First!
If DC doesn't win tonight, Soehn needs to be sacked just like Avram Grant was today.

3-1 dc. This is the bgeinning of the turnaround.

This year we are going to be "that team" that does lousy in the first half of the season then gets on fire and smokes in the playoff. Thus sayeth the pigman.

wait - the argentine frodo makes 150K to sit on the bench. seriously who ever "found" him should be fired

VAMOS UNITED!!!!! Esta Noche, tenemos que ganar!!!

Gotta love technology, sitting in rfk reading goff and enjoying a beautiful afternoon at the tailgate.

Dcu wins but it masks that problems still exist

we lose again, and none of you gets your wish: Soehn stays and the 5'5 "genious" in the front office that brought all our great signings goes home in his large Mercedes.

Glad to see the #1 starting lineup again

I will score many goal today. You will see. I'm bootifulll......

Niell is making 150 grand? Wow. Talk about ROI.

This stadium is going to be empty tonight.

Vamos, vamos United! Esta noche...

By the way, Chelsea fired Avram Grant today. I'm pretty shocked, seeing as he was pretty successful for a first-year coach. Any thoughts?

Chelsea fans did not like Grant at all. Even had Chelsea won the Champions League he was getting the axe.

That was crap defending. I expect the veteran Namoff to take charge in that situation. Mctav was running back and Namoff was there. He needs to communicate who takes ball and who takes the man running through. They were both caught in between.

I'm shocked at how bad our defense is.

Dickey-Oh is like Steve Rammel on steroids with attitude. He is their only attacker and we can't mark him?

WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF!

Why oh why did we let Gomez go?

I was wondering why Moreno didn't shoot at first, but then I remembered the clause in his contract that states that he does not shoot if he is even one inch outside of the penalty box.

See Jaime can shoot outside the penalty box. We need some ugly goals.

Just to be on the record, MLSLive.tv sucks, and so does MLS' customer service.

Unlucky on the penalty no-call. The ball certainly "played" the defender, but I'm of the mind that defenders have no business positioning their hands outwards (TORSTEN FRINGS TORSTEN FRINGS) in the penalty area.

Thomas Rongen disagrees with me: he thinks it was a good no-call.

Last I checked one is always follow Gomez to Colorado instead of chanting his name with every missed pass, cross or shot.

2nd game this week im am glad i am in TN and cant watch this on tv and have to listen to wfed. we even sound like crap.

That would be..."one is always free to...

Now back to my game watching.

For the record, Tino may have hustle or whatever, but hs is an ass for showing up his teammates on a struggling side. Tino is really starting to rub me wrong, even worse than Soehn.

Goal!

Finally... Peralta's been due to score one of those set pieces.

Ok, ok...starting to feel it. Let's go DC keep it going!!

VAMOS UNITED!!

ok gotta bring in the second keeper. This guy just plain sucks.

Toronto is just showing up DC so badly. Seems like they can score whenever they *attack*.

It is so hard, so hard to get anything going with Wells. He's the one killing our defense.

I don't know if I agree Wells is killing out defense. After all he's not the one allowing Dichio to get free each time. However, I will say Wells isn't doing much to *help* our team. His position on the first goal was very bad.

Half-time interview with McT:

"Somehow Dickey-OH got free."
Thanks Sherlock.

Peralta scores so he gets to stop playing for the final few minutes. Now I know what KP was talking about.

Peralta is standing there picking his nose while Dickey-oh runs free right down the middle of the 18. WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF

My daughter and I are laughing our asses off watching DC United: passing backwards, a goalie that is a joke, and the funniest thing of all: puting the ball on Tino's foot. I played with a bunch of 11 and unders today. They all had better soccer knowledge and skill than Tino. Keep giving the ball to Tino! I need to laugh all through the second half too!

I'm done making excuses for this team. They don't deserve to win. I'm still going to go to games, but not to watch them play--for the pre-gamefood and drink.

What BS.

How nice that the $1.9 million loser isn't taking our corner kicks. Hey Gallardo, did you see where Jaime put the cross??? There is only one person puting a full effort out on the field tonight: Naimoff.

New drinking game: Every time you want to fire or hit somebody associated with the team, take a drink.

OK, Soehn officially needs to go. How can you start the same pathetic players as Wednesday? Wells and Emilio bring absolutely nothing. Moreno waits entirely too long to release his passes and Quaranta is entirely justified at expressing his frustration. Again, Soehn is clue-free...

