Caught in Possession

...day in, day out, month after month, for years in succession? Your brain and heart making your body perform consistently, sustainably, and at a high level for months on end, powered by the inexorable daily grind: training, conditioning, production, recovery (and repeat X times).

How does the mind of the professional athlete take that on?

That's why Jaime Moreno is a specimen, a museum piece. Maybe a freak of nature, even.

DC United is gassed. And there's really no end or break in sight for the players. Though it might offend some peoples' media ethics for me to say it...I feel bad for these guys. Yes, they get paid to do something that many of us love to do, even pay to do. But they have to negotiate mind-numbing routines and grind on relentlessly at times when most of us would crash into the proverbial mountain.

For me, watching this gassed, shorthanded and generally bummed-out team play Deportivo Saprissa in front of 600 6,000-some people at RFK is just a bit depressing. And it makes me angry at league suits who treat the first touches, challenges, hard running etc. of these living, breathing human bodies like just another digit in an equation, a vector on a spreadsheet alongside capital investment, tax incremental financing, advertising revenue and the like.

All MLS teams probably play too many games. Consistently successful MLS teams DEFINITELY play too many games. And meanwhile we're told that the idea of NOT playing MLS matches on international fixture dates is asking just a bit too much of the league office.

The Deportivo Saprissa game was United's 36th competitive match of 2008. There are 11 more ahead, plus (for a moment being charitable enough to imply that DC might actually get to the MLS Cup final this season) as many as four postseason matches. By comparison:

*As of September 17, 1996, DC United's inaugural team had played 31 matches, and only had one more to go, plus six playoff games.
*As of September 17, 2002, DC United's 2002 squad had played 27 matches.
*As of September 17, 2008, the expansion San Jose Earthquakes have played 25 matches.

It's late, so don't quote me in concrete on these. But it's clear that at some point in this kind of marathon, there is the proverbial 'erosion of skills,' and results suffer duly. DC United has hit that wall, and hard. I'll let others play the blame game, for now at least.