DC United vs Montreal: The live Experience

The last and only time I was at RFK Stadium was for a World Cup Qualifier between the United States and Cuba. That game ended 6-1 in favor of the Americans. Tonight was a different game, a different atmosphere and a different time in my life. DC United put up quite a show and delivered only their third game of the season in a rainy finish in the capital city.

Washington DC is a different place from Portland, Oregon. The crowds headed towards downtown aren't all chanting for the team, some don't even know the team exists. In fact, the one other obvious fan on his way to the game was wearing a Manchester United jersey underneath a Sounders rain jacket and hat. It wasn't until much further down the line that we saw DC United fans and they were ready for the match.

The eroding stadium that is RFK still maintains a certain pedigree due to all the history. DC United is the only major team that calls it home after the Redskins and Nationals both got their own, much-newer homes. DCU might get their stadium soon, hopefully. And yet the crowds were a bit more colorful, more cosmopolitan and decidedly East Coast.

Our seats tonight were at the very edge on the west side of the stadium near the goal line. So far forward that we could have been easily hit by a wayward ball. It was an on-field experience and every call and strike of the ball by the players could be felt by us. The Luis Silva goal was as magical in design as it was due to our distance. This kid is underrated indeed.

United controlled much of the first half and was the better team both offensively and defensively. As the second half began, Montreal asserted itself and scored a sublime tally right on the same goal we had witnessed Silva's strike. It was game on and DC had let down its guard. But Olsen fought back and replaced DeRosario with Conor Doyle, who had just recently been sent on loan from Derby County. Just minutes later, Olsen's gamble paid off and Doyle scored the go-ahead goal. It should be noted that his was his first goal in his senior soccer career.

As the game drew to a close, both teams continued seeking the goal. By then, the rain had started and was getting heavier every second that passed. It was in a dream breakaway during stoppage time that Jared Jeffrey put a final touch on a 3-1 score line that truly did the game justice. But it was the incessant chants of the Montreal Impact faithful, cornered in the smallest spot at RFK, and the hundreds of fans ready to put on their DC United ponchos to counter the rain, and the smile of the one guy without rain gear, without a semblance of expression on his face as the summer evening downpour continued that really got me. This was a true soccer fan. Alone with his thoughts and inner passion, knowing that his team's season had been over for a while now, he let himself soak in the game, the sport, and the atmosphere. This wasn't just his capital city, it was his capital sport.

Unbreakable: Charlie Davies

Charlie Davies, former US national team starter and Sochoux striker, will return to the pitch after nearly 18 months of inactivity due to a severe, deadly car accident. He will not do it in France, however. Instead, his trade has been taken up by DC United of Major League Soccer. It is a fitting reboot for the promising young attacker and one we shall be watching with great interest throughout the season.

Charlie Davies' story is one of heartbreak and disappointment, of miracles and resurrection, of sports and life, of love and fear, of courage and serenity. On the night of October 13th, 2009, Charlie broke US national team curfew to spend time with friends to celebrate the US' qualification to World Cup South Africa 2010. Destiny had other plans.

It was in the Washington, DC area that the car he was riding in went off the road, killing a passenger and severely crippling him. Broken bones, face, lacerated bladder, brain bleeding and little hope for a return to the soccer field. It is fitting, perhaps, that he has chosen to return to the scene of such pain in order to reclaim his spot in planet football.

I speak of Charlie in this way because I too had a similar accident. I didn't return to the field, no. My journey lay along a different path. But I stayed true to what I wanted to do in life and became more than I could ever have hoped. I can say that I understand his pain and his desire to live.

My family and friends spent long hours of vigil as autumn gave way to winter of 1998 in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, hoping that I may wake up from this nightmare. It was their strength and belief that empowered me and which gave me the willpower to move again, to talk, to walk. Charlie saw the same. But for him it was the hearts of millions worldwide following on the internet, television and at the stadium, urging him to fight, to believe, to dream, asking him to be their hero. We shall always remember the 9th minute of the US - Costa Rica match, as fans in the stands jointly raised cutouts of the number 9, Charlie's number.

Charlie had a long recovery period with near-miraculous results. So much so that the Sochoux squad was hopeful of having him play the final matches of the 2009/2010 tournament. There was also still talk that he might suit up in South Africa. For me it was the same... from paralysis to walking unaided in just over a year.

As fate would have it, first team action was hard to come by for a Sochoux team deep in strikers. It was clear that he would not play in Ligue 1 this season and that he would have to be loaned in order to see time on the pitch. Then DC United stepped in. Coach and former-player (and team mate) Ben Olsen and DCU officials liked the prospects and invited him to try out for a week. Davies impressed by scoring and showing the drive that made him a lethal striker, the drive that allowed him to survive. And today his wish came true, as it did for countless fans throughout the country and abroad.

Charlie now has the chance to rekindle his soccer spirit in competitive action, to show that he's a survivor, a fighter and a believer, a hero for those of us in need of inspiration, a soldier for the weak and strong alike, constant, unwavering, unbreakable.