Draw tough to swallow for United

WASHINGTON -- There was no denying the fact that Saturday night's 0-0 draw against the New York Red Bulls at RFK Stadium felt more like a loss for D.C. United. But when that disappointment is grounded in the fact that Jaime Moreno -- team captain, club icon and all-time MLS goal king -- missed an 81st-minute penalty kick with the game on the line, it's hard to be anything but philosophical about the outcome.

"Listen, he's done so much, man," Santino Quaranta said afterward. "People expect him, all the time, to make it. It's not as easy as everybody thinks, and sometimes you miss. But he's our captain and I back him 100 percent. He's done so much for this club that he can miss a few more."

The 34-year-old Moreno has produced one gutsy display after another to marshal his squad through a trying season, and Saturday was no exception as the Bolivian held possession, linked play and cajoled his teammates into the ascendancy after a mediocre first half. So when he latched onto Quaranta's pass and got the better of Red Bulls center back Andrew Boyens to earn that crucial spot kick in the game's final stages, it looked like an altogether appropriate conclusion to a hard-fought game that featured the gritty tone shared by derby matches the world over.

But the tired, cramping Bolivian hit his spot kick with a bit too much power and a bit too much curve on RFK's damp grass, and the shot pinged inches wide of the post and thumped off the advertising boards behind Jon Conway's goal to leave United just short of the result they so desperately wanted.

"It's part of the game and unfortunately I missed an important penalty," Moreno said. "But that's life. It just wasn't a good penalty kick...These things definitely disappoint me a lot, but if I didn't take that many penalties, I wouldn't score that many goals either.

With the two sides deadlocked on points and hanging on to the Eastern Conference's final playoff spots, the 15,616 spectators in attendance were treated to a postseason-type atmosphere where full-blooded challenges were doled out freely and clear scoring chances were rarely granted.

"It's a competitive match. It should be," United coach Tom Soehn said. "I don't think we were very good with the ball in the first half. We had to make a few adjustments, but I thought the game was there to take had we been better with the soccer part of it in the first half...The buildup to the penalty was pretty good soccer. Unfortunately the result of the penalty didn't go our way.

Though they threatened Louis Crayton's goal on several occasions and nearly took advantage when the Liberian netminder embarked on several adventurous forays outside his own penalty box, the Red Bulls were largely content to stymie their I-95 rivals with bruising physical play and will feel gratified to secure a road point that simultaneously denies D.C. a huge boost.

"They're playing on the road, they knew we wanted three points and I think they came in, they wanted to get a counterattack goal and be solid with their shape defensively," Quaranta said of his former team. "I think in the second half we found more of a rhythm, switching it side to side. They were smart, they did well and they had chances, too. We cant say we dominated, because they had chances to score, too. But its tough to take because we miss a penalty."

With high stakes and plenty of mutual antipathy, the game almost spun out of referee Kevin Stott's control towards the end of the first half when tempers flared amid a succession of dangerous tackles on both sides.

"Yeah, we expected it," Crayton, who attended New York's 4-1 win over D.C. on August 10 just days after his initial arrival from Switzerland, said. "They're a pretty rough team, especially in the back. So we were prepared equally to be rough tonight."

United may yet rue the results of one such clash. Leading scorer Luciano Emilio came out on the losing end of a first-half collision with Kevin Goldthwaite and left the game with a groin injury, though Soehn holds out hope that the Brazilian will recover in time for Wednesdays U.S. Open Cup final against the Charleston Battery at RFK.

"He was feeling tight," the D.C. boss said. "He's a veteran and he knew when to pull himself out to make sure he's available. Well evaluate him more tomorrow."