Jaime Moreno’s career isn’t going to end without controversy.
With three games left in the season, the legendary D.C. United forward finally got back into the starting lineup tonight against San Jose – just his seventh start of the season – with a chance to inspire the D.C. attack and perhaps put forth a last-ditch defense of his MLS all-time scoring title (132 goals), which was tied last weekend by Dallas forward Jeff Cunningham.
But less than eight minutes in, Moreno’s MLS career was reduced to 90 minutes at most, when he and Earthquakes defender Brandon McDonald were both ejected in the 8th minute after an off-the-ball altercation.
Moreno was showered and dressed by halftime, and long departed by the time the final whistle blew on the 2-0 defeat – which also set new D.C. records for losses (19) and scoreless games (16) in a season – but he was contacted briefly by phone to give his version of events.
“He punched me, I pushed him back and then he head-butted me, basically,” said Moreno. “I don’t know what he saw, but basically there’s no respect from these people. Nothing. No respect at all. I would like him to show me what I did, why I got sent off. I didn’t retaliate enough to deserve a red card, but I don’t know what he saw.”
McDonald, through an Earthquakes media relations official, said he retaliated after Moreno started the altercation as the two jostled for position on a D.C. goal kick. Television replays were inconclusive, (the assistant referee appears to say “head-butts both ways,”) except to show what looked like a head-butt from McDonald, but referee Alex Prus, after conferring with an assistant referee and the 4th official, showed the red card to both players.
My understanding is that the referee report shows that both players were sent off for violent conduct/head-butting, and I’m not sure if that actually helps gain any better of an understanding. The player versions of events aren’t exactly in agreement.
Nevertheless, not only did Moreno lose 82 minutes tonight, but he’s also out another 90 next week at Chicago, leaving only the home game vs. Toronto on Oct. 23 as his final match with D.C. United. That assumes, of course, that there is no finding that his behavior prior to the McDonald head-butt was bad enough to merit an additional suspension. The possibility simply needs to be raised, given the potential to end Moreno’s career.
Here’s another interesting fact: Prus was the same referee who two weeks ago ejected D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen and Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear late in a match that had started to spiral a bit out of control. Prus and his crew appeared to take the opposite approach tonight.
“It’s exhausting, dealing with these guys,” said Olsen. “It takes everything out of you. But that’s the way they deal with these games. I didn’t understand why they would have the same referee for our game again two weeks later after what went down. But whoever made those rules made that decision. I think tonight you see why they shouldn’t, but at the end, regardless of the refereeing, we still have issues. It wasn’t their fault tonight. It was ours and fouling up two plays again. We gotta learn that every play counts and this league is getting better.”
Chris Wondolowski would be the case-in-point. After seven goals in his first five seasons – five last year – Wondolowski is in the thick of the race for the most in MLS this season with 14 after scoring twice tonight against D.C.
The first was an absolute screamer from the left side, a one-timer into the near-side upper 90 after he was left unmarked to hit a Tim Ward cross that was allowed to bounce in the box. It came in the 45th minute, right at the end of a half that D.C. had dominated.
“Obviously, I’m the first person, if I know I can get it, I’ll raise my hand and say I should’ve got it,” said United goalkeeper Troy Perkins. “But I don’t have a chance. He puts in the corner and hits it with a lot of pace.”
Wondolowski doubled the lead ten minutes after halftime, this time off a cross from Bobby Convey that Perkins punched meekly; the ball again bounced, and again Wondolowski was unmarked for the clean-up finish.
United, which tested San Jose goalkeeper Jon Busch five times in the first half, could barely muster a single shot on goal after halftime and consistently muffed it’s best chances in and around the box all night. Defending may be a problem, but the offense gave little support, as it has done all season. The worst culprit tonight was Pablo Hernandez, who took eighty extra touches and got dispossessed when he should’ve fired home from 12 yards after getting put through by Santino Quaranta. Yes, that would be zero goals for Hernandez since he arrived for $250,000 this summer.
It’s hard not to feel bad for Moreno given how little time he has left, but there’s plenty of sympathy due to Olsen, too, for the mess he’s had to inherit since taking the job in August. This isn’t what he signed up for when he decided to be an assistant coach. The shambles of a roster he had to deal with tonight – 15 dressed players, total, due to suspensions, absences and injuries – is par for the course. He also walked into the media room afterward to find the table he usually sits behind squeezed up against the wall, leaving him little choice but to grab a plastic chair and take an informal seat right in front of reporters.
“He’s been given a team that, we’ve been struggling with confidence, struggling with just scoring goals, period, and leaking goals as well,” said Perkins. “But not only that, he’s been given a team that half of it is injured so what do you do? At that point in the season, you can’t go out and buy and sign guys or trade guys because they’re injured. I think he’s done exceptionally well with the crew he has.”