I hear you Bart, but it's at times like these the the keeper needs to pull some fantastic out of no where. Pick the side up and whip the D into a frenzy. That kind of force (sorry, talent), Wells is not.

Dcu through and through for me

Dcu is going to win this

Gallardo is still our best player on the field.

Namoff is partially to blame for Goal #1.

Dc had no fouls in the first haf???

I'm with you WFT. I would like to know what game the unnamed poster who took a swipe at Gallardo is watching. I would like to ask, but it's hard to respond to those kind of posts, especially when no one wants to own them.

Do you see the skill of Gallardo? The little things he does that causes space to open up and freeze defenders. I swear if these guys can only learn to understand his talent, learn to feed off of his brilliance, we could have a powerful offense (to offset that pathetic defense).

Its clear that Emilio is the slowest player on the field. I understand why he can't score. Can somebody explain how he DID score last year?

Now who can strike it hard enough?

The problem is, it is an 11 man game . . . if you have one great player on the field, and a bunch of stiffs, you are still going to struggle. If we had one player . . . just one . . . that had the skill set to take advantage of Gallardo's strengths, we would be fine.

But we don't . . .

Its clear that Emilio is the slowest player on the field. I understand why he can't score. Can somebody explain how he DID score last year?

Posted by: WTF | May 24, 2008 8:43 PM
================================

Gomez was providing service.

Moreno just did the "Ritchie Williams."--The 360 degree dribble with the outside of the foot in a light gallop.

Gallardo is a great talent. I'm just not sure a player like him works to his best advantage with the tactics and personnel United uses. If that's the feeling behind the crowd who prefers Gomez to Gallardo, I understand it.

I'm not convinced about the Gomez arguments.

IMO, Gallardo is just as fast, just as skilled (maybe more) and works as hard or harder than Gomez did.

Its got to be more than the Gomez factor...

I don't think it's a matter of Gomez being better than Gallardo. Just that Gomez's style fits better with DC's style. Remember, Gomez was VERY productive when he joined DC that mid-season. DC went on to win the MLS cup that year, right?

I hate to say it, but I am starting to lose all faith in Jaime.

True Mastodon Juan, but we have Gallardo and have invested quite a few clam shells in him, so if the key players and Soehn cannot learn to utilize him, then bring in players and a coach who can. That's the core of my beef with Soehn, he sets up this side in such a counter productive manner, we are on the losing end of the battle before we step on the field.

And still Gallardo has problem getting those spot kicks over the first defender.

@Bart:

Ding Ding Ding . . . we have a winner!!

The sad thing about this is that Toronto isn't even one of the top sides in the league. We need some changes, we need more quality - because this batch of digbats is not going to compete this year.

I'm thinking the Olsen factor is bigger.

Who replaced Olsen? That has to be the biggest tactical loss United has faced.

Olsen is still on the books. He just has a flat that's all.

GOAL!

Now please everyone stay awake and maybe, just maybe we can take a point from this game.

yay! now we can lapse and let them score again.

Goal!!!!

GOAL 3!

Celebration time turns into sqeaky bum time for me...WAKE THE F**K UP TEAM AND AT LEAST HOLD FOR THIS TIE (never thought I'd be saying that in a home game with TFC).

Yeah yeah DC is leading but sorry, am not giving Soehn credit for staying with the same 11. That's just bull.

GOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLL!!!!

emilio with a trash pick up! hopefully we can get the win.

Sometimes, all you need is an ugly goal to get your confidence back.

I hear you all, and this in no way vindicates Soehn or Emilio for that matter, but dang it, I am going to enjoy this, because it's been a while and I'm not sure how many of these types of moments I'll have this season.

Very nice run by Santino, and it's about time Emilio picks up another goal. Let's bang out another and take the three points.

Forget what I said about Jaime. HE'S ON FIRE!

We're winning the MLS Cup!!!!!

LOL

I hate that Cunningham guy. He's cunning.

Bart, who in the hell would you like to have seen put in the lineup? Aside from Carvallo for Wells there is literally NO argument. What do you want Niell out there? Doe? Cordiero? Stratford, perhaps?

Gimme a freakin' break.

What about Burch?

Wells really really f**king sucks.

Apparently Doe will soon be on a plane to join Liberia's WC qualifying campaign, or so they say on WFED.

The Liberian FA must be looking at the 2004 tapes of DC United.

:)

Wells really really f**king sucks.

Posted by: Bart | May 24, 2008 9:20 PM

That, I agree with.

