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Stupid, Stupid, Stupid

Time for some head shaking: Defending champ United top FC Dallas in Open Cup

Fred and Brandon Barklage scored Wednesday night as defending champion D.C. United beat FC Dallas 2-0 in a play-in game in the U.S. Open Cup.

Fred scored in the 21st minute, and 2009 third-round draft pick Barklage got his first career goal in the 66th as United coach Tom Soehn went with a younger lineup to keep his veterans fresh for this weekend's MLS game against New York.

Another rookie, second-round draft choice Milos Kocic, made four saves to get the shutout in his United debut.

Although United won the Cup a year ago, they were forced to play preliminary matches in this year's tournament because of their poor MLS record in 2008.

Why should MLS teams take this tournament seriously if winning it doesn't even guarantee you are participating in it the next year?

And if it isn't something they should take seriously, then why are they playing in the damn thing at all?

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