Opinioned Review: DC United – FC Dallas in US Open Cup Action From a Fans
Point of View - August 24, 2005
The DC United US Open Cup penalty kick shoot-out defeat to FC Dallas last
night at the Maryland SoccerPlex in Germantown, Maryland, from a fans
perspective, amazingly took on a disturbing likeness to Lemony Snickets
movie title “A Series of Unfortunate Events.”
It actually all started the night before when a hugely disadvantaged MLS
“Select” team took an ill-advised trip to Madrid, Spain to play Real
Madrid in a badly timed friendly smack in the middle of MLS’s season. In
the game, a dirty and unnecessary tackle from Real Madrid’s right back
Michel Salgado within the first half hour of the game sent Jaime Moreno to
the sidelines with a sprained right ankle. Moreno could only look on from
the sidelines as Nick Rimando was subbed on for what I believe was
approximately 2 minutes at the end of the game to get scored on by Raul,
before the MLS “Select” team inevitably slumped to a 5-0 defeat.
The events continued when some family and friends and I showed up to the
SportsPlex an hour before kick-off only to find out that unlike at RFK,
you can’t fire up the grill to have some hotdogs and burgers for dinner in
the parking lot for the confounding reason, as explained to us by two
swarming park police women, “Because they are selling stuff inside.”
The game took another downturn immediately as we entered the stadium when
my friend instantly recognized the head referee from past games and
remarked “Oh, God. This ref is so horrible.”
My friend was not lying. Throughout the course of the game the ref was
constantly in the limelight for what seemed to be a large number of
extremely inaccurate calls, from Josh Gros being whistled for a foul in
which he was thrown to the ground and trampled from behind, to the overly
apparent foul on Ben Olsen inside the penalty box in the first half after
he had flicked the ball over ex-Maryland University standout Clarence
Goodson’s head.
The ref certainly cannot be held accountable for all of the unfortunate
events though. After all, the coaches and the players have to take
responsibility for what goes on out on the field at some point. And the
level of play was just not good enough for large portions of the game.
Jamil Walker has always been hard working, but his hard work was never
going to make up for his lack of ability to hold on to the ball and keep
possession during the game. On the wings, Josh Gros and Dema Kovalenko
were working as hard as ever up and down the field. But their attacking
runs, apart from Kovalenko’s run that set up the outstanding Christian
Gomez’s goal, with and without the ball were overly repetitive and
obvious.
Something else also occurred in the game that was painfully obvious; to
everyone I’m guessing except for head coach Peter Nowak, who did not speak
to the press after the game. This has to deal with Dema Kovalenko.
Kovalenko is a fan favorite because of his relentless running; his never
say die attitude, and his winning mentality. But his temper has gotten
the better of him on several occasions throughout his career and last
night was one of those nights. After several dangerous fouls that
warranted yellow cards, Dema Kovalenko was finally given his marching
orders in the 72nd minute. As a fan, it bewilders me that Peter Nowak
couldn’t see this event forthcoming. Kovalenko, who clearly was disgusted
with the refereeing, had arguably been asking for a red card as far back
as the first half when he took down speedy FC Dallas midfielder Ramon
Nunez from behind with a sliding tackle. In the 53rd minute he was back
at it again and finally received his first yellow card of the game for
another bad tackle. Seconds later (!) he should have been sent off for
another bad tackle from behind, but the ref was lenient, only because he
had just given Kovalenko a yellow card moments earlier. Astonishingly,
Peter Nowak kept him on the field and opted to sub on Freddy Adu, fresh
off of his knee injury, into the game for Jamil Walker, instead. Less
than ten minutes later, Dema was red carded, and DC United was down to ten
men. Maybe Nowak didn’t see it coming from a mile away, or maybe he was
so fed up with the ref and the game that he didn’t care, but either way,
it was a bad misjudgment and a costly mistake.
Peter Nowak could also be criticized for his use of substitutions. By the
end of the game, he had subbed off Christian Gomez, Ben Olsen, Santino
Quaranta, and Jamil Walker, all for 2 more defenders, a defensive center
midfielder, and Freddy Adu. Of course you can argue that Nowak was trying
to suffocate the life out of FC Dallas’s offense, but you have to look at
the bigger picture. FC Dallas was suffocating themselves. They hadn’t
strung more than 5 consecutive passes together all night, even with a man
advantage. US National team forward Eddie Johnson went through patches of
up to 20 minutes at a time without even touching the ball, and Carlos
Ruiz, once again, was spending more time on the ground than in trying to
score the equalizer. All of this translates to the fact that the only way
FC Dallas was going to score last night was if DC United let them push the
ball forward to try and create something out of a DC United botched up
play in their own defensive third. Peter Nowak’s substitutions made all
that possible.
Fast forward to the 90th minute of the game, where DC United is still
clinging on to their one goal lead. DC United clears the danger again,
but this time, rather than the ball flying out of bounds or all the way up
the field for Dallas to pick up, the ball falls nicely to Freddy Adu about
75 yards out from goal. Looking up, Adu saw two defenders, and liked his
chances. He sped quickly down the center of the field as Dallas defender
Greg Vanney raced back. Seeing the opportunity at hand, and hoping to
makeup for his poor performance as well, Brian Carroll sprinted up the
middle of the field to join Adu. Before Adu got to the 18-yard box, he
was forced to take on Vanney, and he did so beautifully, dribbling left
before cutting sharply back to his right, megging Vanney in the process.
With just one defender to beat, Adu played the simple ball across the top
of the box to Carroll, who had all the time in the world to pick out his
spot and beat the helpless ex-DC United goalkeeper Scott Garlick.
Instead, Carroll shot well wide of the goal, to the despair of the crowd,
who let out a number of shrills, cries, and expletives.
Then, five minutes into what was supposed to be four minutes of added
injury time, Carlos Ruiz took advantage of more sloppy play in the middle
of the field from DC United and after taking a few quick dribbles to free
himself, slotted the ball through Troy Perkins legs to send the game into
extra time.
In extra time, Freddy Adu was forced to rampage alone up front, foraging
for more randomly kicked clearances flying in the air from DC United’s 5
defenders and 2 defensive midfielders. But Freddy Adu certainly was not
in the “rampaging alone” up front mood, perhaps because he was still a bit
tentative having just come back from spraining his MCL and having been
kicked in that knee already during the game. Apart from Adu, though, it
looked highly unlikely that anyone else on the team had the technical
savvy to conjure up a winner in extra time, especially when you remember
that they were playing down a man.
So the game ended and the shoot out began. I still liked DC United’s
chances though, as DC United goalkeeper Troy Perkins is quick on his feet,
while Scott Garlick’s knees more closely resemble a grandpa’s limbering up
out of his rocking chair. Kinda rickety.
But it wasn’t to be. After Carlos Ruiz and Adu had scored, both John
Wilson and Josh Gros couldn’t find the back of the net, while Virginia
native and Ex-Maryland University star Abe Thompson of FC Dallas could,
and it was all over. DC United was out of the cup again.
Count Olaf must really have been in attendance…
Joseph Schoenbauer