OMG!!! Peralta almost put it in his own goal. Wow!

Well finally, they did it! 3 points never felt so good.

Still Soehn must go. Tonight :D

3 points, still not sure it will cure all of our ills, but in the words of Cosmo Kramer..."I'll take it!"

OT...word from Todd Grisham (FCS) is that the Cow kissers were throwing bottles, cups of beer and other items along with streamers at Crew stadium. I still think that streamers are not that big a deal (as long as they are JUST streamers) but leave it to those idiots to now put a rest to that whole issue. The league was probably waiting for some moron to allow them to gracefully reverse their stance on streamers. TFC fans, bad night for ya...you loose (to DC United of all teams) and now you're streamer fetish may be banned by the time you reach the boarder. Us yanks is rude hosts, no?

Anyways I could care less, because we don't do that.

i agree.

This "win" only proves one thing: Wynne is the dumbest defender alive. Wells is an absolute disaster and Burch clearly should be starting. This only delays the inevitable departure of Soehn...

That's how this win is going to mess things up. I still feel like it fixes nothing, and if anything will delay the fixes that are necessary.

I hope that I am wrong and this team goes on a nasty tear, but, but...I just don't know.

Now what. We win one and it's still not good enough? Toronto not one of the best sides? Who else is playing better than them? They haven't lost in like 6 games until now. Give Tommy his due. Let the club make changes at the transfer window. Let them find a defender that will take control and a keeper that has some confidence. Wolff? Come on back to the states...

I believe CSN will be airing an encore broadcast of tonight's game starting at 11:00 p.m. EDT.

Rico,

It will be enough when we have taken at least 13 points out of 15.

I think we saw the big difference Fred makes.

Quaranta is very frustrating. He makes some incredible, spectacular plays and then he stands offside and blasts the ball nowhere near the goal.

Wells needs to be gone. He must never be allowed to start again. It is beyond ridiculous. He doesn't command the penalty area. He stays on the line when he should come get the ball and he comes out wildly flailing when he should stay back. There is no way possible that Carvallo is any worse.

I wish we would play with that much energy every match. I don't get why it doesn't happen.

This is exactly what pigman sweet predicted.

Guys, let's face it. The Burch secret is out and it's been out for almost a year: The guy is a great crosser but that's about it. He's not fast, he's not good at defending, and he thinks he's better than Freddy Adu. All a defender has to do is stand on his left side and Burch is anonymous.

By the way, we'd be tied for fourth--middle of the conference--if we were a few hundred miles to the west.

Why the F*&U*C#K is Zach Wells still starting in goal? Don't we have a Peruvian stud named Jose Carvallo on the team? Didn't that dude start for Universitario (La "U") in the Copa Libertadores last season?

Fire Tommy Soehn.

I swear, the crew that posts on here sometimes is ridiculous. Be happy for the win, something to build on, take the three points and move on.

Seriously.

Player ratings:
Wells-3 Ongoing problems. Bad positioning, slippery fingers, poor communication. Distribution is often excellent.

Namoff-6.5 This is a little low, but he's has been the hardest working player on the pitch for several games now. Highly underrated this season.

McTavish-7 This team really needs him. He's a hard worker and adaptable. Great game tonight.

Peralta-6 Good goal, intermittently good work on Dichio. Seems to have been burned on goal 1 and lost him on the goal 2; still, Dichio scoring on his only two chances is just bad luck and bad keeping.

Martinez-7 Quietly becoming one of the best defenders we've got. Excellent skills under pressure, makes good passes and decisions.

Quaranta-5 Jury's still out. Excellent work on the goals, even if his stats won't reflect it, but he needs to learn to control himself. Also, he was wildly inconsistent tonight--sometimes his foot was right on, but (especially early) everything flew into row 12.

Simms-5 Still the blue collar player he's been for us--I'm just not always sure that's what we need. Eventually we will see him score this year though, I feel. Probably from 25+ yards out.

Gallardo-6.5 His service may have been questionable the past few games, but his technique on the ball is impeccable.

Fred-7 His energy makes us a whole new team.

Moreno-7 The old boy's still got it. 21/22 is an excellent stat and he still puts this team on his back when he has to.

Emilio-5 Got a classic Emilio goal (and another called back), which is great and speaks to his positioning, timing, and accuracy. This tells me that the more we attack the more goals he gets. Duh. But it simply reinforces the fact that he CANNOT carry this team--he needs service and other people to take shots. Verdict--there's nothing wrong with Emilio that United can't cure with good attacking football.

