Unlucky United Can't Defend Open Cup, Lose 2-1
When I was but a wee lad, I loved watching the game show Press Your Luck. The most exciting part of the show was watching someone get their last whammy and crapping out -- for whatever reason, it was just far more entertaining to watch someone with thousands of dollars lose their money because they stopped the moving lights on a small red...thing. The tension, it was palpable.
But at least on Press Your Luck, you could only acquire one whammy at a time.
D.C. United could have really used that kind of pacing last night; instead, the Black-and-Red experienced an incredibly damaging triple-whammy in one swoop last night — giving up the vital first goal, losing a player to a red card, and having that player be the goalkeeper, screwing up any strategy they had prepared going into the final third of the match — and couldn't recover in time to defend their U.S. Open Cup Championship, losing 2-1 to Seattle.
It was a tough loss for the home team to swallow.
"When they got their goal, I thought we had the momentum," lamented head coach Tom Soehn after the final. "It hurts right now. Our locker room is a somber place."
To their credit, visitors from Washington State came clad in oceanic shades of green and blue, a song in their chests just waiting to explode into the air. Traveling in packs, they sardined into this writer's Orange Line train, one at a time, 3,000 miles away from home, an impressive cast in support of a team who've made a splash in their first foray into the upper echelons of the American soccer landscape. This, combined with the 17,329 overall attendance, made for a very nice atmosphere at RFK Stadium for the 96th annual final of the Cup.
(That is, of course, if you could navigate the incredibly long lines for the discounted food and drink and return back to your seat in time to actually watch any of the game.)
It was an especially tough result for goalkeeper Josh Wicks, who played brilliantly, but was rightfully ejected from the game in the 67th minute for stomping on Seattle forward Freddy Montero after he pounced on a ball to put the Sounders up 1-0.
"It is what it is," a despondent Wicks relayed in the quiet D.C. locker room. "[The referee] made his decision. No excuses for it."
To that point, Wicks had kept United in the game. He made huge saves in the 11th (denying an unmarked Montero, right in front of goal), on the 20-minute mark (saving a low shot from Freddie Ljungberg after an incredibly poor turnover by Fred with his boot), and on the stroke of halftime (using all of his 6' 3" frame to nod a Steve Zakuani header over the crossbar).
How disappointing was it to play so well, but leave your team shorthanded?
"Tremendously," a barely-audible Wicks admitted.
Other United players also didn't seem to have any idea why Wicks was sent off, but the air in the clubhouse was one of sad acceptance.
"If [the referee] saw it, then he saw it," said Santino Quaranta.
Before all of the second half insanity, though, a very nice game of soccer shone through, during a majority of which United looked the better side. It was nervy out of the gate for both sides, as each feeling out the relatively bouncy RFK surface, but soon, it was punch for counter-punch, from two of the more high-potential offensive teams in MLS.
Chris Pontius had a deft touch to get the ball down from his chest early on, but pushed his shot far wide to Keller's right post. Seattle's Freddy Montero, a nuisance for D.C. all night, in his Vanilla Ice haircut, answered with a long-range shot in the ninth that garnered some oohs from the crowd.
Most of United's chances throughout the game came via set pieces. Seattle prepared themselves to plug up matters through the center of the open play, and seemed content to make D.C. beat them with a good set piece, rather than with sexy football. United had several chances to convert from free kicks in the first half, but only one &ndash Christian Gomez's effort in the 17th – came anywhere close to testing Kasey Keller.
Soehn mercifully decided to substitute Fred at the interval, who had a miserable first half ("he wasn't very good with the ball," which was the understatement of the evening from the coach) for Santino Quaranta. Quaranta had immediate effect, earning the Black and Red another dangerous free kick after a heated run across three-quarters of the field.
The second half was controlled more by the home team. That is, until the Wicks blowup. It should be noted that the referee did deny two penalty calls from United: the first, an obvious handball on an Olsen cross by James Riley inside the penalty area; the second, a foul right on the edge of the box, although United had advantage played there and could have scored anyway.
After the brouhaha, United had to play very cautiously, but I saw a team which seemed to actually get stronger. Rodney Wallace came on for Ben Olsen to provide United with another player who could stretch the field. Seattle reverted back to its form from the first half: condensing things, and allowing United to run around the midfield all they wanted to.
But it was another player who shone for United, who had a hand in the side's second big mistake: Dejan Jakovic. Jakovic was outstanding all game — including an incredibly technical tackle inside the penalty area to brush the ball off Zakuani's feet and earn a goal kick — but the Canadian defender terribly misplayed the ball, and the man in the dying stages, and Sebastian Le Toux found Roger Levesque wide open in front of goal.
United had a little bit of fight left in them: a free kick from Santino Quaranta with minutes to go pinballed around the box and Clyde Simms poked it in to lend the crowd some life. And the signal of five extra minutes gave the team a chance. But United, despite the boost, couldn't find the second goal with such little time left to spare.
"We have to bounce back," said Quaranta.