United with embarrassing effort in Utah, again

Chris Webb

April 12, 2008

DC United's head Coach, Tom Soehn

DC United's head Coach, Tom Soehn
Photo: Martin Fernandez

Nobody at DC United seems to know what mojo Real Salt Lake has over them in Utah. For the third year in a row United fails to get off the plane as they get wholloped 4-0 in Salt Lake City.

Washington D.C., Kyle Beckerman scored two goals and Fabian Espindola and Robbie Findley both scored as Real Salt Lake demolished a clearly disinterested DC United by a 4-0 scoreline at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

The scoring barrage started early on as Crofton, Maryland native Beckerman got on the end of a Dema Kovalenko through ball and wrong footed United debut keeper Jose Carvallo in the 12th minute. Just seven minutes later Espindola outhustled Gonzalo Peralta to a bouncing ball from Kovalenko and timed a volley past Carvallo and United was quickly down 2-0 after 19 minutes.

Head Coach Tom Soehn made several changes to the lineup in an effort to give his team some much needed rest after a 5 game in 14 day stretch. However it made not a difference as the early goals allowed RSL to sit back and defend for the rest of the match while United stroked the ball around the terrible artificial turf surface. Zach Wells, Marcello Gallardo and Gonzalo Martinez were left on the bench as Carvallo, Dominec Mediate and Rod Dyachenko took their place.

There was plenty of blame to go around from the bad field surface to the misjudging of bounces all night long and Real Salt Lake was simply waiting in the weeds for United to make the mistakes they made all night long.

As the second half wore on and United still couldn't generate anything resembling their impressive performance on Wednesday night against Pachuca, RSL struck for a third and fourth goal in impressive fashion. Beckerman, who simply feasts off of United during his career, scored on a 22 yard laser and then Robbie Findley, another player who seemingly loves playing against United, ended the misery for the Black and Red when his hustle got the last goal when Peralta, who easily had his worst night in a United shirt, misplayed the bounce and allowed Findley in to head over a helpless Carvallo to end a miserable evening for United.

DC United will head back to DC and prepare for a Thursday night national television match against the Columbus Crew and then they will have 10 days off before facing a rematch with Real Salt Lake on April 26th at RFK.