When referee Edvin Jurisevic's final whistle brought D.C. United's 2-0 victory against Kansas City to a close on Saturday night, Zach Wells threw both arms up, shouted a few impassioned words and punched the night sky like a player who'd just won a championship.
But the spontaneous celebration was more a commemoration of relief than joy: after four months and 17 games, United's goalkeeper had finally earned his first shutout of the 2008 MLS campaign.
"I don't think I can say it, to be honest," said Wells when asked afterwards about the content of his exclamation, before admitting that "finally" was the operative word. "It's a long time coming. We're just trying to get better every week, and as a team I thought we worked really well together. We were organized, everyone in the back played their guts out and it showed. ... It was a complete team performance."
Wells made eight saves on the night, but as he himself noted, owed much to the effort and organization of the squad in front of him. Making the most of their bye weekend, United's coaching staff had harped on the importance of team defending during training and saw the appropriate response from their players.
"That was probably one of my more satisfying games," said head coach Tom Soehn. "It was nice to have a full week to work on things, and especially with so many guys out, we wanted to make sure that we maintained the discipline, work hard and make sure that everybody took defending first. I don't think we created as many chances, but the dedication to working, getting back behind the ball and competing was tenfold better. That's what you need to get shutouts."
The Black-and-Red are counting the days until key starters like Gonzalo Peralta and Marcelo Gallardo return from injury. But the urgent need for points remains and Soehn's lineup choices against the Wizards revealed that exigency as relative newcomer Joe Vide was paired with Clyde Simms as dual anchors at the base of midfield.
The tactic moderated United's typical assertiveness in attack, but provided valuable cover for a young back line and made life difficult for a K.C. side which has now gone scoreless in their last 195 minutes of play.
"They didn't really have too many clear-cut chances, which was definitely our game plan going in -- getting guys behind the ball, just kind of preventing them and letting our attacking stars up top get it and make a difference for us," said Vide, who was picked up on waivers barely two weeks ago. "The formation we set out was obviously a little more defensive than probably everyone's used to seeing, but it worked out for us and we played well enough to get a victory today."
Vide is an old hand around RFK compared to his former Earthquakes teammate Ivan Guerrero, who arrived from San Jose just a few days ago only to find himself clocking 90 minutes along the left flank on Saturday night.
"Today a lot of guys stepped up and did a real good job," said Soehn. "Ivan showed his value, what he brings. He's a tireless worker, fits in with the dynamics of how we play, and Joe Vide stepped in and did a solid job in the middle."
While recent recruits did their part, it fell to United's most enduring personality to produce the necessary inspiration in the attacking third. Jaime Moreno set up Luciano Emilio for his 28th-minute opener before netting a crafty glancing header off Marc Burch's free kick to ice the win in the second half, pushing his league-record career scoring total to 119 goals.
Afterwards Soehn hailed his 34-year-old captain's "relentless" mentality, while teammates offered generous praise of their own.
"Jaime -- what can you say?" said Simms. "It's Jaime, it doesn't really surprise me any more when he has performances like this. But he stepped up and I think everyone did the job defensively. ... Ultimately it was a well-played game as a team and we got the result because of it."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
