Apparently, it was far too early to even hint at the suggestion of the potential of the idea of the possibility of the chance that D.C. United was back. Instead, the gap between the top tier in MLS and the tier where D.C. United resides was exposed by New York on national television. Ouch.
Tonight’s 4-0 defeat wasn’t exactly what D.C. had hoped for, to say the least, though maybe it the opposite for the talent-laden but often overlooked Red Bulls, who got their biggest win over their East Coast rival in the 16-year history of MLS while United simultaneously suffered its worst defeat since opening last season with a 4-0 drubbing at Kansas City.
Prior to tonight, D.C. had just three four-goal losses at home total since the league’s inception in 1996: a 4-0 defeat to Chicago in the 2005 playoffs, a 6-2 loss to Miami and a 4-0 loss to Los Angeles, both in 2000.
“It’s a tough night, a little bit embarrassing,” United head coach Ben Olsen said. “4-0 at home, it’s a tough night for us. But looking on the positive, there was some good stuff for us at times. We fouled up a couple plays that cost us in a first half. They’re a good team, and if you make mistakes, they’ll punish you.”
One more from Olsen to help get into a little analysis: “I think they are a very experienced team. They are in a different spot than we are right now. It’s not an excuse, we could have been better tonight. I’m certainly not happy about tonight’s result and I don’t think there is a guy in the locker room right now who is feeling very good about themselves so we’ll lick our wounds and get back to work. 1-0, 4-0, it’s a loss. We can put this behind us and move on. I’m not as alarmed as I thought I’d be at a 4-0 loss at home.”
He might be after we look at both short view and long view for each of D.C.’s position lines (and we’ll assume Bill Hamid was hung out to dry on all four goals, and the latter two came after the game got stretched):
Defenders
Short view – Poor marking was in play yet again on New York’s first goal, with rookie right back Chris Korb the primary culprit that failed to find Thierry Henry, who also went unaccounted for on the second goal, which started when Jan Gunnar Solli was allowed receive a chipped ball in the box. Marc Burch failed to prevent the pass and was cast aside by Solli with ease. Both goals were preventable situations that were punished accordingly by a good team.
Long view – Korb, who was similarly caught out against Los Angeles, is starting to resemble the Jordan Graye experiment last year, where promising potential of a late-round rookie is trumped by said rookie being thrown into the deep end too early. In addition, was Perry Kitchen rushed back unnecessarily? The prized rookie center back seemed to be in no man’s land on every goal, and Ethan White had played well two weeks in a row.
Midfield
Short view – Far too many touches, far too few advancing passes in the first half. The final ball was missing as was any decisiveness in the attacking third. Things changed quite dramatically with the insertion of Branko Boskovic in the second half, when he was D.C.’s best player, replacing Dax McCarty, who struggled to generate offense despite his usual work rate and wasn’t the only D.C. midfielder playing the ball backwards.
Long view – Last weekend’s 3-0 win at Toronto masked United’s struggles all season to turn its dominant possession into a dangerous attack, yet Olsen decided that apart from White, it wasn’t broke so there was no need to fix it. But both of D.C.’s two early goals north of the border came via Toronto miscues, which took the pressure off conjuring the right recipe from what is supposed to be a stacked cabinet of midfielders.
The problem is that McCarty and Clyde Simms look increasingly like they fill the same role, which was always the fear when the team traded for McCarty. Together, the pair set the tone for a group that can’t strike a balance between going at defenders and making the best, or sometimes any, attacking pass. Fred is industrious but dribbles far too much, and the lack of crisp passing forces Chris Pontius into a position where he’s compelled to take more than one player on or pinch in instead of combining and staying wide to get the play forward.
Boskovic is still yet to find himself in an advantageous position since arriving in Washington last summer. His only start of this season came as part of a makeshift lineup in Colorado – the hardest place in the league to play – and he was asked to bring D.C. back from a two-goal deficit tonight even though he hasn’t done enough to earn a regular place in the first 11. It will be hard to keep him out after he hit the frame twice in the second half, but is Olsen ready to sacrifice Simms or McCarty in the starting lineup to do so?
Meanwhile, Andy Najar has gone from United’s best player to a DNP-CD (Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision) and former captain Santino Quaranta has been relegated to spot duty off the bench thanks to one suspension for a pair of yellow cards. The assumption, based on Olsen’s lineup decisions thus far, was that he would’ve started against Toronto if he’d been spared the second yellow against the Galaxy. Instead, now he’s missed two matches in a row. It adds up quickly.
Forwards
Short view – Charlie Davies and Josh Wolff both claimed a share of responsibility for not getting themselves in the right spots and not being sharp enough against the Red Bulls. Chemistry will take time, and both players have earned a long look to see what they can achieve together.
Long view – Again, with proven D.C. players like Najar and Quaranta on the bench, Olsen can afford to be more creative than he has been with the silos where his players fall when midgame adjustments are required. Najar’s passion and creativity are best exploited in the attack, and one of Quaranta’s most effective spots has been as a withdrawn forward. More importantly, both of those players are desperate to contribute. Like Boskovic, they need to be given the chance. Why not at forward? Joseph Ngwenya hasn’t proven any more effective.
This is certainly late-night analysis, and one game is one game. But what went wrong badly for D.C. against New York didn’t come out of nowhere, even if the lopsidedness of the result did. Olsen was looking for a measuring stick to see where he and his team are. It may not be easy to stomach, but now he has it.
