Unlike the Quakes' home city paper, which only had a blurb about today's game on the back page and one snide joke in Geracie's column, the SF Chronicle had an actual article with an actual take about the Quakes (by Dwight Chapin): http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2002/08/31/SP127098.DTL
Tonight's game against DC showed to me the veracity of what Frank said: "I'm not making excuses, but not having a settled side hasn't helped us. We're a team that likes to bond, get a rhythm and play as a unit. And that's been tough to do. We've really missed Agoos and Dayak. They played really well together in the back all last year. Their leadership was a big factor in our success." When both of them can be back full-time, the Quakes will have recovered their leaders.
I was at the game in DC ... and the Quakes defense fell apart in the second half, after Rimando stopped Donovan on a clear chance, and then the DC defense averted another close call. If the Quakes had finished those chances, it would've been 4-1 and game over. But they failed, and the defense was overwhelmed, especially after an obviously out-of-condition Troy Dayak came into the game. Nick Rimando was superb for DC, and the Quakes defense failed in the second half. Not much more to say about the game other than it was quite an experience to sit near the field in DC (section 131, row 3) and have the entire stands jumping. For a Californian, it was too similar to an earthquake for my liking, but there was plenty of emotion in the crowd! (envy? yup! I wish that Spartan Stadium could generate the same type of atmosphere!)