D.C. United manager Tom Soehn wants to forget about last Saturday’s debacle at previously winless Real Salt Lake. After an opening spell that might have given Soehn flashbacks, an under-strength United helped him do that with a strong final sixty minutes and a 4-1 win over the Colorado Rapids at RFK Stadium.
There were plenty of important moments – newcomers Fred and Luciano Emilio’s fluid passing movies with playmaker Christian Gomez, Jamaican forward Nicholas Addlery’s breakthrough – but after falling behind early, Soehn and United will surely insist the most important thing was simply the result, starting a new unbeaten streak.
Playing without Ben Olsen, Bobby Boswell, Jaime Moreno (all away on national team duty), and Bryan Namoff (injury), some kind of drop off would’ve been understandable. The makeshift backline of Clyde Simms, Devon McTavish, Josh Gros, and Facundo Erpen gave up an early goal – a fine looped, flicked header from Jacob Peterson off a Terry Cooke cross – but after Simms and McTavish swapped places things looked much more solid. In fact, McTavish might have played his best game yet, cutting out crosses, organizing, and providing some solidity to Erpen’s occasionally erratic play.
Photos by Kyle Gustafson
