Op-Ed \ Ed C. Morgans

D.C. United has only losses to show for attractive style and impressive stats.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Friday, August 17, 2001) -- As many a player and writer has uttered at least once in their lives:

TELL YOUR STATS TO SHUT UP!

This is about the only thing that comes to mind when thinking back on D.C. United's 2-1 loss to the MetroStars at RFK Stadium Wednesday night.

Yeah, yeah, United outshot the MetroStars, 21-3, and put 11 shots on the New York-New Jersey goal while the foes from the north launched a mere two. But guess what, those two little shots both found the back of the net, and that is the ONLY stat that matters in soccer.

And in that lone meaningful number, coach Thomas Rongen's United side has come up woefully short for nearly two full seasons.

The same tired lines were trotted out following Wednesday's loss, in which United slumbered for almost 75 minutes before seemingly coming to the realization that any hopes of a Major League Soccer playoff bid were hanging by a thread and it was time to play soccer. By then, it was way too late.

And now ladies and gentlemen, I hand the microphone over to Rongen himself. "It's very disheartening obviously, a tough one to swallow, based on the fact that you don't get outplayed, you don't get hammered. It's not like we walked in here again saying the other team was better (and) we're just not good enough. We're good enough, but the end result, as I've said so many times, is zero points right now," Rongen said.

To my recollection, and I can only speak for home games, I've yet to hear Rongen say the other team was better or that United got hammered, regardless the result.

More Rongen: "This team is clearly showing very strong signs of tremendous desire to take this challenge, the playoff challenge, head on. We've met every challenge this year head on and have succeeded."

Rongen went on to talk about United reaching the semifinals of the Giants Cup, therefore qualifying for the 2003 CONCACAF Clubs Cup, the winner of which makes the FIFA World Club Championship. Also, United is in the U.S. Open Cup semifinals, a tournament that has drawn little interest or fans so far this year.

I guess these were the challenges he was discussing. I have trouble believing a team that is 6-14-2 this season has met many challenges when it comes to league play. Near the end of his remarks, Rongen added this: "The way we went after them and continued to battle, that to me is more important than anything else because if you don't do that, then you've got to say you know what, we've packed it in and this team is far from doing that."

OK, I'll buy that. But is this how we are supposed to measure a D.C. United season? Those within the organization who refuse to admit a once great dynasty has crumbled into a shell of its former self, have their argument rebuffed right here. The simple notion that making the playoffs would save Rongen's job is an insult to the expectations built up when United won three of the league's first four MLS Cups.

Some would say the expectations should be different because of all the player movement in the offseason. Yet, to a man, United's current players will tell you they are talented enough to play at the high level wearing the three stripes used to demand. But still, it doesn't bring results.

Looking away from the league for a moment, has Rongen saved his job by guiding his team to qualification for a tournament - it's fair to say - that might never be played? Remember, the Los Angeles Galaxy was supposed to play in this year's FIFA Club World Championship, and it was called off.

If United wins the Open Cup, is that what fans will reflect upon when thinking about the 2001 season, or will it be the club's utter failure in the league? The reasons United will likely miss the playoffs this season have nothing to do with luck, bad calls by referees or the misalignment of planets. It has everything to do with these factors:

-- A disgraceful lack of finishing that re-occurs in many ways because once somebody misses a chance each game, the team's confidence plummets. "There's nothing else to do here, you know," said forward Abdul Thompson Conteh, who has 11 goals, but missed opportunities to add to that total Wednesday night. "The mode of the game is work, create chances, take shots. We work, we create chances, we take shots and they're not going in. That causes for a very long day."

-- Poor defending. Rongen can say what he wants about breaks, but United wouldn't have to find excuses for its defeats if the defense could keep a clean sheet (D.C. has two league shutouts in 2001).

On two occasions Wednesday night, United backs were caught flat-footed on long balls off the counterattack. Both resulted in goals and it seems the entire league has figured out how to successfully counter versus United's possession game.

While Mark Chung's goal in the 42nd minute might have started with him in offside position, Scott Vermillion was left all alone to try and track down Chung, who made one quick move once Vermillion got there. Vermillion looks like the goat, but in reality, the whole defense was victimized because they didn't play for each other and help their teammate.

"We have to really concentrate on keeping a zero in the back," defender Eddie Pope said. ``If you don't get scored on, you don't lose. The finishing's going to come, but the defending is something we definitely have to work on."

-- No defense of the home ground. Over the three seasons Bruce Arena coached United, the club lost just 12 regular-season home games and five of those were in the shootout. In Rongen's nearly three full seasons, United has already lost 17 home matches of 42. The team has also not played well on the road, either, the last two seasons.

Understandably, many teams in all sports struggle to win on the road. But that being the case, defending the home turf is critical and United has failed to do that with any consistency. Wednesday's loss dropped D.C. to 4-4-2 at RFK Stadium this year. When you remember that most teams would consider a .500 road record to be good (and they would be right), then going .500 at home simply doesn't get the job done.

More troubling about United's predicament in what may well be (and probably should be) Rongen's final days is that no one seems to know a solution. Aside from luck, no one can quite pinpoint the problem.

"I can't really say exactly what it is. It's unlucky sometimes, but as a team we've let ourselves down, you know," United defender Stephen Armstrong said. "Defensively especially, but on both ends of the field. We don't defend properly and then we don't finish the way we should. Talentwise we've got a good team and everyone knows that. We've got the players to do it, we're just not putting it together."

The time is gone for speeches or formation switches or lineup retooling. This team has had 22 games to get the job done and hasn't. That's shown in the results, no matter Rongen's ways of spinning their level of play. Barring a miracle, it's time to think about 2002 and who can take this team to a level at least somewhere close to what we saw several seasons ago.

Ed C. Morgans is sports editor of The Daily Journal in Manassas, Va., and soccer writer for the Journal Newspapers. He can be e-mailed at emorgans21@att.net.

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