United Looks Past Recent Fall Failures

D.C. United's exceptional regular season ended last weekend with a loss and a lot of dismissive comments. With the best overall record in MLS already secure, players insisted that the match with Columbus carried little value and the 3-2 result -- its fourth consecutive game without a victory -- was hardly an ominous sign heading into the playoffs.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

But as United prepares for its postseason opener tonight against longtime nemesis Chicago, the league's most decorated team is confronted by the fact that slow finishes to the previous two regular seasons have been a prelude to playoff disappointment.

In 2005, United carried a loss and tie into postseason and, as the No. 2 in the Eastern Conference, was blasted in the first round by the third-seeded Fire. Last year, D.C. lost four of its last five and, despite finishing with MLS's best record, the visibly fatigued team barely survived the first round and then lost in the conference final at home to the New England Revolution.

"That is in the past," said Coach Tom Soehn, in his first year after succeeding Peter Nowak last winter. "That doesn't scare me at all. Different chemistry, different coach, it's a different team."

United's autumn challenge is compounded by its opponent, a Chicago side that is 4-0-1 against D.C. in playoff history and has not conceded a goal. United won this season's series with a victory and two ties, but forwards Jaime Moreno and Luciano Emilio are recovering from injury and, even if they play in the first leg of the two-game, total-goals showdown, they'll probably not be at full strength.

Conversely, Chicago is 3-0-5 since early September and has not lost at home since July. The finale is set for next Thursday night at RFK Stadium, with the series winner advancing to face New England or the New York Red Bulls in the Eastern final.

"We have no excuse," midfielder Ben Olsen said. "We are a very seasoned team, we have been through everything, we are certainly talented enough -- I don't think anyone is questioning that. It is: Can we put the performances on when it matters? And they matter now."

If United is to win a fifth MLS Cup, it will have to buck history. In each of its previous championship campaigns, the club embarked on significant runs near the end of the regular season before cruising through the playoffs: 6-2 in 1996, 5-2 in '97, 11 straight wins followed by two losses in a row in '99 and a 5-1 mark in 2004.

In some ways, this year's team has followed the path of the 1999 squad. Prior to this month's slump, which included a loss at Mexican power Chivas Guadalajara in the Copa Sudamericana tournament, United had gone 9-0-2 in league play.

Assessing the recent results, Soehn explained that "we've gotten in a situation where we have played some games that didn't have entirely a lot of meaning and we've gotten a bit lazy in some of the things we've done well all year."

After clinching the Supporters' Shield, a prestigious award given to the team with the most points in the league, with a week left in the regular season, "I don't think we were that motivated," rookie forward Guy-Roland Kpene said. The result: an uninspiring performance against Columbus last Saturday.

Over the course of the season, which began with three losses and hit a small rut in mid-summer, Soehn has had to periodically shake up his team with pointed criticism, lineup changes and benchings. "We've got a resilient group and every time I felt we had moments where I felt we stepped back, I've addressed it and they've responded the right way," he said.

A major issue the previous two postseasons was the club's physical and mental state. International tournament games were intertwined with the MLS schedule and, by the time the playoffs rolled around, United played like a tired, broken team. Some have suggested that Nowak's hard-driving style contributed to the downfall and that he failed to properly manage playing time during the busy stretches.

Olsen does not blame Nowak, saying he believes he and his teammates were just as much at fault for not handling the late-season situations properly. But he also acknowledged that this year he "feels fresher . . . Tommy has really done a good job of taking the good things of the past and some of the bad things and fixing the whole thing."

Even though United played two fewer regular season games this year, 15 players made at least 10 starts, compared with 12 in 2006. Late in the summer, when the schedule was congested, Soehn often rested healthy players for at least a half and turned to reserves, such as Kpene and Dominic Mediate. He also revolved his central defenders for the two starting slots, offering time to Greg Vanney, Devon McTavish and Bobby Boswell.

Despite Josh Gros's season-ending head and wrist injuries and Moreno and Emilio's ailments, United appears to have enough depth and refreshed players to stick around longer in the playoffs than the previous two years.

"It's playoff time and we know that it could be three games to the final or it could be two games to be out," Moreno said. "Everybody knows what we have to do."