Back to the drawing board - D.C. United heads back to training, and the drawing board on Tuesday, as it prepares for its season home-opener against the New England Revolution and seeks to put the 4-0 drubbing at the Kansas City Wizards on Saturday behind it.
Either Kansas is very good or D.C. is very bad. We’ll get a better idea at RFK Stadium this Saturday night. It’s a little worrying that D.C. had so few chances and allowed KC to thread so many decent passes. The Wizards just ran riot all over the field. Maybe it was just a bad night for the D.C. outfit. Let’s give coach Curt Onalfo some breathing time to fix his back line. Chris Pontius had a few nice moves but there wasn’t much else to look at. Kansas’ new signing Ryan Smith was exceptional. The London-born Smith, who has an American father, made some nice touches and notched a goal. He’s only 23-years-old. Keep your eyes on this kid.
Post-game quote - “You know, we made a lot of youthful errors,” said United coach Curt Onalfo. “We struggled with the size of the field, we struggled with the surface, we struggled with clearing the ball. A lot of things went wrong in one evening.”
Tough blow - D.C. United’s key defensive midfielder Clyde Simms will be sidelined 4-6 weeks with a hamstring injury after going down in the Wizards game.
Unlucky #1 - Thirty-seven-year old Brian McBride saw his stunning bicycle kick hit the Red Bulls crossbar
Unlucky #2 - Seventeen-year-old D.C. United debutante Andy Najar saw his long-range volley hit the Wizards crossbar. Could have been a dream start.
Longest consecutive tenure - According to the Chicago Fire’s official blog, Fire defender C.J. Brown became the player with the longest consecutive tenure with one MLS club when he played in the loss at the Red Bulls on Saturday. He is now in his 13th season with the Fire passing Cobi Jones’ 12 straight seasons with L.A.
Noonan could be back - Former New England Revolution midfielder Pat Noonan is in camp with Seattle Sounders FC.
Low crowd - Only 8,016 turned up at Frisco to watch to FC Dallas on opening day play Houston. Was their a rodeo going on somewhere?
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