Tino Quaranta has been trying to understand it and draws real hope from the most recent performance against the LA Galaxy, “Continue to play like that and we’ll win games. It’s kind of been a theme all year, but they’re the best team in our league and I think we should have won this game tonight. Our record and our points don’t show what kind of team we are.”

Recovery began with the realization that United was inflexibly focused on central attack. Curt Onalfo emphasized wing play and saw some success. However, with the absence of Bryan Namoff and a constant series of injuries to defenders, he was forced to restrain his wide attackers to support those behind them.

Against the stronger United teams of old opponents were often forced into a counterattacking mode.
They would absorb United’s pressure and strike on the counter. If other teams are so superior to United this year, one might expect them to fight for midfield control. After all, a weakened defense gives opponents both options.

Yet, they win off the counter more often than not. Quaranta is correct in his assessment, “We’ve been creating a lot of chances. If you look around the league in that position, in the [wide] positions, I feel like this team is one of the best teams in those positions.”

Throughout the season, United has steadily improved in maintaining its overall shape while gradually improving in off the ball supporting runs, first on defense, and only very recently on attack. That can be laid to too intense a desire to carry the team to victory with individual effort.

The team has no pure speed player to keep an opponent off balance, but does have enough strong attackers to create and finish chances. Of late, Pablo Hernandez has gradually adjusted to the physicality of MLS play and has begun to interact better with his teammates.

With his arrival, the central attack has gradually improved as Danny Allsopp has begun to work a more effective partnership up front. Quaranta has been able to see players closer than Andy Najar as viable passing options.

Until recently, players would drive at and take on multiple defenders while teammates watched. In the last three games, against Columbus, Toronto, and LA, the attack has finally achieved effective support with good offensive runs and quicker recognition by of opportunity by those with the ball and those in support.

Hernandez had shared a tendency with Najar to hold the ball a bit too long. In both cases, teammates were partially to blame. The single most significant element that DC United’s coaches have instilled is the need for constant movement off the ball to support these two particular players when they get the ball.

The same lack of effective supporting movement has combined with his own age degraded skills to render Jaime Moreno no longer the game changer that he once was. Time and again, DC United players have emphasized that they play for one another. In fact, they have, but almost always in focusing on defense.

With the emergence of more active offensive interaction, the elements are now in place, just in time for some new actors to join in the play. Both Carlos Varela and Junior Carreiro give Coach Ben Olsen still more midfield support. Junior has been with the side long enough to have bought into the doctrine and Varela is experienced enough to figure it out quickly.

After strong performances in close losses against two of the league’s leaders, DC now gets a shot at a struggling Houston Dynamo squad whose fans must be as baffled United’s. The game is at 7:30 at RFK.

But here is the kicker-historically, have they really ever let you down? Other than perhaps a shaky second half against Real Madrid a year ago at home, not really. Chelsea twice, Real Madrid in Seattle, Tottenham and Celtic, both wins, several years ago-all good performances and this match was no different.

Not only did they give their fans a good performance, they came away victorious, defeating the star-studded Rosseneri 3-2 before a split but appreciative crowd of 30,367.

“We had a point to prove tonight,” said Chris Pontius, who who had a part in United’s first two goals. “We owe all of our fans for the way we started [the season]; 1-8 is not the way we wanted to start the year, and tonight was a chance for us to go out and play without three points on the line and for us to go out and enjoy the game of soccer, and I thought you saw that tonight.”

“Winning breeds confidence, and I think we needed a win to get over the hump, and playing well and having success is definitely something we can build on,” said United head coach Curt Onalfo.

The purely entertaining match was clouded only by the horrific left knee injury to United’s Brandon Barklage after getting tangled up with Manuele Blasi, forcing the home side to play a man down for the final 25-minutes.

With the unlimited substitution rule in effect, Onalfo had already inserted all of his players and despite his vociferous pleas to referee Mark Kadlecik and the 4th Official, was not allowed to re-enter a player.

