D.C. United stopped the bleeding and picked up a much-needed confidence boost with their 3-2 comeback victory against Toronto FC over the weekend. But while United were delighted to put an end to a four-game losing skid, Thursday night's road encounter with the Eastern Conference-leading New England Revolution presents a much stiffer challenge for the Black-and-Red as they look to build a winning streak and begin the long, hard climb up the standings.
"We have a good rivalry with them and it's important to get a result on the road and follow up two pretty good performances with another one," said D.C. head coach Tom Soehn. "One step at a time."
Despite earning a priceless three points from the TFC match, United still have a host of ails to address and there will be little margin for error against their northern rivals. Toronto striker Danny Dichio's double proved that the capital club continues to grapple with defensive issues.
"Getting the result was a positive, but we still have things to fix. As much as we put into the game and as well as we played, to keep it that close and the errors we made, we have to fix that," said Soehn of his team's breakdowns at the back. "We're going to make sure that we address them this week in a very firm way."
Soehn's recent switch back to a four-man back line has produced improvement, but inattention and uncertainty continue to crop up at inopportune moments. Toronto scored twice despite aiming just three shots on goal and the Canadian side came very close to finding a late equalizer with several chaotic set pieces, another reminder of United's uneven attentiveness.
"I feel like we need to talk more, and pick up guys sooner, because we can prevent both those goals," said D.C. midfielder Clyde Simms afterwards. "Our reactions need to be better when the ball is out of bounds or it's a free kick."
Goalkeeper Zach Wells has come under increased scrutiny for his role in those struggles, and the statistics suggest that he's underperformed since his offseason arrival in Washington. The former Houston and New York netminder has given up 16 goals to only 21 saves this year, and communication with defenders has been erratic at times. His coach expects him to show the same level of improvement displayed in United's other areas of play lately.
"Everybody has to [step up], and he's expected to do that the same as everybody else," said Soehn. "We've got to clean some things up, and we're going to watch some tape and make sure he's better on some of the decision-making."
Backup 'keeper Jose Carvallo is waiting in the wings, but as winger Santino Quaranta noted this week, there's also a powerful argument for maintaining stability as D.C. looks to play their way back into top form.
"You know another thing that was good, Tommy stayed with the same lineup," said Quaranta, alluding to Saturday's win. "I think it would've been easy for him to make changes early on in the second half, change the formation. But I think we all learned a lesson in staying patient in that game, so it worked out."
The trip to Gillette Stadium offers twin evils for D.C.: a road match on artificial turf. United remain winless in their last 12 away matches in all competitions, having to hark all the way back to a 4-0 league victory in Dallas last Labor Day weekend to recall their most recent road triumph. In addition, the team has surrendered five goals in two losses on FieldTurf surfaces this year, like the one in Foxborough.
But having played a key role in last week's offensive awakening, Quaranta sounds bullish about his team's prospects of reversing those trends as well.
"I know it's going to be a good game. We just have to work hard -- I thought we were much more unpredictable going forward this week," he said. "We got the ball wide at points, we attacked well. I just think we've got to get on the same page defensively."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
