United Virtually Eliminated From SuperLiga with 3-2 loss to Atlante

Chris Webb

July 15, 2008

Despite's Fred's efforts United fell 3-2 to Atlante in SUperliga Action

Despite's Fred's efforts United fell 3-2 to Atlante in SUperliga Action
Photo: Tony Quinn

DC United's season long defensive troubles yet again bubbled to the surface as United now faces virtual elimination from SuperLiga. Only a loss by Atlante to CD Guadalajara and a 3 goal margin of victory over Houston on Saturday would see United through to the knockout stages.

Washington D.C., DC United's recent spate of injuries and crammed schedule of games perhaps caught up to them in one fell swoop tonight as they lost to Atlante 3-2 before a much more subdued crowd of 12,122 at RFK Stadium last night.

United's much maligned defense was on the back foot on many occasions often letting the quicker Mexican side get behind the makeshift central pairing of Devon McTavish and Marc Burch. Playing thier fourth consecutive match together both players looked tired and often drifted out of position and left gaping holes for Atlante striker Luis Gabriel Rey to exploit.

"It’s tough to come back from two goals down. We just weren’t that good together," said McTavish after the match. "I think we had an off night together and lost a lot of guys back there. I think we just weren’t on the same page at the time."

Head coach Tom Soehn was a little less diplomatic and pretty much straight forward with his thoughts on the teams play, "Our performance, particularly in the first half, was atrocious; we had no commitment, no passion, and we played flat. It is unacceptable, especially in a tournament like this. Every time a player wears the D.C. United uniform, they should be proud. This team is well known for its pride, and that’s something we did not show today. We didn’t appear in the first half. Thus, we couldn’t contain any team. We tried in the second half, but that was too late. We cannot do that in this competition. Whether you are tired or not, you have to put in an effort. And that sweat wasn’t out there today."

The match started out considerably less tense than United's match against Chivas on Saturday night. Both teams took their time probing each other out but it was the visitors who got on the board first in the 15th minute. Marc Burch ventured too far forward in trying to intercept a pass and gave the ball away at midfield and Gabriel Pereyra slotted a perfect pass to Rey who streaked in all alone on Zach Wells. Rey slotted the ball underneath Wells just as McTavish got back to defend and Atlante was up 1-0.

Atlante quickly figured out United's defensive weakness centrally and continue to try and get behind them at every opportunity. Wells made a save on Rey just one minute after he scored and midfield maestro Christian Bermudez ripped a shot that went narrowly wide right in the 25th minute.

United did regroup however and leveled the match at 1-1 in the 28th minute with a patient buildup deep in Atlante territory. A well worked passing sequence on top of the box almost came to nothing when Gonzalo Martinez mishandled a Jaime Moreno pass. Martinez quickly got his wits about him and played a ball wide to Craig Thompson on the left flank. The United rookie one-timed a ball across the box to the far post where a grateful Francis Doe was waiting to tap past Federico Villar.

United seemed to have settled down leading into the break but another sloppy defensive play gave Atlante the lead in the 44th minute it would never relinquish. Bermudez came up with a loose ball deep into his own half of the field and sent Venezuelan striker Giancarlo Maldonado down the left flank. Marc Burch made an initial lunge to cut out the pass but it skipped underneath him and Atlante was off on a 2 on 1 break. Maldonado sent in a pass towards goal that Rey easily tapped past Wells for a 2-1 lead. Devon McTavish seemed to have the play cut out but inexplicably took his eye off Rey and paid the ultimate price.

It didn't take very long for Atlante to increase their lead to two goals. Just four minutes into the second half a piece of individual brilliance was on hand as Christian Bermudez scored perhaps the goal of the tournament to date. Bermudez had United defender Bryan Namoff backtracking into his own penalty area and froze him with a slight stepover move and curled a right footed shot over the outstretched arm of Wells and just under the crossbar to give Atlante a 3-1 lead.

The rest of the match was spent in Atlante's defensive half of the field save for the odd counterattack or two from the visitors who were clearly tiring. United did give the crowd at RFK brief hope when Luciano Emilio cut the defecit to 3-2 in the 79th minute. The play began when Jaime Moreno juked and feigned his way to the top of the penalty area. His last fake shot at goal unbalanced the Atlante defense and he slipped the ball to his right to Emilio who had a defender on his hip. Emilio quickly turned to his left and whipped a shot into the upper 90 near side for his 11th goal in his past 9 matches in all competitions.

United had a few more chances from distance but could never get the tying goal. In fact Atlante came closest to scoring again when United had everyone upfield on a corner kick deep into stoppage time, including goalkeeper Zach Wells. Wells couldn't get back in time as Atlante substitute got hold of the ball cleared from the corner and saw an open net. His outside of the foot shot was on it's way into the open goal only for United defender Gonzalo Martinez' brilliant 50 yard sprint to beat Rey to the ball and he poked it out of harms way. Seconds later the final whistle blew and United has a lot of work to do to make it to the knockout stages.

With Houston losing to Chivas 1-0 in Houston last night, United can advance out of the group only with a loss by Atlante to Chivas and a minimum 3 goal win over Houston on Saturday night at RFK Stadium.

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