DC United to Re-focus Against Real Salt Lake

DC United to Re-focus Against Real Salt Lake

Mike Martin

April 11, 2008

DC United has to put aside their bitter disappointment of being ousted from the Champions Cup by Pachuca on Wednesday, and re-focus on MLS success, but that may be a tall order considering the current situation and the tricky opponent.

Washington D.C., Most teams in MLS relish heading into Real Salt Lake and beating up on what has historically been one of the worst teams in the league since they were formed in 2005. However, for United, 2005 was ironically the last time DC actually won a match in Rice-Eccles stadium where DC has managed all manner of Keystone Cop collapses in the two games since then.

On top of that, DC has to avoid a Champions Cup hangover like the three straight MLS losses they chalked up last after getting painfully eliminated by Chivas of Guadalajara last year. However, Coach Tommy Soehn pointed out that this year DC has had a lot more time together so the mental adjustment shouldn’t be as pronounced as last year.

In 2006, United had had only two weeks to get ready as the Champions Cup was much earlier in the year, and also interrupted their pre-season preparations last year quite a bit to go along with the tragic loss. This year, United got their full pre-season together and should be much further along in all aspects.

However, Soehn warned that after the heartbreak of feeling cheated by the Pachuca result, the mentality of the team will be crucial. “You have to fight through these [painful situations]. It’s disappointing, but tomorrow’s another day. Saturday’s another game. We’re obviously disappointed, but we have to move on, and move on in hurry.

Unfortunately, DC has to turn around their fortunes in a place that has been disturbingly difficult for DC to find a result. United has suffered freakish losses at Real Salt Lake the past two years despite being in overwhelmingly good form every time they visit the woeful Salt Lakers.

Carrying a ridiculous 14 game unbeaten streak in 2006, United led 1-0 only to amazingly give up two penalties in the last two minutes to snatch a loss from the jaws of victory. In 2007 against a RSL team that was mired in an epic slump, had yet to win a game in almost a calendar year, had fired their coach and was openly rebuilding, hosted a DC team cruising at the top of the table with a 7 game unbeaten streak this time. But that streak was shattered by two Robbie Findley breakaways after he had only joined the team two days before the game. Only a late goal by Emilio made the score respectable.

This time around, though, Real Salt Lake is no where near the punching bag they have been for years. Despite their agonizing start this year that has left them still searching for their first win, they arguably outplayed both the Fire and Chivas and have certainly deserved much better results. RSL has made some shrewd additions to some very solid players who were added to the squad late last year which makes them a much more effective team than their record and history might imply.

Among those new faces is Dr.Goals, Kenny Deuchar who was signed out of the Scottish league. The high scoring highland medical doctor got his first goal of the season last week in the Chivas loss. Also, former DC United midfielder Dema Kovalenko was added just prior to the season as well, and he figured in RSL’s first goal of the year as his shot was deflected in for an own goal in the Fire tie.

In addition to Deuchar and Findley, Kreis has a couple of other forward options in Yura Movsisyan and their Argentine forward, the speedy and tricky Fabian Espindola. All of which gives them different combinations in how they can attack for the first time in their history. However, despite the upgrades at forward, the team’s biggest strength might actually be their midfield.

Along with the dynamic and fiery Kovalenko and former DC defender Carey Talley, RSL’s midfield got a boost in the middle of last year from the additions of Kyle Beckerman and another Argentine, playmaker Javier Morales. Talley has always been under-rated, while Beckerman and Morales are quietly among the best in the league at their positions as well.

Defense for RSL has always been their Achilles heel, but Kreis began to address that last year by adding a third Argentine starter in Mathias Mantilla and Crew castoff Chris Wingert. This year, Ian Joy was added to take over the left, and former Colorado defender Nat Borchers returns to MLS from Norway to partner with Mantilla in the middle. Former DC goalkeeper, Nick Rimando remains in the nets.

It’ll be interesting to see how Tommy Soehn approaches this match. He had some substitutes play extremely well against Pachuca and may well want to reward them as well as give his superstars a bit of a rest after the intensity of international competition and travel as well as two emotional MLS season openers this past two and a half weeks.

One of those remarkable subs, Rod Dyachenko, who had a goal and an assist against Pachuca, immediately began lobbying diplomatically for some more playing time as he was quoted on the best website in the history of the world, Behind the Badge, saying [We’ve] “Got to rejuvenate. Maybe change the lineup a little bit. Give some guys some rest.”

