Well, that sucked.

I’m not going to give a minute by minute recap; you can find that elsewhere.  But here are some random thoughts and my match ratings.

Castillo shows flashes, but he hasn’t shown enough to justify being a starter; Pontius played much better out of the midfield than Castillo.  Perhaps Boyzzz should get a shot starting out wide.

Quaranta is much better playing out wide than he is in the central midfield.  I don’t know if Barklage is the answer to play together with Morsink, but I’m fairly certain that it isn’t Quaranta.  He gives the team more from the wing than anyone else and so he shouldn’t be wasted in the middle trying to fill the Christian Gomez role.

I like Morsink in the central midfield.  I think he plays good defense and, when giving the opportunity, can pass decently.  I’d like to see him paired up with Clyde Simms when he gets back.  They’re both defensive midfielders, but their distribution together could work well.  Also I don’t see anyone on this team that can really play the attacking center mid role.

The defense.  Ugh.  I liked Carey Talley’s play; after Pena went out, he was the only defender that I really trusted.  In the 15 minutes that he was in, Pena played fairly well.  I liked the pace he showed running down a Union player on a breakaway and he showed good instincts.  If he’s out for any period of time, United is in trouble.  Julius James looked out of position sometimes and used his speed to try and make up for that.  Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t.  I liked Rodney Wallace going forward.  And all there is to say about Dejan Jakovic is that he was playing poorly even before that red card.  This team needs Namoff and Burch back ASAP, but it will probably be several more months until they are.

I don’t like how the defense tries to pass the ball out instead of just clearing it downfield.  I understand that they’re trying to keep possession, but turnovers off those balls are deadly.  The second Union goal was the kind of clearance I’d like to see: long passes down the field that spring open counterattacks.

I haven’t been too impressed with Perkins so far.  His performance in the buildup to that first goal was poor.  He needs to smother that ball.  He had a couple of good saves, especially on that breakaway, but what I’ve seen so far doesn’t seem worth the steep price.

Here are my match ratings.

Troy Perkins – 4: Had one great save, but thats about it.  Couldn’t do anything about the last goal, but his clearance before the first goal was poor.
Carey Talley – 6: Whenever something good happened on defense, he seemed to be involved.
Juan Manuel Pena – 5: Injured early on and taken off for Julius James.  Showed good pace and instincts.
Dejan Jakovic – 3: Even before he got sent off, he was not playing well.
Rodney Wallace – 5: Looked better going forward than in defense.
Brandon Barklage – 5: Pretty anonymous, especially after being moved into the middle, but his move into the middle coincided with DCU playing much better.
Kurt Morsink – 6: Had some good defensive plays and had better distribution in the second half.
Santino Quaranta – 7: Played much better when moved out wide.  A little lucky on his goal, but a good interception and good run.
Christian Castillo – 4: Taken off at haltime for Jaime Moreno.  Had a couple nice crosses, but held onto the ball too long and got it taken away too often.
Chris Pontius – 5: Played better when moved out wide, but needs to create more goal scoring chances.
Danny Allsopp – 5: Had a nice run for a header, but thats about all he did.

Julius James – 5: Played decently, but looked out of position sometimes and had to use his speed to try and recover.
Jaime Moreno – 7: Nice steal off the foot of Seitz, and energized the team when he came on.
Adam Cristman – 4: Pointless yellow.

Kurt Onalfo – 4: Finally realized that Quaranta needs to be played out wide and used Moreno well in the super sub role.  Needed to realize that two games ago.

For DCU, tonight’s game against the Philadelphia Union is going to be a defining moment for the season.  If United can beat the Union tonight, all is not lost.  However, being 0-3-0 with one of those loses against an expansion team would prove to be a difficult hole to climb out of, especially since United have not faced any of the preseason favorites yet.

The last match, against New England, was much better than the first.  The presence of Juan Manuel Pena really calmed down the back line and allowed Rodney Wallace to move back out wide.  Jakovic especially benefited from Pena bossing the back line.  The midfield also played better.  Morsink was improved in the defensive midfielder role and Barklage had some good moments as well.  United had a lot of possession during the game and a lot of that can be attributed to the midfield.  Even though New England scored two goals, the defense and midfield played decently for the vast majority of the match.

The main problem, of course, is the lack of scoring up top.  Both Moreno and Pontius held on to the ball too long against New England, trying to walk it in as close as possible before shooting.  This needs to change; United needs to start getting more shots off so that they can hopefully get more goals, rebounds, corners.

Here’s the team that I would like to see for tonight’s game:

Perkins
Talley Jakovic Pena Wallace
Barklage Morsink Quaranta Castillo
Allsopp Moreno

I think that Moreno is going to be more effective in the role of super sub, the role that most had him pegged for before the preseason; however, with Pontius missing some time in practice this week, I think that Moreno will still get the start. My prediction is a hopeful 2-0 to United, starting a recovery that will hopefully vaunt them back into contention for the playoffs.