What's with the secrecy? Has Bruce Arena taken over at United again?

"Wide, wide!"

"%$*&#"

Let me guess, that was Kpene missing another shot?

Perkins yelling at another lapse by his defense?

Famous line from the star wars films.

"I've got a bad feeling about this."

However, if we can't win this game outright by two, we have no business going any further.

however, I'll take a pk win.

Man I'm nervous. I'm a mess.
Somebody smack me a few times. Gotta pull myself together.

It's not that I fear missing Luciano, it's that I fear none of the other options (Addlery, Kpene, Dyachenko) can score. Benny, Fred, Christian, Jaime can all put the ball in the back of the net. But when you have to play against 10 men behind the ball, you need that second option up top that can run (Kpene), pass (Rod) or win balls. The only player we have that can do all three is Luci.

Get well soon.

Thx,

Jay!

One thing is for sure, with the hype (G. Lalas for instance, and I know reading him is like reading Sunday Source, why bother!?!, but...) growing around Blanco, it will be a league ordered sanction that that man is not to get a card from any refs working this week's match no matter what the justification. It is beginning to look like the MLS circus is coming to town rather than a viable playoff soccer match. And that is a shame.

United fans: forget your disbeliefs -- it is time to believe! United prevails.

Sure if we can't win by 2 goals we have business being in the playoffs. But who cares? I want DC to win it all whether or not we have any business in the playoffs.

Either the MLS has mandate that Blanco not get a red card or the refs are afraid of him. I mean he publicly ridiculed the ref for daring to call a foul against him and he didn't get a card.

can someone confirm playoff yellow accumulation?
two yellows in the first two and you miss the ECF right?

Aside from the 0-1 result, I thought DC United outplayed Chicago in the first match. While it's not uncommon for the team that played better to come up on the short, it's difficult for that to happen two games in a row.

Last Season when we drew 0-0 in Chicago, the team played poorly and was lucky to come away without giving up a goal. That poor performance continued in DC the following week when Chicago gave us a pretty healthy 4-0 thumping.

Last week, DC United outplayed Chicago (regardless if they were playing 10 men behind the ball) and were unlucky not to come away with a draw. At least this year we've got the better performance setting us up for the final matchup.

While I'm excited about the game tonight, I'm certainly not worried. United's going to pull though on Thursday. As will New England (that area's got too much mojo going for them to lose to RBNY)... United's run to MLS Cup will be a familiar one.

Steve,

How is the "big news" coming?

"Soccer's version of Hoya Paranoia?"
-----

I'll take it! The Hoyas are 13-6-0, 6-5-0 Big East, and set to go deep into the B.E. Tourney.

As for the Men (6-10-0, 4-5-0 B.E.), I was at that game on Saturday. Good crowd, even better result (GU 2, Pitt 0). There was even a guy dressed as the Grim Reaper with a sign that read, "I've come for your season, Pitt!"

The last two games -- at Seton Hall on Wednesday and Notre Dame on Saturday, will probably dictate how deep into the B.E. Tourney the men get.

Either the MLS has mandate that Blanco not get a red card or the refs are afraid of him. I mean he publicly ridiculed the ref for daring to call a foul against him and he didn't get a card.

Posted by: Bart | October 29, 2007 01:39 PM

I don't know if you are talking about the Galaxy game last Sunday or the DC game (I was in Chi, so I didn't see all the antics captured on camera) but Cootie Mac was shameful in the LA game. He would whine to the ref about every niggling little foul. When the ref finally called one, and possibly gave a card, the camera clearly showed him clapping for the ruling.

Thx,

Jay!

"%$*&#"

Goff, after hitting the Num Lock key.

Juan John,

"Hoya Paranoia" is not a soccer reference. It is a term use to describe the Men's Basketball Program of the Early and Mid 1980's.

According to Wikipedia "it soon came to refer to the team's unusual forced seclusion from the media and Thompson's suffocating control over his program. Unlike most programs of the day, Thompson's practices were closed to the media and the players were placed off-limits to the members of the press."

