WASHINGTON -- D.C. United entered Tuesday night's CONCACAF Champions League opener against Deportivo Saprissa with their backs against the wall, as the team's already-long list of walking wounded seems to grow longer with every passing day.
This week it was Jaime Moreno and Ivan Guerrero's turn to be bitten by the injury bug, further complicating head coach Tom Soehn's lineup choices and pushing two rookies into the first XI, which also included Luciano Emilio and Zach Wells, both some ways short of full fitness.
United's outlook was further darkened when Walter Centeno grabbed an early goal just over a half-hour into the match, and within minutes another unkind twist of fate was delivered courtesy of Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez. The man in the middle dealt defender Devon McTavish a harsh red card that forced the undermanned Black-and-Red to spend the rest of the evening in pursuit of the ball, the possession-happy Costa Ricans and the match itself.
"We knew it was going to be tough," said Soehn afterwards. "I think the difficult part has been having to manage getting guys on the field. You're not having to coach too much, you're patching up things and it's pretty difficult. We fought through this. Jaime and Ivan weren't available, so you deplete yourself a little bit more and when you're shorthanded, getting a red card really, really hurts. Any time you get a red card it hurts, but especially when you're shorthanded."
There didn't seem to be excessive malice in McTavish's challenge on Alexander Robinson, but Rodriguez based the ejection on his judgment that the defender continued to play after the whistle was blown for a prior foul by Santino Quaranta.
"I didn't really see much to it," said Wells of McTavish's sending-off. "The ref had already blown the whistle and I think Devon was just kind of playing, because whistles go off all the time. He was just finishing the play and I thought I saw Devon get the ball. [Robinson's] on the ground and only when the ref starts to pull out the red card does the guy really start to whine and moan on the ground, and act it up a little. ... It's just bizarre that you would get a red card that early in the game when it hasn't really been chippy or anything."
While the decision mystified United's players and coaches, their frustration was tempered by fatalism as the team ponders its long-running string of misfortune. Despite the Costa Ricans' numerical advantage, D.C. hauled themselves back into the game in the second half, only to see Saprissa netminder Keilor Navas produce two scintillating saves to deny well-hit free kick blasts by Marc Burch.
"I think we were a bit unlucky on both goals, where we poked the ball away and it winds up straight at their feet," said Wells. "It's the way our luck was going. Their 'keeper has a blinder and the ref isn't helping us at all. Playing down a man for 65 minutes, it just makes things more difficult."
While the home loss certainly represents a setback for the Black-and-Red's Champions League hopes, Soehn remains optimistic about the group matches to come -- provided some reinforcements arrive from the training room sooner rather than later. On Saturday United flies west for a league match against Los Angeles and will then proceed directly to Honduras for a CCL showdown with CD Marathon.
"There's five more games. But we need to get healthy," said the second-year boss. "We need our bodies on the field. We have to keep grinding it out until we get there."
One such body is midfielder Fred, who's recently been nagged by hamstring issues but showed well against Saprissa after coming off the bench to start the second half.
"It was a difficult match, especially with a man down for us," said the Brazilian. "We didn't have many opportunities. All we have to do now is keep working hard and hopefully we can get a good result when we go down and play them in Costa Rica."
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