Lopsided victory in Colorado helps morale while supporting Rongen’s preaching of patience
Richie Williams didn’t know where the ball had gone. In a reflex effort to send the ball skyward, the D.C. United midfielder had inadvertently sent it spiraling over the outstretched arm of his goalkeeper, Mark Simpson. Williams looked in several directions before realizing he had put the Columbus Crew ahead, 2-1, in the 88th minute.
“I almost felt like laughing and just saying, ‘What the [heck] is going on here?'” Williams said. “It’s just been a crazy season.”
So crazy for the defending champions, in fact, that they are beginning to grow numb to the pain of conceding bizarre goals.
Four days after Williams gave the Crew its first victory in 14 visits to Washington, goalkeeper Tom Presthus surrendered an embarrassing equalizer in Colorado. Presthus looked like a wounded crab after his legs buckled beneath him while trying to track Scott Vermillion’s lofty header from midfield. The ball bounced over the fallen keeper and into the net. Fortunately for United, 34 minutes remained to compensate.
“I think we’re so used to any kind of misfortune or bad luck right now,” said defender Jeff Agoos, who scored an own goal for the MetroStars April 22 when he managed to kick the ball off his own knee. “We basically just put our heads back in it and said, ‘Let’s get on with it and get the win.'”
Spurred by Jaime Moreno’s first MLS hat trick, United recovered from Presthus’ gaffe and pounded the Rapids, 5-2, on May 6. Coach Thomas Rongen’s message of patience and optimism finally rang true. Yet after one quarter of the season, D.C. was tied with Miami for the fewest points in MLS. And just as Rongen refused to be distraught by the string of bad results, he refused to let one victory convince him all is well.
“It’s only one game,” Rongen said. “We don’t get too high after we win, and we have to put a few more performances like this together.”
The reasons for United’s slow start were diverse, but several themes recurred:
Poor defending on set plays. United’s 2.5 goals-against average was the league’s worst through May 8, and six of the 20 goals it had allowed came off restarts. The team also conceded four goals on penalty kicks.
Lack of a secondary scoring threat. Jaime Moreno moved among the league’s goal leaders again, but United’s other forwards – Chris Albright, A.J. Wood and Michael Burke – were scoreless.
Injuries and absences. Although nothing new to United (or any other MLS team, for that matter), missing players such as Marco Etcheverry, Eddie Pope and Moreno seemed to affect D.C. more than in past years.
A few other problems seemed to be solved earlier. United gave up four goals on counterattacks in the first five games, but it adjusted to afford Columbus and Colorado relatively few fast-break chances.
“We’ve been susceptible to our own free kicks when teams have broken out on us and gotten something from that,” defender Geoff Aunger said. “That’s an area we’ve been trying to get better on.”
Offensively, United often seemed out of sync before dominating Columbus with 66 percent of the possession and putting eight shots on goal. A comparable performance, but with better finishing, resulted in the lopsided victory in Colorado.
“I don’t see any difference from the way we were playing last year,” defender Carey Talley said. “We go out there with the same intensity, we play the ball, we knock it around teams – all that’s not coming is the goals. Add a few bad breaks in the defensive end, and that’s it.”
Rongen remains pleased with the effort of Albright, who has played 723 minutes in his young MLS career with no goals and one assist. Rongen said Albright’s ability to get behind defenders has helped open up space for Moreno.
“It’s going to come,” Albright said. “I’m getting some chances, I just need to get a break and get one in the back of the net. We won, and that’s the most important thing right now. I don’t care if I don’t score a goal all year as long as we win the final.”
Rongen reiterated his confidence in the team’s personnel throughout the early going, and the only significant change he made was to start 16-year-old Bobby Convey at left midfield against Columbus and Colorado. Convey showed well and will continue to challenge for a starting spot when Ben Olsen returns from a minor groin injury.
United’s 2-5-1 opening is reminiscent of the inaugural 1996 season, when the team was 2-7 in its first nine, with two losses coming via the now-defunct shootout. D.C. recovered to win 14 of the next 23 games and reached top form at the end of the season.
“The last three games, I think, we’ve played a lot better than we did early on,” Rongen said. “Really, if you look at it, the only game we weren’t in was the L.A. game. … We could have won four or five games by this time. That’s why we’ve said we can’t panic and just continue to play and get better each and every week.”
The players agree that while the team never reached disaster status, they cannot be satisfied until they are atop the standings.
“It’s not fine yet,” Moreno said. “We’ve been trying to break this bad stretch we’ve been through, and we have to keep doing it. If we don’t win the next couple games, then [the Colorado] game is in the past and doesn’t mean much.”
by Soccer America associate editor Will Kuhns