First Impressions - DC United 4 : 1 Colorado Rapids

I know, I know. Four goals. Party time, right? Not really. Take Tom Soehn's comments from last week to heart: You can't let the lows get you too low, but you can't let the highs get you too high. United scored three goals in the final twenty minutes to win this game, but equalized thanks to a penalty that I don't think most MLS refs would have seen, and therefore given. This game at 1-1 was much different than if we had not gotten the penalty. So there's some fortune in there. The backline was a makeshift product that wasn't quite ready (the team was not ready to lose Namoff). While Wynalda singled out Erpen, Clyde Simms had intense difficulty when he started at left back, and Devon McTavish didn't commit many obvious gaffes (aside from a heart stopping moment where he nearly created Colorado's service for them) but also wasn't particularly effective in shutting down his flank.

All I'm saying is that the 4-1 scoreline, to my mind, hides a lot of faults. It also demonstrated some great developments. Fred gets on the board. Addlery is a raw talent, but there is talent there (he needs to refine his passing, but his runs were confident. While he needs to learn about Gomez, Gomez will also learn about Nick.) Moose had a very good game, Gros was decent, Christian worked well with both, and Emilio got another goal. Those are all good things. However, this defense is not there yet, and really hasn't been most of the season. We weren't as bad as the RSL game indicated, but we shouldn't expect this result in our next two matches (on the road against KC and Dallas).

All right, now that I've done my intellectual soccer critic and responsible blogger duty, let me say one more thing. That last 20 minutes was a lot of fun. Not as much fun as Olsen's hat trick, but again it was the kind of thing that reminds me how rewarding this team can be. Gotta love it.

Now I'm watching The Gringos take on Argentina. 1-1 (thanks rain delay for allowing me to catch EJ's penalty.) Not bad. Second half about 8 minutes in. At least we're not getting embarrassed. And if the scoreline holds... well, I'll be kinda stunned. In a good way. Nice to see Benny starting.