Didn't feel the subs made much of an impact.

Tommy-6 Good job holding the team together to where they're hard work could pay off. Some different stubs, maybe we get another goal, but overall, a fairly well managed game. He can't mark Dichio himself.

I'd round Namoff up to a 7, but otherwise agree with everything you wrote.

Good to win for a change. But it was an ugly win. Too little too late for Soehn, He still must go.

That said, we have got to be the slowest team in the league. We are just too glacially slow to win anything. Write this season off, folks. Its a rebuilding year. We better get used to the losing, because more is on the way, A lot more.

ok, well, in the second half the energy was good. But it's totally unacceptable to concede an early goal at home, work all half just to tie the game up, and then concede another goal just before half time.

Wells is not a good enough keeper to play at this level. He was negligent on both goals (although there were of course other breakdowns as well). He does not appear to communicate. He makes bad decisions and second-guesses himself when it's too late. I stood up an clapped tonight when he actually charged off his line and caught a cross at the six. But he is not really showing progress. The fact that Carvallo isn't playing suggests that his disaster at RSL was not unusual; in other words we have no backup keeper.

On the buildup to the final goal, Quaranta's cut inside was a great piece of play. His crossing, however, was bad all night. On his body language tonight, I don't think it's ok for him to express such frustration with his teammates, when he is so inconsistent and at times so awful.

Emilio's goal represents the first time all season he has anticipated play with effort and good timing. He is still slow and confused. He has still not earned his spot on the field.

Good stuff from Fred, Namoff, Martinez.

Viv--are you high. Peralta = 6 when you admit he was "intermittently good" on the guy who scored twice! U must be playing devil's advocate because TS should sit Peralta's lazy ass for a couple of games.

Pigman sweet was close not exact.
Kosh and Bart should get their own play by play podcast or something. You guys should really reread yourselves tomorrow, I didn't see any of this till after the game.
I thought I was doomed when I ran into some Toronto fans at the grocery store in Arlington?
Looked like they were joking about throwing streamers at me...Black shirt and all. "You going to the game?"Uhhhhh no...
I knew we would come through tonight though way back on Wednesday. Minus a man or two the 1st 11 were finally out there again. Huge mistakes by Peralta, but like Boswell did you can hope to make those up by scoring yourself. I've been waiting since the HV game to see #2 score with his head.
Very exciting game to watch with a great result. I know Fred didn't score again but I hope Goff gives him better than a 3...
This team could be one of the more exciting teams to watch once they really start playing as friends.
Wells still sucks!
Dude laughing with his daughter about how crappy United is but can't leave a name sucks and is a dork.
Goose I still like your drinking game idea! where were you before we turned around our season?
Emilio!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!

I agree with Glaucon regarding Burch. I see him as a bit of a one trick pony. He hits a great crossing ball off the left but the club needs more from his position that just that cross. Martinez looks to me to give us a more complete player at left back. Allowing a donkey like Dicchio to score 3 times in a match and half is inexcusable. The win was nice but does not hardly hide our weaknesses. I think posters are being a bit harsh on Quaranta. Yes his crossing is poor, but remember he is a withdrawn striker playing out of position due to the loss of Olsen. I am surprised at how weak Wells is as I thought he would be better than this. He has been awful.

Here's the nail in the Gomez coffin Bart! Look at what he did for Colorado tonight! Absolutely nothing except get subbed the hell out.

Yay we win

Which one? The Denver team should rename itself the Colorado Gomezes.

Seriously, they're entire team is named Gomez.

By the way, it was downright funny when Peralta, the tallest guy on the team, finally got his set-piece goal, by putting his head on a knee-high ball.

This team misses what Benny Olsen would have to say about that.

Pigman noticed a distinct change in karma this evening. Everything is going to be ok. It is very important tot hink calm thoughts an direct positive energy.

Do not question the pigman guru.

FINALLY!

I am ecstatic with the win, if not thrilled with the manner in which it was won.

Call me a cynic, but this win did not cure all my worries.

The good: more energy, more energy. Peralta goal was a nice, scrappy piece of work. Fred looked closed to match fit. Once they went up, they did not pack it in, nor just sit in the their half and just kill the clock.

The bad: we needed a PK to tie, lack of triangle in the attacking third, hold the ball WAY too long in/around the 18 without shooting.

The ugly: marking - Dichio scored two sitters, the second in particular was ridiculous in how much space and time he was given.

