It was a thing of beauty. And then it all fell apart in shocking, brutal, even laughable fashion,
Just like it has done all season.
In fact, let’s take the 3-1 home loss by MLS-worst D.C. United to MLS second-worst Houston – a defeat which made have clinched D.C. finishing the year with the lousiest record in the league – from the bottom. That way we’ll feel better when we get to the end.
First, the game ended after 101 minutes – without going into overtime. How? There were five minutes of stoppage time announced when the clock hit 90 minutes, and then Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad slammed into his own defender, Andrew Hainault, while going to punch out a cross. The side of Onstad’s head connected with Hainault’s elbow and hip, and then his face and nose planted squarely into the turf. The sequence left him with a bloody shnozz, at the very least, and it looked as though he barely knew RFK Stadium from Robertson Stadium.
After a lengthy break to see if Onstad was ready to return from la-la land, D.C. United, already down, 2-1, continued to throw bodies forward and gave up a Dominic Oduro breakaway in the 100th minute to cap the defeat in front of 13,828.
Why was there five minutes of stoppage time in the first place? Because D.C. interim head coach Ben Olsen and Houston head coach Dominic Kinnear were both ejected by referee Alex Prus – with a significant assist by 4th official Landis Wiley – just before the end of regulation.
What did they do? Apparently, they shook hands.
After an ugly tackle by Julius James on Oduro, Olsen left his coach’s box to apologize to Kinnear, who met him halfway, also leaving his own area.
“I kind of gave him a heads up, apologizing for the tackle,” said Olsen. “It was a bad tackle, and we went to shake hands because he yelled. I went over to shake his hand, he came over towards me, to shake hands, so I got thrown out. That’s what happens when you shake hands.”
Olsen was asked if it was Wiley who actually tossed him, and responded with: “They should have press conferences. I think we should institute referees having press conferences.”
Alright then, let’s go to Prus for his response to the question, “Why were the coaches ejected?”
Prus [via scribble on notepad paper]: “Irresponsible behavior for leaving the technical area”
That about sums up that.
Backtracking further, United (5-18-3, 18 points) had gotten desperate and the game had stretched quite a bit because in a five-minute span midway through the second half their one-goal lead turned into a one-goal deficit thanks to characteristic defensive concentration lapses that have plagued the team all season.
The Dynamo (7-14-5, 26 points) tied the score in the 66th minute when a long cross from the right side eluded the whiffed punch of outstretched United goalkeeper Troy Perkins. Brad Davis should’ve one-timed the ball home, but instead he sent it back across the goalmouth, where it fortuitously found D.C. defender Devon McTavish, who didn’t see the thing until he’d already redirected into the net for an own goal.
“That’s when the game changed,” said United midfielder Santino Quaranta. “The ‘Here we go again’ thing, and we put our heads down and didn’t bounce back.”
Cue the 70th-minute header into the near corner by Geoff Cameron off a Davis free kick for the visitors’ 2-1 advantage.
The thing is, if you rewind the tape back to the beginning of the evening, you’ll find D.C. United playing some of its best soccer of the season – apart from the usual poor finishing (15 shots, 5 on goal) – including a first half that was punctuated by an extraordinary goal from Andy Najar. But D.C. as a whole was lively and inventive, and Houston, coming off a midweek game that they lost, 4-3, in stoppage time, appeared to have punted already on their own dismal campaign.
With that backdrop, D.C.’s 17-year-old wunderkind gave a huge boost to his campaign for MLS rookie of the year, running Hainault ragged on the wing from the opening whistle. In the 29th minute, he settled a long cross from Quaranta on the right side, and cut toward the middle just inside the top of the box. When Hainault went to ground with a desperate lunge to stop what looked to be Najar’s initial shot, the youngster took another dribble further toward the center and then blasted home a left-footer to beat Adrian Serioux and Onstad.
“I was able to sidestep the defender with a body movement,” said the teenager of few words via an interpreter. “When I saw that he had committed, that’s when I decided to hit it with my left foot.”
The goal not only was Najar’s team-leading fifth of the season, it put him in elite company alongside Quaranta in 2001 and Freddy Adu in 2004 for the most goals by a D.C. United rookie. Olsen ranked him as the No. 1 young prospect he’s ever been around.
“I feel like a kid like Andy could step into a World Cup venue and play the way he plays,” said Olsen. “He just doesn’t care where he’s at. He loves to play the game, and he plays it in the proper way, and not just the goals, all the other little stuff, the way he tackles, the way he runs up and down the field with just, it’s wonderful to watch, and it really has been a huge bright spot this year.”
Don’t you feel great about now? Starting to forget the way it ended? Seeing promise for the future and good feelings for the end of the season?
Sorry, have to hit you with Olsen one more time: “It’s getting old. It’s getting really old, and we let each other down again. I don’t know what else to tell you.”
