Curt Onalfo is a dyed-in-the-wool optimist, and proud of it.
A cancer survivor, D.C. United’s head coach has overcome a number of daunting obstacles in his personal and professional life, and he’s not about to change that approach, even in the wake of a dispiriting 3-2 setback to Philadelphia Union on Saturday night, his team’s third straight loss of the young season.
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“Listen, if you’ve been around me long enough, you’ll find very quickly that I’m not a guy that puts my head down,” said Onalfo when asked afterwards about flagging morale in the United camp. “I’ve been through a hell of a lot worse and our group is going to get better. At the end of the day, this is going to make us a better team.”
Onalfo and several D.C. players took heart from the resourceful fight-back that enabled them to pull level in the second half after a miserable start to the match propelled the Black-and-Red into the locker room deservedly down 2-0.
United had shown little attacking danger and Onalfo responded by bringing on Jaime Moreno up top, moving Chris Pontius back to the left flank and shifting Santino Quaranta from a central playmaking role out to right wing.
The changes paid off when Quaranta’s solo effort cut the deficit in half in the 63rd minute, and that breakthrough was quickly followed by a classically opportunistic goal from Moreno to tie the game and quiet the rowdy home fans at Lincoln Financial Field.
“I thought our response in the second half was excellent,” said Onalfo. “Quite frankly, when we got the second, I thought we were going to win the game, or at a minimum, walk out of here with a point.”
But after clawing their way within range of a scarcely deserved share of the points, United couldn’t protect that stolen property and were undone 10 minutes later when Dejan Jakovic was sent off for a foul on Alejandro Moreno. Union striker Sébastien Le Toux completed his hat trick on the ensuing free kick.
“[Moreno] hooked me and all I did was just put my hand on him and he dropped right away,” said Jakovic, who struggled with the cunning Venezuelan all night. “I thought there was a lot worse tackles in the game -- for him to give me a red card for that was pretty disappointing.
For the third week running, United found a new way to lose -- and each successive setback is raising new questions about various areas of the squad. Little surprise, then, that others in the D.C. camp have found it more and more difficult to seek out the positives.
“To be honest with you, I’m just tired of saying, ‘What do I take from this game?’” lamented Jaime Moreno in a corner of the downcast D.C. locker room. “Very simple: We lost and we’re not good enough. We’ve got to know that and we’ve got to go back to work and figure it out -- how to win and how to become a better team.”
Now United face a tough matchup with the Chicago Fire at RFK Stadium next weekend, robbed of both first-choice center backs (Juan Manuel Peña injured his hamstring and seems likely to miss at least one match) and facing doubts about personnel, tactics and mentality.
“We need to sort it out,” said Jaime Moreno. “I don’t think we’ve started this bad before. It’s just very hard to understand what happened because we worked so hard during the week and come into the game and it seems like luck is not on our side. Players get injured, we get sent off. It’s hopefully not one of those years. But we’ve got to dig deep, work together and keep believing that this can turn around."
