DC United 1-1 Chivas

Well, it was never going to be easy, but DC United is in a big hole in its two-game total goal series with Chivas. A 1-1 tie at RFK was not exactly what was called for, but it will have to do. On the plus side United it seems United did come out and play pretty well after the break, and maybe they can carry a little momentum into the game April 3 in Guadalajara...but it seems like am uphill battle all the way.

Emilio, quickly turning into a favorite of THIS fan, scored again in injury time to scrape the draw out for DC. Gomez supplied him with the assist off a free kick. I have to say that in the early going this season we look extremely dangerous from free kick situations. It has been awhile since that has been true. If we start scoring every so often from our corners I may just fall out of my chair.

Here is the take from over at An American's View:

Tonight's match was what I really expected the first Olimpia match to look like. United looked like they were in pre-season form. Our offense was never really clicking and our runs were rampant and off sequence. Our defense, for the most part was very strong, yet looked erratic at times. Facundo Erpen had at times the match of his life and at other times, a very horrible match. If we get anything out of this match tonight is that for 90 minutes, we showed that we can go blow for blow with the best in CONCACAF and still remain standing.

Emilio had a less than stellar match, then again coming off of his last two, he really didn't have anywhere else to go but down. He had some really nice runs and passes, but he was never really able to get through the final step and get a really good shot on goal....until the 90th minute when he headed in United's goal. This guy is a striker of every facet of the term. He can work the match for 89 minutes, then in that last minute, he strikes. Thank god he is in United black & red.

My Man of The Match was Bobby Boswell. That boy was all over the place in the back line. Everytime Erpen was beat or made a shotty kick, Boswell was there to clean it up. Boswell shut down their central forwards and was huge for our defense. That guy is growing right before our eyes. I expect him to start getting offers from overseas as soon as the 2008 January transfer window.

And from DCenters:

On the first point, Chivas was clearly the more dangerous team, although the United defense did well to contain them for the first sixty minutes. Namoff especially made several vital interventions before his effort was spoiled when he deflected Bravo's shot past Troy Perkins. The main problem for United was that they couldn't seem to generate chances when they had possession, and never really put Chivas on their heels. A significant problem was that United was consistently beat to 50-50 balls, and were never confident when making moves on Chivas players. That could be preseason form, or it could just have been nerves. Or perhaps Chivas really is that better in the marginal situations. However, certain players did play their heart out, and in addition to Namoff I should credit Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez, and Clyde Simms.

On the second point, Chivas were a bunch of divas and thugs throughout the night, blatantly mugging the United midfield and then pouting on the slightest call. Pathetic. Special call-out to Gonzalo Pineda (#7), who was in a give-and-take with Ben Olsen all night. At the end of the match, Ben did the honorable thing and went to shake hands. Pineda took the outstretched arm, and with his left hand delivered a shove to Olsen's face. Pineda is a useless wretch of a human being. He wouldn't know class if you spotted him the C and the L.