Missed PK Haunts United in Loss
Down 2-1 with Jaime Moreno, the MLS all time scoring leader, coming to the line to take a penalty kick in the 78th minute of their SuperLiga match versus CD Guadalajara, D.C. United had to feel good about their chances of eking out a draw or maybe even a win. Moreno had buried his last 20 PK attempts, a streak lasting over four years, and is about as close to automatic as you can get from 12 yards out. Unfortunately, the odds caught up with Moreno, as Ernesto Michel made the save and preserved the 2-1 win for CD Guadalajara. "With all the penalties he has taken in his career, sooner or later he’s going to miss one," United coach Tom Soehn said after the game. "I like his percentages though."
United had plenty of chances throughout the match, however. Luciano Emilio hit the post early in the game, as did Devon McTavish in the second half. They were also hamstrung (no pun intended) in the midfield without the injured Marcello Gallardo, Santino Quaranta and of course, Ben Olsen. Rod Dyachenko (this year's Brian Carroll?) didn't do much in the playmaker role in the first half, so Soehn mercifully sat him in the second while bringing on Francis Doe up front.
Goalkeeper Zach Wells played one of his best matches of the season, but couldn't make up for the mistakes of his backline. Omar Arellano got behind the entire DCU backline in the 24th minute and scored after beating Wells in a one on one situation. Gonzalo Pineda's scoring strike on a masterful free kick in the 72nd minute proved to be the game winner. Emilio scored for United in the 76th minute to keep his goal scoring streak alive.
Moreno's missed PK wasn't the strangest event of the night, though; that would be the power outage in the 58th minute. Half of the stadium's lights went out, causing a 20 minute delay while the lighting system was rebooted. Soehn thought the break in the action was very fortuitous for the visitors.
"It was very disappointing when the lights went out because it gave them a chance to recuperate," he said. "Because I told the guys that after the second half they were going to lose their legs a little bit and I thought they didn’t. Our play got better. We made some adjustments late in the first half. Closed the middle up a little bit but we started to take it to them and unfortunately when the lights went out they recuperated a little bit."