“In the first half I thought our performance was very good,” said Onalfo. “It was a night where I tried to get all the players minutes and in the second half we played with a different team, and we had a really nasty injury, and we had to hold on to the lead and win, and it’s a win that we’re going to try to build on for Saturday’s game against Chivas USA. “

With their Serie A season ending two weeks ago and with many of their regulars away preparing for the World Cup, Milan still brought over some marquee names- Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf, Filippo Inzaghi and of course Ronaldhino and Alexandre Pato -both of whom Dunga surprisingly left off the Brazilian World Cup roster. And though their motivation and fitness were a bit lacking, they still put on a worthy show.

“We were here to entertain the people,” said Seedorf, who admitted he and his teammates were having trouble getting motivated. “It’s normal that there’s not the same motivation as in a normal (League) game. We’re still very professional and we performed our best possible today.

“I think we started out very well- our first fifteen minutes we created three chances and that’s the name of the game. If you don’t score, that’s when they score. After one-nil of course they got excited and got their wings. They played well. I think it was a good exhibition game.”

Milan showed their class early and often with precise one-touch combinations, not playing a ball over the top until the 15th minute. A nifty combination play in the first minute from Ronaldhino and Seedorf culminated in a dastardly look-away flick from the veteran Brazilian, springing Pato behind Rodney Wallace. Young goalkeeper Bill Hamid was equal to the challenge however, denying Pato’s angled shot from 6-yards out.

The fleet footed younger Brazilian was seemingly behind United’s backline at will but couldn’t seal the deal, missing badly with a shot from the top of the penalty area in the 8th minute and being cut off nicely by an aggressive Hamid in the 22nd minute.

Ronaldhino did his best to entertain as well and should have done better with a header off a corner from 6-yards that bounced harmlessly wide in the 18th minute. He followed that up in stoppage time with a deft flick marked for the right corner that a sliding Wallace alertly knocked off the goal line.

The former FIFA World player of the year saved his best for later however, flicking a pass from Pato straight up with his right foot and perfectly striking a bicycle kick with his left from 7-yards that hit the right post in the 53rd minute.

Four minutes later, clearly fatigued, he flopped to the ground in the penalty area looking for a call after colliding with Devon McTavish. When Kadlecik correctly did not award the penalty, he popped up laughing with his trademark smile and was replaced shortly thereafter by Alessandro Mancini.

Despite struggling to keep any kind of possession, United was organized and scored on all three of their shots on goal. Stephen King floated a ball from the right flank to the far post that Chris Pontius alertly headed back across the goal toward the 6-yard box in the path of Luciano Emilio, who beat Claudio Terzi to the spot for the tap in goal and an unlikely 1-0 lead in the 20th minute.

United extended the lead ten minutes later with Pontius doing the deed himself, knocking home a Santino Quaranta corner kick in front of goalkeeper Christian Abbitai, who was a bit passive in deciding to step out and clear the ball away near the top of 6-yard box.

Pontius and Quaranta had actually set up the corner with a nice combination play of their own on the left side with Pontius firing a shot from distance that tagged for the far corner that was blocked.

“I think you saw a different element tonight. It was some dynamic players on the field and we went in with a game plan and we really stuck to it,” said Quaranta. “Our line of pressure, collectively how we were going to defend and that’s how you win games. We’re going to get our chances, we didn’t get a bunch of them but we finished some.”

After Andy Najar’s cracker from some 30-yards out on the left side that skipped just wide of the far post, Milan got serious.

“Of course; I don’t want to lose, I don’t like to lose,” Seedorf said about their professional pride kicking in eventually. “It doesn’t matter when I play, a friendly match or not, the motivation is that we are sportsman so when we go into a game we want to win but of course the legs are not as fresh as during the season but the head is and that is why we started very well and played good football.”

After Pontius was horse collared to the ground by Mathieu Flamini in the 34th minute and then a minute later chopped down by Ignazalo Abate, referee Mark Kadlecik was forced to book the latter as the visitors realized they were now in a game.

United further extended the shocking result, with an “excuse me” goal from Danny Allsopp when Abbitai’s clearing attempt hit the burly Aussie and trickled into the open net to make the score 3-0.

