Saturday’s early game storyline must have seemed awfully familiar to D.C. United. After dominating possession for several stretches in the opening minutes, a momentary lapse of coverage in the defense led to a successful opposing counterattack. To add to the similarities, the protagonist of the counterattack was none other than last Wednesday’s lone goal scorer, Danny Dichio. Though United fought back to tie the score, the 6’2″ target man added another strike in the closing seconds of the half. And yet, for the first time in nearly a month, United did not suffer another demoralizing loss. The home side’s inspired play led to two second half goals, and D.C. secured a 3-2 victory over Toronto FC before 18,647 grateful fans.
Several encouraging signs of resurgence emerged from the victory. Luciano Emilio looked more like last year’s MLS goals leader than this year’s struggling striker. Though he did not embark on any canny scoring runs, he was tenacious in the midfield and displayed his striker’s instinct by jumping on two rebounds and converting them (one of which was disallowed on a questionable offsides call). Marcelo Gallardo led a team effort in cross-field distribution, giving United’s attack an element of danger that it had lacked in previous encounters.
Perhaps most importantly, United displayed a better team-wide approach to the game. They gave more effort in pursuing 50-50 balls, remained dynamic on offense, and made efforts to back up their teammates. Unlike previous games, this attitude did not degenerate into despondency for extended stretches, even when struck by the two goals that put them behind.
United could have assigned blame to any number of players for giving up the first of Dichio’s goals. Bryan Namoff and Devon McTavish could have communicated better to step up to captain Jim Brennan’s run and intercept his through ball to winger Laurent Robert. Gonzalo Peralta should have utilized his size and pace to keep Dichio marked. Zach Wells might have realized that stepping up to clear the ball was worth exposing his near post. Each element of the defense failed, and the result was an easy header by Dichio into an open net.
