Columnist Nick Green has written 100 Percent Soccer
since 2005. A
native of England, he began writing about soccer in
the mid-1980s and in 2000 permanently exchanged a seat
in the stands for one in
the press box. He lives six miles from Carson's Home
Depot Center, home of the Los Angeles Galaxy, Chivas
USA and the training headquarters for U.S. Soccer.
Married to a long-suffering soccer widow, he has a cat
named Pele.Chivas USA Post-game
After United's second half collapse, Coach Tom Soehn kept the locker room doors firmly closed for more than a half hour for the first time this season to conduct an internal postmortem.
When he finally did emerge, he looked grim, spoke tersely and softly and generally looked like an employee awaiting a pink slip anytime now.
"We're all held accountable players, coaches everybody," he said. "We gave away the ball too much. In the end we gave them a lot of confidence about how to put pressure on us."
"We threw caution to the wind after they scored, started taking chances and taking risks and they punished us."
So what did he say to his players in the locker room anyway?
Well, this was a common refrain from several players and Soehn:
"Games aren't won over 60 minutes, they're won over 90 minutes."
Jaime Moreno went with the simplest explanation: "We're making mistakes, very simple. That's what we've got to eliminate."
Putting Jesse Marsch back into midfield at the start of the second half was in part to give the defensive midfield more bit and in part to protect young Dan Paladini from picking up a second yellow, so he was pushed out wide right.
You sensed Preki was relieved to escape with this one: "I wasn't sure who I was going to play in the back."
Marsch sounded similarly relieved: "We needed a break. We got the break," he said. "I've been looking for something to rally around so hopefully this can be a turning point."
Oh, and Sueno was "very happy."
Game details here.
Here's how The Washington Post's Steven Goff saw the game