United Hoping to Dig Out of Gopher Hole

United Hoping to Dig Out of Gopher Hole

Mike Martin

April 08, 2008

DC United dug themselves a hole being down two goals to Los Tuzos, who are just the defending champions of this tournament, by the way. However, while the Black and Red face an uphill battle for sure, all is not lost as United should have some surprises for Pachuca going into this crucial match.

Washington D.C., Obviously, the 2-0 result in Mexico was not as good as they’d hoped, especially considering the bagel they had held onto for over an hour, but it easily could have been worse. United’s defense was outstanding in keeping the goal differential close and luckily Pachuca inexplicably chose not to really put the hammer down and end any hope at all with a larger margin of victory when they clearly had United on the ropes.

So, DC has a bit of an advantage in knowing exactly what they need to do to advance, and gets a perk normally reserved for Mexicans by getting the deciding match in RFK this time. A mere two goal win for the home side would force an overtime and then penalty kicks, or a three goal outburst would send DC United to the final of the Cup they won exactly ten years ago right here at RFK by shutting out two Mexican team in a row to clinch the title.

Two goals are absolutely not out of the question either. Not only does United play well at home, but Pachuca does not always play particularly well away from their cloud city. The Gophers lost in Houston last year by exactly the 2-0 United needs, before going home to their mountaintop to oust the Dynamo with a 5-2 win. Hopefully Wells will channel his excellent performance from that big win in Houston, rather than both of his unimpressive matches in Pachuca.

Pachuca has had some other sketchy away legs too. On their way to this title in 2002, Pachuca lost in Trinidad for goodness sake, and lost again in San Jose to the Earthquakes. Granted the losses were only 1-0 and didn’t come close to challenging their overwhelming wins in Mexico, but they have most certainly lost to much worse teams than this current United side when playing the away legs.

United held on very well in Mexico and arguably it took two remarkable plays to decide the match. Peralta, Martinez, and Simms must replicate their performances in Hidalgo where they were simply magnificent in that first match. Namoff and Burch held their own very respectably as well and must keep that up too, but overall DC’s field defense was about as good as anyone could have hoped for. True Pachuca missed some sitters, and pegged the odd crossbar, but they are a better team after all, and they may well rue those misses if they are even a little bit off their game again like they are known to be outside of Mexico.

However, aside from the crucial need for Pachuca to be a bit flat to give DC’s defense the chance to keep them off the board, United simply must be more effective on offense if they are to have any chance to advance. If the Mexicans can simply force DC players into fumbling the ball away and not even allowing a single shot against them like they did in Hidalgo, then its game over.

Yet United has a few aces in the hole that might make the difference this time around. Jaime Moreno is likely set to start, and his supreme skill under pressure and ability to link the midfield with Emilio should be huge. Moreno got some valuable minutes versus Toronto and while he’s not 100 percent, he got an enormous confidence boost with one of his sublime rollers into the net for the last goal in the 4-1 win over Toronto FC.

In the first leg in Mexico, DC could barely hang onto the ball, but Jaime is as good at making the smart play and keeping possession as anyone in the history of MLS. Gallardo was shucking and jiving all around the midfield as the only player able to hold the ball consistently under pressure, but Moreno will give him a secure outlet and prevent Pachuca from simply stacking bodies around our Argentine maestro.

Also, the re-emergence of an aggressive Santino Quaranta the likes of which RFK hasn’t seen since 2001 is something that very likely will surprise Pachuca as well. I suspect that as good as McTavish has been playing, the rejuvenated Tino will get the nod to play the right side in the hopes of getting that all important early goal, and to supply the high pressure that will save Emilio from tiring himself out doing it. Soehn got to preview him wide right with that switch to a 3-5-2 against Toronto, and he looked good out there. If it works again and gets United the margin they need, then McTavish can come on to keep things tight later on.

Considering the classic way to break down a 3-5-2 like Pachuca plays, is to get deep into the corners to force their strong central players wider than they would like to go. Pachuca would like nothing better than to jam up the middle with Correa, Caballero, and Manzur. However, if those guys get pulled wide chasing effective wide attacks, it’s a chain reaction of bad things for them defensively. There’s even the added bonus of hampering their offense a bit as their killer wings will have to track back way more than they’d like.

Fred did get deep fairly well in the first game, but McTavish was not able to do that on the other side, so the Mexicans could key on Fred and force turnovers. An aggressive Santino would not allow them to do that. They’d have to honor his side of the field at the very least creating more room for everyone in the middle, or at best unbalancing them to the tune of the goals DC needs to advance.

And that’s not all United has up their sleeve. Maybe the biggest factor of all will be the increased understanding that Emilio and Gallardo finally began to show in the Toronto match. If nothing else, thrashing the woeful Canadians allowed Gallardo and Emilio the time and space to figure out what each is trying to do a lot better than they did in that first leg. Emilio scoring the first goal to get himself on track didn’t hurt either. He’s happiest when he’s scoring, and if he has the confidence to break early in anticipation of the puppet master putting the ball right onto his foot, then he absolutely will score against Pachuca.

Santino said it best to Behind the Badge when he pointed out that with the weapons United has on offense, once they start clicking, they will be scary good. Let’s hope that begins tomorrow night in RFK. Soehn has shown a bit of conservatism over the past two seasons in big international matches, but I think he has to roll the dice and go after it or United has no chance to advance. Conservative is certainly more likely to lead to a respectable result, while aggression could lead to a bad loss. But, United has had enough moral victories, the best chance to advance is to go all out and let the chips fall where they may.

Realistically, United might barely be one goal better in RFK, but two is a stretch for sure. However, Pachuca being a little lackadaisical, plus a lot of United offensive aggression, maybe a little goose from the soccer gods, along with the indomitable support of the RFK faithful, and United might just pull off the miracle.

Also See

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Los Tuzos and Ticos School MLS in Concacaf

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