Soccer is often referred to as "the beautiful game." But on Sunday evening at RFK Stadium, D.C. United were painfully reminded that it can also be an exceedingly cruel one.
In the Eastern Conference Championship against the New England Revolution, United produced their best display in months, using long spells of possession to mount myriad attacking waves with imaginative runs and fluid ball movement. After weeks of exasperating inconsistency, the 2006 MLS Supporters' Shield winners finally looked like themselves again, giving a zealous home crowd of 19,552 plenty to cheer about.
But it all amounted to nothing in the end.
University of Maryland product Taylor Twellman took the Revolution's only shot on goal and made it count, drilling a Pat Noonan cross past Troy Perkins just four minutes after the opening whistle to end D.C.'s season with a 1-0 victory and hand the Revs their second consecutive trip to the MLS Cup Final.
"Noonan was able to put the ball through - kind of a lucky cross - it trickles through and I don't see it between the two defenders until it's already past me," said defender Bryan Namoff. "We had a falling Twellman who was able to run back, swing at a half-chance, off-balance, and make it go side netting. You just have to kind of tip your hat to that."
The result was rough justice for a United side that made few other missteps all day, save for a recurring wastefulness in front of goal.
"We made one mistake out of that whole game, one mistake, and lost the game off of that," said midfielder Freddy Adu. "One mistake. It hurts, man, it hurts."
The Black-and-Red won nine corner kicks, took 18 shots and put eight of them on target. But Revs netminder Matt Reis made an array of timely saves - some steady, some spectacular - and benefited from dogged team defending as the visitors clung to their lead and did just enough to win.
"They struggled to deal with us," said United midfielder Ben Olsen, who drove his team forward until the bitter end. "They started in a 4-4-2, we exposed it. And then they went to 3-5-2. We exposed it. It was a great performance from us. But they did a very gutsy job in defending and being very opportunistic with their goal."
In stark contrast to the mood following their fumbling first-round conquest of New York, United accepted the result with serenity, satisfied that they had done all they could.
"We know that we played one of our best games in a long time," said D.C. coach Peter Nowak. "It was a hell of an effort from the team. We should be really proud ... So many chances, creative play. Everything was in place, except the goal."
Ironically, the resourcefulness and good fortune that has served them so well this year deserted United at the worst possible time.
"It was a little bit of karma, I guess, coming back to bite us in the butt," said Perkins. "The past couple of months, teams have played better against us but we still squeaked by with a tie or a win, and [tonight] it comes back around against us."
The season's painful conclusion reminded Nowak of his final championship match as a player, Chicago's 1-0 loss to Kansas City in the 2000 MLS Cup Final, also at RFK Stadium.
"We believed strongly at halftime that if we scored the goal, it's going to be our night," he said. "A couple of years ago I played the same kind of game here in Washington, in the MLS Cup Final. It wasn't meant to be. We cannot ask for more from our players. It's disappointing, but we have to move on."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
