DC United Hoping to Shoot Down the Rapids

Mike Martin

May 03, 2008

Marcelo Gallardo festeja su gol ante impotencia de portero de Toronto Greg Sutton.

Marcelo Gallardo festeja su gol ante impotencia de portero de Toronto Greg Sutton.
Photo: Rafael Crisóstomo

DC United is hoping their early season slump is behind them, but face a daunting task in trying to keep the good times rolling in Colorado, where United has lost the last four games played there, and hasn’t won at all in Denver since 2000.

Washington D.C.,

Two teams seemingly traveling in opposite directions meet in Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Colorado this Sunday. United started 1-3 and has languished at the bottom of the East, but enjoyed a thunderous win over RSL to improve to 2-3 and seem to be poised for a trip up the table. While the Rapids have lost two straight to stumble to 2-3 after a 2-1 start to the season saw them atop the West for a while.

However, Colorado has had a whammy over United ever since the last game against the Rapids in Mile High Stadium. In Mile High, United was 5-2, which also was pretty much their average margin of victory as DC had some rousing goal fests out there in those early days. But since the Rapids moved to Invesco field and now the Big Dick, DC hasn’t won a single game going 0-5-2 including a loss in the season opener last year.

So, what is it about Colorado? Bryan Namoff is as mystified as everyone else. “I don’t know. I could say the altitude is a factor for us, but I really don’t know. There are just certain places that are difficult for us to play. I’m sure you look at teams coming into RFK and having a difficult time against us and they say the same thing. I think people might have a tendency to look towards the past, and that we haven’t done well there and that might be on our minds, but I think we need to start changing those histories!”

Along with the Colorado jinx, United also has some somber news on the injury front to contend with. With the team already thin on the wings, Fred has a thigh contusion, but will likely play, while Devon McTavish didn’t even make the trip with a mid-foot sprain. With Domenic Mediate out as well, and the shocking news coming out this week that Ben Olsen’s career is in jeopardy due to his ongoing ankle problems, the mood of the team might be a bit shaken. While Bennie hasn’t played a lick this year, the fact that the emotional leader of the team may never play again has to have dropped the enthusiasm a notch or two.

Still, Santino Quaranta started on the side opposite Fred against RSL last week and scored the clinching third goal of the 4-1 win. No doubt he is expected to start in Colorado but after that things get mighty slim on the wings. Possibly Quavas Kirk gets a run for Fred later in the match, but for sure DC is hoping to get out of Colorado with no new injuries.

It’ll also be interesting to see if Soehn goes with five in the midfield against the Rapids, and if he does, who gets the nod. Will rookie Dan Stratford get another shot to boost his confidence after getting yanked somewhat embarrassingly from his first start last week? Or will Dyachenko fill that role like he did so well when he came in last week? For me, despite the success against RSL, I think it’s unlikely we see three in the central midfield against Colorado this weekend for a number of reasons.

For one thing, Stratford would be absolutely shattered if he was started and pulled again even if it was merely a tactical sub because DC was playing badly in a place they historically play badly. You can’t subject a rookie to that if it isn’t absolutely necessary. Also, Dyachenko is Gallardo’s only natural replacement on the team. Soehn can’t afford to use them up by playing the same minutes too often.

Besides, against RSL, the 3-5-2 gave DC a tactical advantage against them specifically because Real attack and defend primarily right up the middle of the field. I doubt that formation will be used this week as five in the middle won’t really help against a Colorado team who love to attack wide with Colin Clarke and Terry Cooke.

Along with Colorado’s propensity to attack wide, they also have a very familiar face instigating their attack as this will be the first time DC faces its old playmaker Christian Gomez. For certain Gomez will be itching to prove United was wrong in letting him go, and when Christian gets his back up, he scores in MLS as we’ve seen the past four years. In particular, Colorado has been very successful with counterattacks with Christian playing as the second forward as opposed to midfield where he played for United, and dealing with quick counterattacks has been an Achilles heel for DC, especially on the road.

Bryan Namoff put it this way. “I think at times, when we’re on the road and things aren’t going our way, I think we need to adjust during the game. Sometimes that needs to come from us in the back, to adjust and make the whole field a lot smaller at times. I think we were susceptible to the counterattack in RSL [for example], so we need to stay compact to prevent that.”

