Sheanon Williams looked to the ground disgusted, in a daze almost.
Unsure if he should provide a cliché response to the questions media types have barraged him with all season or vent his frustration to a season that has been anything but, Williams chose the latter following a 1-0 loss to D.C. United, Thursday.
“We are capable of scoring goals, I’ve seen it,” Williams began. “ I am not sure what it is, maybe a lack of focus, but we’ve done it before…what’s frustrating really is that we are better than [United]. I don’t care if they beat us 10 times, I still say we are better than they are. We keep losing to teams that we are better than and that has been the case all season. It’s getting old, man really.”
The Union’s winless streak has now extended to eight games following the loss, with just two goals in the last five matches, both arriving from defensive players. In fact, the last time an offensive player tallied for the club was Jack McInerney in a 2-1 victory against New England -- on July 29. McInerney, dubbed as a target striker has been solo up top, but surrounded by giants, even with all of Jack Mac’s deceptive speed and grit, finding the back of the net has been an enigma for him especially as of late.
“It’s tough, I mean I have played in a bunch of games now in which I am fine now and I am used to it,“ said McInerney. “But you can’t expect me to be up there by myself every time. Look, I am just doing what I can to help the team…I need someone to play off me and that I can lay balls off too or take that shot from distance and right now we don’t have a lot of that.”
But for Williams, it’s not about size. In fact to him, that's not the prevailing issue. Not even a little bit.
“We are not getting any bigger, I think all of our guys are done growing,” Williams quipped. “The difference between them is that they finish and we don’t. They get one chance all night and they bury it. We get a ton of chances and we can’t put them away. We can be as tall as we want, if it’s not going to help us finish anything then it doesn’t matter.”
The Union weren’t lacking chances in this affair. The final stat sheet claims there were 14 attempts on goal, five of which were on target. Zero in the back of the net.
Positives -- and there were few, was that this was the first Union-United affair this season in which cards were issued. Union midfielder turned defender Amobi Okugo gave another solid performance. Shots were aplenty, but they amounted to nothing for the home team and jolted D.C. to fourth in the Eastern Conference standings ahead of Houston and Columbus.
The Union will look to spoil Houston’s chances on Sunday (4 p.m., 6ABC) at PPL Park. But it’ll be a tough task for a team that can’t find a way to collect the only stat that matters most.
“We have to fix our mistakes,” said Union captain Carlos Valdes. “Too many teams are taking advantage of our mistakes and it’s why we can’t win these games we should win. Really, it’s as simple as that.”
