Write On Sports LLC - "DC United 2006: That Certain Something Missing" by Jeff Bull

DC United 2006: That Certain Something Missing

2007-01-29 20:02:36 | By: Jeff Bull

Let’s take a quick look at the individual and team honors DC United racked up in 2006: the Supporters’ Shield, the prize that goes to the team with the best record in league play, check; on the individual side, midfielder Christian Gomez took home the 2006 MVP, Bobby Boswell is now reigning Defender of the Year, and Troy Perkins, the Goalkeeper of the Year. On top of that, there was the incredible 14-game unbeaten streak that stretched from May to mid-July, a run that had DC qualified for the post-season weeks ahead of any other team in Major League Soccer (MLS).

So, what’s missing? Oh yeah, trophies. And that’s the rub: DC United didn’t win a single one in 2006. And that’s one of the stories of the year.

New Men

In spite of the 4-0 implosion at home against the Chicago Fire that ended their 2005, DC United made few substantive changes to their roster heading into 2006. Fiery midfielder Dema Kovalenko constituted the biggest loss, though Argentine forward Lucio Filomeno left the club in June as well. Some minor players aside, the departures ended there. New arrivals didn’t add much either: Mattias Donnet came up from Argentina in the middle of the season, while Stephen de Roux, who originally signed with the team the previous year, finally saw some playing time in 2006.

For all the movement, those players were largely peripheral to DC United’s 2006, a season where everything seemed to break their way. At least until it didn’t.

The Bad

By the time the league paused for the August 5 All-Star break, the only question mark where DC United was concerned was who could stop them. By July 21, they had extended their Eastern Conference lead to a staggering, and frankly insurmountable, 20 points. They lost their final game heading into the break - shockingly, against Real Salt Lake, one of the league’s weakest teams to that point - but with 45 points taken from 20 games and with the competition inside their conference stumbling badly, everyone wrote in DC as favorites to lift MLS Cup - the majority of them in ink.

The unraveling that followed so bright a start took all observers by surprise. DC would end the year with a total of 55 points; they went 2-5-4 (W-L-T) to end the season, adding a paltry 10 points to their overall tally. Worse, the collective stall seemed to leave the team uncertain on the field, most notably in defense, where unpardonably loose marking combined with haphazard play out of the back. The same team that spent much of June and July gutting out one 1-0 win after another, suddenly found themselves on the losing side of the score sheet. As the defense slipped, the offense sputtered. Players like still-teen phenom Freddie Adu, Alecko Eskandarian, the hero of the 2004 Championship campaign, and forward Jaime Moreno, the second highest goal-scorer in league history, suddenly appeared either wayward or tired on the field. At times, it seemed that only Gomez knew how to find the goal. Had he not pulled them out of their first-round series against Red Bull New York, DC’s 2006 would have slipped just a little deeper into disappointment.

The Good

Finding the good in DC United’s season requires that one push past the anti-climax of its ending. The first place to look for relief comes with the Supporters’ Shield, which gives the holder the right to play in the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a regional tournament pitting the top clubs from North America, Central America and the Caribbean against one another. Though less tangible, the club’s May-to-June-to-July winning streak stands out as well; in a league as obsessed with parity as MLS, streaks of that kind happen rarely, if ever. The reality is, DC United spent a big chunk of 2006 as the best team in the league - the wrong chunk, but a chunk nonetheless.

Christian Gomez also deserves a place of honor. While one can make the argument that the Houston Dynamo’s Dwayne DeRosario or even the New England Revolution’s Clint Dempsey are more exciting players, neither meant nearly as much to his team as Gomez. Toward the end of the season and into the playoffs, Gomez flat-out carried DC, something no other in the player did, or even had to do. Further, Gomez is exactly the kind of player fans pay to see: he is sharp and quick and has the vision to see openings AND exploit them - a crucial skill. Other players may hold a bigger bag of tricks, but few are as outright effective as Gomez. The 14 goal, 11 assist “double-double” he picked up - a rare thing in soccer - says it all.

Finally, DC United’s fans finally picked up some well-deserved notice from the mainstream media this season. Whether it’s the Screaming Eagles or the Barra Brava, these guys show up early and keep RFK Stadium shaking - literally - throughout every home game. If you’ve never had the chance to see this, it’s worth taking the time.

Wrap-Up

Seeing as DC is a political town, it seems appropriate to reach for a political metaphor to wrap up DC United’s season. Think of the Clinton presidency: a generally happy period, but one stained by a gigantic, dark blot. Impressive as DC was early in the season, few observers who inked them in as favorites stuck with the early bet when the playoffs started; their general vulnerability was there for the rest of the league to see. They limped into the post-season and barely escaped the first round against a Red Bull New York team that rated little better than average; an early goal by New England’s Taylor Twellman in the Eastern Conference final served as an 80+ minute coup de grace. DC not only failed to score during that mercilessly long game, they played as if they wanted to place the scribble in the period to their late-season collapse.

The Future

In the wake of the conference final loss, stray comments on DC fan blogs forwarded the idea that winning the Supporters Shield meant 2006 counted as a successful season - but those comments were about as far as this notion went. That the DC United front office made high-profile changes to the roster suggests that they didn’t see 2006 the same way. Whether by leaving players unprotected in the supplemental draft that would build the roster for MLS newcomers, Toronto FC, or by trade or waiver, DC parted ways with forward Alecko Eskandarian, defender Brandon Prideaux, goalkeeper Nick Rimando, and midfielder Freddie Adu. The team avoided a sticky situation when last year’s head coach, Piotr Nowak, joined Bob Bradley with the U.S. Men’s National Team; he was replaced by long-time assistant Tom Soehn, who enjoys a solid reputation in MLS. In terms of new arrivals, DC brought in a respectable rookie class, but the focus for now points to Emilio Luciano, a forward who joined the team with a promising resume from the Honduran leagues in hand. There’s talk of more players to come with South America as the likely source.

Whomever they bring in, the expectation is that DC will return as a force in 2007; even with the team’s mixed record with South American imports, the core of players still with the team is solid. Whether the mystery, confidence-sapping ailment will strike again looms in the background.

Editor's Note: This is part of a series wrapping up the 2006 season for each of Major League Soccer's 12 teams. Readers can find other entries in the series by clicking on the author's byline.

Comments

Gareth Sleger commented,
I like D.C.'s decision to trade Adu. I can only assume that there was a lot of pressure from the MLS powers that be and fans for the club to adjust its system to revolve around him.
January 30, 2007 12:55 p.m.

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