Match 6- DC United x Kansas City
April 14, 2007
RFK Stadium
Washington, D.C.- By Joseph Schoenbauer, Thursday, April 19, 2007
Eddie Johnson and the Kansas City Wizards put on an attacking display in front of over 22,000 fans at RFK Saturday night, dispatching of a DC United team coming off consecutive defeats on the road to make it their third loss in three games.
With fans barely in their seats, Kansas City took the lead in minute 3 through left midfielder Michael Harrington, who was making his MLS debut. Skipping past a falling Facundo Erpen, he was easily able to make his way into the left hand side of the box before shooting through the unprotected Troy Perkins legs. DC United still hadn’t begun to play before Kansas City scored again; this time after Eddie Johnson deftly controlled a ball on the top of the box from Scott Sealy, before feeding Sasha Victorine, who made no mistake in finding the top right side of the back of the net in minute 8.
In the falling rain, DC United quickly regrouped, and within minutes, found their way back into the game. Facundo Erpen made up for his early mistake, looking up in possession before playing a long ball into Emilio’s path, who controlled neatly and beat a struggling Kevin Hartman to his lower left as Wizards defenders screamed in vain for the linesman to raise his flag for offside.
DC United were back on level terms in minute 34 when a fierce free kick from Christian Gomez from 35 yards overpowered Hartman’s effort in the slippery rain.
Unfortunately, from then on, the result was never really in doubt.
The speed of Kansas City’s forwards Scott Sealy and Eddie Johnson in particular was far too much for DC United throughout the night. DC United’s three man backline was well off the pace and their midfield even more listless when it came to shutting down passing lanes and tackling. With the passing lanes open, it became a field day for Kansas City’s forwards, who were then able to use their speed to take on the slower Bobby Boswell, Facundo Erpen and Bryan Namoff.
In added time at the end of the first half, it was Eddie Johnson who exploited this fact for himself when a poor touch from Christian Gomez led to the ball finding him with Bobby Boswell to his left and no one else around. With his speed, he easily dribbled past him on his right with no move necessary before slotting it under Perkins at the far post.
At the half head coach Tommy Soehn relieved Erpen of his constant troubles by subbing on DC United’s newest Brazilian acquisition Fred to the right midfield and pushing McTavish to right back. With McTavish providing close to nothing the entire first half on the right hand side, it was hard pressed that this would make much of a change defensively speaking.
Kansas City’s fourth and final goal came in minute 54 from a perfectly weighted through ball from the center of midfield after Kansas City was yet again given the time and space to play as they wished. This time the streaking Eddie Johnson easily got inside of Namoff before getting his shot off. Perkins was able to make a brave save, but the rebound fell nicely to Scott Sealy who finished it off with the goal at his mercy.
With still more than 35 minutes to play, the outcome never looked in doubt, with Kansas City’s offense continuing to frighten DC’s backline and DC’s offense continuing to dissolve before it ever really took shape.
Following the game there was much disappointment from Tommy Soehn and the players that led to the discussion of United’s play on both sides of the ball. Defensively, the talk fell on how Kansas City so easily took advantage of DC United’s three man backline and what could be done to solve this problem. Offensively, the talk fell on a lack of chances created despite the two goals that were scored.
Soehn started, “I think as a whole, we are a little bit busy reading all the predictions of how well we’re doing, hearing how good of a team we are and then we forget all the little things that make you a good team. How hard you work, how clean you are with the ball, your reactions. We’re going to take two weeks and were going to fix them…We’ve forgotten what it takes to win games.”
Asked about the defensive mistakes and Facundo Erpen’s resulting substitution at half time Soehn responded, “Defending starts with the whole team. It starts from the front, how you break down, your reactions to counterattacks. There were a lot of mistake made today [by the whole team] and you can’t recover from giving away two goals [in the first 10 minutes].”
Defensively, it was readily apparent that DC’s lethargic three man back line was going to be mistake prone from the beginning. However, what was even more discouraging was the amount of room Kansas City’s midfield was given to operate when searching for the space in which to find their forwards. For all his hustle and bustle, Ben Olsen’s positioning and desire to push forward in the middle did more for Kansas City than it did for DC, while Brian Carroll proved again that he struggles in defensive midfield when he does not have more support. Moreno, easily said, should have parted from the field near halftime, but Soehn has yet to identify anyone that can replace him at forward from the very slim looking bench.
Asked about Fred’s performance Soehn replied, “I thought Fred came in an energized the game, I thought he did a good job. We’re going to continue to look for ways to get him on the field.”
Coming on at halftime for his third overall appearance of the season, all as a substitute, Fred was a welcome addition and his work from an inside right position proved far busier than McTavish’s in the first half. However, with his penchant to slip inside, it was noticeable that DC United’s offense was increasingly crowding itself out by putting all its weapons in the middle. On the other side, the hard working Josh Gros had his moments going at players, but his crossing failed to find its targets and most often landed straight in the hands of Kevin Hartman.
While it may be too soon to judge, it seems as though a central attacking unit of Emilio, Moreno, Gomez, Olsen and now Fred crowds the middle way too much offensively, while it also gives opposing teams midfields the ability to take advantage of the space created between the midfield and the wings, like how Harrington did for KC on the first goal, and how Sasha Victorine did with his pass to Eddie Johnson that led to the final goal.
With Moreno struggling, the substitution of Fred for Moreno could have made more sense at the time; though working Fred into the starting lineup is proving to be the long- term dilemma. While Fred’s incorporation in the second half energized DC United to a certain extent, it also potentially limited the role of Christian Gomez, the touches of Moreno and possibly heaped further pressure on an already broken backline and central midfield.
The questions are piling up. The team now has two weeks to find some answers.