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Thursday, November 18, 2004

Belated congratulations to DC's one true champion..

DC United has won its fourth MLS Cup!! Pretty impressive considering there have been less than 10 played...even more impressive is the fact that the team, during the regular season, was pretty mediocre.. I saw them play one game this season (New England) and came away with the impression that the MLS level of play had weakened since its inception.... Back in the first couple of years DC United counted with John Harkes and Etcheverry as playmakers and Arce as its principal weapon.. they had Pope and Sanneh on defense.. (if i remember correctly they all played at the same time give or take)...They were no Manchester United but they could play and it made sense that, even with some changes in personnel, they won the MLS Cup 3 of the first 4 years...The new team reminds me of my favorite club side Boca Juniors (of Argentina) whose main attribute is the will to win no matter how ugly.... Anyways, at the DC United game earlier this year I was favorably impressed by Kovalenko, Cristian Gomez (from Argentina of course who scored the loan goal), Moreno and the goalie...One of the problems with the MLS is that the championship is decided in the American TV friendly style of the playoffs... in the entire rest of the world WITHOUT EXCEPTION 40 games (Argentina has two half-seasons of 20 games) or more are played and whoever comes out with the most points win (then many countries feature a playoff style Cup played at the same time)... which I think is the way it should be..but here in the US the marketing "gurus" of the MLS wanted to come up with something like the Super Bowl or baseball playoffs so a team like DC United which finished the season with 11 wins and 10 losses thanks to finding its form during the playoffs is now champion (the MLS system is a combination of the european league and cup competitions!).. now, DC United plays by the same rules as everyone else and it is the champion fair and square.. but I have to wonder about this MLS system... I also have to wonder about the level of play in a league where such a mediocre team as DC United managed to become champion..I'll take it though... For all the talk about the Redskins, Capitals and Wizards DC United is the only championship team we have...

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