After his team's disappointing 2-0 road loss to Pachuca CF in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions' Cup semifinal tie, D.C. United coach Tom Soehn was bracing for the worst when he sat down to analyze the game afterwards.
The Mexican outfit had dominated possession and created numerous scoring chances, while their MLS rivals huffed and puffed to keep pace in the thin air of Estadio Hidalgo, with two goals from Luis Montes in the second half proving the difference.
But upon closer inspection, Soehn came away with a more nuanced outlook on his team's performance -- and real hope for United's prospects in Wednesday's second leg at RFK Stadium, where the club will look to overturn a two-goal aggregate deficit and move one step closer to the international glory that has been so elusive in recent years.
"My initial concerns were, they were just a lot better than us," said the second-year boss. "But when I watch the tape, I think we made them look better than they are. Not that they are a bad team, because they have a lot of strengths. But the way they were able to penetrate us, we didn't do a good job of making it predictable enough, and then we were stretched too many times."
Soehn's tactical evaluation does much to explain his decision to start Santino Quaranta up top alongside Luciano Emilio against Toronto FC over the weekend, and underlines the critical importance of his front line's productivity on Wednesday, both with and without the ball. From front to back, D.C. will have to push the tempo of the match, throwing numbers into the attack and closing down the space and time that Pachuca used to such great effect in Mexico.
"Our forwards need to push [the play] to one side or another and by not dictating one side or the other, our outside mids had so much work to do, because when a guy's gotten the ball in the middle of the pitch a team has to naturally tuck in and you can't really cheat into the passing lines," he said. "It made both sides vulnerable."
Pachuca playmaker Christian Gimenez was an influential figure last Tuesday, orchestrating his team's attack and delivering dangerous set-piece service like the one Montes nodded home for his second goal of the night. United hope to starve him and his fellow strikers of possession by pressuring a back line that Soehn believes is the defending CONCACAF champions' Achilles heel. Pachuca has surrendered two or more goals in six of their 12 league matches in 2008.
"I truly feel they're a team that if you can expose their backs, you can get after them, as many teams have," said Soehn. "I scouted a lot of games and they've had some big numbers put up against them as well. So we weren't able to possess the ball enough to put their backs under enough pressure, but I feel at our place we're going to be able to do that and hopefully expose some of their weak spots."
In need of at least two goals against 'Los Tuzos,' United can take heart from their four-goal explosion on Saturday, and will likely be able to look to captain Jaime Moreno for attacking inspiration as the crafty striker continues to work his way back to speed after a hamstring strain. The Bolivian remains short of full fitness, but his poise and skill make him too valuable not to be used in some capacity given what's at stake.
"Jaime's just such a smart player and he knows exactly when to manage a game," said defender Bryan Namoff. "Having him up there allows us to keep possession, just with his skill and ability in the attack, and that allows us to have that chance to rest a little bit on defense, whereas in the [Pachuca] game it felt at times that all we were doing was defending. He's going to give that capability of really holding onto the ball and allowing us to get our shape back in the attack."
Namoff and the rest of the Black-and-Red back line face a substantial challenge of their own, balancing the need to push forward and contribute offensively with the awareness that they simply cannot afford to concede another goal. At some point D.C. will likely have to depend on some individual heroics from goalkeeper Zach Wells, who will be keen to redeem himself after allowing Montes to beat him twice last week.
"I don't think we're down and out by a long shot," said Wells. "But we need to come back to RFK and prove why we're in the tournament in the first place, and prove that we can compete -- and that we can beat Mexican teams and the best teams in the region."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