Goff, were you in the area during those days?

Given Emilio's continued doubtful status, what is the deal with Addlery? Has he entered witness protection? If I remember correctly, he was "Player of the Week" this year and even scored some goals. Maybe that's the problem, DCU's substitute forwards aren't supposed to score and Addlery broke the "unwritten rule." Inquiring minds want to know.

Addlery scored one goal off a corner, but he is useless and gives the ball away constantly. Kpene, for as bad as he is, is still better for the team.
How scary is that!

I have nothing to base this on, but I'm guessing that Emilio didn't practice today.

Nobody practiced today. They just called each other's names for reporters to hear. We're controlling the media. Remember our fake FEMA press conference?

Tommy, The goal was Vanney's fault not Burch. Vanney should have known his 3" vertical leap would not be able to clear the high ball and just stayed in cover.
No worries it'll all be over soon enough, like Saturday if history has taught us anything when playing Chicago.

It was just as much Burch's fault. He's got to track that man regardless.

Soehn and our boys sound confident. I like that. I think we score one goal within the first 15 minutes and Chicago tries to go back on the attack. If we score early, they're not going to want to settle for overtime and penalty kicks. If this thing goes down to penalties, Troy will dominate. The game will open up in the second half and United wins 3-1.

I think I would pay to see them play Red Rover.

>>>>Aside from the 0-1 result, I thought DC United outplayed Chicago in the first match.

Knocking the ball around in the midfield and getting virtually no shots on goal (2 the whole match) is not outplaying anyone. Honestly.

Chicago played good counter-attacking ball, absorbing pressure and striking back, and were unlucky (also credit Perkins) not to score two.

Possession without shots is a complete waste. It means the attack was too slow to get behind the opposing defense and that no one made any runs.

The solution? Stop just knocking it around and make some runs.

JonInVB:

Don't believe everything you read in Wiki.

I'd actually say Addlery is a better choice than Kpene. As stated above, he scored on a corner kick . . . HE SCORED ON A CORNER KICK!!! It seems like the only time we've scored from a corner kick in two seasons.

Oh yeah, and he's better with possession and . . . he scored.

personally, I just don't know what to make of Soehn calling Marc Burch "Burchy." Seriously?

Yes, during John Thompson's Hoya Paranoia, I was in the area. In school, actually. But not at Georgetown. Very close by, though. AU, where we wish we were good enough to be paranoid about something.

Shane Cooke and Chris Hegngi (DC United Dev Academy) made the U-18 roster heading off to France

http://www.ussoccer.com/articles/viewArticle.jsp_3506177.html

One AU team was good enough to get to the NCAA finals, wasn't it? As I recall (with some help from online sources), the final was against UCLA in Seattle. WETA-TV showed the match, which took place late one Saturday evening Eastern time. I fell asleep, as did most people watching, because in those days they fought to the death (no PKs). When I woke up Sunday morning I learned that UCLA had won in the eighth [sic] overtime period.

and, 22201, the AU star player was laying on the sideline having his legs massaged when UCLA scored. I'm not saying I could play 8 overtimes without severe cramping, but that goes down in the Buckner and Norwood kind of history.

Yup, I was in Seattle at the Kingdome for the AU-UCLA final in 1985. AU should have scored early, but didn't. With no PKs, the match lasted 155 minutes. Painfully dull match. Andy Burke put it out of its misery. Vanole and Caligiuri played for UCLA. Sigi was the coach. AU's star was Michael Brady, national player of the year.

That was the same year George Mason won the NCAA women's championship, the only time that decade that UNC did not win the crown. That was definitely a high water mark for college soccer in this area. There were all those UVA titles under Arena, as well as Maryland's title a couple of years ago, but they just didn't have the same impact. Perhaps it was GMU's and AU's underdog status.

A postscript: Brady was a bit too late for NASL, and far too early for MLS. How do you think he would have done, had there been an MLS then?

you win regular season games with talent, which United has --- you win big games and playoff games with heart, which United does not have --- sorry