After Barklage’s unforeseen departure, the Rosseneri picked up the tempo-albeit slightly-but enough to get them back in the game. Defender Massimo Oddo got both goals for the visitors, the first on a marginal penalty kick call in the 70th minute when Kurt Morsink was called for a hand ball, sliding to defend a cross from Mancini at the lower left corner of the penalty area.

His second tally was a 30-yard blast that clipped off James and changed direction enough to get by the diving Perkins on the near side. Oddo made a final overreaching bid for a hat trick and position as the top entertainer with a dazzling full volley strike off Pato’s long floating ball from left flank which sailed over the mark.

Despite the loss, United had some key positive results from the match. Brandon Barklage, in his second career start, looked solid on the right wing and can be considered United’s best player during the match. United’s shaky defense looked more solid with the addition of Juan Pena in central defense. Rodney Wallace is still getting used to his new role at left-back, but looks like a regular starter at the position with improving defending and Marc Burch’s injury. Santino Quaranta created great opportunities for the Black and Red, despite playing in a center midfielder role, but none were taken. Head Coach will have to keep these points in mind if he wants to win next week’s match against Philadelphia Union.

Tino Quaranta, a veteran at 24, was pleased with the mixture of talent on display, “When you have a lot of athleticism, the youth, the width is gonna be there. It was really disciplined for being a younger team.”

That discipline flows from an understanding among all the players that, “This is a really deep team. It shows. We’ve really got some good talent.” Every player interviewed noted that Soehn has emphasized his own belief that the team is competent and confident, top to bottom.

Bryan Namoff saw it at the last practice, “We were definitely really sharp the day before in training. It was great to kinda use that to keep it flowing to the next day. When you knock the ball around, you can just tell, there’s a good chemistry there.”

The team’s attitude carried forward and in the game fed on itself, “As confidence starts to build the more you are able to possess the ball”, Namoff explained. However, with youth comes a corresponding loss of perspective.

Brandon Barklage, who scored his first professional goal to seal United’s victory, provided a great deal of the energy early on only to realize that he had lost focus and position. He had the wisdom to adjust, “Once I got reins on myself, I felt a lot better.”

Dallas did a reasonable job of absorbing United’s attacks and began to assert themselves after about 30 minutes. Quaranta echoed what others had observed, “We put a lot into the first 30 minutes. I thought we lost hold of the game that last 15 minutes of the first half.”

His explanation of the loss of DC control was simple, “It dropped off toward the half with fatigue.” He noted that Soehn refocused the team in the locker room, “Then we came out in the second half and right off the get-go took the game back —– That was the talk at half-time.”

Chris Pontius, who has played well on the wing early in the season and played forward in this game, had a similar view of play, “You want to get the ball to the forwards, then to the side. That will eventually expose their defense — When you do that, you use a lot of your energy. We’ve got to manage that a little bit better.”

Barklage emphasized that the formation had a role in how the team played, “Especially with this 3-5-2, we can really expose their flanks on the weak side. With Tino or Fred or whoever we put out there, if we get them the ball they’re gonna run at the defense or put great crosses in. We try to do that a lot, switch the point of attack.”

The positive experience may well carry forward into the Eastern Conference game against the Red Bulls in New Jersey on Sunday. The team’s elders know that they must produce and have been shown the way.

It starts in practice, “Now the starting 11, every week they gotta show that they deserve it. It’s such a healthy thing for the team,” explained Andrew Jacobsen.

The rookie is fresh off foreign experience in France where he learned that, “Every player was as confident as can be.” In regard to the strong midfielders now starting for United, that means, “If I want to get on the field, I have to do what they can do. I don’t have much of an option.

“When you have such great players in the middle like Christian and Ben and Clyde and all the forwards, it’s hard not to go down the center but now we finally have great players on the width now so the other team has to pick their poison. If they want to take away the middle we’ll beat them on the outside.”

