High-flying United head for mountains

dominating the whole field, just the last times I think the concentration in the last moments fell. Esky [Alecko Eskandarian] had the two breakaways, but he was supposed to finish one of them. Like I said, it was a tight game; there was a good fight from both teams."


TEAM NEWS


  • Nowak impressed with his side's response after the break, but lamented their inability to deliver the knockout blow.

  • "They really picked up the tempo, the rhythm, in the second half," he said. "We won a lot of 50-50 balls, (had) a lot of bodies in the midfield and we created chances. I hope that [this] week we're going to work on the finishing ... the last part, the concentration and the finishing wasn't very good."

  • Olsen's goal came with Arena on hand as the Black-and-Red honored their "Decade's Best XI," which included Arena as well as current stars Olsen, Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno and Nick Rimando - and the United brain trust made sure Olsen didn't forget it.

  • "The coaching staff has been killing me," he admitted. "All week they were telling me, 'the big man's going to be here, you better play good.'" It paid off: Olsen on Tuesday was named to the USA's World Cup team.

  • The United players were disappointed they couldn't come away with the equalizer in the second half.

  • "Yeah, you could tell as soon as they tied it up," said United winger Josh Gros. "They were happy with a tie; even the goalie was wasting time in the first half. They were being smart, playing on the road at our place - we usually win at our place."