This was just another meaningless friendly against a struggling recently relegated club. The score doesn't count, so the game doesn't matter, right?

That may be somewhat true, but this 4-0 victory for D.C. United was not completely without substance. It holds meaning in that it gave our new acquisitions more time to work together in a real 11 v. 11 match. Even if that match didn't matter, the performances and the teamwork of Pablo Hernandez, Branko Boskovic, and Danny Allsopp did.

United has had difficulty scoring all season in MLS play. They are last in the league in goals scored, and last in the league in points. They've attempted several different striker combinations, and none has worked with any consistently positive results.

Well United may have found their striker combination tonight. It's Hernandez and Allsopp. And they have certainly found their playmaker. It's Branko.

I expected United to win this match, but not necessarily in such a dominating fashion. I expected a closely contested first half with maybe a goal but not much more, and then for D.C. to pull away in the second half as the home team began to insert some fresh legs who hadn't been running around in 100 degree heat and Portsmouth to run out of substitutions.

Instead, we saw United take control of this match from start to finish. What makes me smile though is that this team would not have been able to do that two months ago. Maybe they would have still won, but there's no way that the early season D.C. United would have been able to put together this solid of a performance.

Hernandez and Boskovic appear to have changed the complexion of this team. Let's just hope that they're not too late.