However, along with being compact, DC would be better served to have that fourth defender to help prevent Gomez from making his patented slashing runs that open up the defense for their Scotch forward McManus (or the speedy Omar Cummings) to tuck in the scraps. It will also be beneficial to have two wide defenders to prevent Fred and Santino from being primarily responsible for keeping Clarke and Cooke from influencing the game too much.

Going the other way, DC will actually enjoy the largest field in MLS. Namoff put it this way, “Being on a bigger field will help us too. We’re really going to try open it up and to use the width to our advantage.” By that he means making the ball do the work and keep Colorado chasing the game. Considering the outstanding ball skills United has individually and collectively, if they get the lion’s share of the possession, Colorado is in for an extremely long day.

Oddly enough, looking at the matchups, this game is very likely to come down to the performance of Gomez against his replacement at DC, Marcelo Gallardo. The matchups on the wings are even as a banged up Fred and Burch going against Cooke and Kelly Gray is a push. On the other side, Tino and Namoff will have their hands full against Clarke and Burciaga, which only leaves Gallardo and Gomez in the middle as the obvious choices to swing the game.

It doesn’t help that Pablo Mastroeni is recently back healthy and will most likely dog his every step, but Gallardo has seen that kind of attention his whole career. If he gets the better of the play in the middle of the field and can bring Moreno and Emilio into the game often enough, then Colorado’s extremely weak defense (including another familiar face in the wildly erratic Facundo Erpen, who almost single-handedly lost the game against the Fire their last time out) will absolutely crack like thin ice under any kind of decent pressure.

Conversely, if DC doesn’t play well, Gomez could easily torch them by collecting turnovers and slicing up our transition defense hideously. If Dema and Beckerman could open up United’s defense like a can of tuna, Gomez can slice and dice us like a ginsu knife if we play badly. I doubt there could be a better situation during the regular season going head to head to really see who got the best of the two teams swapping playmakers.

"I would believe if you looked at D.C. United and us -- they got Gallardo and we have Christian Gomez. I'll take Christian Gomez any time," Rapids coach Fernando Clavijo told the Rocky Mountain News. “Is Christian Gomez a DP-caliber player? Yes. Did we get the best part of it? Yes. When you bring in a designated player, you don't know what you are going to get. It's an unproven commodity in the United States. We have a unique situation traveling all over the place, and some people don't fit in. New culture, everything is different. If we made the right decision, only time will say. But I'll tell you right now -- I'm very happy the way things have transpired."

While I’m not a big fan of Clavijo and rarely quote another team, this one is a bit shocking considering the way things have transpired for Colorado recently have been a two game losing streak and Gomez hasn't influenced a game since the first of the season. Now, Clavijo is certainly going to stand behind his choice, but then again his choices have led him to a career coaching record close to 20 games under .500, no trophies to speak of, and a string of broken hearts from Boston to Denver.

However, while it is possible Gomez outplays Gallardo Sunday, and this year overall, it certainly seems a bit more likely that United got the better of this deal. Certainly the the data to date is going DC's way after Gallardo scored that thunderous goal against RSL to give him two on the year, as opposed to Gomez’ one penalty kick, and after each has led their team to a 2-3 record so far. But, that's what makes Clavijo special, his abject denial of the facts at hand.  

Still, parsing Clavijo and playmaker comparisons aside, bottom line is that DC needs a result to keep them moving upward from the very bottom of the league. Despite the rousing win, DC is still last in the East and cannot afford to fall further behind as that could mentally undo all the progress they’ve made in getting over their CONCACAF hangover.

Chad Ashton put it this way and he gets the last word. “We just have to do the things we do well, and do them even better there because we know we haven’t done well there [in Colorado]. There’s no magic key, no magic formula for winning games there. I came from Colorado and I’ve watched plenty of teams come in there and do well there. We just have to roll up our sleeves, bring our lunch pail to work and get the job done.”

Visitor Comments

On Mike M said:
Hmmm... Fred didn't make the trip to Colorado. That's not good. So the choices to replace him are Burch which means play Dyachenko too in a 3-5-2. Or play 4-4-2 and replce Fred with Quavas Kirk. Looks like the lesser fo two evils if you ask me. Dyachenko gives you more possession, but more defensive problems that could bite you on the road, Kirk is a wild card, with him in a 4-4-2 the defense will be better, but possession maybe not so much unless he plays very well. Should be interesting, but I'm a bit concerned now.
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