D.C. United saw yet another playoff run cut brutally short by the Chicago Fire on Thursday night at RFK Stadium with a 2-2 draw that kills D.C.'s cherished dream of hoisting the MLS Cup on their home field in two weeks' time.
A passionate home crowd witnessed their team dig a 2-0 hole for themselves with two first-half defensive lapses that even a furious late fightback could not erase.
"Well, I don't think we came out flat early, but we let up a couple big opportunities and when you let some goals in, it's a big mountain to climb," said head coach Tom Soehn. "I still credit our guys for fighting through that and still making it interesting. I still thought we were going to win the game. I still felt positive with what we were going to accomplish."
Goals from Clyde Simms and Christian Gomez gave the Black-and-Red faithful real hope, and their Argentinean star looked to have sent the series to extra time in the dying moments, only to have his finish disallowed for an apparent handball.
"It seemed like he had gotten shoved and it was inadvertent," said Simms of his teammate's controversial injury-time play. "It was frustrating -- we had a couple other opportunities, Pickens made a couple good saves. ... It's almost like it wasn't meant to be. But we fought hard tonight and I'm proud of the guys for getting together and coming back."
Yet in the end, United were left to rue another astonishing new chapter in their recent history of narrow, tragic shortcomings in big-game situations.
"Tears were coming to my eyes walking off the field," said goalkeeper Troy Perkins, just one of many bleary-eyed players in the home locker room. "We've had so many opportunities this year to do things here at home, and we've failed. To have MLS Cup here at home, to be able to win it, it's disappointing that we failed and let it slip out of our grasp again. And that's the big word, is 'again.'"
United has experienced gut-wrenching losses in CONCACAF Champions' Cup, SuperLiga and Copa Sudamericana this season, and must now bear the pain of three consecutive years of playoff disappointment as well. Two of those exits have come at the hands of the Fire, whose opportunistic performances in this Eastern Conference semifinal will win few points for style -- but were undeniably effective.
"It is tough to lose to this team. It is tough to lose the way we did," said D.C. right back Bryan Namoff. "The goals that they were able to score, it was basically through our mistakes and that's always tough, especially as a defender. You like to limit your mistakes -- in the playoffs it's a game of mistakes, and who can limit them, and who can exploit the other. So it's a tough one to take."
United were undone by a three-minute span just after the half-hour mark that began with Calen Carr's incisive feed to Chad Barrett that drew first blood and rocked the home side's composure. Before they could recover, Chris Rolfe completed the damage with a tidy finish to put his side 3-0 ahead on aggregate.
"That's tough, it's a real wakeup call," said center back Greg Vanney. "Everything that you went into the game thinking you could do, which was just outplay them and win the game, you throw it out the window and just start sending guys forward."
That adventurousness finally paid off in the last 20 minutes, when D.C.'s resurgence put a serious scare into the visitors. That courage and spirit was cold comfort to a side that had set its sights far higher, however.
"The season's over. And I'm not ready for the season to be over," said midfielder Ben Olsen. "I had plans, we all had plans, to go ahead and be a part of this Cup, and we're just extremely disappointed. We're disappointed for the fans. We're embarrassed that we can't be a part of what's going to be a great event in two weeks."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
