The bright half moon over Washington on Saturday night served as a reminder that the play-off tie between DC and Chicago is only half over. However, if it hadn’t been for this celestial pointer, the hanging heads on RFK’s exit walkways could have been seen as a sign that the season is well and truly done.

The euphoria of the play-offs lasted less than the four minutes it took Andy Williams to fire the Fire in front and bring us back to the reality that, although the game had technically started at 0-0 on a level playing field, Chicago is a far superior team to United right now. Fourteen regular season points better.

It was convenient to forget this in the week between the 1-1 tie against Kansas City that clinched the play-off berth and Williams’ 25-yard, hope-killing opener. We were all just excited to be back in the post-season fold after such a long time away, and from here on in it was cup-tie soccer where anything could happen. The regular season was as relevant as Al Gore.

Well, up to a point. You could question, with the benefit of the hindsight we journalists love and nurture, whether it was sensible to play a three-man defence against a side boasting Ante Razov (regular season stats - 14 goals, 6 assists), Damani Ralph (11 goals, 6 assists), and DaMarcus Beasley (7 goals, 5 assists). You’d have to add the tallies of the seven strikers DC has played this season to even come close to Razov’s total alone. On the advice of my psychiatrist I’m not even going to try.

You might also wonder at the wisdom of including both Marco Etcheverry and Hristo Stoichkov in the starting line-up, and not for the first time this season. You could even say that Ante Razov was being too generous when he said neither could last more than 30 minutes. And when the most energy they expend all night is in harassing the linesman for a perfectly correct offside call, you become overpowered by a depressing series of flashbacks. Enough already! Enough for tonight, enough for the season, and enough appearances for this club. Go away.

Before I attempt to give a runout to some more optimistic thoughts, I’d like to offer two interpretations of Stoichkov’s jabbing his finger at the linesman while gesturing to the crowd to raise the noise level. Perhaps dear Hristo was merely trying to create some extra atmosphere in the stadium on a very special soccer occasion. Thus he was acting for the greater good of the game.

Alternatively, you could say that his lynch-mob gesturings were the symptoms of a man who, at 37, is still not mature enough to accept official calls after two decades as a professional. Either way, he was lucky to stay on the field. Good luck to all future players who may one day find this man as their coach. And to all those who officiate his team’s games.

Now, where were we? Oh yes, the tie’s only half over and there are still ninety minutes of soccer to be played between two teams of eleven players each. Like yourselves, I’m not putting any money on DC taking a trip to Soldier Field, already two goals down, and coming back with anything more than a t-shirt that says, "I went to Chicago and all I saw was DaMarcus Beasley’s heels." But although the corpulent diva may be tuning up in the wings, she has not yet launched into her swansong.

It’s going to take a lot more than hopeful high balls served up for big Jim Curtin to gobble and spit back out with a smile on his face (Saturday’s apparent game plan, and one that made the annoyingly good Curtin my MVP by a mile and more). And we may have to rely on Damani Ralph missing more free headers from four yards out. But many stranger things have happened in soccer than a 2-0 road victory by an underdog that now has nothing — absolutely nothing - to lose.

So if you need comforting historical precedents to help you through the week, considering some of the following:

• in the first round of the 1971-72 UEFA Cup, Belgium side Lierse SK lost 2-0 at home to Leeds United, but travelled to Leeds for the second leg and won 4-0
• in the third round of the same competition in 1988-89, Bayern Munich fell 0-2 at home to Inter Milan, but won the return game in Milan 3-1, advancing on more away goals scored
• In 1996-97’s competition, Sliema Wanderers of Malta lost 3-1 at home to Georgian side Margveti Zestafoni…okay, you get the picture.

So, it doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. If DC United scores a goal on Saturday before they’ve conceded one, then all of a sudden they are only one goal away from levelling the tie. Gaining the psychological upper hand in such a game then becomes far more important than all the regular season stats that have come before, and the momentum of a few minutes’ highly charged soccer can blow away all previous expectations. Just ask San Jose.

By this weekend there will be a full moon in the sky. If DC United are jumping over it on Sunday night like the proverbial nursery rhyme cow, I’ll teach my cat to play the fiddle. If we didn’t think it was possible, we wouldn’t bother turning up at all. Mind you, I don’t actually have a cat.