Several years ago, I had the misfortune of dating a woman who did me wrong. Real wrong. Like “I cheated on you with one of your friends” wrong. After a brief break-up, I did what any lovesick idiot would do—I got back together with her. Though things seemed to improve over the next few months, I could never shake the suspicion that she would at some point return to her old ways, that she would tear my still-beating heart out and feed it to her dog. (Though she’d have never done that—her dog was a vegan. Who feeds their dog vegan dog food?)
At the moment, D.C. United might as well be that ex-girlfriend. The black and red have done us wrong for the past few years, and we’re naturally suspicious. Sure, things have been going pretty well for the past few months, but some supporters are waiting for the inevitable collapse, which will come in the form of a hand-written note, still smelling of Ben Olsen’s cologne, taped to our apartment door. “Sorry, no playoffs this year. XOXO, United.”
After United’s most recent performance, Saturday’s uninspiring 1-0 loss to the Columbus Crew, the team finds itself sitting in fourth place, five points off division leading New York. The club has lost two games in a row for the first time since the opening two matches of the season, and some United fans are starting to get that sinking feeling in their stomach.
“Hopefully guys didn’t get complacent because you can see how fast things turn around in this league,” midfielder Chris Pontius said after the match. “We went from first to fourth in a week or so. There’s no reason to have any cockiness, any complacency, we haven’t made the playoffs in four years.”
Olsen surprised many by starting Lewis Neal for an injured Branko Bošković in central midfield, an experiment that didn’t go particularly well. Dwayne De Rosario looked flat and out of sync, Hamdi Salihi was far from threatening and the rest of his teammates didn’t look much better. United dominated possession throughout the match, but failed to do much of anything with it.
The Crew’s lone goal came in the opening minute of the second half. Columbus’ Jairo Arrieta sent a ball through the heart of United’s defense, and Chris Birchall was left in alone on goal. He drove a low shot around goalkeeper Joe Willis, who started in place of a suspended Bill Hamid. The tally made up for a Crew goal that was incorrectly disallowed late in the first half. United got its share of poor officiating as well, as a De Rosario goal in the second half was called offsides—even though the ball had been played to him off of an opposing player.
United’s only other truly threatening scoring opportunities came late in the game. Second-half substitute Long Tan pushed a golden opportunity wide, Chris Pontius was denied by Crew keeper Andy Gruenebaum and Chris Korb’s attempt hit the post. The late surge was something that wasn’t lost on Olsen.
“We dug in deep late, but it’s easy to dig in deep late and throw caution into the wind.” Olsen said. “We need to dig in early and make sure that playing hungry and desperate, even when you’re in the top half of the standings, it is important. Until we realize that, we’re going to continue to give up points.”
D.C. United won’t have to wait long to try and exact revenge on the Crew, as it’ll get them on August 4 at RFK Stadium. All five of United’s games in August are against Eastern Conference foes, so United will certainly have plenty of chances to make up the points that its dropped in the past two matches. At the end of the day, these losses to Houston and Columbus really aren’t the end of the world. Far from it, actually. The team has navigated the past month pretty admirably, and is sure to recover quickly enough.
“Individuals go through bad patches and teams go through bad patches,” Olsen said. “It’s not going to be all roses here, right? I told you we have a long way to go to learn how to be a championship team.” Added team captain Dwayne De Rosario: “I’m concerned a little bit, yes. But I still believe in these guys, and we’ll bounce back.”
The team finds itself out of league action this week, and will host French powerhouse Paris Saint-Germain on Saturday evening at RFK. Olsen, De Rosario and Pontius will all take part in the MLS All-Star game on Wednesday evening in Philadelphia—I’ll be there and we’ll have full coverage for you Thursday morning.
So, everybody just chill out. There is no reason to panic. Yet. In the grand scheme of things, United is still treating us pretty well. We trust the team, and this is just a rough patch. Right? I mean, they’d never think to put our hearts through the wringer again, would they? No. If they do, one thing is for sure: I want my Spin Doctors CD back. And by the way, United: None of my friends liked you anyways.
Team Notes: Paris Saint-Germain confirmed last week that the newly-signed Zlatan Ibrahimovic will be in attendance for the club’s friendly this Saturday against United at RFK. It’s also possible that he’ll see 30 or 40 minutes of action, according to PSG manager Carlo Ancelotti … United defender Robbie Russell missed the Columbus match with plantar fasciitis. It’s unclear how many matches he’ll miss, but United coach Ben Olsen suggested he may be out for several weeks. … Mayor Vince Gray met with United co-owner Jason Levien and club CEO/President Kevin Payne earlier in the week. Details weren’t released, but judging by Grey’s tweet, things seemed to have gone pretty well.
