Caught in Possession

Is that the proper term for the offseason that now beckons the Black-and-Red denizens of RFK? (As opposed to the large, furry black-and-brown denizens that scurry among the shadows in the place's damp underbelly.)

I don't know, actually. DC United's last few seasons have ended prematurely, too, as squads that were highly-rated championship contenders stumbled at home in the playoffs. Those setbacks featured frustrated outbursts from players, coaches and club execs and angrily segued into simmering winter breaks. This time around everyone seems to have more of a dazed, vacant befuddled-ness (and if that's not a word, then it should be) as they try to grasp the magnitude of the 2008 failure and the perfect storm of injuries, scheduling demands and bad chemistry that brewed it.

As I peruse various media perspectives this week, on one level it's shocking to hear the DCU brain trust contemplate keeping so much of the command structure in place, especially after top-dog owner Victor MacFarlane's choice words on the season a few weeks ago -- "we paid to be bad" -- but maybe places like New York and New England offer DC contrasting examples of the benefits of stability. United could certainly have done with some roster stability this year, at least when it came to Tom Soehn's starting XI and first options off the bench.

I'll have more after tonight's CONCACAF season closer against Marathon, but for now the simplest and most effective way of noting the mood in Unitedland is to refer you to the current Washington-area conditions on weather.com.

Leaden, cold, ominous.




*HT to How Now Brownpau on the image.

British Columbia, not Brian Carroll.

Wouldn't you want to play soccer in Vancouver, especially if it also meant not having to eat ramen noodles and canned tuna all the time?

Justin Moose and Jay Nolly decided to give it a try, and I get the sense that they feel good about the decision. Wouldn't you do the same?

Ahhhh...if I think about it hard enough, I can almost smell the Pacific breeze...

And oh yeah -- DC United is alive. Alive like that plane full of rugby players that crashed in the Andes a few decades back, maybe, but alive nonetheless. A brief word on the matter from Santino Quaranta (happy anniversary Tino):

I went out to dinner with my family last night…at 9:00 I was getting texts from everybody, that [Chicago] scored 12 minutes in, and I actually watched the second half when I got back. I turned it off in the 80th minute, I was so excited. I’m just happy that we finally got a break. It was exciting. It’s been a real buzz around here this morning – it feels like it’s a whole different season right now today, it really does.

Tempus Fugit.

Time.

Flies.

This simple yet mystical phenomenon of existence keeps slapping me in the face, metaphorically speaking, in several different spheres of my life. But it takes place in, and in front of, all of us. This week offers just a few examples within this soccer subculture of ours:

*We have just one full weekend left in Daylight Savings Time;
*Fall regular-season play is winding down, and in some cases almost over, for Potomac-area youth leagues. WAGS senior league, for example, has just two full weekend ledgers left.
*Match Day Twelve (12!) of the 2008/2009 UEFA Champions League has now come and gone;
*Major League Soccer's final weekend of league play has already begun. Playoffs start in less than a week.

Autumn is upon us, and the cold, dark winter equinox beckons, and all of life buckles down accordingly.

My proverbial notebook is verily bursting open with interesting quotes/primary source material, story ideas, and other stuff from DC United, MLS, USL, US Men's National Team, DC local scene, and more.

Keep your proverbial heads up for content and if you somehow aren't already, for crying out loud, make sure you're subscribed to Potomac Soccer Wire's biweekly flashes.

BIGGEST. RESULT. OF THE SEASON.

Sometimes crappy soccer really can be entertaining as h*ll.

OK, so I only got to catch the last half-hour of the match, via internet. But regardless of how g*wd-awful some of the touches were, and what a g*wd-awful influence poor artificial turf can wreak on a game, there were some vibes...some quan...some je ne sais pas to that performance from DC United's kids.

Sometimes clumsy, often a step behind, but never giving up: wonder how many senior squad members back home even stayed up late enough to watch the ending, as it was beamed to us from a damp, lush, faraway tropical place via high technology?



I don't support United, I cover United. But seeing that downtrodden bunch play with pride in hostile conditions and snap their club's five-game losing streak...that warms my heart. That's one of the most compelling achievements I've seen from anyone in a Black-and-Red uniform this year.


