Thomas Carlyle’s Great Man Theory suggested that history was made by single but significant heroes who — backed by divine inspiration - used their artistic, intellectual and leadership skills to shape the destiny of the world. It’s a view that has long since been discredited, but I’d like to revive it in the name of my own Great Man Theory of Soccer.

First of all, though, I’d like to say that I don’t think DC United played badly in the 1-0 defeat to San Jose on Sunday. Their recent three-match winning road streak has made them play with the belief they can actually gain points when away from RFK. It was another 90 minutes of industry and endeavor characterized by a fairly solid defence, a hard-running midfield and the customary oh-so-close finishing that once more put the O in Zero. Ronald Cerritos played well on his debut and looks like a valuable addition to the squad.

Yet there was something missing. Clear as it that soccer is a team game, that every player must strive in the name of the collective and sacrifice himself in order to achieve success for all eleven men and the club they represent, there is a special ingredient lacking in DC’s play. Even as we applaud the gritty midfielder who tracks back 70 yards and thwarts an opponent by belting the ball into the stands, we’re thinking, "Plucky play, well done. But how about some real skill?" What about a Great Man?

We all remember how Marco Etcheverry used to dominate MLS games from the centre of DC’s midfield, splicing defences with flicks, curls and backspins while barely breaking sweat. In the season’s opener at Kansas — as if to show us he still could — he produced exactly such a dominant performance. Now, however, the side needs a player who can produce such goods every week. Someone who doesn’t cede possession two times out of three. Maybe someone who can run at opponents and regularly beat them to create openings from the midfield, or a striker who can be relied upon to appear in the box and finish at exactly the right time. That is, on match days.

There were two moments on Sunday when San Jose’s Landon Donovan demonstrated the importance of the Great Man Theory. In the first half he created space for himself out of nothing on the edge of the DC area and slung a devilish left-foot shot that grazed the cross bar. In the second he ran at the DC defence with such pace that Bryan Namoff’s only option was to wrestle him to the ground ("a good foul", according to the Comcast TV commentator). These incidents typify Donovan’s weekly play, and that is one of the reasons why San Jose is top of its table.

There are other teams in the league with players who make their fans sit up and expect something to happen. For example, Preki at Kansas City, Taylor Twellman at New England, Carlos Ruiz at LA, the emerging Damani Ralph at Chicago, and Richie Williams at the Metrostars (spot the gag). These are players who, like Donovan, are not only consistently surprising (if that’s not a contradiction in terms), but are thrilling to watch merely because of the heightened anticipation they cause to their fans whenever they come close to the ball. What they try does not always work, but it works often enough to make them stand out, both on the field and in the stats.

You could fill the Chesapeake Bay with the sweat that Ben Olsen, Dema Kovalenko and Earnie Stewart have shed this year, but they have not turned into the kind of players that can control or turn a game, who can repeatedly deliver that inch-perfect final cross or through-pass. Ali Curtis almost filled this role for a while, bringing a fresh creative aspect to DC’s attack, but sadly couldn’t find the net and lost his momentum. And just as Bobby Convey looked like he was ready to pull on DC’s Great Man mantle, he was sold to Tottenham Hotspur. (Am I an old cynic, or did Bobby get picked for so many US national team games this year to facilitate this transfer for MLS?)

Of course there are limits to the Great Man Theory of Soccer. The US U17 national side maybe placed too much hope in Freddy Adu to win them silverware in Finland at the Teenagers’ World Cup last week. And when your opponents concentrate on snuffing out one man — as the Brazilians effectively did to Adu in Sunday’s quarter-final — your attacking options can be limited.

Great Men are, however, irrepressible, and will find new ways to come back the following week and jinx the opposition. And every time Adu received the ball in Finland we held our breaths and expected something exciting to happen. When it didn’t, we still looked forward to the next time.

Adu is way too young to carry the burden of anticipation at either DC United (should he come here) or the US national team. Yet it is this kind of player that DC United needs, and has been crying out for over the past three years. A player who will whip up a goal out of nothing. A good old-fashioned bloody hero, divinely inspired or not. And although the side is still looking good for a play-off spot, it’s hard to see them progressing to the MLS Cup Final without that extra spice. It’s either that or a continued reliance on the posts and crossbar as their twelfth man.

A striker who can cold-bloodedly snuff out the opposition would be enough. A big, fearless player who fights, holds the ball, can run at defenders, is good in the air and can belt the ball regularly past flailing gloves. Now that the Washington Freedom’s season has successfully ended (and a huge congratulations to them on their Founder’s Cup victory), they could let DC United have Abby Wambach.

Perhaps this is why Carlyle’s theory has been discarded by subsequent generations. He forgot that there are great women too.