No One Celebrating

With the 0-0 draw against Chicago,DC United clinched the Eastern Conference Title and Troy perkins gets his eighth shut out, but DC isn't celebrating. Coach Tom Soehn explained:

"Listen: these guys are focused and we've made the playoffs. A lot of teams celebrate when they make the playoffs. It wasn't mentioned. Tonight, we won the conference and I think they expect to do that. But we've got something out there that is very important to us, and they are very focused on that. So, they are actually pretty disappointed right now."

Ben Olsen elaborated on the importance of the Supporter's Shield:

"It's huge. To me, it's the hardest thing to do in this league. The MLS Cup sometimes is about who is hot or who gets a break. The Shield is the best team throughout the entire year. It's 10 months of soccer, and to be the best team over a 10-month span in this league is pretty impressive. I know the team and the front office feel the same, not to mention the opportunities it creates for next season, it's a great feather in our cap if we can win it."

Depending on the result of Sunday's match between Chivas USA and Colorado, United could find themselves in a must-win situation against the Crew if they want to win their second consecutive Supporters' Shield. Remember DC United wins the tie breaker with Chivas. Currently Chivas is three points back with a game in hand. They play the Rapids today and finish with Dallas Thursday.

So what happened that forced DC United on their heels in the first half, as Troy Perkins made 8 of his season high 9 saves. Perkins says;

"It's good and bad, so it's no big deal. I was busy, but that's what they pay me for and this is a good time of the year to do that."

"We were pushing too many numbers forward in the first half. We were basically playing with two lines, so no one was pressuring the ball when they cleared it out. They were running at us the whole first half and we couldn't sort it out."

At half time Tom Soehn sorted things out and adjusted to slow Chicago's attack but it did not seem to improve United's chances on goal as Chicago coach Juan Carlos Osorio noted:

"I think that when they changed to a 3-4-1-2. They had wide players and an extra man in midfield. If I look at my notes I don't think they really got in behind us. We defended crosses very well and chance for chance -- I think we deserved to win."

Defender Greg Vanney liked the adjustment and Troy Perkins only had to make one save in the second half. Vanney said:

"Tactically, we changed it up so we had some numbers in different places so that we could eliminate the counterattacks. We added another central midfielder and we pushed a defender up on the outside and attacked and defended in a different shape. That prevented their ability to find that first pass out, and you can defend one-on-one on the back if you can prevent that first pass."

My thoughts on the game all revolve around a desperate need to find a replacement for Jaime Moreno. I'm not saying he is finished but he will be sooner than later and last night's game is a demonstration of what we look like without him.