Just like the opening to their MLS season, this week another tense 2,000-mile journey has ended in another tough loss in central Mexico for D.C. United. Having crashed out of the Copa Sudamericana with Tuesday night's 1-0 loss to Chivas de Guadalajara, United have again prolonged their trip -- just like the opening to their MLS season -- to jump right back into league play, this time with a Friday night match in Kansas City.
The dreaded "international hangover" struck United after April's CONCACAF Champions' Cup loss to Chivas, in the form of a three-game losing streak to open the regular season. There's no margin for a similar slide at this late date, with a second consecutive Supporters' Shield in United's sight as New England and Chivas USA follow in hot pursuit.
"I think the mentality was a little bit more lax [in April]," said midfielder Ben Olsen. "Now we come back and we're in another race, another tournament, so to speak -- that's the Supporters' Shield. That's our focus now and that's a three-game series, essentially. And then we have playoffs, so there's a lot to refocus on."
D.C. players say their bodies have acclimated to the stretch run and its quick turnaround time between matches -- and in any case, the stress of their international exploits is not going to elicit any sympathy among their MLS counterparts.
"It's tough, right in the midst of a competition like this, to go from that kind of a game to a league game and then back to what we've got ahead of us in such a short time span, but there's no excuse," said goalkeeper Troy Perkins over the weekend. "We need three points for the Supporters' Shield and that's what our main focus is, because we win that, we get to play in these competitions again."
But for all the urgency of the league scene, it's clear that this latest defeat at the hands of Mexico's most famed club has taken a particularly harsh toll on D.C.
"Everyone realizes that we just have to get that loss out of our minds right away. There's no time to dwell on it," said defender Devon McTavish on Thursday. "We have three games left where we need to get three wins, so now we just get past it. I'm not sure how to do that right now. We're going to try to fix that, and go back [Friday] and get a result."
For a squad has battled gamely but fallen short in five international competitions since 2005, close calls and moral victories leave an increasingly bitter taste.
"It was another tough result for us in the Jalisco Stadium. That place doesn't seem to be too kind to us. We were extremely disappointed," said Olsen. "It adds to the frustration that this is the second time where we feel like we've been close down there and come away with nothing."
United struggled to sustain possession in the face of a buzzing Chivas side that limited the ambition of the Black-and-Red attack, fostering the temptation to sit deep and guard their first-leg lead.
"They did a great job of pressuring us," said McTavish. "If we ever did find the open man, they left tons of space -- we just couldn't ever find him. It was tough."
Defensively, United looked vastly more comfortable than in the ragtag 2-1 first-leg win at RFK Stadium. But the MLS side was given a harsh reminder of the extremely tight margins by which top-level matches are decided when Chivas captain Ramon Morales blasted a loose ball past Troy Perkins with what Olsen called "an unbelievable strike" for the game, and series, winner in the 64th minute.
"A couple plays here or there is the difference, especially in international soccer and that's where you see it. You have one guy, Morales, who makes an incredible play and all of a sudden they're going to the [quarterfinals] of the Copa Sudamericana," said Olsen. "We take away from that game the sense that we played OK, we did enough. But they pulled off a big play."
United must now wrench their gaze forward and summon their focus for a Wizards side desperate to safeguard a playoff place endangered by its 2-6-1 record since July.
"There's not many surprises at this point in the season. Everybody knows each other and you know what teams' strengths and weaknesses are," said Olsen. "I know they are in a situation where they need some points as well. That's going to be the theme here in the next couple games."
For now, United's domestic goals are all that's left to soothe the pain of watching Chivas move on to tangle with Argentinean side Arsenal de Sarandi in the Copa Sudamericana's next round.
"The one positive out of all this is, we get to focus on this task of getting the Supporters' Shield. We're not traveling 10 hours Monday or Sunday night to Argentina, and then coming back for another important game on the weekend," said Olsen. "We'd rather be there, we'd rather be in the [quarter]finals, but this is what happened and now we'll move on and see if we can't salvage the last two remaining things we can get out of this season."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
