That Will Do
At 8,800 feet above sea level, with a number of key players left behind, DC United did just fine. Was United lucky? Hell yes. But they were due some luck, and, even with the PK, the result was fair.
Toluca was sharper and more skillful, but DC remained fairly well organized, kept its composure, and, remarkably, did not seem to flag too much from running at altitude.
And--stop the presses--under the circumstances, I cannot fault Soehn for his formation or substitutions. He even had the balls to go without a defensive midfielder toward the end.
Toluca had one ball off the crossbar in the first half, a goal taken back on a questionable offside call, and looked consistently the better team in the second. The difference in the match was the sensational strike by Chris Pontius, which most players won't make most of the time. The foul call on Vaughn that led to the PK (inadvertent tripping) might not always be called in someplace like England, but neither was it botched.
The pace of our attack was slow, the give-aways voluminous, our midfield was porous, we did not stay tight on defense, and did not win many second balls. What else is new? On the other hand, but for some wayward punches Cronin continued to look like a bona fide keeper, Pontius and Wallace had good games, and useless Fred was slightly less useless in that he offered some real defense and took people on. Avery John showed the benefits of his experience, but, as often is the case, looked to be one miscue away from a red card.
Emilio worked hard but, alas, he still played like Emilio.
United was lucky, sure, but the players, individually, kept their heads up and kept playing to the end. They fought and tried to take the game to home side, and were not afraid to try out some creative things, even when their legs started to get heavy in the last 20 minutes. Best of all, they looked like a team out there for 90 minutes.
Not a great team, but a team. Our team.
San Juan ties on Thursday and United's through. United continues to hold things together and they may well get a win on Saturday and, with a little luck, they're through.
Time to make major offerings to the soccer gods. But what? Maybe a spleen . . . what good is a spleen?
Talon Rating: 3 out of 5 birds
Fullback does an infinitely more thorough match review than I could possibly muster, being elbow deep in my own abdomen with a grapefruit spoon trying to dig out the spleen. He pretty much nails all the points worth making.
DCUMD pithily sums everything up by observing that it was "a better result than most of us expected, and probably a better result than we deserved." I'm not sure, however, about naming McTavish the best defender for United on the night. I thought Jakovic was a cut above when he came on, but then, I've always had a man-crush on him. There is a case to be made that McTavish had a better night defensively than he's had in a while. But, had the disallowed Toluca goal been allowed, it would have been McTavish who would be named the goat for holding his man onside. In the replay, it looked like he did.
United Mania labels United's performance "impressive."
Goff calls it "admirable" and makes the following player ratings:
Cronin 7; Vaughn 5, James 7, McTavish 6, John 7; Fred 5, DiRaimondo 6, Szetela 6.5, Khumalo 5; Pontius 8, Emilio 5. Subs: Wallace 6, Gomez 5, Jakovic 6.
BDR points out the holes in the performances of Wallace (shooting) and Boyzzz (defense). To paraphrase Don Rumsfeld, you go to war with the team you have, not the one you'd like to have. Look how far that got him . . . .
Word for word vis-a-vis Jakovic versus McTavish. Even down to the man-crush...
He's not long for this league, is he?
Posted by: Fullback | October 21, 2009 at 09:16 PM