Match Facts

Scoring Summary:
DC — Fred 1 (Chris Pontius 1) 21
DC — Brandon Barklage 1 (Santino Quaranta ) 6

Lineups:
FC Dallas — Ray Burse, Michael Dello-Russo, George John (Aaron Pitchkolan 8), Drew Moor, Daniel Torres, Pablo Ricchetti, Alvaro Sanchez (Bruno Guarda 90), Eric Avila, Dave van den Bergh (David Ferreira 73), Jeff Cunningham (Kenny Cooper 71), Peri Marosevic,
Substitutes Not Used: Dax McCarty, Dario Sala, Blake Wagner

D.C. United — Milos Kocic, Bryan Namoff (Dejan Jakovic 62), Greg Janicki, Marc Burch, Thabiso Khumalo, Brandon Barklage, Andrew Jacobson, Devon McTavish, Fred (Rodney Wallace 61), Chris Pontius (Jaime Moreno 73), Santino Quaranta (Anthony Peters 82),
Substitutes Not Used: John DiRaimondo, Luciano Emilio, Josh Wicks

Statistical Summary:
D.C. United / FC Dallas
Total shots: 17 (Santino Quaranta 5) 11 (Drew Moor 3)
Shots on goal: 7 (Marc Burch 2,
Santino Quaranta 2) 4 (4 tied with 1)
Fouls: 14 (Andrew Jacobson 3,
Rodney Wallace 3) 12 (4 tied with 2)
Offsides: 4 (Santino Quaranta 3) 3 (Jeff Cunningham 3)
Corner kicks: 8 (Brandon Barklage 4,
Thabiso Khumalo 4) 7 (Dave van den Bergh 4)
Saves: 4 (Milos Kocic 4) 5 (Ray Burse 5)

Misconduct Summary:

Referee: Jeff Gontarek
Referee’s Assistants: Jason Cullum; Matthew Kreitzer
4th official: Terrence Andrews
Time of game: 1:49
Attendance: 5,163
Weather: Cloudy -and- 55 degrees

She’s back.

After struggling last season and knocked out by Justine Henin in the Quarterfinal, the younger Williams sister made a huge comeback in 2008, capped off by the straight set win in the Women’s Final over second seeded Jelena Jankovic , 6-4, 7-5.

“I’ve been working so hard all year,” said Williams, who is now the world’s No. 1 player. “Sometimes I wake up at like 6:00 in the morning to go practice and it was too dark. I would have to wait until it gets light. It’s just paying off. No one really, really knows the work that an athlete puts in. You know, it’s worth it. And then I felt like, Gosh, I’ve been working the hardest. I should win.”

It didn’t come easy as Williams had to fight Jankovic in the second set to seal the deal. Down 3-5 and 0-40, she was able to come back from the triple set point to take the next four games, giving her the win.

Using the skills that made her No. 1 five years ago, Williams was able to put the younger Jankovic on her heals, bowling her over during the latter stages of the match.

“I just got so positive. I was like, um, I really want to win,” she said. “All I have to do is break and hold, break, and hold, and break. I figured it seemed so simple, so I thought, Okay, all I have to do is win one point here and one point there, and I was ready.”

For her ninth Grand Slam win – and $1.5 million payday – the 27 year-old came out strong, winning the first set 6-4 and never trailing her Serbian opponent. The ease of her server and ability to make a strong return, which alluded her last year, didn’t give Jankovic a chance to even sniff victory in the first.

Then came the second and Jankovic was able to come back, ultimately serving for the set, but couldn’t close Williams out 0-40 and double faulted another set point later in the game.

Williams was able to take advantage of the Serb to ultimately win another Grand Slam.

“I want to get double digits [wins],” Williams said. I like that I’m at nine because I’m pushing for ten, and I feel like I can do it. I obviously play well all the time in Australia, so that’s coming up soon. I have to win another French Open and I love Wimbledon. I definitely had the game to do it. I love winning Grand Slams, so I look forward to it.”

Notes: Williams also won the Open in 1999 and 2002…She also won the Australian Open three time [2003, 2005, 2007] with one wins at Wimbledon [2002, 2003] and one at Roland Garros in 2002.