Match Recap: DC United 1 - 1 Harbour View FC
DC United, after a major overhaul during the offseason, began their 2008 campaign with a very lackluster 1-1 draw away to Jamaican champions, Harbour View FC.
Starting four new players from last season's squad, United never really looked that great. The central defense looked respectable as did Namoff. Marc Burch, with the exception of his goal, never really settled down and failed to show the skills that he showed last season.*
The forwards, Emillio, Moreno (for the 20 or so minutes he was on the field), Neill never really got any service from the midfield. To be honest, had they received any service, they probably wouldn't have done any better than what they did when they got the ball. Emillio fell out of the match for 85 minutes, but when he took a shot, he never had anything on them.
It is very unlucky that Moreno went out with a hamstring injury so early into the match. As mentioned so many times last season, the entire United make up changes when Moreno enters or leaves a match. Without Jamie, everything had to go through Gallardo, which meant all Harbour View had to do was hack Gallardo and that would halt the offense.
Zack Wells looked very good tonight. His command and control of the goal box and the penalty box was very good and his control in the air looked strong. he was hung out to dry on the Harbour View goal, as whomever was assigned the back post, failed to show up for duty. That was one of a number of mental mistakes that I expect to not see repeated. Hopefully the mental misteps were more to do with the fitness levels than straight focus.
I have to hope that the overall performance tonight was more due to the lack of fitness than anything else. United were completely gassed by the 70th minute. We had no way of keeping up with the Harbour View players, which was the direct reason of how Harbour View was able to pressure and get the equalizer.
So I guess that the big question is how can United regain some strength in five days? Last season, United traveled to Honduras and looked very, very good in a 4-1 romp over CD Olimpia. United last year, looked like the club that was in midseason, rather than the club starting a campaign. Tonight, United looked worse than a club starting a campaign, they looked like a club who was two weeks in training.
Next week at RFK, I would really like to see guys like Quavas Kirk and Santino Quaranta with some time. I feel that if either one of them had been brought on around the 75th minute, we might have seen more spring in the teams step. Losing Jamie really put United on a back foot too early for this to happen though.
This was one game, so we have to wait and see. Last season started with a bang, and ended with a whimper... if we start with a snooze, do we finish with a trophy? We wait and see.
* EDIT - WTF was I typing last night????? McTavish scored the goal, not Burch. This makes me even less happy with Burch than I was last night. Damn, I shoulda had some coffee before i wrote last night.
Starting four new players from last season's squad, United never really looked that great. The central defense looked respectable as did Namoff. Marc Burch, with the exception of his goal, never really settled down and failed to show the skills that he showed last season.*
The forwards, Emillio, Moreno (for the 20 or so minutes he was on the field), Neill never really got any service from the midfield. To be honest, had they received any service, they probably wouldn't have done any better than what they did when they got the ball. Emillio fell out of the match for 85 minutes, but when he took a shot, he never had anything on them.
It is very unlucky that Moreno went out with a hamstring injury so early into the match. As mentioned so many times last season, the entire United make up changes when Moreno enters or leaves a match. Without Jamie, everything had to go through Gallardo, which meant all Harbour View had to do was hack Gallardo and that would halt the offense.
Zack Wells looked very good tonight. His command and control of the goal box and the penalty box was very good and his control in the air looked strong. he was hung out to dry on the Harbour View goal, as whomever was assigned the back post, failed to show up for duty. That was one of a number of mental mistakes that I expect to not see repeated. Hopefully the mental misteps were more to do with the fitness levels than straight focus.
I have to hope that the overall performance tonight was more due to the lack of fitness than anything else. United were completely gassed by the 70th minute. We had no way of keeping up with the Harbour View players, which was the direct reason of how Harbour View was able to pressure and get the equalizer.
So I guess that the big question is how can United regain some strength in five days? Last season, United traveled to Honduras and looked very, very good in a 4-1 romp over CD Olimpia. United last year, looked like the club that was in midseason, rather than the club starting a campaign. Tonight, United looked worse than a club starting a campaign, they looked like a club who was two weeks in training.
Next week at RFK, I would really like to see guys like Quavas Kirk and Santino Quaranta with some time. I feel that if either one of them had been brought on around the 75th minute, we might have seen more spring in the teams step. Losing Jamie really put United on a back foot too early for this to happen though.
This was one game, so we have to wait and see. Last season started with a bang, and ended with a whimper... if we start with a snooze, do we finish with a trophy? We wait and see.
* EDIT - WTF was I typing last night????? McTavish scored the goal, not Burch. This makes me even less happy with Burch than I was last night. Damn, I shoulda had some coffee before i wrote last night.
Labels: CONCACAF Champions Cup, DC United, Harbour View
posted by Brian at 9:16 PM
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