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While our friend AMT celebrates his wedding nuptials in the proper manner (congrats to him and his better half!), let's take a look at what those in the media are saying about D.C. United's 4-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo.
What they're saying:
Goff: Hamid upended Kandji, who had latched onto Corey Ashe's long ball. Hamid said he didn't think he made any contact, although replays appeared to contradict him. Davis rifled the penalty just beyond Willis's stretch. "First look, I had no problem" with referee Jasen Anno's decision to award the penalty and send off Hamid, Coach Ben Olsen said. "Bill is a young goalkeeper. He's still going to have these games every now and then where he doesn't make the right decision."
Salazar: There were a million different reasons - excuses even - to explain away D.C. United's 4-0 loss at the hands of the Houston Dynamo on Sunday night, but not a single one was good enough for Head Coach Ben Olsen. "I thought we could have been meaner, I thought we could have been angrier," Olsen said when asked about his team's response to the mountain of adversity they faced at BBVA Compass Stadium. "I thought our shape could have been better and you keep the game 1-0 as long as you can. We got a little stretched, and we got impatient."
Chamberlain: Trailing 2-0 at halftime, and down to ten men after goalkeeper Bill Hamid was red-carded in the 17th minute, United created very little going forward in the second half, while Houston continued to attack Joe Willis' goal.
Maurer: What's most unfortunate about the blunder is that United had been thoroughly dominant in the game's first 15 minutes, doling out pressure on the home side from the opening whistle. Forward Chris Pontius led the charge, firing off three shots in the first 10 minutes alone. The ejection-which was Hamid's second in as many seasons-forced Olsen to shuffle things around a bit. He responded by pulling Branko Bošković out and dropping DeRo deeper into midfield. The Dynamo spent the rest of the evening running circles against an undermanned and exhausted DCU side, out-shooting it two-to-one and out-possessing them by an equally ridiculous margin.
BLCKDGRD: Pontius had the ball on his foot in a situation where he'd scored all season and he gacked the shot, three minutes later Hamid stupidly dumps a Houston striker in the box, a turd of a game was assured. St Benny of Olsen made standard complaints about work rate and heart, what else is he going to do?
Many are placing blame for the loss on Bill Hamid. I know, I'm one of them. Others are placing blame on Robbie Russell, or Maicon Santos, or Ben Olsen, or Erick Thohir (we're 0-1 under the new owners!). There is no individual player or decision that can be held solely responsible for the loss though. This was a team loss. We'd all have liked to see how different the match would have been with 11 players on both sides. The score might have been different, but I think the result would have been the same. A team loss. The Dynamo played well enough to deserve a win, and we didn't. We may have controlled the tempo in the first few minutes, but we did that against the New York Red Bulls recently too, and still lost.
Its concerning that the best road win that United has this year is over the New England Revolution. And the only road draw is over the Vancouver Whitecaps. Winning at home and against weaker opponents on the road will get you into the playoffs, but it won't get you any trophies. United will get the chance to end that trend on Saturday night against the Columbus Crew.