And who wouldn't want more fodder for the Great Rod Dyachenko Hate Debate of 2008, hmmm?...let the online shouting matches begin!


*HT to Bogman for the Rod image.

Well, of course I had to drop in on the U.S. Men's National Team training sessions this week, since they're in town and all, and World Cup Qualifiers don't happen at RFK all that often (anymore). And of course I had to join the rest of the writerly herd in pestering USMNT media shepherd extraordinaire Michael Kammarman for a few quick interviews, and of course the ever-sardonic but equally-helpful Kammarman came up trumps -- I got good stuff from the likes of Bob Bradley, Troy Perkins and Gooch Onyewu, so stay tuned for future copy on those fronts.

I am a bit flabbergasted at the idea that it's been four years since the last WCQ in DC. That 6-0 drubbing of Panama lingers in my mind, if only because I got to sit in the stands and take it all in with a good friend, and act like a normal fan -- I think I might've even drank a beer -- not a working journo sitting high up in the press box.

And that night is also pleasantly sepia-toned because it kicked off what you might call a brief "Age of Innocence" regarding my perception of Eddie Johnson. Yes, that was when the oh-so-talented and oh-so-infuriating American striker snatched that rarest of feats, an off-the-bench hat trick that made Panama's defense look extra-pedestrian and seemed to kick off what we all thought would be a glittering international career.

But the GAM (Grown-Ass Man) has rarely reached such heights in the ensuing four years and in fact his absence from the ongoing USMNT camp has sparked somewhat of a celebration among certain sections of the Nats support, as younger bucks like Jozy Altidore, Freddy Adu and Jose Francisco Torres have been given priority. Meanwhile, Johnson seems to have become the Brazil of the USMNT, if you will -- as in the cynical old canard that once summed up the general international outlook on that South American nation: "It's a land of great potential, and it always will be."

Which gets me to wondering...isn't it statistically probable that someone in the current camp -- maybe even one of the darlings of the moment -- will see his career path wander and stagnate, and someday be burdened with that same perception? Who will the increasingly demanding, and fickle, US fanbase turn on next?







*HT to Sideline Views for the EJ image

DC United, as of the fifth day of the tenth month, 2008 AD:

Pick your metaphor.

Does this sum it up?

Or perhaps you prefer these.

Hard to watch? Or must-see TV? It's a bit of a rorschach test, isn't it?

Fall is here, and even I can no longer avoid or deny it.

It's been raining more or less all day here in the District of Columbia, and in a few hours DC United will send a second-choice squad out into this damp mist over at RFK Stadium to face Club Deportivo Social y Cultural Cruz Azul. Don't believe me? Then read this guy, or this guy, or this guy, or that guy saying the same thing again, albeit in a more edgy, internet-y kind of way.

Call it Tom Soehn's Davy Crockett Moment. Or perhaps William Travis?

Cruz Azul are a good side from Mexico and a likely candidate to advance out of CONCACAF Champions League Group A, even after their slow start to the competition. Depending on how many veterans and skill players are sprinkled into the mix, United's kids are either going to lose by a little, or lose by a lot to Los Cementeros. Even with my strongest instincts towards evenhandedness on full alert, I am unable to seriously consider the possibility of a positive result for the home team tonight. A mere draw with Cruz Azul -- perhaps paced by a once-in-a-blue-moon, virtuouso individual performance from someone like Quavas Kirk or helped by the leveling influence of a wet, sloppy field -- would easily qualify as United's biggest triumph of the 2008 season.

It's shaping up as another depressing night for United fans, in a campaign which has featured plenty of them already. Certainly the team itself is mired in a silent, suffocating funk characterized by sulking frustration and utter lack of collective confidence -- which will require a sudden, nimble about-face of stunning proportions if the postseason is to be reached.

Looks like BLCKDGRD was ahead of the curve when he spake thusly a little more than a week ago:

Cooked, baked, broiled, toasted, BBQed, burnt.

We all have our first draft of this season's obituary written in our heads, yes?