Desperation on Display at Home Depot Center

Desperation on Display at Home Depot Center

Mike Martin

May 16, 2008

What a difference a year makes. With DC United and ChivasUSA at or near the bottom of their respective conferences when the two clubs meet this Saturday night in LA, last year’s battle for the Supporter’s Shield seems lightyears ago. Hard to believe these same two clubs won their respective conferences eight months ago with experienced rosters, and now must trust rookies like Ryan Cordiero (pictured) with the hopes of turning their season around.

Washington D.C., It’s obviously been a tough year for both teams in terms of results, and it doesn’t look like it will get any easier for either side this coming weekend. Both teams are staggering under some crucial injuries that have prevented them from finding the successful formulas that led them to the top of the table last year.

Chivas is without both outside defenders as US National team defender Jonathan Bornstein strained a knee this past week in practice, and Lawson Vaughn needs facial reconstruction after being kicked in the face accidentally by Houston’s Dwayne DeRosario two weeks ago. However, the suspended Claudio Suarez returns against United to help shore up their leaky backline.

DC on the other hand, likely gets back designated player Marcelo Gallardo, but remains without their second best attacker in Fred, and might well have some other players scratched as well due to some unfortunate circumstances.

Top of the list is Emilio, who is having a dismal season to date and has been rumored to be benched with the excuse of resting a slight quad strain. Soehn might just be hoping to re-create a bit of magic from last year as Emilio was off to a slow start then, and was benched against Chivas in RFK, which turned out to be the first win of the year for DC last season. That win also sparked a remarkable undefeated streak, and spurred Emilio to be the hottest player in MLS all Summer long. Be nice if that happens again for sure.

However, another key player in central defender Gonzalo Peralta is likely to miss the game needing to stay with his wife as she is having minor complications with their second child due at any time. Having been through such things myself, I can state unequivocally that there is no such thing as “minor” complications when it comes to your wife and unborn child. All the best to the Peralta family as surely soccer should be the least of their concerns.

However, with Devon McTavish out as well, United’s central defense is decidedly slim pickings. To solve the problem, Soehn might actually go for three in the back with Burch on the left and Martinez in the center, which might very likely be a good option against a Chivas team that plays similarly to Real Salt Lake, and who just got hammered by NE who plays the same formation. But, considering the bad results that formation has led to recently and the way it compromises DC’s outside players, and that the strength of Chivas’ attack comes right up the gut with Kljestan, Razov, and Galindo, Soehn might be better served to play it safe with four in the back.

Which means he needs to turn to Dominic Mediate, who’s been less than thrilling in the defense when played there this season and is just coming off an injury himself, or he needs to put some faith in a rookie. Pat Carroll and Dane Murphy have both been decently impressive so far this year in practice and reserve matches, and either would be a more natural fit in the center of defense than Mediate despite central defender not being natural to either of them.

A rookie in the defense would be a daring choice too considering rookie Ryan Cordiero may well be the choice to replace Fred with Burch pulled back into the defense. Soehn might choose Quaranta to play the left and then start Kirk on his more favored right side, but that leaves DC’s best wide option, Santino marked by Chivas’ absolute best midfield defender in Jesse Marsch. Not a good idea to undermine the best mismatch you have on the field, so I would imagine Quaranta stays on the right with the expectation that he outduel the mercurial Panchito Mendoza.

Chivas plays a standard 4-4-2, and are unlikely to change that with the personnel they have, but without their best outside backs they are pretty predictable offensively, and vulnerable to being beaten on the outsides defensively. So, United would be better served to play the same formation which should leave Quaranta and Cordiero (or whoever) with cover behind them so they should be able to attack with more abandon especially with Gallardo back spraying the ball around the park.

So, bottom line is that DC’s banged up defense and ineffectual offense is going up against Chivas’ banged up defense and ineffectual offense. It’ll be a simple matter of who gets themselves out their season long slump the best. If DC gets forward regularly and controls the ball decently, they’ll have the advantage obviously. If they are their usual fumbling and indecisive selves, then this could be another hideous road performance where United is 0-3 on the season and has yet to score a goal away from RFK.

Hopefully, United has solved their offensive problems over the past ten days. For sure, the dynamic Fred and an in form Emilio would be a lot more helpful toward that end, but DC does have tools to use in place of them.

As mentioned, Quaranta beating rookie Bobby Burling or at the very least forcing Mendoza back to help him is crucial. Gallardo and Simms against Kljestan and Nagamura should go DC’s way too if Gallardo is truly back on form. So, there are midfield battles that can be won.

Unfortunately, that will be meaningless unless DC has figured out how to make their forwards more dangerous. Gallardo must find Moreno quickly, and Jaime simply has to be getting the ball deep and forcing Chivas’ central defense to make decisions. If he does that, Doe or more likely Niell will find space off their defender to run into allowing Moreno an angle to get the ball to them at their feet. Both of them like to collect the ball on the end of runs facing goal to find their shot. Or if it's a play from the wings, DC has simply got to have the confidence to flood the box, and especially make back post runs that made McTavish so successful in CONCACAF, or Olsen so successful last year.

This is all basic stuff, but it’s the kind of thing DC has not been doing outside of two rousing wins at home against Toronto and RSL. Aside form those two matches where they played confident and got players deep into the attack, they have been abysmal going forward. Fumbling the ball away, poor passes stolen, no options except marked men because no one is getting forward, etc. That simply must change. DC must attack like they do in RFK, or chalk this up as another loss. It's suicide to try and hang on for a tie at this point in the season.

One thing that might give them a little mental boost on the intangible side is that United plays pretty well in the Home Depot Center, and they have never lost to Chivas anywhere, outscoring them 13-4 overall. True, two of those goals came in a 2-2 draw in LA last September in the last meeting between these two clubs, but United has no reason to feel as jinxed as they do when they travel to Colorado or San Jose for example.

And United needs a good result too. They are seven points out of the last guaranteed playoff spot right now and have a mere nine games until the Superliga break to get themselves back in contention. Should they still be way off the pace in July, then by the time they return to MLS action in mid August, they could have an insurmountable point deficit between them and even scraping into the playoffs. Times are maybe not totally desperate, but another bad road loss and a very promising season swirling down the drain might not be too far behind.

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