Here’s a date for you: July 18.
It’s the last time D.C. United scored a goal at RFK Stadium in a MLS regular season match.
Okay, technically, that was only two games ago. But it’s starting to feel like the spark has been missing for longer, and I’m not sure why Santino Quaranta really needs to be sorry for simply being frank about United’s offensive struggles and his frustration in comments he made last week.
Nevertheless, a la Landon Donovan, today Quaranta apologized for going public: “I regret doing it that way because it wasn’t, at this time, from what went on last week – with Josh [Wicks], we had some issues — just to continue that wasn’t the smartest thing in the world. But I can’t take back what I said. I dealt with it, and I apologized to Tommy [Soehn] for it.”
At least he didn’t back track on the penalty kick he drew against Dallas: “The thing about this is, we’re running full speed, and this guy’s behind me, and so anything that he does to throw me off, I’m going. I couldn’t finish it so I’m going down. I didn’t dive. He clipped the back of my heel twice. I didn’t dive. I promise you that. I have to do that more often, start making those runs and being more aggressive. That’s something that we talked about, something that I’m doing more comfortably in a four-back system. I’ve got a responsibility. Attacking is my strength. I’ve got to do it more.”
But back to overall offensive needs. It was only a few weeks ago, after the 0-0 draw with Los Angeles, that Quaranta lamented the lack of a killer finish in front of the goal. I’d argue with his latest ideas, he’s just being consistent, while the age and consistency of production from guys like Luciano Emilio, Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno is an ongoing concern.
In the mean time, the story ahead of United’s game on Wednesday versus Kansas City is a lack of healthy United defenders, with Marc Burch undergoing ankle surgery on Monday, just days after Dejan Jakovic bolted for Munich, Germany, the site of two sports hernia surgeries. In the other recurring theme of not awesome, the timing is not awesome.
“We knew about Dejan,” said Soehn. “He’s been battling pain, with the number of sports hernias we’ve had, we had an idea of what it was so we tried to time it. With Marc, it was just a tolerance thing. It got to the point where it got pretty bad, and we had to take care of it. It’s never the right time.”
Pretty bad = scar tissue build-up and infection. Yuck.
So, both players will be out at least two weeks, probably more, meaning Clyde Simms will slide back to central defender from the midfield, Julius James will get more playing time and Avery John will likely be involved, too.
But even Simms hinted that defense is only part of what United hopes to solidify during it’s lengthy homestand: “We’ve got five games in a row at home, and we feel like it’s a chance to really establish ourselves and get going a little more offensively, especially here at home on our field.”
Score goals at home, get results.
One guy not expected to help out: Danny Szetela. More from Soehn: “He’s still got to earn his right to play on this team. A lot of it is sharpness when you compare him to other guys. It needs to stand out that he is one of the better guys. One of Danny’s traits is that I think he is a bit of a ‘gamer.’ You kind of have to evaluate him not solely on how he trains. But he has to earn his right like everybody else still. There are no grudges or nothing. He needs to be in the best 18.”
