Thirty-one shots. Three and a half expected goals. A 2-1 loss at home. D.C. United were comprehensively the better side against Charlotte and lost anyway, in a game that took a real bite out of what was left of the playoff picture. Jon and Ted give it a few days, look at the table, and work out how bad it actually is. Louis Munteanu had the best game he has played in a D.C. shirt — ten shots on his own, three chances created, lively and dangerous on the left, and for the first time this season a player who made the people around him better. Not everyone agreed; two on target out of ten will do that. Jon's question for the frustrated: who else on this roster was taking those shots, and would they have finished them? One of the ten came off the underside of the bar and probably crossed the line. Probably. There is no truly definitive angle, because every camera in this league is off to the side or behind, and Ted — who referees — explains exactly how confidently an angle will lie to you. Put a neutral in the VAR chair with those images and they can't tell you either. Which puts the blame on MLS: buy goal-line technology, or at minimum point a camera at the goal line. The detail that stings is that the national missed-calls show didn't even bring it up. "We don't matter at all." D.C.'s goal was a Keisuke Kurokawa cross headed in by Lucas Bartlett, the club's third-leading scorer, which tells you where the goals come from. Charlotte's winner was Allan Saint-Maximin's first in MLS, and the guys walk through the three players who let it happen — Kimito Nono forced into a choice, Brandon Servania caught in no man's land, and Nathan Ordaz, a fresh sixty-fifth-minute substitute, jogging back while his team defended an odd-man rush. Then René Weiler. After a season of pointing inward — at his players, at what the club spends — he pointed outward for the first time, at the replay, with enough heat that Jon figures he'd have brought a printout to the podium if Audi Field had a photo printer nearby. He also declined, pointedly, to talk about the playoffs. Jon liked seeing him defend his players. Ted read a facade starting to crack. Plus the listener questions, which this week were all variations on the same one. Jason 1551 asks if D.C. are officially toast — not officially, but the bread is getting crispy. Luigi DeGuzman asks what's left to play for. And Brandon Zebron asks for a keep-or-replace on the entire matchday squad, which turns into the longest segment of the show: who's under contract, who's gone in December, why almost the whole bench turns over, and why Matti Peltola is probably sold in January whether anyone likes it or not. Underneath all of it is the tiebreaker. Six wins. All those draws keep you breathing right up until they don't. Vancouver away next, without both designated players. IN THIS EPISODEThe Richmond Kickers sell their head coach mid-season — and Jon's copper wiresDC United 1-2 Charlotte: thirty-one shots, 3.4 xG, and a home lossLouis Munteanu's ten shots and his best game in a DC shirtThe people who still weren't happy, and Jon's answer to themWhy this roster can't play like that every weekKurokawa to Bartlett, and a team that lives on set piecesAllan Saint-Maximin's first MLS goal, and the three players who let it happenNathan Ordaz jogging back, and a contract that runs through 2029René Weiler points the finger outward for the first time all season"I don't want to talk about the playoffs"The goal that wasn't: bad angles, no goal-line technology, and a missed-calls show that skipped itLuigi DeGuzman: what's left in the rest of the season?Brandon Zebron: keep or replace, the starting eleven and the benchKye Rowles, a green card, and a raise that costs less against the cap
