Well. Columbus was a game, wasn't it? I mean, we played pretty well, until that damned red card to Salinas. Camillo...other than trying to take on the world by himself he looked pretty good! Seemed to me that we had the run of play, and had the better chances, and yet the same old same old managed to take us down. Oh the life of a Caps fan.

So, Tom Soehn no longer has the excuse of "we've won all our home games!" In fact, he doesn't even have "we're undefeated at home!" anymore. And, judging by the play, he probably deserved at least that. So it goes. Below you'll find my keys facets of the game:

1) First half. We looked pretty good. Had some good chances, and frankly Camillo played well beyond what I expected of him in that position. He did try to do too much alone, and his yellow was absolute crap, but he clearly came to play tonight. Of the Caps, he gets my Tip-o-the-hat for the night. We looked steady in the back, even with Leathers playing on his wrong side, and for once I can't say it's all because Rochat was his usual near-to-Montreal-born superhuman-self (I forgive him his surrender-monkey heritage).

2) Missed penalty by Terry D. What the hell was that? The guy at halftime could have saved a shot like that! This goes squarely on Tom Soehn . He picks the kicker. He picked wrong. Did he not see the game Camillo was having? Or, say, any other player who had been on for more than 5 minutes?

3) Red card to Salinas. This was utter bullshit. I had said not five minutes before to my MLS-rookie buddy "the reffing tonight hasn't been great, but it has been pretty good for MLS!" Then that shit happens. Was it a yellow? Maybe. I say with no benefit of replay, maybe. Was it a red? Not on your life. And yet, other than playing a little more offensively than I would have liked, being down a man, the Caps did ok. Kept their head's above water at least. But then Columbus scored. That was it. Sure, we could play as offensively as we liked, being down a goal (even short a player), but it was not looking like it would come off. We got beat in the 90' minute. That sucks. Sucks more that *boom* Joe Cannon was flat as a Tennessee armadillo on the play. Would Nolly have saved it? Probably not. But he would have moved, and that's something. The real kicker is that the most positive thing I can say is "this felt like a Teitur game." We were in it until late, debatably even out-playing Columbus. Then we concede a late goal. 

4) Tom Soehn. Yeah, he gets the 4th spot on this list. Nanchoff? Really? I noticed Terry Dunfield, see #2 above, but I didn't even realize until I checked the stats that there had been another sub. So, and keep in mind this is before the red card, you chose to take off our striker in favour of another midfield player? Leaving just Camillo? Sure, he was having a beast of a game, but he can't do it alone. He's 2 foot tall, for goodness sake! Poor choice. The, after the red, nothing. No reaction. No bringing on another defender. No compensating. Nothing. Just yelling at the ref, as if that will have any effect. Well done Tommy. I was chanting "It's all Tommy's fault!" with a number of other Southsiders on the way to the match, and I fee vindicated with that. You suck, Tom Soehn. 

That's about all I can say with regard to that. Another late-match collapse. Piss-poor managing, and unfortunate (but all too common to be surprising) reffing. Another match in the books, another loss, and another notch in my "reasons to fire Tom Soehn if he can't make a splash like a fat man doing a (Joe) cannon-ball" stick. That's 7 games for Soehn. He is now 1W-4L-2T. After sever matches, Teitur was 1W-3L-3T. My math says TT was better. Haters gonna hate, but the math don't lie.  

So, what's next? On a scale of 1-10, how important is the next game against Colorado? Can Soehn be forgiven as just resting players? Do I need to purchase more of the new BIG beers at the stadium to counter my frustration? Although not confirmed, do I read into the fact that Maloud Akloul wasn't listed in the programme tonight? Who do we target July 15th?