United Loses Fourth in a Row at Toronto 1-0

Chris Webb

May 21, 2008

Luciano Emilio

Luciano Emilio
Photo: Chris Leon

DC United is shutout for the fourth time in five road games this season and has now lost four straight games. The team is in danger of losing their own locker room, if it's not lost already.

Washington D.C., Danny Dichio took advantage of a horrific mistake from United defender Devon MacTavish and toe poked the ball past Zach Wells in the seventh minute to give Toronto FC a 1-0 win at home. DC United has now been shut out in five of their nine MLS matches this season and it's no suprise why they languish at the bottom of the Eastern Conference.

Bad teams give away bad goals and MacTavish's schoolboy error gave Toronto all the ammunition they needed to get the three points. A harmless ball was sent over the top that MacTavish easily beat Dichio to and instead of passing directly back to Wells or simply playing the ball out to touch, MacTavish whiffed on his initial pass back and the onrushing Dichio applied enough pressure to harrass MacTavish into panicking and he fought off MacTavish and pushed it past a stunned Wells.

The goal obviously deflated an already demoralized United team low on confidence heading into the match. Undaunted, United did control most of the flow of play throughout the rest of the match as Toronto simply sat back and countered to try and get that knockout second goal. While United didn't have all that many opportunities to get the tying goal, they did however have the best opportunity in weeks it seemed to equalize.

In the 64th minute Marcelo Gallardo collected the ball on the right flank and easily juked Laurent Robert to create space and lofted a fantastic cross to the back post to Fred who was wide open with only Toronto FC goalie Greg Sutton to beat from five yards out. Fred managed to head it straight into the gut of Sutton instead and the resulting rebound was cleared out by Dichio just a fraction before Fred could push in the rebound.

United continued to apply heavy pressure to no avail as Toronto held off a rather impotent assault on their goal for the remainder of the match. United now is in possession of their worst start to open the season since they lost seven of their first nine games of the inaugural 1996 season.

DC United will now turn around and host this very same Toronto FC team on Saturday night at RFK. Anything less than three points could be the single lowest point in United's illustrious history.

Visitor Comments

On May 22, 2008 - 08:26:38 PM wieg445 said:
The skill hasn't been there and now the mentality is not there either. The most disturbing part is who we've lost to; Real Salt Lake? Chivas? Toronto FC? the schedule only gets tougher, and you get the feeling that New England could easily hang 4 or 5 goals on the team with out breaking a sweat.....it's time to officially worry. I've been a United Fan since the start of mls and you get the feeling that this season is much different than past seasons where the team has strung together 10+ unbeaten games to pull back in to contention. Another loss this Saturday and I think it's officially a "rebuilding year"
On May 21, 2008 - 10:28:56 PM Fred said:
Always with the negative waves!! The team played much better. The effort was there, the coaching, the performances, everything except the scoring. Sometimes the ball just won't go in, it happens. Considering where we were three weeks ago, this was a huge improvement, and maybe not quite justice at the end of the day.
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