Will the slump ever end? Part II: MLS live and in person, though not up close
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by user MikeBriggs
On Saturday August 26, in the year 2006, I attended the match at RFK Stadium in Washington DC between the best team in Major League Soccer, DC United, and the worst team in the MLS, Los Angeles Galaxy. The game was D.C. United’s 24th regular season game (there are 32 regular season games, and during the season the team also plays “friendly” exhibition games and “U.S. Open Cup” games).
- View from our seats (with zoom); the ones wearing red are DC United players - warm-up/practice uniforms.
DC United entered the game slumping, having not won a game in their last four regular season games (3 ties, 1 loss), but still had just 2 losses before their game against the LA Galaxy got under way. United would have set a record if they had ended the year with just 2 losses. What happened? They lost. To the worst team in the MLS. They lost badly, 5-2. The LA Galaxy scored first and early, with Alan Gordon scoring on the fourth minute. In the ninth minute the score became tied 1-1. No, United didn’t score. One Galaxy defender was trying to clear the ball in front of his own net, the ball slammed into another Galaxy defender and bounced into the net for a goal. The recap on the MLS website says that the Galaxy defender that scored on his own team was Chris Albright - but I’m not sure if that is the one that kicked the ball or the one that had the ball bounce off him into the net. Half, score 1-1. I remember when this happened during the World Cup (in favor of USA), and the guy that scored on his own team ended up getting killed. I assume that will not happen this time.
- for those Nationals fans - that’s the Nationals dugout.
Albright scored another goal, but this time remembered which goal was his, and which one he is actually supposed to be shooting at. That goal lead off the second half (2 minutes in), and gave Galaxy the lead for good (Galaxy lead 2-1 at that point). Landon Donovan scored a penalty kick in the 66th minute to give Galaxy it’s needed winning goal. Needed? Because DC United was able to score another goal when Facundo Erpen scored his third goal of the season in the 69th minute with an assist by Christian Gomez. Bryan Namoff then scored on his own team in the 71st minute to make the score 4-2, and Landon Donovan picked up his 2nd goal of the game to lead Galaxy to a 5-2 win. That goal came during the injury play. Oh, and for some reason the Washington Times believes that Donovan was involved with all the goals. Amazing really, considering that two of the goals involved players scoring on their own teams. Was Donovan the player that kicked the ball at another of his players, after which the ball bounced into the Galaxy net, or was he the player the ball bounced off of? That’s the first goal in the game. Maybe the newspaper only meant the Galaxy goals. One of those goals involved Namoff scoring on his own team (DC United), did the official box score forget to award Donovan an assist? Did Donovan bounce a ball off Namoff and into the DC United net?
- DC United’s mascot.
Both Freddy Adu and Christian Gomez entered the game, but did not start due to injury (of note: many players carried off the field on stretchers, after all the “dives” I’ve seen, this is the first time I’ve actually seen real injuries occur in a MLS game). The team was overwhelmed by the play of Galaxy, which obviously means something is wrong with DC United. A last place team should not have so dominated the game against a first place team. DC United looked listless, and I would not be surprised if Nick Rimando took over as goal-keeper. Remember three things: 1) Nick Rimando is the higher paid, more experienced goalie, 2) head coach Nowak likes to constantly change his goalies and his actions this year of allowing Perkins to start every game is unlike him, 3) Troy Perkins played poorly in this game. Oh, and DC United sure did get a lot of yellow cards in this game. Odd, didn’t realize until I looked at the recap, that both teams received the same number of yellow cards - three each.
- On Field reporter.
The ninety minute game ended up taking 1 hour and 51 minutes to complete and did not start on time, but about 10 minutes late. The late start time was surprising. The 1:51 was not (90 minutes of play, 15 minute halftime and about 6 minutes of injury time).
- La Norte 
- Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava
The large number of LA Galaxy fans was surprising and unexpected. The small number of La Norte fans was equally surprising (La Norte is one of the three fan clubs - supporters). Screaming Eagles and Barra Brava, the other two DC United “supporters” were well represented. It just seems odd to see fans jumping up and down and screaming for ninety minutes without regard to the action on the field (the 5-2 loss).
- View from our seats, no zoom (or what the naked eyeball sees).
Right - the non-MLS fan perceptive (or new fan, not sure yet): We had great seats in terms of position of the field - we sat on the mid-field line. Bad seats otherwise, because the seats were the last row of the lower seating area - against the wall. The overhanging upper deck blocked the view of the scoreboard and time clock (for all I know, there wasn’t an active scoreboard/minute clock). And every time I stood up, I lost sight of the field. United scores, I stand up excited and cheer - lose sight of the field. Not as important, since I have time to sit back down before active resumes, as when I had to stand up every five minutes for the other people in the row to enter and exit and I lose sight of the active game. The game is a non-stop affair for 45 minutes, then a 15 minute break then another 45 minute non-stop game. Can people really not hold themselves in their seats for 5 straight minutes, much less for 45 minutes? I understand the “oops I forgot to use the restroom” once a game, but getting up every five minutes?
- ball in play.
The game was interesting, and though I had an early impression that it might turn out to be somewhat similar to an in-person football (NFL) experience (in that I find it easier and more enjoyable to watch an NFL game on TV instead of in-person), I found that I had no problem following along and watch the little tiny ball bounce around. Tiny - well, if I ever attend another DC United event, I will want to sit much closer, some place where the players do not look so tiny.
- Ihemelu tries to score on his own goal (not really).
The game: I was and am annoyed that my first experience at a live MLS regular season game involved “my” team losing 5-2. Especially as they lost to the worst team in the MLS (both leagues). Of course, the Galaxy team is now not the worst team in the MLS after their win.
- National Anthem.
Would I attend another MLS game? All the regular season games for the rest of the season, except for two (9/13 - Wednesday game @ New England, and 10/07 Saturday New England game - what’s the deal with not broadcasting New England games?) will be televised. None of the non-regular season games will be televised (both games are in the other team’s stadium). I will probably try to watch the rest of the season, but will likely not see another game in-person this season. The only game that I might decide to attend would be that 1 New England game at RFK on 10/07, since that one will not be televised on anything I can see. I will see if I can get into and be excited by the rest of this year’s games, and then make a decision on whether I add a third sport to watch (add to NFL, and MLB; I'll likely readd the NHL at some point, I was a causal fan, they had a strike, and I haven't seen a game since - the question is whether I readd the NHL as my third sport I watch, or my fourth).
Recap (as in, a recap written by an actual professional
Oh, one last thought that I keep forgetting to add: the “fancy-footwork”. While there was some fancy foot-work and fake outs made by the MLS players, most of the game involved relatively straight-forward passing and advancing of the ball. I expected much more in the way of fancy foot-work in a professional game.
All pictures taken by me used by me (c)2006.
Date
Mon 08/28/06, 10:01 am EST
