I don’t need reminding not to believe anything is assured with D.C. United before the final whistle ever again. In fact, the way this season has gone, I don’t think I did tonight. The game-tying goal from Sebastian Grazzini was exactly what we’ve seen all year. No surprise there whatsoever. But to then give up another, in that diabolical manner? It’s no wonder there was a stunned silence as D.C. players stretched and changed in the locker room afterward. There’s no way to prepare for that kind of loss and no anger worth expressing. Just lots of staring in disbelief. A trio of other observations from the Fire’s improbable 2-1 victory:
Playoffs? Yep, still a possibility. D.C. United started the night knowing three victories in three matches guaranteed a spot. Remarkably, two wins in their final two nearly does the same thing, with one little caveat: New York must lose to Philadelphia on Thursday. Although four teams (D.C., New York, Portland, Chicago) are vying for the final of 10 MLS playoff spots, both the Timbers can only get to 43 points if D.C. United wins on Wednesday. That’s the same maximum that Chicago can reach after beating D.C. tonight. With two victories still left to nab, United can still reach 44 points and top them both. Will know by late Thursday if it’s all to play for next weekend, and we’ll know by late Wednesday if Thursday even matters.
Is there anything more that Ben Olsen can do? Olsen hasn’t been perfect this season with his lineups – I was critical from the start of the year with how he handled Branko Boskovic – but would having Dwayne De Rosario more central tonight along with another forward up top, such as Charlie Davies, have produced a different result?
“I’m physically fine,” Davies said. “I can only do so much with the time that I have. I’m a guy that expects to play 90 minutes. I’m fit. I’m healthy, and it’s disappointing when you want to get the playing time to help the team win, and you only get 20, 15 minutes. I’ve done all I can do. I bring energy to the game and try to change the game, and I thought I did a good job, but again, I’m not getting a lot of time for me to go out there and really help the team.”
That may be true, but Davies hasn’t worked well with Josh Wolff, even if he was on fresh legs after being used as a substitute in recent games. Interestingly, fatigue didn’t seem to factor into Olsen’s lineup at all, even though Olsen certainly thought it had to do with how his team played.
“I think putting [De Rosario] up top was the right move, if that’s what you’re asking,” Olsen said. “I think they put a lot of numbers in the midfield, and it’s a lot of work in there, that’s why we put some of the guys in there early, to deal with that, then we had to push the game, and I thought we put the right guys in to get the game changed.”
Tired legs, or tired storyline? What happened in the 90th minute and beyond was ridiculous. What happened before that was ugly. In a must-win game, D.C. United managed exactly zero shots on goal before Rosario’s penalty kick. Yes, the team had not gotten into Washington from Vancouver, where they played on Wednesday, until late Thursday, and perhaps that played a role. But the urgency was missing from the outset. Too many backward passes, too many obvious shot attempts (most of the 13 that D.C. took were blocked), too few attacking runs, too much deferral to De Rosario, who has now become such a focal point of the D.C. United attack that it is as if he sucks the confidence out of his teammates, who want only to get the ball off their own feet and to their star playmaker. It’s just not how a playoff team should play, and regardless of what happens over the final two games, United doesn’t look a team that will do any damage even if it gets into the postseason. But it’s probably not worth it to worry too much about that just yet.