Did anyone notice during the first half Gallardo was at times playing in the right back? He floats alot, which is fine, but I often wonder how he gets sucked into certain positions. Between him and Simms, I want Simms plugging holes in the back - it is Simms job as DCM, moreover, I want Gallardo's technique in the middle, as the axle around which the attack revolves.

Epilogue: Emilio. What to say? He did not look dangerous, as last season. He was a little more active, but really had few productive touches on the ball. The goal was absolutely the fault of the keeper and the backline. Emilio made the exact same goal twice. First one was called back (correctly) for offsides. He was allowed to the same thing. Keeper batted the shot onto Emilio's feet. He was doing something fundamental (follow the shot, which we teach U7s), nothing mindblowing or groundbreaking. No one bothered to track him. Absolute sitter...thank you, Mr. G. Keeper.

Toronto basically allowed him to score (karma for DC allowing Dichio to score). That is much different than truly creating a goal. The jury is still out. Unless Emilio shakes off these dismal first 10 games and knocks in 15 more this season, I think he will be gone. (I bet he will be gone.) The fact he was so happy to score at least tells me he still has passion, so all it not lost. Will be return to last season form? I really doubt it. Can he still be productive? I truly hope so. At this point, taking the shield is a pipedream, however, a good late season run and bring a Cup and postseason tournaments.

I will bat for Wells in one respect:

Tonight, after the game, he stayed far, far longer than any other United player signing autographs for the people. Maybe this was because he was coverboy on tonight's program. Maybe just his personal ethic. In the end, he was the only player left out there...probably going until carpal tunnel set in.

Either way, I was surprised, indeed very, very surprised, that so few players stuck around to share finally winning with their public. You would have thought they couldn't wait to at long last share positive energy with their supporters. Curious.

Credit to Wells as a person and a professional for taking care of the fans. Quality guy.

of course I was talking about Hercules viv...
Colorado Gomers.

Wells-2
Peralta-8
Namoff-7.5
Martinez-5.5
MacTavish-6
Fred-5
Quaranta-7.5
Simms-8
Gallardo-7
Moreno-8.5
Emilio-6

Wells-2
Peralta-8
Namoff-7.5
Martinez-5.5
MacTavish-6
Fred-5
Quaranta-7.5
Simms-8
Gallardo-7
Moreno-8.5
Emilio-6

Wells-2
Peralta-8
Namoff-7.5
Martinez-5.5
MacTavish-6
Fred-5
Quaranta-7.5
Simms-8
Gallardo-7
Moreno-8.5
Emilio-6

No more pessimism. Optimism my friends. Wells does suck but we have to start somewhere. Luckily we have enough heart out there to pull a big game out. It's easy to be negative. Lots of haters out there...

"Credit to Wells as a person and a professional for taking care of the fans. Quality guy."

Maybe we can move Zach into the marketing department, then? At $50k, he might not even be overpaid for that job.

wells sucks
wells sucks
wells sucks

skcus sllew
skcus sllew
skcus sllew

Hey Erick,

He may be young but not stupid. We would he rush into a locker room where he knows he screwed up? Take all the time you want young friend!

Thoughts as a spectator from RFK:

-Quaranta is good for at least 2 miserable crosses a game, but the switch to the left for Fred really helped. Also, the PK does not happen without his angled run in the box, and the go ahead goal was a result of Quaranta's run through the middle and hard shot off Sutton, which deflected to Emilio. While Santino's crosses are often suspect, he has been a fantastic value signing and helped our thin wing play.

-Is it just me or are the larger beers new to RFK? Excellent move vending people.

Being at the game, I couldn't much tell who plays better or what but watching now on CSN replay DC has much improved their play. Yes, Quaranta has some bad crosses but remember he is one who got two assist for goals. First he won pk and the next one he shot nicely and keeper couldn't hold the ball and luckily Emilio was there to catch up. We need Tino kind of player. He is emotional and hard working.

I really wanna see what Carvallo can do again on some grass

""Just a friendly reminder: Niell is pulling in 150 grand this season.""

Niell needs to disappear.

I can arrange dat.

my god! the more I learn about DCU the more flabbergasted I am --- wiells is making 150 grand!!!!

which front office moron made these decisions? Wiells @ 150 grand, Gallarto @ 1.5M, Patalta, Wells -- come'on Kevin Payne --- own up to your mistakes ---bringing these meatballs on-board is not tommy's fault --- being a lousy coach is Tommy's fault but not those lousy personnel decisions --- awful, just awful

lousy front office + lousy coach = disaster