Santino Quaranta chose the opposite of the standard sports cliché on Thursday, admitting the difficulty of focusing on one game at a time at this point in the season where every result seems to have an impact on how teams are positioned for the postseason.
“Everybody’s pulling away,” said the D.C. United midfielder, an acknowledgement of eight- and four-point gaps separating United (6-4-10, 28 points) from the top two teams in MLS Eastern Conference, Columbus (9-3-9, 36 pts) and Chicago (8-4-8, 32 pts).
To keep the pace, and create its own gap in front of Toronto (7-7-6, 27 pts), United needs to put together a complete performance on the road, where it has squandered a lead in seven of ten matches this season, including its last three league games.
“We tend to start off well,” said United defender Dejan Jakovic, “and then just kind of, just start slow in the second half or doze off, a few collapses here and there, and they’ve been costing us of late.”
Head coach Tom Soehn would rather point to last week’s come-from-behind victory in penalty kicks after giving up a 1-0 lead at Firpo in the CONCACAF Champions League.
“We’re learning what it takes to come out with a result,” said Soehn. “I turned the page in El Salvador, as far as the way we want to play on the road. That’s going to be our standard from this point forward.”
