D.C. United tries to stay out of reverse

“The best part about that game was when it was over,” said Soehn, and United is determined not to backslide any further.

“It feels like we took a couple steps back, and we’ve kind to had to start over and re-evaluate ourselves,” said Devon McTavish. “It’s a long season, you have a lot of opportunities to change.”

Part of that evaluation includes figuring out who to turn to for on-field leadership during an upcoming stretch that begins Thursday on national television and then includes visits to top league-contenders Kansas City and Houston.

Troy Perkins, Brian Carroll and Christian Gomez each exert their own unique influence on D.C. United’s play. But none match the team’s three foremost personalities Jaime Moreno, Ben Olsen and Bobby Boswell — who are all in Venezuela for Copa America for at least the next two weeks.

“I don’t know who’s going to do it,” said McTavish. “It’s going to be interesting to see what happens. You’ll see some guys step up.”

Carroll said he hadn’t even thought about the possibility of getting the captain’s armband against Colorado.

“It’s a situation where we need to step up,” said Carroll. “We’ve done that in a less vocal way this year, but now its about doing through example and through our voices, just telling people where they need to go and making sure they’re doing their job correctly.”

Overconfidence also was a persistent theme in United’s first three games of the season — all losses — and the defeat at Salt Lake showed it remains a significant obstacle.

“If we come out with a good mentality and really fight to do the dirty work, the possession, the skill and all that stuff takes over,” said Carroll. “If we don’t do that, our possession goes out the window, and there goes our main strategy.”

Free kicks

» D.C. United waived 29-year-old defender John Wilson on Tuesday. Wilson had spent more than two seasons in D.C. but was injured for much of 2006 and did not appear in a first-team match this season.