WASHINGTON - A suddenly shorthanded D.C. United fended off a spirited challenge from the Chicago Fire on Wednesday night, relying on a cracking goal from Clyde Simms to notch their eighth victory of the season and prolong an eight-game unbeaten streak.
The win maintains United's unblemished home record in 2006 and keeps them firmly atop the Eastern Conference table. But with the club missing several key attackers and now facing the loss of captain Jaime Moreno after a 77th-minute lower leg injury, even head coach Peter Nowak admitted that the evening was more about grit than glamour.
"You know, in the middle of the season it's always difficult to find your legs, especially these kind of weather conditions," said the former Fire star. "After a couple of games, right now we don't play our best soccer, that's for sure. But we survived."
Having missed much of the early season through injury, Simms has recently turned in a series of increasingly confident performances in the center of the park, and his 17th-minute strike from long distance - the first of his MLS career - was just reward for a strong display all over the field.
"That first goal is very exciting," said the East Carolina University graduate. "I just got the ball off center to the right and had it on my dominant foot, my right foot, and no one stepped up, so I just decided to hit it. I tried to keep it hard and low, and luckily it came up well."
Both Simms and his coach alluded to the strategic thinking behind such long-range shooting.
"There's a logic in that," explained Simms. "When you're hitting good shots from the outside, those defenders now have to step up. They can't bunker in and clog all those holes up, so that creates a lot of space in behind them. So after you hit a couple good shots and the defenders step up, you can play around them and play through them a little bit easier."
Even more crucially, Simms constantly tracked back to support D.C.'s back line as Chicago laid siege on Troy Perkins' goal in the second half. As he grows more comfortable in his partnership with fellow holding midfielder Brian Carroll, Simms is doing all he can to make sure that United doesn't suffer from the World Cup-enforced absence of inspirational midfielder Ben Olsen.
"Clyde was outstanding in the last couple of games," said Nowak. "He and Brian understand each other very well, so they put together tremendous work. They cover all the spaces and I'm really proud of them, how they figure it out. They read the game very well, both of them.
"And Clyde is not only a defensive midfielder, he's trying to go forward. We need to create advantages on the field as much as we can, considering that we don't have options up top, so I'm glad they did today."
Moreno's injury leaves a dark cloud over an otherwise encouraging night for the Black-and-Red, with the Bolivian taken to the hospital after being stretchered off the field following a tangle with Fire defender Gonzalo Segares.
Any significant damage to Moreno would come at an exceedingly poor time for D.C.'s normally high-powered attack, as the club finds itself undermanned in the midst of a demanding stretch featuring five matches in 17 days. United had already lost winger Dominic Mediate to a concussion shortly before halftime on Wednesday, while Alecko Eskandarian is presently sidelined by an MCL sprain and Santino Quaranta continues to struggle with a hamstring strain.
But Nowak seems well prepared to grind out results if need be, as he displayed with a packed midfield and a lone striker against the Fire.
"We had to change some things, we have a couple of injuries that forced us to change the whole system," he said. "So it wasn't pretty, but as I said, in this part of the season you have to survive and we did today."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
