United 4, Toronto FC 1

As exhilarating as that 2nd half was, it shouldn't have been necessary. Maybe those 45 minutes won't negatively affect Olsen and Moreno this Tuesday night in Guadalajara, but the plan was clearly to give them both the night off, and when the starting eleven farted the first half away, Soehn had no choice:  dropping points against an expansion team at home is beyond inexcusable.

But beautiful goals, three of them, Burch's and Fred's and Emilio's (Moreno's was nice, but not stunningly beautiful), and the proper response, in the 2nd half, by a superior team with championship ambitions against an undermanned and overwhelmed expansion team.

Player development and depth: I would have predicted, after one month of the season, that this season's big discoveries would have been Rod Dyachenko and Guy Roland Kpene, not Devon McTavish and Marc Burch. I'm delighted about McTavish and giddy about Burch - that strike was breathtaking - but I was completely wrong about Dyachenko.

And as much as I want to be right about Kpene, I'm starting to think I was wrong about him too. It wasn't so much the two poor finishes - though he's got to bury that first one. There was a sequence late in the first half: Kpene, just over the midfield line, cleverly pushes the ball into open space, past a Toronto defender, and the defender, who had to spin around and race after the ball, with Kpene getting a two step head start, still beat Kpene to the ball. Kpene is quick, but he's shockingly slow. I still think there's something there, just not as much as I imagined, and I may be wrong about that too.

Bullets:

• Fred injured late, groin, making Tuesday iffy.
• Speaking of Tuesday, 10:15? No TV? (On Comcast Cable Montgomery County?)
• Simms had another outstanding game. Didn't see his emergence coming either.
• No Namoff? Good thing United was playing Toronto. A middle of Boswell and Vanney v Chivas? Oh shit.
• No 2nd half stoppage time? The game was over, and three more minutes wouldn't matter, but since when did MLS mandate a mercy rule?
• That Toronto kit is eye-hurting ugly.

Good quotes in Steinbergblog, which contains these fascinating two sentences:

And as a nine-year resident of D.C., I'll give another 10 to the supporters clubs and their D.C. flags. Regardless of the merits of their political position, it's something you would never see at any other sporting event in this metro area, and something that anyone who gives a damn about this city should think is cool, regardless of the single-minded bitterness of certain Metro columnists.

I mean, fvck Marc Fisher, but if anyone can provide more vicious and juicy insight on any and all of this, either here or at their own place, I'd appreciate it.