United Offers Little Resistance in 2-0 Loss in Colorado

Chris Webb

May 04, 2008

Colorado Rapids forward Jacob Peterson (red, 15) puts a shot past D.C. United goalkeeper Zach Wells.

Colorado Rapids forward Jacob Peterson (red, 15) puts a shot past D.C. United goalkeeper Zach Wells.
Photo: Trent Davol/ISI

Former United players Christian Gomez and Facundo Erpen had big days against their former club. Gomez had two assists and Erpen scored a goal to give Colorado a predictable win against United.

Washington D.C.,

Say what you want about altitude and playing on the road in MLS. DC United has taken this overblown axiom to hysterical proportions as they get psyched out again on the road on the way to a 2-0 loss in Colorado.

With United playing cautiously from the jump, they never gave themselves a chance to win this match. Jacob Peterson and Facundo Erpen scored inevitable goals in the second half to easily seal away United in Commerce City.

The first half was simply put a clinic on road hysteria. United, as they have often done on the road in recent years, came out defensively and applied little to no pressure on a Colorado team that was featuring a team with usual starters Terry Cooke and Colin Clarke on the bench. That didn't phase the home team as they stroked the ball around the large pitch with relative ease and were unlucky not to score on several occasions. With more seasoned finishing Colorado easily could have been up 2 or 3-0 by halftime.

The second half didn't really change much except for the scoreline. Jaime Moreno, who was rested at the start of the match, came on at halftime and injected minimal influence on the game until former United midfielder Christian Gomez took over. Gomez picked up a loose ball at midfield and ran straight at the United defense. He turned Clyde Simms into a pretzel about 30 yards from goal with a delicious spin move and threaded a perfect pass to the unrushing Peterson to slam home from 22 yards past Zach Wells.

At this point United actually started to care about the match and put together a few minutes of possession and meager scoring opportunities that was washed away by another dagger from a former United player.

In the 72nd minute United failed to clear a corner kick and Gomez got hold of the ball and dropped it back to Terry Cooke, who entered the game literally seconds before the play. Cooke then chipped into the middle of the box for Erpen to poke home his header for the final score line and United's almost predictable pathetic road performance.

Coach Tommy Soehn was clearly disappointed after the match. “The loss is very troubling, we have addressed a lot, especially having a better road mentality. When looking at individual performances in this game we were just bad all over the field, I can’t even think of a player that did well. We can talk about tactics and formations all you want but if you don’t show up you’re not going to do well. Moving forward we are going to be hard on everyone, not just the players but the staff as well. We gave away the ball continuously, setting up counters. We had backwards possession in this game, and that’s not going to win games. We have to have a better mentality. We need to find a combination of guys who will go out there and give it all that they have. We have a lot of work to do.”

DC United returns home to play the Chicago Fire this Thursday evening on National televison. Let's hope they decide to show up and play this game or their already cemented place in the bottom of the Eastern Conference will become that much stronger.

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