If there’s a reminder that it’s the final day of the MLS regular season, there’s the simple fact that despite dressing relatively warmly, there’s a good chance I finish the night shivering just a bit in the RFK Stadium press box. Alas, it will be my last time in this box for a while, so that’s the closest I intend to come to an actual complaint.
Meanwhile, there’s still plenty to make tonight’s match between D.C. United (9-12-12, 39 points) and Sporting Kansas City (12-9-12, 48 points) an interesting one, even if United doesn’t have anything at stake. It can, however, spoil the party somewhat for Kansas City, and prevent them from clinching first place in the Eastern Conference with a victory and a win for visiting Columbus (13-12-8, 47 points) over Chicago (8-9-16, 40 points) in a match that starts an hour later than this one. Houston (11-9-13, 46 points), which hosts Supporters Shield winners Los Angeles (19-4-10, 67 points) tomorrow, also can take a shot at SKC should D.C. prevail. Kansas City does clinch with a victory.
“Being that it’s the last game,” United head coach Ben Olsen said on Friday of his players, “they want to put on a good performance for themselves, their teammates and the organization itself so there are a lot of guys that are willing to do what it takes to get through it, and I gotta manage that and which guys I need to bring in that are fresh. That’s my challenge.”
My season wrap/look-ahead piece will be in Sunday’s edition, an attempt capture where D.C. United is after a crazy season.
Some highlights in month-by-month form: January – D.C. United gets its man at the MLS Draft, using the third overall pick on Perry Kitchen. But few could’ve predicted that its other selections (Blake Brettschneider, Joe Willis and Chris Korb) would all play significant minutes, along with homegrown signing Ethan White.
February – D.C. United brings in Charlie Davies, loses goalkeeper Steve Cronin to injury, unretires assistant coach Pat Onstad to fill in manning the net until Bill Hamid fully recovers from shoulder surgery.
March – Davies makes a fairytale start with two goals in D.C. United’s season opener.
April – Andy Najar makes a long-expected pledge to play for Honduras, D.C. United gets pummeled by New York, 4-0, and Branko Boskovic suffers a season-ending knee injury after scoring a pair of goals in a slightly more than meaningless U.S. Open Cup qualifier.
May – United improves to 4-4-3 overall with a gritty 3-2 win at Portland in which Kitchen scores his first MLS goal.
June – The arrival of Dwayne De Rosario from New York in exchange for Dax McCarty rewrites the definition of lopsided trade, and it’s much needed, because D.C. is 0-2-2 this month, squandering points and matches in what would become a torturous recurring theme.
July – De Rosario scores the lone goal in a win on the road at his former team, the Red Bulls. He scores both goals in a 2-0 win on the road against his first MLS team, San Jose.
August – De Rosario gets a hat trick against another former team, Toronto, in a 3-3 tie which also saw Hamid go berserk and get red carded the day after he was called into the U.S. national team for the first time.
September – Davies gets a hat trick in a 3-0 win at Chivas USA, but goes missing from there on while Chris Pontius breaks his leg in the same game and D.C. isn’t the same without him.
October – Three 2-1 losses and a 1-1 explain why there’s no playoffs for D.C. next week. Onto the final match of the year…
