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2-1 over Chivas USA. Goals were by Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno (penalty kick), both in the second half.

DC United has played much better in the last two games against Chivas on Sunday and against the Revs last Thursday. Both games they cut down on the mistakes and managed to get a goal scored. Unfortunately, the trend of getting punished for *any* mistake also continued. Josh Gros got beat down the wing and fell over while trying to defend Galindo who ultimately scored from close range.

The shocker this game was Luciano Emelio starting on the bench and replaced by Guy-Roland Kpene (pronounced Ka-Penny). The young guy from the Ivory coast did pretty good. He brought a lot of energy and some skill to the field. He had the flick-on from a Ben Olsen cross that Gomez put in the net. He is not the finished product, as he got caught ball-watching or waiting for a ball to come to him on more than one occasion. But he can definitely keep up. I think you can see that he was a really good player at a lower level and just needs to acclimate himself to MLS-level.

Justin Moose started in Fred’s right midfield spot. He held his own offensively. He did better this time on the wing than his last time out as he was able to find space and move the ball forward in a positive way more often. Last time he had way too many backpasses and was unwilling to take on players. He seemed really out-of-his-depth. This time tho he did much better. He still had trouble defending though. he doesn’t seem to quite be sure of who he should be guarding and when. Strange because he defended very well in the center of the field before, maybe the wing has different responsibilities? It seems like it would be easier since you’ve got the sideline as your pal.

We’re showing that we have some real depth at the forward position and all across the midfield, provided everybody stays healthy of course. Kasali Yinka Casal and later Stephen DeRoux came in and gave good minutes. Casal is a guy I am really interested in. He is really raw, but he is blazing fast and has pretty good skill. Like Moose, he is much better offensively than defensively. Having those defenders behind him in a 442 helps a lot.

Overall, I thought the team did well. We were pretty evenly match for most of the match, although I do think we carried the play for the most part. Going up 2-0 was a fair scoreline at the time. Chivas put some serious pressure on us at the end and deserved their goal. We reduced the number of mistakes, but had more than against the Revs which was surprising. Troy Perkins came up with some really top notch saves.

So now, we don’t play again until the 19th at Toronto FC. That should give time for Fred’s and Clyde Simms’ ankles to heal up, and hopefully Devon McTavish’s hip flexor will be all better.

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