Who’s Your Pappa?

If I keep doing this all summer, at least the mosquitos won't get me!

Three teams in Washington, D.C. played on Saturday night. All three drew just over 18k fans. One game saw a thrilling, come-from-behind win just seconds into OT to save a season. One game saw a dominant performance in shutting down the opposing team’s offense. One game saw a listless performance by the home side, a game changing substitution from the opponents, and the only loss by a team from the nation’s capital.

Guess which game I attended.

Kudos to the Caps for coming back and not completely ruining my night. I was getting texts as the game unfolded and walked into a bar on Capitol Hill just seconds after Backstrom won the game. Would’ve been nice to catch that one live.

The Nats won behind a Livan Hernandez shutout. Aaaaaand moving on.

Ahh, D.C. United. At least my tickets were free.

Seriously though, what happened to that Tradition? I’m guessing the WeWinTrophies.com won’t be brought up much around RFK this year because with this group they won’t be adding to their league-leading total.

Troy Perkins is a complete disaster. In addition to the two given up late against the Fire, he tried to gift them two more in the first half, but Chicago didn’t take the bait. I don’t know if it’s a confidence issue or trying to compensate for a weak back line, but at this point he might need to sit for a game or two. Not that Curt Onalfo has a better option, but Perkins -- and the full team, really -- can greatly use this bye week.

Going back and watching replays of the 11 goals conceded, the most allowed in MLS, I’d say almost half of them -- two in the Kansas City game in which Perkins made and initial save, the first and last against Philly, and Brian McBride’s on Saturday -- were savable. Now, that’s not the only reason why United has no points thus far, but certainly you need a ‘keeper who was on the radar as the third choice for the World Cup roster just months ago to stand up and make those saves. Especially when you’re paying him as one of the top goalies in the league and gave up a boatload -- a first rounder, allocation money, and the guy who was a better fit as a #10 than Santino Quaranta -- to get him back.

You can also look at United and say that they’ve never needed a stud netminder to win. Just like Joe Gibbs with QBs for the Redskins. I’d say they’re a bit more important today than 10 years ago in MLS, but it’s been since Pat Onstad in 2003 that the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year has won MLS Cup.

Again, this isn’t to say that United’s miserable start can be blamed solely on Perkins. There’s more than enough blame to go from top to bottom in the organization. However, in this case some of it has to be shouldered by the guy wearing a color that might make some fans think he got a wee bit nervous and pissed himself.

Looking ahead, D.C. really needs to rebound in May. Looking at their schedule, they could get points out of the NY and KC games, but I doubt both. Away to Dallas, home against Colorado, and away to Houston might bring another point or two. Hosting Chivas to end the month is the best shot at a win. If not, it’s going to be a long, long summer for the Black-and-Red with no points from June (v. RSL, @ Seattle, @ Columbus) and at least three losses in July (@ SJ, @ NY, v. Seattle, v. LA, @ RSL).

The question becomes what excuse is viable for the organization. Injuries are playing a role, but I’m not sure a Juan Manuel Pena adds that much. Bryan Namoff and Clyde Simms do, and Marc Burch would allow Rodney Wallace to push up into the midfield, but even with those guys healthy all year this still isn’t a playoff team. For a team that prides itself on Tradition and Winning Trophies, a 15-point year is completely unacceptable and would necessitate major changes in the offseason, not just shuffling in a new guy on the bench.

Other thoughts…

- At this point, if Eddie Johnson goes to South Africa over Edson Buddle then Bob Bradley should be fired while the plane is taxing for takeoff. I don’t care that he has just one cap, a substitutes one at that, for the USA. He’s scoring in bunches and four of his seven of them have been set up by the same guy who will be pulling the strings for the Yanks. Plus, you can’t tell me that Super League Greece is much better, if at all, than MLS. According to Wikipedia -- the easiest place for me to do research and, as you know, here at My 2 Cents you get what you pay for -- EJ has two goals in 10 appearances. Soccernet (ok, I dug a bit deeper) only has game logs from last year when he was with Cardiff City in the Coca Cola Championship in England, a league slightly above MLS in quality. There he scored twice in 30 appearances, starting just two of Cardiff’s final 28 games. Form certainly has to play into Bradley’s selection and in this case merits at least a call into the pre-WC camp. Detractors will say that Jeff Cunningham and Robbie Findley were in great form last season and didn’t turn it into meaningful time with the Nats in January. But with the current dearth of solid options and Buddle making history by scoring his team’s first seven goals, let’s hope he can make that jump from MLS to the national team and stay as hot as Leah Francis.

Oh, and Herculez Gomez is in the same boat as Buddle. He’s tied for the league lead in goals in the Mexican Primera and half of his 10 goals have come as a substitute. That’s a role that Bradley could greatly use as he doesn’t have a game changer that he can bring in off the bench to turn a game. Of course that means changing strategy during the game, which isn’t exactly Bob’s strong suit.

- Things got a lot more interesting in England. Man U did what they always do and scored in the dying seconds to pull within one of Chelsea, who were thumped by a very good Tottenham side. It’s a shame Spurs couldn’t put away a few more of their chances to bring down Chelsea’s goal differential over Man U, which currently sits at +3 and effectively gives Chelsea an extra point as that’s the first tie breaker. Definitely looking forward to Man U’s last test of the season this weekend at home against Spurs. Chelsea have a relatively easy road, especially with Fernando Torres out for the season for Liverpool and now has to be considered questionable for the group stage of the Cup. The Blues have to be considered the favorite, but I’m rooting against them mainly to see what Roman would do this summer if they blow this lead.

- Pat Walsh