On paper, D.C. United’s encounter with FC Dallas at RFK Stadium on Saturday evening seemed like the ideal palate cleanser.

Just a week after drawing their second consecutive match (in particularly underwhelming fashion), D.C. welcomed a Dallas side missing seven players to international duty. At home, on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, conditions seemed ideal for United to get on the right track.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

United looked flat, allowing a pair of first-half goals and a late insurance tally en route to a 3-0 loss to FCD. In the end, Dallas’ absences didn’t really matter—their attacking core, a group that includes Argentine midfielder Mauro Diaz and Colombian attacker Fabian Castillo, remained intact.

The Good: Not much.

I’ll make this quick—Taylor Kemp was exposed on the first goal, but so was everybody else. He was fine otherwise. Luciano Acosta looked decent off the bench. Chris Rolfe had a passable, though forgettable performance. As a sub, Jared Jeffrey was impactful, though at that point the game had been lost.

The Bad: Marcelo Sarvas and Nick DeLeon in midfield, Fabian Espindola up top, Bobby Boswell in the back, Travis Worra in goal, Ben Olsen on the bench.

The list could actually be longer. It’s probably time for the DeLeon midfield experiment to end. I’ll say it again—you can’t blame DeLeon for the fact that he’s being asked to do something that, in general, he’s not cut out to do. Statistically, he had a strong night, completing 41 of 48 passes and looking strong defensively as well. A closer examination of exactly where he went with those passes, though, reveals a problem:

Sarvas got himself a red card midway through the second half, and will miss United’s next match as the result of that. He’s probably doing D.C. fans a favor: in his absence, United head coach Ben Olsen will be forced to reconsider his central midfield pairing. Worra looked out of his element, though I’m not sure what’s expected from him at this point. I’d expect fellow back-up Charlie Horton to get a hard look this week for a potential start.

Espindola put in a quiet shift but managed to hit a terrible PK—his third in his past four attempts. Rolfe, who’d been taking PK’s for the club before he himself missed a pair, should be taking these; I’m sure that the former Fire midfielder might have a bit of a complex after his recent misses, but he’s been reliable on them throughout his career and hits them better than Espindola in general, for my money.

Olsen’s decision-making remains puzzling at times. Acosta, D.C.’s premiere off-season signing, started the game on the bench. Afterwards, Olsen told me it was a coach’s decision. Here’s the bottom line: he has to find a way to get Fabian Espindola, Luciano Acosta, and Chris Rolfe on the field at the same time, and they need to click. Otherwise, this year could get ugly real fast.

The Rest: The club paid tribute to former Washington Diplomats midfielder Johan Cruyff at halftime with a nice video package. Cruyff, arguably the greatest midfielder in the history of the game, passed away last week at the age of 68. He played a pair of seasons—1980 and 1981—in D.C. after a legendary career at Ajax and Barcelona, and went on to revolutionize the game of soccer through his work as a coach and administrator. I wrote a a feature for FourFourTwo last week on his time with the Diplomats. Folks here in D.C. probably remember him best for the spectacular goal, which you can watch below. RIP Johan Cruyff.

Filed Under: DC United, DCU, FC Dallas, MLS, RFK Stadium, soccer,