It boils down to this: D.C. United is in a tie for the highest-scoring team in Major League Soccer (1.73 goals per game). But after surrendering a three-goal lead to FC Dallas last weekend, United is ninth among 13 teams for the most goals allowed, ahead only of the teams owning the four worst records in MLS.
At the midway point of the 2007 season, just when United’s offense appeared to be firing on all cylinders, a new set of problems have arisen for a defense plagued by inconsistency all year.
“We had two teams out there, an offense and a defense,” said Devon McTavish after United’s 3-3 draw with FC Dallas. “We couldn’t seem to possess the ball long enough.”
For the first time in a month, D.C. United was playing fully fit and at full strength — more will be learned about Jaime Moreno’s hamstring injury today — showing the ability to run opposing teams ragged.
But United’s attacking players ran themselves out of gas and away from their own backline, leaving massive gaps to cover for a defense hardly revered as the fastest in the league.
“It makes for exciting soccer, but as far as our point, closing that game out, we should’ve stayed a little more compact,” said Josh Gros.
United’s (7-5-3) newest member, 33-year-old centerback Greg Vanney, is learning firsthand about the team’s continued search for defensive chemistry.
“Some of playing in the back isn’t about talking to each other,” said Vanney, “It’s about understanding each other and moving together and covering each other. Some of that is just trusting each other. We’ll get better at that, but we do need to learn from the mistakes we made and move forward.”
