Fighting Talker

This is a sign of how bad DC United’s defense has been at times this season (and especially in SuperLiga).

When I saw the news on Goff’s Soccer Insider that Abel Xavier had been let go by the Los Angeles Galaxy, my first thought was, “Oh, DC should go get him.”

Then I came to my senses, remembering how poorly I had seen him play when United routed the Galaxy, 4-1, late last month.

Then, for a split second, I had the “sign him” thought again.

Perhaps the heat and humidity are getting to me.

Carvallo had his debut and finale in the same game.

I just wanted to post some quick words of remembrance for Jose Carvallo. No, he’s not dead. But his D.C. United career is. He was waived by the club this week, unable to take the starting job away from Zach Wells - who you may remember doesn’t have a clean sheet in a league match lasting longer than 16 minutes yet this season.

Carvallo played one memorable game in a United uniform. He played the kind of game that those of us mere mortals really will never forget. The kind of game that the record books will note well into the future, and one that we will be telling our grandkids about way into the 2050s.

That game saw him give up a remarkable 4 goals on just 6 shots on target. It was a 4-0 loss to the long-time Western Conference power, Real Salt Lake. I think I can safely say that as a nation, and to a man, we all remember where we were the night Carvallo made his much anticipated debut, and finale, all in the same night. I don’t really remember it, but I’m sure you guys do.

Somewhere, somehow, Nick Rimando was laughing. … Well, of course he was, he was the goalkeeper on the other side of the field.

Yes, folks, the Jose Carvallo era in DC is over. He probably won’t make the Ring of Stars or whatever they call it now, but it’s still worth taking time to pause, pour some out for our now departed goalkeeper, and go forth into the future knowing we’ll never see one of his like again. But yet, we’ve got to go on with our lives.

God bless you, Jose Carvallo. God bless you, indeed.

I’ll keep this quick… so here is an Aaron at 11 p.m. “lighting round” of analysis.

• Yawn
• Defense was a sieve
• Thompson not as bad as I though
• Not Wells’ fault
• We miss Gallardo
• We need defenders
• Tuesday Saturday will be tankapalooza, and rightly so

Again, this all looks like an indictment of Kasper. Where is all that depth? Where is all that talent brought here to bring us success in international competition?

I used to be much higher about this tournament than I am now. The new CONCACAF Champions Cup has rendered it superfluous. If it wants to be the “UEFA Cup” of CONCACAF, then let it. But if that’s the case, then teams already in the CCC shouldn’t have to slog through it.

Life goes on. Bring on the league, bring on the Open Cup.

meet

See, when I ripped Craig Thompson earlier today on the blog I did it to motivate him, not trash him… and it worked too, what with him setting up DC’s first goal tonight.

Yum, this crow tastes good.

From the SE’s web site:

He’s the typical MLS winger, fast, industrious, goes in for 50/50 balls, etc…

Where is crossing the ball on that list? I am not sure I’ve seen him put in one decent cross yet, not one. I know the league isn’t great, but I would hope the “typical MLS winger” occasionally put in a cross.

With the lineup unlikely to include many improvements from what we saw on Saturday night, it might be time for United to punt on the Superliga, start the reserves and let everyone recoup for the second half of the season. Even if DC beats Atlante tonight, they don’t have anywhere near the squad to win the tournament and might as well not get anyone else hurt if they are not going to win it.

I know this is pessimistic and probably angers those who say DC ought to go into every tournament with their eye on winning it, but right now, United needs to be most concerned with MLS and Open Cup matches. If you can’t win the Superliga, what’s the difference between finishing second and not getting out of the group phase, or more relevantly to United, getting knocked out in the semifinals and getting knocked out in the group phase?

I am starting to be really worried about Gallardo’s injury. If he has go in for surgery, is that it for him this season? Will he be around in the playoffs? Can this team go anywhere without him? I wish I knew the answers to those questions.

Prediction for Tonight: 1-1

Thanks for the introduction - I’ll be here all week. Try the veal.

I watched with somewhat stunned amusement on Saturday night as D.C. United had what I can only call an out-of-body experience. I don’t mean that they died, saw the light of Heaven or Hell or Sheboygan, only to come back to life and realize that Hell and Sheboygan are somewhat tough to distinguish … but the whole match seemed to me to be decided from above, as if we were watching a match between God and George Best on Heaven’s mega PlayStation3 console (146-inch plasma screen, baby) and there really wasn’t anything the teams on the field could do themselves. (more…)

I’ve got clients in town right now, so I only have time for a few bullets on the Chivas match.

• Missed penalty or not, United was fortunate to have only lost this match by a single goal. In the first half, the defense did its finest LA Galaxy impression, and frankly with the manpower we had out there, I can’t really blame them either. Wells did quite well, but in the end, MLS teams can only compete with MFL teams if completely healthy, in-form and likely at home. DC only had 1.5 of those as our form was acquired with players who weren’t fit on Saturday.
• Rod Dyachenko and Craig Thompson weren’t fit to wear the shirt. Look, I have no doubt that both guys tried their darnedest out there, but neither of them are MLS caliber players and Thompson isn’t even close to that level. Dyachenko’s decision making simply isn’t precise enough for MLS, leading to giveaways when decent passing options are often at hand. Thompson is purely a USL player, all hustle and zero skill on the ball. Did you notice how unsettled Thompson seems to be whenever he receives possession of the ball? His upper body looks like it starts to spasm as his head whips frantically around trying to find someone to get rid of the radioactive plutonium ball before it kills him or before he just rips it out of play. Those two are where attacks when to die on Saturday night.
• This certainly doesn’t end our Superliga, not if Gallardo comes back and Atlante is as bad as they looked at Houston on Saturday.

Uh oh, the Post is saying that Gallardo is out for Saturday’s match against Chivas with a groin. This, in my mind, signifigantly reduces DC’s chances of pulling a surprise. That means United fans will see more of the vast pit of uselessness in the center of midfield known to meteorologists as the Dyachenko Void.

This isn’t a good thing. Maybe we’ll play Fred in the middle, but I doubt it.

One other note of interest came from Marc Burch.

“I think this is really our rival,” Burch said. “People say New York is but I feel like when we play Chicago it’s a little heated. They’ve been knocking us out of tournaments and we finally got them out of one but they’ve been getting the better of us when it comes down to crunch time and I think this will really spark it up a little bit.”

Does that mean New York has replaced Columbus has United’s most one-sided rivalry? The one where the opposing fans get themselves into a lather all week arrive at RFK, watch their team lose, and then fume at DC fans ignoring any such alleged rivalry and waiting for the New York game to arrive.

It’s made for TV. It’s on at weird times. It inevitably means that DC will play Chivas. It’s the Superliga, America’s favorite made-for-TV money grab that has occasional moment of compelling action. It gets underway this weekend, here are my thoughts on the clubs involved. Today we discuss Group A.   (more…)