WASHINGTON, D.C.—Expectations were for major fireworks during Saturday night’s tilt between D.C. United and the Los Angeles Galaxy, at match featuring United’s league-leading offense against L.A.’s two superstars, David Beckham and Landon Donovan.

 

Unfortunately, just as is the case with actual fireworks displays, rain scuttled both team’s best-laid plans as United and Los Angeles played to a compelling but ultimately scoreless tie in front of 22,134 at RFK Stadium.

For United (6-5-11) it was a positive effort but not the result they needed.  In fourth place in the Eastern Conference and outside the playoffs if the season ended today, D.C. needed a home win while the Galaxy (8-4-11), who are in second in the Western Conference and who won at Chicago during the week, were more than happy to settle with one point from a draw.

“We’ve had too many [times] this year where ties have felt like losses and we gotta start to turn those into wins,” said assistant coach Chad Ashton.

Ashton’s presence at the head of the bench was a constant reminder of an off-field distraction for United, the absence of head coach Tom Soehn due to flu-like symptoms.  Both Ashton and Soehn were in constant contact in the 36 hours leading up to the game, and Ashton even joked that he and Soehn “had a couple conversations during the game” thanks to a telephone on the bench, but nonetheless it was obvious the D.C. players were somewhat distracted in the first few minutes.

Brazilian-born striker Luciano Emilio quickly broke United out of their doldrums on a slick play in the 8th minute that was called offsides by linesman Cyril Madukanya.  

United midfielder Fred carried the ball down the middle of the field and drew the attention of L.A.’s defenders before flicking a ball to Emilio cutting between the two central backs, upon which the forward slid the ball past Galaxy keeper Donovan Ricketts.

Madukanya immediately put up his flag, signaling that Emilio was in an offsides position when Fred made his pass, but television replay appeared to show that Emilio was parallel to the last defender at the time of the pass and therefore offsides.

“I heard that’s not offsides,” said United midfielder Ben Olsen of the play.  “That’s all stuff that evens out throughout a year, but we certainly could have used it today,” he added, referring also to a non-call by referee Mark Geiger in the second half when Geiger judged a push by Galaxy defender A.J. DeLaGarza on Emilio inside the penalty area to be not worthy of a penalty kick.

One addition point noted by Olsen was that while earlier in the season such a decision may have demoralized his team, Saturday they continued to press on offense and redouble their efforts.  Indeed, much of the first hour of the game play was dominated by United, who found great success opening up the field with cross-pitch passes and runs down the outside flanks.

After breaking down the Galaxy on film leading up to the game, Ashton noted that “they’re a team that’s very, very organized, that stays compact…to break them down you have to be disciplined in terms of your possession, and kind of move the ball from side to side and change the point of attack.”

Field conditions also favored an attack that was focused on the sidelines more than the center of the field.  Heavy rainfall in the hours leading up to the game had slowed to a steady drizzle by kickoff, and completely stopped by halftime, but very quickly muddy patches began to appear on the RFK pitch, particularly in front of each net and down the center of the field.

A quick series of chances beginning in the 37th minute encapsulated the night for United: inspired passing, quality attempts on net, and absolutely nothing to show for it.

The sequence began with a Christian Gomez corner kick from the left of Ricketts’ net.  The Galaxy goaltender punched Gomez’s volley away from the net but not clear of play, and Fred blasted a one-timer from 20 yards out that was deflected over the end line by a Galaxy defender.

On the ensuing corner, after Gomez’s initial attempt was cleared, Fred again found the ball on his foot.  This time he arced a pass across the box to Santino Quaranta, who knocked the ball down, planted, and rocketed a looping shot that forced Ricketts into a full extension to knock it over the crossbar.  Finally, on his third corner kick attempt in two minutes Gomez finally connected on the initial try, finding Bryan Namoff on the far post with a perfect pass that resulted in a header into Ricketts’ chest.

Just a few minutes after that Emilio nearly found the back of the net again, rocketing a one-timer off a cross-field Wallace pass that just barely missed the net on the near side.

United’s offensive display appeared to finally wake up the Galaxy’s potent offense, particularly Beckham and Donovan, both of whom had been virtually silent save for a yellow card earned by Donovan for tackling Namoff from behind in the 31st minute.

Donovan found great success on the right side of the field, utilizing his impressive speed to get around United left back Marc Burch on several occasions, while Beckham  sent his famous curving service into D.C.’s penalty area repeatedly, forcing goalie Josh Wicks to come far off his line to punch out the attempts.

One such try nearly proved to be United’s downfall, as Wicks was committed to making the clear but was unable to reach the ball before it found the head of Galaxy forward Mike Magee, whose redirect sailed just over the crossbar.

Eventually, after the game passed the hour mark, both teams quieted down, particularly Los Angeles.  Second-half substitutes Jaime Moreno and Chris Pontius managed to generate a fair bit of offense, but the best chances were a pair of Moreno passes to Emilio and then Quaranta that missed the mark by a few feet.

“It was probably one of our more steady, positive performances,” Quaranta allowed, before noting “we didn’t finish, they had some chances…in the end, we needed points.”

With the draw and the lone point United remains in fourth place in the conference, well out of the playoff bracket with eight games remaining.  Unfortunately for D.C., in addition to those eight MLS fixtures the Black-and-Red also have the U.S. Open Cup final next week as well as at least five more CONCACAF Champions League games, beginning with Wednesday’s group round match against Toluca (Mexico).