No Olé
In a match that may be remembered as "The Heatstroke Cup," United held its own for 55 minutes against Real Madrid, in an electric atmosphere at FedEx field.
In the first half, United looked organized, displaying purposefulness, intensity, and flashes of panache that have been missing from recent league games. To start the second, the home side came out on a mission, looking like it believed it had a chance to earn an upset. Alas, over the course of a handful of minutes United fell apart, victims of exhaustion and the pure quality of their opponents.
However, United was in this game, and could well have done better. Although people will point to the defensive lapses that led to Madrid's goals, it was, at the end of the day, United's toothless attack that let it down. You need goals to win games, and for all its good work in the first half, DC had no shots on goal.
In other words, United had issues in this game that had nothing to do with the fact that they were playing Real Madrid.
Issues they need to address, such as:
- Tactics overwhelmingly favoring possession at the expense of penetration, giving the opposing team time to get numbers behind the ball while United builds slow attacks;
- Moreno, Gomez, and Emilio are not exactly swift;
- Emilio is often ineffective due to (i) sporadic and/or non-threatening off-the-ball runs, (ii) poor first touch, and (iii) too slow to get separation and shoot;
- Absent width/flank play leaves the center of the field congested to the benefit of the defending team;
- Chris Pontius does some things well but finishing isn't one of them;
- Cheap give-aways; and
- Consistent problems staying in onside positions in the attacking third, thus killing potential attacking opportunities (while, conversely, struggling to work the offside trap going the other way).
Still and all, United's players let neither themselves nor their fans down. They should, except for Emilio, take pride in how they played. Jakovic and Wicks, in particular, were huge and deserve major props. Emilio, on the other hand, managed to wear himself out and cramp up while contributing so very little.
Talon Rating: 3 out of 5 birds
It's just a shame that the scoreline was not better. The final result does not reflect the pride and fight that United showed today. United had lots of good ball movement, coordinated interchanges, and individually didn't shy away from taking on the multimillionairs from Madrid.
Nevertheless, there are a lot of takeaways from this experience that United can use to build upon, if only someone is paying attention. Sounds like Jaime Moreno is:
Other thoughts:
- It sucks feeling like a visitor in your own house. Where did all these smug bandwagon Madrid fans come from? After seeing so many of their shirts I now hate Bwin, whatever the hell that is. (Oh, you say it's an online gambling site. How tacky. Now I hate it even more.)
- The Curmudgeon does not do the wave.
- 1 1/2 hours to drive home from the game, almost one hour of which was spent in the parking lot. Here's to United's new stadium not being as convenient as FedEx field . . .
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