Might even talk me down off the ledge too!

I agree that the road form is bad, obviously. And it always seems to come down to horrid 10-minute stretches. Maybe the 4-man back line helps to mitigate that.

And true, our guys are well not rested. Weigh that against Firpo being in pre-season and I’d call it a wash in terms of excuses.

But with the stakes high, the opposition weak, the home-field advantage minimized, and a full-strength DCU arguably the better team (I would hope), I don’t think it would take a miracle to come out with a win. Just a truly concerted effort (and an absence of bad luck).

But the inescapable facts remain. We’ve had a pretty good sampling of United’s road form to date and it hasn’t changed. Mistakes continue to abound.

However, at least they are scoring goals too. Maybe the soccer gods goose us towards a 2-2 tie. That would be nice.

But I’m not so sure Soehn uses the heavy artillery in this match, and even if he does, they’ll have to play a lot better than last time out because Firpo will almost certainly play better at home. And those fans will be rooting against DC. No chance they want any gringos beating them in their own country even if that means rooting for a rival team.

DCU tied the opener playing a scrapped-together B-team, and lost a goal on a defensive blunder. Not exactly a crushing defeat.

This Firpo team really isn’t all that good — they weren’t even supposed to be in the tournament, after all. And you say they’re playing in their rival’s stadium? We might even have some support in the stands.

If DCU puts a legitimate side out there, there’s no reason they can’t win the day.

And despite a dreadful 10-minute stretch and horrid conditions, they showed some unexpected grit and almost pulled out a miracle in Houston. Not the embarrassment you predicted.

This team has flaws, but it still has fight. Mike, your cloud is too dark.

Also, I notice it’s past midnight and Behind the badge has yet to acknowledge DC even has a game in El Salvador tomorrow night, but they are pushing another promotion of the Real Madrid match. Lovely.

Now, a smart coach would say something like anyone who plays poorly at Firpo has no chance of playing against Real Madrid. But, maybe taking the biggest effing competition in this entire region seriously is too much to ask of a team that longs to play against the best of Europe. Now, mind you, Real Madrid, et al. are not even on the horizon unless you actually show you are a decent team that cn beat lesser teams in your region, but hey, live life while it’s good eh?