Widely pegged as one of Major League Soccer's title contenders for 2007, few expected to see a winless D.C. United languishing in the Eastern Conference basement after two matches. But that's exactly where the Black-and-Red find themselves following Saturday's 4-2 humbling at the hands of the Kansas City Wizards at rainy RFK Stadium.
"As a whole, I think they're a little bit busy reading all the predictions of how well we're doing and hearing how good of a team we are," fumed head coach Tom Soehn afterwards. "And then we forget all the little things that make you a good team. How hard you work. How clean you are with the ball. Your reactions."
United looked lackluster in the game's early going and paid dearly for it, finding themselves in a 2-0 hole almost immediately thanks to two inopportune slips on the venerable stadium's slick surface.
First Facundo Erpen fell while chasing Michael Harrington into the penalty area in the third minute, allowing the Wizards rookie to slot his first-ever MLS goal through Troy Perkins' legs. Then Josh Gros lost his footing five minutes later, giving the Wizards a golden counterattacking opportunity that was firmly finished by Sasha Victorine.
"The first one is a little unlucky, because Faco's there and he goes to play and he slips and the guy gets in," said a somber Perkins. "I should've made the save. Then the second one, same thing - Josh is going to play it, he slips on the ball and it's three-[versus]-one."
But the real backbreaker came in first-half injury time. After working their way back into the match with well-taken goals from Luciano Emilio and Christian Gomez, United surrendered possession deep in their own end and Eddie Johnson was on hand to restore K.C.'s advantage and kill the home side's hard-won momentum.
"Going down two goals, we had to open ourselves up to get two goals back, and then once we evened up the score we just let ourselves down going into halftime," said midfielder Brian Carroll. "We were playing catch-up the rest of the way, pushing numbers forward. And when they got the fourth goal it was just too much to overcome."
Soehn also acknowledged the lethal timing of his team's errors.
"Any time you come home and play in front of our fans, you have expectations of what you're going to do," he said, "and you never draw it up that you're going to go down two goals that early, whether it's someone that slipped, someone got beat. But having said that, you deal with it, and you rearrange, and you set yourself up to get back in the game - and allow two more goals."
Despite stringing together more possession than they had in last week's loss to Colorado, D.C. still looked miles short of their typical flowing style and their frustration grew as the miscues piled up.
"We're playing balls out of bounds that are a 10-yard pass - you go back and at U-12 [youth level] they can make that pass and we're struggling with it," said Perkins. "So from me all the way up to everyone in the locker room, from one to 99, it's got to get better. Every little thing's got to get better for us."
United's upcoming schedule offers the only silver lining: D.C. is off until its trip to Columbus on April 28, giving the coaching staff plenty of time to address their side's shortcomings.
"Yeah, it's not going to be a fun two weeks, I'm sure," said Gros.
Charles Boehm is a contriburor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
