Says Javier Martina:

"From my point of view, there are only two teams who are really better soccer teams, and that's Seattle and Real Salt Lake. Other than that, not even Los Angeles or New York are all that different [from us].

That was among the funnier tidbits I found in this article.  I'm no fan of LA's style of play, and I'm no fan of RBNY/NYRB, but...that's quite a boast there.  Especially coming from someone on a team with such a fantastic defense and great technical players.  And of course the pretentiousness, lamenting about the use of the "MLS-style long ball" from his teammates.  Maybe all those trades will help Toronto out...but hopefully Dallas hands them a nice heap of goals in the meantime.

For different reasons, I think, DC United has some company in the department of fallen powers.  New England slid into a decline around the same time as the Black & Red.  Taylor Twellman's career was ruined in 2008, and with it New England's most dynamic attacker.  Ralston was in and out of the line up for the past 2 seasons until finally retiring this year.  Michael Parkhurst left for Europe, taking care of their best defender.  They traded Jeff Larentowicz, an excellent partner to Sharlie Joseph, to Colorado for a pair of emergency backups in Burpo (out) and Gibbs (not too great cover). Steve Nicol has been able to guide the team into the playoffs through sheer defensive discipline, but it doesn't look like they'll make it this year.

Here's what I see in the Revolution: a bunch of youngsters, a bunch of fill-ins, and two stalwarts in Joseph and Reis (both out for a good stretch).  Doesn't look like a particularly great system.

And then there's the outside competition stuff: New England can win in the Superliga, yet not in the league.

I don't think their ownership cares too much about the team either.  Nicol probably struggles to find good players in the bargain bin (what else explains the lack of high-quality players?), and plenty haven't worked out.  They have a stadium because it happens to be there thanks to their more-favored sibling in the Patriots.

I'm seeing an awful lot of similarities.  Both franchises need to be uprooted and rebuilt, but whereas DC doesn't have the resources for that, I don't see the leadership up north really wanting to.  Tell me if I'm missing something.

*As an added note, I'm not accusing Will Chang of abandoning DC.