By the time I had reached the top of the escalator at the Stadium-Armory Metro stop on my way to D.C. United's CONCACAF Champions Cup match with C.D. Olimpia of Honduras last night, the first drops of a cold rain had begun to fall on Washington. It was all too appropriate for a night out on the town with D.C. United, a sports franchise that I will always associate with horrible weather and first class results.
I'm talking about watching them win their first title in a miserable Winter monsoon in Foxboro; enduring the first cold snap of the Fall to see them beat New England in the thrilling 2004 Eastern Conference Final, what some have come to call the greatest match in MLS history; and my first Soccer match ever at RFK, the 1997 MLS Cup Final when 50,000+ fans showed up in a driving rain to see Washington play Colorado for the title.
Everybody showed up, and though the weather was miserable that night too, nobody left before the final whistle. Everyone stood and sang for the full 90, and their persistence was rewarded with United's second consecutive championship.
In short, it was everything that American Soccer could be, and it bonded me permanently to United and the beautiful game, completing a process that had been creeping up on me since childhood. Somehow, despite the fact that I grew up as the son of a son of Glasgow and grew up in the shadow of the greatest team in the North American Soccer League, the Cosmos, I never played organized Soccer as a child, and didn't pay much attention to the game until I was an adult.
But the 1994 World Cup changed all that. After just one match between Mexico and Norway at RFK, I started to surrender to my inner soccer monkey. A few weeks later in the evening after work, I was out playing pickup games with college friends on an improvised pitch on a lawn in front of the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, eventually turning myself into a semi-respectable recreational goalkeeper. I can still remember feeling disappointed when MLS announced that it was going to delay its launch until 1996. Didn't they know I wanted them on the pitch right now?
Luckily for me, one of the charter franchises would be right here in Washington. Like a lot of American transplants, I carry a divided set of sports loyalties. In baseball, I'll never give up on the New York Mets and always look forward to their visits to Washington when they seem to bring a little bit of Queens with them every time. In football, I maintain an uneasy balance between the Jets, who still have a hold on my heart, and the Ravens, who have a hold on my wallet. In hockey, I made a clean break from the Islanders to the Caps during the 1998 run to the Stanley Cup Finals.
But with D.C. United, the relationship is pure and a whole lot less problematic. By the time MLS made its debut, I had already lived in Washington for 11 years and there was little doubt where my loyalties would lie. The Cosmos were long gone, and there would be no Metrostars for me. Toss in the fact that United's original head coach, Bruce Arena, grew up about 10 minutes from me back on Long Island, and I was ready.
And in return for my loyalty, United has delivered. Save for a brief period that marked the fall of head coach Thomas Rongen and the well-intentioned but ill-fated tenure of head coach Ray Hudson, United just wins and keeps on winning. Two straight titles to start, and four overall -- the latest in 2004 -- along with a handful of other domestic and regional championships.
But for a team that was just one win away from another appearance in the title game, this was a rather tumultuous offseason. Despite the fact that United might have won the Supporter's Shield for finishing first overall in the regular season, this is still an American sports league where the playoffs are all that matters. And while the team jumped out to a huge lead in the standings by the halfway point, the second half of the season was a tad more problematic, especially when it came to finishing around the net -- something that was never more apparent than when the team dominated the run of play against the New England Revolution in the Eastern Conference Final, yet still managed to lose, 1-0.
The result: Say goodbye to head coach Peter Nowak (replaced by United assistant Tom Soehn) who led the team to that 2004 title, but decided to seek greener pastures as an assistant with the U.S. Men's National Team. Teen wonder Freddie Adu, who had spent much of his tenure with the team as an antagonist of Nowak's, was unceremoniously shipped out of town, along with the goalkeeper from the 2004 title team, Nick Rimando. And finally, fan favorite but oft-injured Alecko Eskandarian will now be plying his trade North of the border with expansion franchise FC Toronto.
So what should we expect from United this year? Well, in the words of Screaming Eagles correspondent Aaron stollar, who I sat with in the press box last night, perhaps the best team in the history of the franchise.
The reason is all up front. Joining United this season from the same C.D. Olimpia team it played last night is 28-year old Brazilian forward Luciano Emilio, the man who is going to have the duty and sheer joy of capitalizing on all of the balls he's going to be fed from Jaime Moreno and Christian Gomez. In about four and a half seasons in Honduras, Emilio won three scoring titles, including scoring eight goals in seven games in the Central American club championship.
In the first leg against Olimpia in Honduras, United won easily 4-1. With all the pressure off at home last night, the team contained an early surge by Olimpia and limited the visitors to just one goal in the first half, eventually settling in for a 3-2 victory, 7-3 on aggregate.
In the two games against Olimpia, United scored seven times, with Emilio accounting for three of those scores. In the postgame press conference, Emilio admitted that it was hard to tap into his "killer instinct" when playing against his former club, which led me to wonder: If Emilio could score three goals in two games before his killer instinct kicked in, what might he do once it started to flex its muscles?
His teammates are already sensing that something special might be in the offing for the rest of the season.
Photo by Ellen Blanchard
Ben Olsen has a good feeling about 2007.
"The addition of Emilio has me quietly very excited about this," said long-time United midfielder Ben Olsen after the game. "They obviously have some guys they're looking to get to get us deeper, but we're excited and we're off to a good start and we have to make sure that when we get chances against the big teams that we make something happen."
That next chance will come on March 15, when CD Chivas Guadalajara, arguably the most popular side in Mexican soccer, will visit RFK for the first leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup semi-final. It'll be a real test for United that's sure to draw plenty of Chivas supporters from hundreds of miles away.
As for the rest of the MLS, if early indications are predictive of future success, I'll just say this: Same old United. Same old stormy weather.
