DC Hoping to Break Through Fire Wall

DC Hoping to Break Through Fire Wall

Mike Martin

July 07, 2008

DC United Hosts their tournament nemesis, the Chicago Fire in the quarterfinals of the US Open Cup at the Maryland Soccerplex tomorrow night at 7:30. DC has yet to defeat the Fire in any knockout tournament ever, and with the best defense in MLS, Chicago will be a stern test for the resurgent United.

Washington D.C., While United has a dismal record in tournament play against the Fire, regular season matchups have been much kinder to the Black and Red. In fact since DC pulled off a dramatic win in Chicago six weeks ago, the two sides have pretty much exchanged fortunes in the Eastern conference. That win was the start of United’s current four match winning streak, which has vaulted them into third in the league, while the Fire haven’t won a game since then and have slipped from the top of the East to a tie for fourth.

However, there’s no getting around the history in tournament play between these two sides. United has never defeated the Fire in MLS Cup playoffs, CONCACAF, or even the Open Cup, as Chicago knocked United out of this tournament the only time they faced each other two years ago. A total of nine tournament games and only a couple of 2-2 draws to show for them, with United being outscored 18-4 and ousted out of five tournaments.

However, after practice today, Bryan Namoff pointed out this is a new team and none of that matters now. “No, we won’t be thinking about that stuff. New year, new tournament, brand new circumstances. It’s just going to be a really good game between two really good teams.”

But even ignoring the past and focusing on the current form of each side, DC will have to find a way to break through a Fire defensive wall that is the best in MLS, as well as battle a team that is as physical as any in the league. Further, they will have to do it without two of their best attacking players as Santino Quaranta remains sidelined with a tight hamstring, and now Marcelo Gallardo’s balky groin has flared up again.

Santino was expected to be out and has been replaced capably by Marc Burch and Ryan Cordeiro, however losing Gallardo will be a big blow considering his play of late and the importance of this match. Marcelo appears to be making it a mission to upstage any superstar on the other side of the field as he did against Beckham, and Blanco is easily the most successful designated player in the league so far. It would have been so nice to see the Doll outplay the Toad, but better safe than sorry as rest is the only thing that will see an end to Gallardo’s groin trouble that has plagued him off and on all year.

Replacing Gallardo will be Rod Dyachenko, who has played increasingly better as the year has progressed, including being very instrumental in the win over Rochester to get United to this stage. He controlled the ball nicely in central midfield and set up the clinching goal by drawing the freekick that Burch put away to ice the match.

When asked after practice today about adjusting to Dyachenko instead of Gallardo everyone pointed out that while he’s not as talented as Gallardo is (few players are!), he plays a similar possession style, but also has physical presence that will allow him to give as good as he will undoubtedly take against the rabid Fire midfield.

Simms put it this way, “Marcelo brings a lot to our team, and he will definitely be missed, but Rod will be in there and he plays the same way as Marcelo. [Rod] played great against Rochester. He does well when he comes in games in MLS, and he’s playing with a lot of confidence now, which is good. His being more physical is good too. They play with two defensive mids and play a physical style, so it’s going to be great having Rod in there, being a bigger guy and definitely more physical.”

For Chicago, there’s no doubt they take the Open Cup more seriously than any MLS team has ever done as evidenced by their unprecedented four Open Cup wins, one short of the record set by Bethlehem Steel in the early days of the Cup, and tied by Maccabee AC (Los Angeles) in the 1970’s and early ‘80s. But, they will have some interesting decisions to make in terms of their lineup given their struggles of late.

First of all, they have been downright anemic of late with only two goals in their last four MLS games, both coming last weekend. They have tried a variety of lone forwards and forward combinations to shake out of the slump, but none have been particularly successful. Barrett, Carr, Frankowski and Herron have all been tried and only Carr has shown any kind of success by scoring over the weekend in Columbus. At the same time, they got a stellar game from second year midfield attacker Mike Banner who scored the first and last goals in their Open Cup win over Cleveland to get to this stage, so he may well start again in this match which could push Blanco further forward, as well as add another speed element to the game to compliment Chris Rolfe.

There’s also the decision of who to play in the back. Diego Gutierrez has played most of the year alongside Bakary Soumare, but he was burned badly by Emilio last time we faced them, plus Wilman Conde has worked his way out of the doghouse and is clearly the better defender. However, Conde has reportedly fell afoul of Blanco if well founded rumors are true, and might be on his way out of the team if trade speculation is accurate.

My suspicions are that the Fire continue with their 4-5-1 strategy as usual, but play Rolfe as the lone forward supported by Blanco. That leaves Banner and Mapp to play the wide roles and Thorrington and Pause to play the central roles behind Blanco. It could be Carr at forward and Rolfe pulled back wide right, and Banner to the bench, but honestly, I can’t understand pulling Rolfe further away from the goal ever being a good strategy. I also suspect Conde has played his last match for the Fire leaving Gutierrez in the middle with Soumare, Prideaux on the right and Gonzalo Segares on the left.

