Nowak fails to find the cure for United's ailments

The problem with being overly rigid is, well, all that stubborn rigidity. It gets in the way of solutions.

Let's suppose, for instance, that you run a soccer team. And let's say things start going sideways on you.

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D.C. United's Peter Nowak had no answers for his team's second-half slump.

Even if you can see through the clutter and plot a solution, you may be too darned inflexible, too fixed in your ways to set things straight.

This seems to be the case with Peter Nowak and his underachieving D.C. United lot.

Clearly the best side of Major League Soccer through April, May, June and early July, the Red and Black crackerjacks suddenly misplaced all that intensity, failed to ever regain speed and flatlined at playoff time for a second consecutive year.

On the one hand, Nowak's men didn't tumble quite as meekly from the postseason as they did in 2005. United squeezed through the first round this year, whereas 2005 will be remembered for that gruesome first-round implosion against Chicago.

But make no mistake about that wee bit of progress this year: United was lucky to be in the Eastern Conference final after maneuvering past Red Bull New York to open the postseason. Bruce Arena's hard-trying but clearly less talented Red Bulls pushed Nowak's men to the brink.

Suffice to say, the D.C. United of August, September and October was a shell of the team that flummoxed the field for nearly four months.

Did Nowak, a stern disciplinarian who offered in August that he "does not tolerate fatigue," simply grind the will and energy out of his team? Can all the blame be laid at his feet?

Maybe not all of it. More likely, Nowak's failure to loosen his tight grip exacerbated the team's issues. But the depth of the problems reached farther.

The quick history: D.C. United soared into 2006. Nowak, in his third year in charge, coaxed beautiful soccer from his confident roster, and the club won at a rate rarely seen in a league with abundant parity.

The United record was blemished only once by mid-July. Dynamic attackers Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno had the side dashing away with the Eastern Conference crown, flaunting a 13-1-5 mark.

United lost its way completely from there, closing on a frustrating 2-6-5 slide. The once-promising campaign ended in the Eastern Conference finals as Steve Nicol's crisp New Englanders struck early and held on.

Nowak's inflexible ways contributed to the good ship United running aground. But the absence of a firebrand forward, one who could truly menace opposition defenses, was also a prime factor. Everybody loves Alecko Eskandarian, and everybody wants him to be the healthy, productive professional he was before injuries scuttled his steady progress.

But the last goal the affable Esky provided for 2006 was against Real Madrid in that exhibition draw in early August. Since then: zilch.

Jaime Moreno? He had 10 goals on July 29. By the time United finished more than three months later, Moreno had but one more, finishing with 11. Clearly, he needed more rest later in the season.

Another factor in the downfall was a back line that went wobbly and never regained its feet -- even if things looked slightly better in the telling, elimination match against confident New England.

Somebody needs to identify and detain that scoundrel who began wearing Facundo Erpen's jersey sometime near the season's end. Always a little erratic anyway, the Erpen show degenerated into a total amateur hour during the two-game series against Red Bull New York.

As the organization polices up all the spent parts, United can also consider how it was a victim of an MLS competition format that surely hasn't landed at its final destination. As it is, the current system is all about timing. It practically punishes teams for early success.

All of United's success came early. A 14-game unbeaten streak removed all the mystery from United's season. The club was sure to make the playoffs, so there was simply no way to convince players in late July and August that the games truly mattered. Therefore, United forfeited that hard-earned edge it developed through the first three or four months.

Meanwhile, teams such as New York, and, to a certain extent, Chicago and New England, found it necessary to fight their way into the postseason. By the time they arrived, they already had that playoff edge about them.

Clubs develop pace and rhythm through a season. Find the cadence and keep the beat, and you are far more likely to prevail. But once a side loses the beat, it can be tough to regain. D.C. United players confessed that their 2006 campaign lost considerable momentum as they turned a little complacent during the season's back half.

"There's no question that we lost some of the hunger, some of the fight," veteran midfielder Ben Olsen said last week.

Nowak seemed to be swimming in denial. While things spiraled south in August and September, he blamed the officials at one point. But were the referees really at fault for a team with the fewest wins of any MLS outfit after the All-Star break?

That's right; every other MLS club had at least three wins after the Aug. 5 break in Chicago.

As for the playoffs: Some of Nowak's choices in the most telling match screamed for explanation. As United desperately searched for a game-tying goal, three of the four candidates most likely to supply the critical, game-changing moment had been removed from the field: Eskandarian, Gomez and Freddy Adu. Moreno, 32, hardly a factor to that point, was still on the pitch. While that deserves some explanation (Nowak was not available to speak to the media until later in the week), anybody paying attention could see the downfall coming, regardless.

Did Nowak and his tough-minded tenets wear out his players? He did lean on his regulars more than other playoff team. Eight starters logged at least 2,300 minutes this year. No other postseason participant had as many players in the 2,300 club.

Jaime Moreno played 2,700 minutes, or all but 180 minutes of the regular season. But it wasn't just the playing time that seemed to grind on players. Nowak's intensity seemed to, as well.

In all sports, managers who keep a fast grip on the tension line tend to prosper initially, especially if they follow a loosey-goosey "players' coach." The affable and eminently quotable Ray Hudson certainly qualifies as a players' coach.

So the players often respond favorably to a disciplinarian who brings order to a program. But we've also seen how players can tire of the hard-liner's message. What was effective in a loose locker room, one in need of some professionalism, may not work as the roster rounds into a more polished and learned bunch.

Sometimes the right man for the job in Year 1 or 2 is not the right man for the job once things are clipping along.

So, where does United go now?

Adu has told the Washington Post there are "serious talks" going on with European clubs. Moreno looks like the "oldest" 32-year-old ever. So, personnel tweaking is a given, especially with the expansion draft surely to take one other United man.

Club president Kevin Payne is leaving no question that he wants Nowak to return. But the manager, whose home is in Florida and who seems to have no particular attachment to the D.C. area, may be toying with the idea of managing in Europe.

Nowak has done so many positive things at D.C. -- including a league title in his first year in charge -- that he deserves another year to get it right. Other managers have figured it out. They just have to loosen that death grip a bit.

It's not about wholesale philosophical changes for Nowak. It's about recognizing the need for little adjustments as the locker room personality and the player-manager dynamic shift.

Steve Davis is a Dallas-based freelance writer who covers MLS for ESPNsoccernet. He can be reached at BigTexSoccer@yahoo.com.