DC United’s inconsistency continues as they break their drought while being soaked by Ophelia.
Fairly often a soccer match can be described as a tale of two halves. DC United’s home games last Wednesday and Saturday can best be described similarly as a tale of two matches. Off form, they should have lost to the strong Atlanta United and beaten the weaker Reb Bulls. Results differed.
Over the past month, DC has tied more often than not, yielding and gaining few goals in those ties. Yet they lost 5-3 to the Red Bulls three weeks after winning 4-0 against the Chicago Fire. In the interim, they tied at 0-0 twice and 1-1 once. The team went from one extreme to the other.
DC outshot Atlanta 19 to 6 while both put only 4 shots on goal. It was a repeat of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight theme. After that game Coach Wayne Rooney commented that after 15 minutes of poor play the team, “grew into the first half – – – I thought we ran over them in the second half.” Again, and again Rooney’s players missed shots, 8 of them easy and mostly over the bar, and 2 only missed because service was slightly high.
Came Saturday against the Red Bulls, in contrast, DC placed 7 of 15 shots on goal with Christian Benteke’s first half hat trick providing all their goals. The Red Bulls were more accurate with 8 of 15 shots on goal and 5 finding the net.
Rooney admitted that it was, “A scrappy game. Anyone could have won.” He expressed his disappointment that despite Benteke’s hattrick the team had given up, “The goals we conceded were sloppy, silly goals from our point of view. – – – we have three games left and have to keep pushing on.”
The team has played a flexible 4-4-2 or 4-3-3 throughout the past month which does not explain the variation in scoring level during that period. Clearly, Rooney’s permission to play freely has led to a dominance in chances created offset by the risks that ensue.
This most recent goal explosion was only slightly affected by the constant drizzle and slippery surface. The coordination among United’s strikers was generally good but the weather, Red Bull pressure, and fatigue caused a higher percentage of poor passes. Still, the volume of good chances was high. The same was true for the Red Bulls who converted more of their chances.
The game was almost comical in its flow of goals. As the first half went into time added on, one could almost hear Oprah Winfrey saying’ “You get a goal! You get a goal! You get a goal!” There were 3 in the space of 6 minutes.
United moves on to play at Vancouver on Saturday 30 September and Austin on Wednesday 4 October, returning for their final home game at Audi Field on 7 October. They will be without Russell Canouse for one game as he picked up a critical yellow card to put him over the limit. Captain Steve Birnbaum who is recovering from a minor injury is expected to be available for all games.
