United-Wizards thoughts
By: Craig Stouffer
Examiner Staff Writer
09/09/09 11:16 PM EDT
Back in the playoff picture, eh?
Thoughts: 1) D.C. United head coach Tom Soehn pulled Christian Gomez at halftime of tonight's 1-0 win over Kansas City. But he said it wasn't because of performance: "It wasn’t necessarily Christian, why we took him out. Just the game dictated that we needed to get Benny [Olsen] in there. Sometimes that’s the reality of things, and I told him at halftime, it’s not you, it’s what our formation is right now. We need to solidify things, and Benny added a lot the minute he came in. He shored the middle up, and now we started to possess the ball a little bit better. Some subs you have to do, not because of performance, but because of what’s required."
That's true, but for a team that is leaning more and more toward a 4-4-2, Gomez has a difficult argument for being included, given his defensive limitations.
2) Clyde Simms said the removal of Davy Arnaud in the second half might have been one of the main reasons why D.C. kept K.C. from getting a shot on goal after halftime, as he had been a constant danger on balls from Claudio Lopez and Josh Wolff. (He didn't put many on frame, however.) Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the tactics of interim Wiz coach Peter Vermes.
3) Take a Chance, go to jail. Second-half sub Chance Myers lasted 41 minutes, picking up two yellows in five minutes. Not awesome for just his third appearance this year.
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