DC United’s 3-0 victory over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday flowed directly from the two different approaches that the respective coaches chose. Tom Soehn reviewed the films of interim coach Gary Smith’s Rapids’ victory over Kansas City and correctly predicted that his rival would use a 4-5-1 a second time.

He chose to counter with a 3-5-2, placing the battle squarely in midfield. The Rapids chose to concede offensive space, pressing only as United approached the halfway line.

Smith hoped that the space behind the 3 defenders who would advance with their DC teammates could be exploited by his own dangerous flank players, Terry Cooke and Jacob Peterson.

In the event, his obvious ploy came up short due to excellent play by United’s solid pair of defensive midfielders, Clyde Simms and Joe Vide. Soehn explained their success, “When Clyde and Joe play together more, the understanding gets there and they know when to cover each other. Now they have the ability to read each other. “

His chosen style meant that DC would labor all night to break down a concentrated Rapids’ defense. He counted on a varied and energetic attack and was rewarded by his veterans and the youngsters he was forced by injury to employ.

As he put it, “The guys we injected today showed some life….The way they energized the game, I thought they did a pretty good job today.” It has taken most of a fractured season to gain some team coherence as newer players learned their roles.

“Through the course of a season you hope they’re in it long enough that they understand it’s just a piece within a …system. The guys are getting a bit of experience along the way and some of the young guys are understanding it.”

The Rapids chose to focus on closing down United’s impact players, like Luciano Emilio. In the 45th minute, the hard working Brasilian chose to modify his patented shield, turn, and shoot technique to lay a beautiful ball back to the charging Vide, who struck a fine shot to give DC the lead.

Soehn explained the simplicity of the move, “The game dictated that. Dropping everybody back in, it was hard to break them down. What ends up opening up when teams drop are outside the box shots like that.”

The second United goal came as Emilio once again set up a teammate, this time Tino Quaranta who rocketed the ball past Preston Burpo to seal the game for DC. The shot was spectacular enough to draw a wry comment from Ben Olsen that, “Tino’s a better than average flank player.”

Soehn was more effusive in his praise, “When Tino faces up against people, people have to be honest because you don’t know if he’s gonna beat you on the dribble or he’s gonna shoot, because he’s capable of doing both very well.”

For his part, Quaranta chose modesty, “All I can do is go out there and work hard and be honest and that’s what I do, or try to do, at least.” As he has come back from personal and injury issues, the once promising youngster seems to be maturing well, combining the focus that brought Jaime Moreno back from his own conditioning issues and the work ethic of his journeyman midfield mates.

Vide’s description of his collaboration with Simms, “We just play off each other. A lot of it’s not even really spoken.”, gets to the point that seems now to infect the whole team, “It’s nice playing with another blue collar worker in the middle.”

When players know that they can count on one another for support, it breeds confidence. New starting goalkeeper, Louis Crayton sees it, “DC is a very good team. They play very good football collectively.

“I’m from Basle. I know how we play. We are always under pressure so we don’t really keep the ball… That’s great. A team that has a lot of confidence in playing the ball around is very good in modern football.”

For his part, Soehn is pleased with Crayton’s contribution so far and his potential going forward, “The one thing you can really rely on, he’s got really good feet. The ability to bail out and give him the ball…He makes good decisions.”

Putting an exclamation mark on the evening, Quavas Kirk scored only seconds after entering the game in the 87th minute, tapping in the ball as Burpo was stunned by defender Bryan Namoff’s sharp header and could only parry the ball weakly away.

DC United has a final week of full practices before facing the Red Bulls next Saturday and beginning another long stretch of two games per week. It appears that Soehn may have had just enough coherent practice time to have his side finally on track.

Scoring Summary:
DC — Joe Vide 1 (Luciano Emilio 4, Ivan Guerrero 2) 45
DC — Santino Quaranta 3 (Luciano Emilio 5) 82
DC — Quavas Kirk 1 (unassisted) 87

Lineups:
Colorado Rapids — Preston Burpo, Jose Burciaga Jr., Facundo Erpen, Cory Gibbs, Mike Petke, Terry Cooke, Mehdi Ballouchy (Greg Dalby 46) (Christian Gomez 58), Nick LaBrocca, Pablo Mastroeni, Jacob Peterson (Colin Clark 46), Conor Casey,

Substitutes Not Used: Bouna Coundoul, Herculez Gomez, Kosuke Kimura, Tom McManus

D.C. United — Louis Crayton, Bryan Namoff, Gonzalo Martinez, Devon McTavish, Craig Thompson (Mike Zaher 75), Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms (Quavas Kirk 87), Joe Vide, Ivan Guerrero, Luciano Emilio, Jaime Moreno (Ryan Cordeiro 83),

Substitutes Not Used: Rod Dyachenko, Ben Olsen, Pat Carroll, James Thorpe

Statistics:
D.C. United / Colorado Rapids
Total shots: 15 (Luciano Emilio 3, Santino Quaranta 3) / 8 (Conor Casey 2)
Shots on goal: 7 (Luciano Emilio 2) / 4 (4 tied with 1)
Fouls: 10 (Craig Thompson 3) / 9 (Pablo Mastroeni 3)
Offsides: 1 (Ivan Guerrero 1) / 1 (Conor Casey 1)
Corner kicks: 7 (Ivan Guerrero 3, Jaime Moreno 3) / 4 (Terry Cooke 4)
Saves: 4 (Louis Crayton 4) / 4 (Preston Burpo 4)

Misconduct Summary:
COL — Mike Petke (caution; Handball) 69
DC — Craig Thompson (caution; Persistent Infringement) 72

Referee: Alex Prus
Referee’s Assistants: Nate Clement; Jeff Muschik
4th official: Shane Moody
Time of game: 1:51
Attendance: 17,283
Weather: Cloudy -and- 83 degrees