Almost as impressive as the score line in D.C. United's CONCACAF Champions' Cup match in Honduras on Wednesday night - a 4-1 victory - is the fact that it was accomplished in the team's first competitive game in nearly four months.
But although the Black-and-Red have only been training for a few weeks, some fantastic finishing from a trio of South American imports, including a double by reigning Honda MLS MVP Christian Gomez, has put the Black-and-Red in pole position for the return leg of the quarterfinal series next Thursday in Washington.
"We're in the early stages of our season. This is the first time I pushed some of the guys 90 minutes," said Tom Soehn, who made his debut as United's head coach. "It was a bit of a guessing game as to who was left. We did a good balance of fitness and technical work throughout the three weeks and I thought the guys were pretty well prepared. They showed me that the work we did was a positive thing."
As was so often the case during the 2006 MLS season, Gomez was the catalyst, urging the Black-and-Red forward with smart passes, darting runs and, of course, killer finishing. He put the visitors in front after half an hour with a sublime strike from 20 yards, curling a right-footed effort into the upper right-hand corner of the net.
Though some slack marking allowed Olimpia to answer quickly, the game turned back into United's favor just before the break when Luciano Emilio used a cheeky flick to find the back of the net against his former club. D.C. acquired the Brazilian from Olimpio on Jan. 16 and Wednesday was 28-year-old's debut for United.
"For them it's still early, but the goals Christian scored were amazing goals and the goal Luciano scored - we brought him here with the idea that he was going to put balls like that away. A near-post run, he did a great job with it. There is still progress to make ... but for our first game that meant something, I was real happy with it."
Gomez stretched United's lead with a second spectacular strike from outside the penalty area shortly after halftime, prompting veteran D.C. midfielder Ben Olsen to sing high praises of the Argentinean.
"Just when you think he's hit his peak, he pulls out even more stunts like that today," Olsen said. "He's as good a player as I've ever played with and what's so beautiful about Christian that people don't know is that he's one of the nicest guys and one of the best teammates that I've ever had as well. The guy is just an all-around pleasure to have on this team and I'm very lucky to be playing with him."
The passionate D.C. fans will have a chance to embrace their side when they return for the second leg next week. And though the squad has a comfortable advantage heading into the match, the approach is likely to be the same.
"I don't think we change that much," said Soehn. "Obviously, having the goal advantage going back home is huge, but our mentality is going to be the same - possess the ball, counter on them when we can and be patient. We've earned ourselves a little breathing room but that won't change the way we address the game."
Jonathan Nierman is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
