It does the heart good to see Emilio two goals up on Angel for the MLS Golden Boot. And I'll be honest-- to see Altidore up there, albeit at the bottom of the list, warms my heart a bit as well. Glad he didn't double up on us.
(Off topic: Ives reckons Altidore will be the MLS' first ever eight-figure transfer. I'm disagreeing with Ives on this one. I predict that come Christmastime he'll be worth more than what Adu went for, but Adu only went for 2.5 mil. Eight or nine mil for Jozy, methinks, not a stupendous eight-figure transfer fee. How much of that would Red Bull see, anyways? The bigger question is where he'll be a year from now. That's a thinker.)
I am relieved to no end that Soehn stuck Burch immediately back into his starting spot on the left. I'm not so relieved to see Vanney back on the field. He's got a trumped-up sense of how good he is with his left foot, though the bigger threat to United's defense is his trumped-up sense of how well he positions himself under pressure.
Equally worrisome is Gros' early exit from the game. Didn't look like a blowout a la McBride (Fulham will be missing him for three months after he dislocated his knee vs. Middlesborough on Saturday) but it was enough for him to beg substitution after only eight minutes. I'll be waiting for Goff to come back with good news tomorrow.
Fred is magical. I said so this past Wednesday when we lost out to Beckham's team, but today he really endowed my words with the honest truth. It wasn't just his strike, which opened the scoreboard as well as United's attack. It was Fred's urgency, which ensured positive movement up the pitch; it was his persistence, which ensured focused, dynamic attack on goal; and it was his thrilling movement on the ball, which ensured that the audience was at the edge of their seats and that the Crew were at the edge of their collective wits. Simply put, United is better as a team when Fred is on the field. I hope he realizes that his every last effort, no matter how trivial, is bringing United closer to RFK on November 18th. Keep it up, Fred.
This is a great result to have as the playoffs loom close. Thanks to this win, at least Soehn will be sleeping easier. With a real sense that his performance as head coach was under serious scrutiny, his halftime pep talk must have been the stuff of legends. It worked, anyways.
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Other notes:
- Moreno looked slow. I'm sorry that this is typical of him these days. Let's hope he breaks his record vs. Red Bulls on Wednesday so Soehn can put him on the bench more often.
- Gomez' form was good last night, another pre-playoff reassurance. We can see he's picking his head up.
- The announcers last night were Thomas Rongen and that guy who announces United's games for 1160AM radio. I wish I knew that guy's name. He was decent.
- When I say that Perkins' bravery gifted us the shutout, I literally mean that Perkins' bravery gifted us the shutout. He has the stones to get behind every ball humanly possible, impending feet and knees regardless. His insurance premiums must be phenomenal.
- Danny Szetela was particularly unremarkable. Is he really headed to AS Roma this winter?
- Alejandro Moreno is definitely an MLS-quality striker, which is to say, he might put his chances away but he won't change the momentum of the game. The Jaime of old was one such game-changer. I want that guy back.
- This question is weighing heavy on my mind these days: if not Veron, then who? It doesn't matter right this minute, but I wonder if, or even when we'll start to regret we never signed anyone this season.
Good night.
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The guy whose name you can't remember is Tony Limarzi. He's a local Marylander who went to Gonzaga HS and Georgetown University. He's been doing the radio for about 4 years now and fills in whenever Dave Johnson takes a day off. I think he does a great job and DC United are lucky to have him until he gets the call to bigger and better things.
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