United 1, Chivas 2

Three minutes before Jaime missed the PK I had turned to a friend behind me and said, Whenever I say something critical of Jaime Moreno he proves me wrong, so while I obviously wish he'd scored, all praise to Jaime Moreno, a true professional, the best United player on the field both last games.

That's the problem. When a 34 year old with a strained abdominal muscle is, by a large margin, the best player United can field, just how thin is United?

Chivas is better, has more, better players, more, better athletes, and the regulars United started are getting ever more knacked, more cooked. It's a testament to United's will that they could have drawn, maybe won - both Emilio and McTavish hit posts - but how much longer can this core hold? Tom Soehn looked down his bench in the second half and judged no one was worth playing, and he was right.

It's games like this - which I adore, mind - that remind me how rinkydink MLS remains (and how far MLS has come from truer, deeper, rinkydinkiness). The eleven United started would have beat any MLS team last night comfortably, but United's depth of talent, both quantitatively and qualitatively, vis a vis a major Mexican side, is glaring. Rod Dyachenko? Please.

The most important game of the next three in eight days is the make-up MLS game v Houston a week from Tuesday, so who knows who plays this Tuesday v a crappy Atalante. Namoff, Simms, Martinez, McTavish, Moreno, Emilio ALL need a break, and who would replace them? Rod Dyachenko? Pat Carroll? Please.

(And wtf has happened to Fred? Nagging knocks? Head? Stupid? He's almost worse than useless. Let me repeat myself: he either was never very good or he's regressed terribly. You pick.)

Lights out?

No, not at all. But games like this remind me just how far United, and MLS, still have to go. Which is why these games are valuable.

DCENTERS debriefing is up, with standard linky goodness, PLUS! D finds definitive proof of Fire pussiness!

Not that anyone needed proof.

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David Moyes has the number of Deportivo striker Riki and he's not going to lose it.

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