So, given the situation coming off a tough series and with a quick turnaround for a Thursday game at home next week, I think Dyachenko may well get the start in place of Marcelo Gallardo. The puppet master has played nearly every minute since joining the team and with maybe fifty games this year, his minutes have to be managed. But one of the key elements of the team this year is the way the team totally revolves around Gallardo and that raises the question of what will happen when he’s out of the lineup since there really is no other player on the team with who plays the central position the way he does.

Dyachenko is pretty much the only other playmaker on the team, aside from Fred who has to hold down a wing role since we don’t really have any extra wingers either. But Russian Rod plays the central role much more as an out and out attacker than Gallardo does, so RSL might be a good time and place to see exactly how the team will respond to his insertion into the starting lineup.

It would also seem likely that unless Jaime Moreno is completely healthy, he gets a rest in this game too. There’s absolutely no sense in risking him in a nothing game early in the season. Quaranta started at forward alongside Emilio against Toronto, and it would seem likely he will do so again. Emilio, I think stays out there as he really needs to focus on getting sharper and regaining some confidence after the debacle against Pachuca.

Other than that, I don’t think any other starters get rested as the defense really should be fine this early in the season and the more they stay together, the better they will be in the long run. Likely Burch returns to the left, and McTavish back to right midfield, where it looks like he will be camped out for quite a while considering the sour news about Olsen’s recovery not going well so far.

Should be an interesting match, though. Both teams play basically a straight up 4-4-2, so it will largely be man on man matchups for most of the game, which means the team that can exploit a mismatch the best will have a distinct advantage. If DC sits a few starters and everybody on both sides plays their best, I think RSL might actually have the edge in this match despite the lack of true wingers, especially if they play the speedier of their forward options.

Findley and Espindola are easily their best shot at causing trouble for DC’s defense as the one aspect of Peralta’s game that even he concedes is a liability is him matching the speed of the quicker players in MLS. Martinez can handle the speedy players well, but two fast players means Peralta can get isolated and either burned or has to give up fouls. Yet, Morales has shown a startlingly good freekick, so even smart fouls will be trouble for DC. Peralta was a rock against Pachuca, but it would be amazing if he could match that intensity level again only three days later in a nothing game against a nothing opponent.

Another aspect of RSL that will make things difficult for United’s central defense is the way they attack. Without any true wingers who get wide consistently, RSL often ends up flooding the middle of the field which will cause marking problems for Simms and Peralta and Martinez to sort out on the fly. Or it will cause DC to collapse inside possibly causing other mismatches elsewhere. Luckily, their outside backs Joy and Wingert are pretty weak in the attack, so DC won’t be completely discombobulated, but RSL is a tricky opponent for us to match up with.

Obviously, if Gallardo plays significant minutes, DC’s organization and chances for success go way up, but if Dyachenko plays as I envision, Talley has a good shot at controlling him. Plus, Fred versus Dema could be an undercard in the ultimate fighting league and, as much as I hype the Fredster, I think Dema is one of the few players in MLS that can cause Fred fits for ninety minutes going both ways. In fact, Fred’s natural instincts to come inside will actually help Dema as he prefers scrapping in the middle of the field as well.

Which, oddly enough leaves McTavish as possibly the best chance DC has in going forward out of midfield, since Beckerman isn’t really a wide player either. A central midfielder for the majority of his career, Beckerman doesn’t like getting pulled outside, so if McT can get wide and deep often enough that is a big advantage for United.

As for DC’s forwards against their central defense, Emilio and Santino under normal circumstances would have a good shot against Mantilla and Borchers both of whom struggle controlling players who combine both size and speed. But Santino is trying a little too hard right now and Emilio is in a bit of an early season funk. If they break out of their struggles, or RSL makes enough mistakes, then that’s enough to sway things DC’s way, but if not, then this really will be a very even game in terms of players and tactics.

But, the intangibles all go RSL’s way. Their field turf football field is weird to play on and DC has been absolutely snakebit there the past few years. RSL’s rabid desire to show they’re better than their record in front of their long suffering fans, DC’s mental state after the Pachuca heartbreak and likely missing some dynamic starters, plus the simple fact that this game means so much more to them than to United, are all significant advantages for RSL.

However, Wells maybe captures a bit of the resiliency this team has by pointing out that “We came back from Mexico with a pretty bitter taste in our mouth and beat Toronto so hopefully that happens [again]. All that matters is that we get another win.”

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