A disappointed Kevin Payne spoke with Steven Goff of the Washington Post about his underachieving D.C. United side following Thursday night’s 2-0 loss to Chicago at RFK Stadium. “We have a personal accountability issue on the field,” the DCU president fumed. “I hope that the players know; some of them probably don’t, actually. There are certain players who play maybe 75 or 80 minutes out of 90, but they take off critical plays, and it happened tonight twice.”
The two sequences he’s talking about were the goals by Justin Mapp late in the first half and Cuauhtemoc Blanco just after halftime. “We’ve got guys who think it is okay if you go out and put a good effort in for 30-35 minutes, the crowd cheers, everybody gets happy and then you fall asleep for a play and — bang! — you are down a goal,” Payne said.
Goff points out that United played better last night than against Colorado last weekend, “but the lack of understanding between players, critical mistakes and an inability to create scoring opportunities doomed the club.” It didn’t help that midfielders Marcelo Gallardo and Fred were missing, or that reigning MLS MVP Luciano Emilio was once again isolated and ineffective up front. This is a team that needs to figure out how to score, before it’s too late. Meanwhile, United’s next four games are on the road, where it’s been outscored, 8-0, in three games.