Results tagged “concacafchampionsleague”

United 1, Toluca 1: D.C. United have spent this year on the fringes of pretty much everything. The fringe of the MLS playoffs. The fringe of silverware in the Open Cup. The fringe of victory or defeat (the team has 14 draws in 44 games over all competitions). The fringe of being able to put together a complete ninety minutes as a cohesive unit. Teams that live on such fringes often end up owing up their successes and failures to chance -- and so it is with United, whose advancement to the knockout stages of the CONCACAF Champions League (much like their chances to advance to the MLS Cup playoffs) now sits in the hands of other teams. On its own, the one-all draw at Toluca would probably be viewed as a success. American sides never fare well in the high altitudes and hostile atmospheres of Mexico, let alone against one of the marquee sides in the country. Additionally, Tom Soehn was understandably resting a large number of his regulars in advance of Saturday's league finale against Kansas City -- Ben Olsen, Clyde Simms, Jaime Moreno and Marc Burch sat, and Boyzz Khumalo, Rodney Wallace, Christian Gomez and Dejan Jakovic played abbreviated roles. With a win, United could have assured their place in the next stage of the competition, and they got off to as good a start as they could. Chris Pontius supplied a fantastic strike to open matters, but Israel López equalized for Toluca from the penalty spot in the 62nd minute. United was fortunate to hold on, as keeper Steve Cronin impressed again with several key saves. D.C. will now need Marathon to either tie or lose against San Juan Jabloteh to advance; it would be the first positive result for Jabloteh in the group stage, so don't hold your breath.

              

Okay, let's just get this out of the way up top: San Juan Jabloteh features a player named Elton John. It's kind of difficult to take that seriously, even for a sport where guys named Banana score goals and participants sport these kinds of hairstyles in a tournament watched by a billion people.

              

Sure, I could be negative. I could tell you that last night was the quietest I've heard RFK Stadium in some time. I could talk about how secondary the reputation of the CONCACAF Champions League appears to be, even for those involved in the competition. I could harp on the poor finishing in the first half of the match, an effort so indicative of numerous D.C. United matches this season -- full of exciting offensive potential, but so little return.

            

For the sparse crowd of United supporters who attended last night's CONCACAF Champions League debacle against Toluca of Mexico at RFK Stadium, it would be easy to attribute the result and the team's incredibly poor performance to fixture congestion.

Poor D.C. United. US Open Cup success aside, it's been about as frustrating a season as a team could have. The first few months were filled with growing pains, trying to find a way to mold the side around new Argentinian signing Marcelo Gallardo. It began to pay off in early summer, with the team finally finding form and playing with the easy-on-the-eyes attacking style in such a marked contrast to some of the league's less attractive approaches. The end of the summer brought Louis Crayton in goal, and an unexpected string of defensive resolution from the usually charitable United defense. But they never really made a big dent in the MLS standings, and now their CONCACAF Champions League campaign is as good as over before it could even really take off.

           

DC United kicked off competition on yet another front – The CONCACAF Champions League – last night looking like a decidedly haggard squad. Jaime Moreno was on the bench. The $1.9 million-per-year Marcel Gallardo was back in Argentina for further rehab, leaving his total games played for the season at 14. That’s over 100 grand per game, spaced out over 7 months. Nice work if you can get it. Also absent was his fellow countryman, defender Gonzalo Peralta, while Coach Tom Soehn decided to he’d had enough of the shutouts and re-installed Zach Wells as keeper.