United's familiar, troubled feeling
By: Craig Stouffer
Examiner Staff Writer
August 26, 2009
CONCACAF Champions League: Toluca 3, D.C. United 1
Two games into the group stage of the CONCACAF Champions League, D.C. United finds itself in an unflatteringly fa: 0-2-0 and increasing desperate to figure out why it can’t seem to find any success in international tournaments.
The latest defeat, Wednesday’s 3-1 decision in favor Mexican club Toluca in front of 8,834 at RFK Stadium, was oozing with déjà vu.
“It’s tough,” said United midfielder Devon McTavish. “We’re in the exact same position. We lost points at home. We lost a tough battle down in Honduras again this year, and we’re not sitting well, either in CONCACAF or in the league. It’s going to become decision time where we gotta step and get points, or we’re going to look back at this season, and it’s going to be the exact same as 2008.”
The Diablos Rojos (Red Devils), who are 4-1 and at the top of their group in the Mexican first division, pulled away with two strikes by Hector Mancilla late in the second half.
The first came in the 79th minute, when Mancilla received a pass just inside the box from Zinha. With an inside-out touch of his right foot, and a subtle left-right shift of his body, he spun free of United defender Marc Burch and fired a beauty past goalkeeper Josh Wicks to break a 1-1 tie.
Five minutes later, Mancilla needed only a simple redirection for his second of the night and a 3-1 advantage after Nestor Calderón’s cross fell at his feet after deflecting off United defender Julius James.
“We were lacking a little bit towards the end,” said United midfielder Andrew Jacobson. “I don’t think we played very smart at the end. But I give them credit. It’s a quality team. They really play collectively, and I think it was kind of mistakes on us.”
United continued the roster rotation that has marked its season, opening the night with a group that featured just three players who had started against Los Angeles the previous weekend. D.C. also returned to the four-man back line it had used in its first Champions League group stage match at Marathón in Honduras last week, with newly signed defenders James and David Habarugira each making their second appearance in the first eleven.
Toluca (2-0-0) opted for six starters from its league victory three days prior. But it was midfielder Vladimir Marin, a substitute at the weekend, who needed just five minutes to put the visitors in front. Capitalizing on errant D.C. defending, Marin pounced when neither Habarugira nor onrushing Wicks could corral a dangerous pass into the box through the heart of the United defense.
D.C. second half substitute Santino Quaranta made an immediate impact to erase the deficit, serving up a cross to Chris Pontius, who split two Toluca defenders and powered home a diving header to tie the score less than two minutes after the break.
But after the final two goals, United fell to 0-7-1 all-time in Champions League group stage matches and extended its losing streak against Mexican opponents to five matches.
“In the end, everywhere around the world, you play Saturday-Wednesday,” said Quaranta. “We’re professionals. We have to deal with it. You look at the [European] Champions League and all the other places, they do it. We have to do it. Everybody has to be ready on any given day. We weren’t tonight.”
