Tony's Take: Puzzle, Pieces
05/19/2008 6:21 PM by Tony Limarzi
Tony Limarzi, the Radio Voice of D.C. United, provides live match commentary for all D.C. United games on WFED 1050 AM. He recently published his first book, Forza Italia, which is the story of the summer of 2006 – both Italy’s World Cup win in Germany and United’s MLS season. Tony and his brothers also maintain hoyahoops.com.
Things are bad right now. Just when you thought D.C. United might be coming out of their difficult period of losing, they conceded three goals in nine minutes to lose another road game. Ouch. Everybody on the team is rightly frustrated, and the best fans in the league are contemplating mutiny, and not the Tampa Bay kind.
D.C.'s front office made a lot of moves in the off-season to prepare for the many competitions in which United will be playing this summer, and for the time being none of them have produced the anticipated results. When you look at the roster of D.C., the players are as good as any team in the league. The injury situation for United is bad, but it's no worse than a bunch of teams around MLS. Things just aren't working right now, and even though Coach Soehn talks about the reasons for the lack of wins, the reasons behind those reasons are not as clear. Coach says that the team isn't doing the right things for 90 minutes. Agreed. But why not? It's a puzzle.
Like any puzzle, the key to solving it is getting the right pieces in the right places. Easy enough to do in theory, but not quite so easy what it comes down to the nuts and bolts. But if you take a hard look at D.C.'s players, they have the right pieces to put it all together. Jaime Moreno will continue to do everything he can in the final third, Luciano Emilio will soon regain his scoring touch, and Fred will be back on the field soon. Plus, Marcelo Gallardo is a superstar. His skills when surrounded by opponents are incredible, and he's starting to feel more comfortable in MLS. His goal vs. Chivas USA was superb – an excellent first touch, an even better second touch to exploit a defender, and a cool curling left-footed finish into the top shelf – Magnifico!
There is a lot more to play for this season for D.C., and the team needs to get things going soon – very soon. They are desperate for a few results in a row to at least stay within shouting distance of the final playoff position. But besides the MLS regular season and MLS Cup playoffs, there is a lot on the table for United: Superliga, CONCACAF Champions League, and U.S. Open Cup. Remember, the U.S. Open Cup is more important than ever since the winner of that tournament earns a spot in next year's Champions League.
Finally, try to remember that acquiring new players in MLS is not like doing so in the NBA or NFL. In those leagues the players already basically know each other, and at least know the league. The new players for United for the most part knew very little about MLS before coming in. The adjustment period is much longer with an international change, and there is still over two-thirds of the regular season left to be played. The bottom line is that the results have been unacceptable lately, everybody can agree on that. The next to bottom line is that the team is always getting closer to where they want to be. The third from bottom line is that there is still enough time to reach the lofty expectations for which the club always strives.
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05/19/2008 9:06 PM by TCompton
3 bottom lines! Enough said.
05/20/2008 11:37 AM by DCBird
DC fans are counting on this team coming together for the shirt and scoring some points SOON. Put this puzzle together post haste.