I’m not sure there’s going to be a lot of space in print to capture the ending of Jaime Moreno’s D.C. United career accurately from start to finish. So how about five thoughts with some comments from after yesterday’s training session:
It’s a pretty significant coup that Moreno landed in Major League Soccer as a 22-year-old. What would be the equivalent today? Maybe not quite Javier Chicharito but perhaps a Giovani Dos Santos if he decided to bolt Tottenham for the U.S.? Even if Moreno wasn’t quite able to establish himself at Middlesbrough – Santino Quaranta says he’s joked that “he ate too many fish and chips over there,” – Moreno’s Tahuichi pedigree was the foundation for success in a higher-level league than MLS.
“He was fortunate that he had some overseas playing experience and he came to us, really, just out of his teenage years,” said United assistant coach and former goalkeeper Mark Simpson. “You could just see, he had all the tools. Just having the having the ability go overseas – to be a Bolivian player playing in England, that right there says a lot.”
“It was pretty new, and I just wanted to play,” said Moreno of his decision to join MLS and D.C. United. “I was in England, and I didn’t have a chance to play too many games so I decided to come to this league because I thought, it’s a brand new league, I might have a better chance to play and grow as a person and as a player. Always in my mind, it was just stay a couple years, get better and go back to Europe. Obviously, it didn’t happen, definitely, I made a good impression. Every other year, it was signing, and signing longer contracts until I realized it was 15 years later, and I’m still here. That’s how life goes.”
Why didn’t he go back?
“I wasn’t good enough,” joked Moreno. “You gotta have good connections and life was good here. My kids were born here, and we just felt comfortable. Later, I kind of fell short in my career, so it was something that I’m always going to regret. At the same time, I can’t be ungrateful, because I have a great career, a great family, a good place to live and a lot of friends.”
Of course, he did meet his wife, Louise, over there, which would make his English tenure not entirely unsuccessful.
How many ways would it be possible to measure how long Moreno has been in D.C. while other sports figures have come and gone? When he arrived, the Bullets and Capitals hadn’t moved from the Capital Centre. Norv Turner was the head coach of the Redskins, who could nearly field an 11-player side of ex-coaches since. United hadn’t yet been burned by the steamroller that quashed their own hopes for a stadium and instead jobbed the District into spending quadrillions on Nationals Park. Heck, Michael Chang won the Legg Mason in 1996 – actually, Chang is only two years older than Moreno. What does that say?
“As a person, when you achieve something, I think other people realize that you have done more things than the way I feel,” said Moreno. “I just feel that I have achieved some stuff, but like always in life, you want more.”
While Bruce Arena and every guy that’s played with Moreno has said that he was faster with the ball than he was without it, clearly some of that speed has diminished as Moreno has gotten older. But it’s really only in the last two years that it’s been noticeable, in part because of Moreno’s ability to cover up that deficiency with his skill, vision and touch.
“But as he got a little bit older, the intelligence that he already had was heightened,” said United interim head coach Ben Olsen. “There’s been practices where he’s literally walked through it because he has that sense of soccer that a lot of kids don’t have in this country. You think back to guys like [Carlos] Valderrama, and it’s like, how do these guys know there’s someone coming on my back, or how did he know that guy was there? He’s got that sense, and it’s produced magic.”
Moreno should be measured as much by the trophies that D.C. United has won with him on the field – um, that would be ALL of them – as by his goal-scoring record. Now, of course, Moreno has been with D.C. for all but one of the 15 seasons that the team and MLS have existed, but it’s not just that he’s been present for every championship.
Simpson said his best memory of Moreno is that he actually drew the foul for every set piece that D.C. United scored on during the inaugural 1996 MLS Cup. It’s always lost in the freezing cold and soaking haze of Eddie Pope’s stunning game-winning header and ensuing splash down celebration.
“He’s a very competitive guy, but a lot of those championships, he wanted to win them, but he put his stamp on the game,” said Olsen. “He’s done it in the games. He’s taken over games in those type of situations. There’s been nobody who’s been more valuable at this club, and it’s a sad day to see him go. But these things have to happen eventually, and hopefully, it’s a celebration this weekend and a positive spin on all the great things he’s done for this club.”
Moreno will take with him in his departure the last remnants of what D.C. United used to be and is clearly no longer – an elite MLS club.
As happy and enjoyable as Olsen and the entire staff at RFK Stadium hopes Moreno’s send-off will be, it’s just another sad and depressing part of an already sad and depressing season. United’s early dynasty, in which Moreno played a massive role, was crucial to building the foundation of MLS, even if it came during an era when the rules weren’t hard and fast and D.C.’s front office was ahead of the curve. When Christian Gomez arrived in 2004 and Luciano Emilio not long thereafter, again D.C. seemed to have anticipated where the league was headed next and made the rest of MLS look pretty silly on a regular basis. But it overplayed its hand in 2008 and has been reeling ever since.
“But the league is evolving,” said Olsen. “And it’s tough to tell if this will happen again, a guy like him coming in this league, staying this long and producing as much as he has, and also, holding as much silverware as he has. That’s the thing, to me, we can talk about his goals and him being one of the best players. But to me, this team has only won championships with Jaime. That says a lot.”
The rest of MLS also has not only caught but passed United by over the last three years, leaving the club in a dusty mess of failed signings, middling talent and an abominable stadium situation. Closing the chapter on Moreno is an admission that the way D.C. United does business has to change if it is ever to start digging itself out from the mess it created for itself.
It’s funny because Moreno has also been with D.C. throughout the recent tumultuous campaigns but he can rest assured, he won’t be remembered for his role in them.
