Is This Rock Bottom?

Is Will Chang not smiling because he knows something the other three didn't?

This is a season that I’m pretty happy I’m not covering D.C. United. Having been there early last decade, I know how difficult and uncomfortable it is asking questions after multiple losses. It’s those times that I don’t envy the Craig Stouffers, Steve Goffs, and Brian Strausses of the world.

Not only do these guys have to go into locker rooms after these games, but also they have to watch the full 90 minutes. The game this past weekend, a 1-0 loss to Colorado, was dreadful. I enjoyed hearing Maryland head coach Sasho Cirovski fill in for Thomas Rongen, but that was about it for the 90 minutes. How they managed to pull nearly six minutes of “highlights” for MLSsoccer.com is beyond me.

Even that brief glimpse of the game shows how little D.C. pressured Matt Pickens. After watching the game, the thought that popped back into my head summoned the days of the early 2000’s when Ray Hudson was at the helm of United. One night in his post-game presser he spouted a typical Hudson quote that rang true at RFK on Saturday night: “Without penetration, it’s just masturbation, and tonight we were just playing with ourselves.” United were able to string together some passes in the middle third, but once they got to the final third it all came apart prematurely.

(As a quick aside, is it just me or is it odd that United has been on national TV twice and scored two goals in both of those games, but has been shutout in every other league game? I suppose Galavision counts for this weekend, but if not United won’t score again until June 10 when they travel to Seattle should that trend continue.)

Danny Allsopp and Adam Cristman are not a pair of forwards who are going to lead a team into the playoffs. They’re too similar of a player and unfortunately for United it’s not a pair of Lionel Messis. But it’s not their fault they rarely see the ball in dangerous areas. The midfield is appalling. Sure, injuries have hurt (pun intended), but again the international player brought in (Christian Castillo) is showing signs of being a bust and the club still lacks a playmaker. Of course that’s been true since United shipped Christian Gomez to Colorado.

At the time, trading away Gomez was a bold move, one that I wrote for Goal.com in early 2008 I agreed with as it showed boldness by United. Here’s part of that column:

Respect must be paid to United’s offseason moves. Instead of being content with winning back-to-back Supporters’ Shields, the front office gutted the spine of the team to challenge for MLS Cup and, more importantly, international trophies like the Champions’ Cup and SuperLiga.

However, the crop that was brought in that year -- Marcelo Gallardo, Gonzalo Martinez, Gonzalo Peralta, Franco Niell, and Jose Carvallo -- were all gone within a year, two not even making it to the summer heat. The bold move was a complete failure. But who paid the price for that failure? In terms of firing, no one ever did.

With that in mind, the focus of why the club is on track to miss the playoffs for the third straight year has to shift upstairs. This downward spiral started well before Curt Onalfo took over as head coach and while he might not have been the best hire -- Richie Williams was my first (realistic) choice -- the poor start to the season shouldn’t rest only on his shoulders. Onalfo is the second new coach since the last MLS Cup was won by United while Kevin Payne and Dave Kasper still oversee the club.

The front office made a great pickup with the aforementioned Gomez who helped lead them to MLS Cup 2004, but since then the signings haven’t fared quite so well. Brazilian attackers Luciano Emilio and Fred had several good years, as did Argentine defender Facundo Erpen even if he was prone to frequent brain farts. However, only one of those guys is still on the team and Emilio couldn’t score against the Northern Virginia Royals in a reserve match on Monday. Quite a fall for the 2007 MLS MVP.

The flops in recent years of international signings leave them at a success rate of three for fourteen, or just above the Mendoza Line. For the failures, they had the quintet from 2008, Lucio Filomeno, Matias Donnet, Steve Guppy, Eliseo Quintanilla, and Louis Crayton, none of whom lived up to their billing. You could even toss in the reacquisition of Gomez prior to 2009. This year Juan Manuel Pena is still up in the air -- as is Castillo, to be fair -- but things are not looking good for the aging defender who was beaten by Mehdi Ballouchy for Colorado’s lone goal and has already missed several games due to injury. Should Pena and Castillo continue at their current rate, that drops the success rate to three for seventeen (including Gomez last year).

Drafting has had an upward tick in the past couple of years to bolster D.C.’s lineup in a relatively unconventional way for the side. The stretch from 2005-08 had 14 draft picks, but none are still on United’s roster; two are overseas -- Brian Arguez and Louis Robles -- and Andrew Jacobson is with Philly, but no one else is in MLS. However, the past two drafts have produced Chris Pontius, Rodney Wallace, Brandon Barklage, and this year’s diamond in the rough Jordan Graye. A solid base of players to go with veterans like Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, and Bryan Namoff, but not one that translates into a playoff team. Of course they didn’t have a first round pick this year because that was part of the package -- along with Fred and allocation money -- to reacquire Troy Perkins, a move that may force Perkins back into the mortgage loan business a bit earlier than he anticipated.

The best news for the team has come from their youth academy. Goalkeeper Bill Hamid has been solid -- he made a big save on Omar Cummings to balance out being caught by Ballouchy to the near post -- and midfielder Andy Najar has show signs that he could develop into a good player. But again, both of those players aren’t going to boost the team into the playoffs this year. (Perhaps the luster off the youth academy is about to come off, though, as John Maessner just resigned. Could the best talent evaluator in the front office have just left?)

As an aside and I think an interesting look at the league, check out this stat from the Columbus Dispatch’s blog showing the amount of substitution minutes by team since 2009. United has used the most by a full eight minutes per game over second placed Chivas and more than double Columbus, the side that has used the fewest minutes.

As the article that the blog links to points out, “Columbus, Seattle, Chicago and Houston have averaged the fewest minutes from subs the past two seasons. All four were playoff qualifiers and in the top five in points last season.” Certainly that’s not a sole indicator of how a team will fare as Real Salt Lake averaged the third most minutes used, but are the defending MLS Cup Champions.

However, I would argue that having a core eleven players as the Crew, Sounders, Fire, and Dynamo have is a better blueprint for success. Using subs is going to disrupt a team’s flow for several minutes, or it means that the players you rely upon aren’t good (or young) enough to play 90 minutes on a consistent basis. While RSL did this successfully with Clint Mathis and Andy Williams, Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez weren’t at that level last year and Moreno has dropped off even more this season.

So where does the team go from here?

Though it’s not completely his fault, I don’t see United winning with Onalfo. However, that choice would have to be made his boss or bosses. And that decision should not include Dave Kasper or Kevin Payne.

United owner Will Chang has to follow what Dave Checketts did in Salt Lake. Maybe not to the extent of pulling the MLS all-time leading goal scorer off the field and installing him as head coach, but he does need to clean house. The balance of the first season under Kreis wasn’t the best, but he followed that up with the club’s first playoff appearance, and then MLS Cup last season.

Similarly, New York seems to have finally gotten their act together in the offseason, making United’s struggles an even tougher pill to swallow. Los Angeles showed that the right coach can turn things around; obviously having Landon Donovan greatly benefits Bruce Arena’s cause, but the former U.S. boss has rebuilt a Swiss cheese defense into the league’s best as they’ve allowed just two goals in nine games.

If United wants to restore their Tradition, the club needs to break with some old ties. All three of those teams underwent a major overhaul and are currently defending MLS Cup champs (RSL), first place in the Eastern Conference (NYRB), and first place in the Western Conference (LA). All did so relatively quickly.

D.C. may have to write off the 2010 season. But with the right moves, there will be hope for 2011 and beyond. That is as long as Will Chang can bring in better people than those signed by Dave Kasper and Kevin Payne.

- Pat Walsh