DC United Recap 8/26/2006

Ugh, that was pretty bad…

DC United put on one of the most uneven performances of the season tonight and were destroyed 5-2 by the defending Chumps, the LA Galaxy. Landon “ Let’s move on” Donovan scored a Hat-Trick with a PK and two goals at the end of the match. I am sure that Peter has them running as we speak.

Ok, lets cut the bullshit. United sucked tonight. I was shocked as I watched the first 5 minutes of the match and was watching United run around like they were coached by Ray Hudson again. None of the defenders or central midfielders were able to figure out what the hell they needed to do, and the Galaxy punished them with the 4th minute goal.

United were gifted the own goal and we actually settled down a bit after the own goal and the coming of halftime brought hopes of a second goal and a 2-1 victory at least. Boy was I wrong. The second goal came, but the composure I have always seen from a United side coached by Peter Nowak was left in the locker room.

The end of the match, pretty much after Erpen’s goal off of a beautiful Gomez free kick, was horrible. We gave up the gift PK, and after that we had our guys up so far, adding to that Mediate’s injury and us playing with 10 men….Donovan got a goddamn hat trick. Someone on Bigsoccer mentioned that we should not aggravate him, as he lit United up for 2 goals last season at RFK…well, he got 3 this year. Where was his play in Germany? Ok, I got that out of my system.

The Galaxy played a good match. They were physical and effective off the run, something that United has failed to do in the last 4 MLS matches. Running off the ball is the biggest gap in United’s arsenal. Esky continues to fail at running off the ball. Walker failed every time to run off the ball when he would pass it to Jaime. He would just stand there, behind him. LA on the other hand would pass and take off up the field and the forward pass was sent up to them. We tried to dance our way through their sea of white jerseys.

So…now we have lost at home, and haven’t won a MLS match since June 15th. We are in the Semi-Finals of the USOC and are still pretty much assured of making the play-offs. What needs to be done now is to settle everyone down and get their collective heads back on target. Start playing as a team again. Mathias Donnet should be getting moved into the fold in the next week or so, including him in the side should provide another offensive boost and a chance for some guys to get more of a rest.

Losing the home undefeated streak might end up as a good thing. We know that we are mortal and that we can be run over. Hopefully Nowak gets the guys back on track. We have a Supporters Shield to win as well as a USOC and a MLS Cup.