Which leaves the matchups pretty much up in the air. Moreno and Emilio should have a bit of an edge over Soumare and Gutierrez, but Dyachenko will almost certainly be held in check by Thorrington and Pause, so they will have to hope that support comes from the outsides, where the loss of Santino is a huge obstacle.

Unfortunately, while Fred versus Segares might be a slight advantage, Burch going against Prideaux is almost certainly a weakness. Martinez pushing up that side would be a great help, but with Rolfe or Thorrington on that side going against him, his forays up field will be few and far between most likely. Namoff pushing up in support of Fred will be crucial if DC is going to tip the scales in their favor. DC has the talent to break them down, but given Chicago’s physicality and discipline, as well as the most under rated goalkeeper in MLS in John Busch, it will be a tough game to find the back of the net, that’s for sure.

Given the Fire’s tight defense, the game may well come down to set plays or long shots from midfield. Obviously, Marc Burch hammering a few more free kicks into the net would be a welcome sight, but Busch has experienced a Burch bomb first hand and isn’t likely to be fooled as easily as Vallow was last week.

However, a few long shots from midfield might loosen up Chicago’s tight back line as Simms pointed out. “I think long shots make a difference. Anytime you’re dangerous with those shots, it tends to open up teams as they have to step out when you receive the ball in those positions. But, we play simple and play our possession game and we will be able to break them down in the end.”

Defensively, things look a lot more promising for DC however. Obviously, Simms and the whole team keeping Blanco in check is the most important key to finding success against Chicago. But, Simms knows as well as anyone how to keep Blanco in check.

“It’s more of a team effort for sure.” Simms said. “The biggest thing is knowing where he is at all times. He doesn’t play a lot of defense, so when we have the ball, he’s roaming looking for spots to get the ball and go at the defense if there’s a turnover. We found success last time by always knowing where he is and stopping plays before he could get in a groove.” Assistant coach Mark Simpson added “We want to absolutely limit the times he gets his head up facing our defense. Make him play backwards every time he touches the ball.”

But, assuming they do that, the rest of the defense has should be well up to the task, especially given the Fire’s poor offensive form of late. Namoff will not likely to be troubled too much by Mapp, Martinez and McTavish should be fine against Rolfe or Carr or even Barrett even assuming they eliminate any bad mistakes and Wells keeps his shutout streak going. (Fingers firmly crossed!)

In terms of overall strategy, United plans to control the ball and limit Chicago’s chances on the ball, as well as avoiding costly turnovers in midfield that the Fire are known to turn quickly into brutally precise counter attacks.

Namoff made it clear that DC must “limit the number of times they have a chance to get on the ball. The more times they have the freedom to dribble, the more times they have to pick up their heads, the more confidence they have to build up their attack. They bring a lot of attacking minded players, the more we limit their chances, the better the chance we have limit their confidence.”

Simpson summed it up the best when he said the bottom line is that “we have to take care of what we do best. Possess the ball, make them chase, attack the flanks, get service into the box and rely upon our forwards to score some goals. We definitely expect a physical match, it’s been nothing but [physical] in the past. We just have to match their intensity. We’re playing for a lot, not just the Open Cup Championship, but a spot in CONCACAF qualifying in the fall. It’s always tough with Chicago, it’s always going to be a battle.”

United has the intangibles in their favor for sure. Playing at home in a place they have only one bad result ever. The advantage of experience playing on the misleadingly bumpy pitch at the Soccerplex, as well as being the far fresher team since Chicago played on Saturday night in Columbus giving up two second half goals to drop two points to the Crew. United hasn’t played since last Tuesday’s Open Cup match and has had a full week at home to rest and recover and practice normally to prepare for this match.

No doubt DC has the edge and should be considered the favorite, but that has been true of almost every tournament situation ever against the Fire and the results have gone against them. However, it sure is a nice time to get those monkeys off our back!

Soccer gods willing and United advances, there’s a good chance DC will host the semifinal match as they will likely face either the Revolution or Crystal Palace FC who will be playing at the same time in New Britain Connecticut. USSF may re-seed for the final rounds, but if all MLS Cup teams advance, that almost certainly won’t happen and given the notoriously cheap Kraft family, they will not fork over the money to host the match if given a decent alternative.

United is the only MLS team facing another MLS team in the final eight. As mentioned New England hosts Crystal Palace, Seattle Sounders host Kansas City, and FC Dallas hosts the Charleston Battery. The semifinals and finals will take place July 29th and August 5th.

Also See

9 man United completes stunning come from behind 2-1 win in Chicago

United defeats Rochester 2-0 in Open Cup

DC United Hoping to Bag the Rhinos Again

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