April 4, 2007

Gutted

As a DCU fan, that's pretty much how I feel at this point. Some of the DCU contingent at The Brewhouse (numbering about 15 strong) felt like DCU was outclassed against Chivas. I completely disagree. I felt like DCU had the greater part of the play overall. Chivas had a few more dangerous chances, and probably looked better in the offensive third in general. DC played them strongly though, and was undone by a very uncommon error by a usually sure handed keeper.

I almost wish it had been a blowout for Chivas, or at least wish DC had never had the lead. It might not feel so bad afterwards if you felt like you were never in it. We all scared the Joe Sixpacks when Jaime Town erupted. By the way, what in the blue hell was the Chivas keeper doing on that goal?

I was saying over and over again that DC needed to get to halftime with the lead. When Erpen was beat for the 3rd time on the night to the inside, it brought Boswell out of the middle and created space for Bofo to even the score.

After a strong, well-played first half, United came out playing like they did in the first leg. Tentative and scared were the words that come to mind mostly. DCU lost the possession battle for the first part of the second half, giving Chivas just enough time to get a decent shot on goal. What was Troy Perkins doing on the shot? It was raining, the ball was wet, he didn't get any air on his jump. He had to just parry the ball over the bar, not try to catch it. It was painful for me to watch, I'm sure it was so much worse for him and the team.

Fred made his debut, but didn't really do too much. Christian Gomez was mainly invisible. A Chivas defender almost scored an autogolazo off a corner, but it hit the bar. There were a few other chances, but the game was done by that point. A strong performance, but United is still out of the competition. That's all that matters at this point, we're past the "Well, at least they played a good game," BS.

I still feel good about the upcoming MLS season, but that was a really tough loss to swallow tonight.

EDIT: No, it doesn't make me feel better that SportsCenter used Jaime's bike as the #3 play of the day. It's nice, but it just twists the knife a little more. Bastards, it's all Dave O'Brien's fault...

No comments: