Back in April, this column bemoaned the annual ritual of pre-season optimism that lead to the treacherous raising of fickle hopes whose inevitable crushing served only to prove the foolishness of sports fans everywhere. Year after year.

If optimism is the prerequisite before a ball has been kicked or thrown, what state of mind is the norm for the post-season, when, as was pointed out following the season’s opener at Kansas City, "after 30 games that tatty, despoiled fixture list won't tell too many lies"? Surely not pessimism?

Well, there will be as many varying levels of emotion as there are DC United fans. Some will still be cursing the perceived scapegoats by venting their anger and disappointment on a number of names, most of which we know by now. There’s a certain righteous nobility in the kind of fans who, as the parking lot empties, scream and spit over their last tailgate beers, "I told you X was a waste of time at the start of the freakin’ season." You may not want to hug them, but you can understand their pain.

Others will be switching off completely, vowing not to even think about the 2004 season until March at the earliest. These people are called rationalists. They will spend the winter focusing on some other interest, like guitar lessons and learning Finnish. This is a different kind of therapy altogether, perhaps a complete denial that the season ever took place. But they’ll be back, like the rest of us.

Then there are the brooders, who slump into misery, their flags as tattered and weary as the ragged DC United symbol that flies above the entrance to RFK (a new one for next season, please). They may accept that the season is over, and that it didn’t bring them much joy, but they are not in the mood to talk about it. They wish for winter’s dark and barren landscapes because they know that’s all they will have to keep them company until spring’s next kick-off. "Not that it will be any better next year," they might mumble.

And finally, there are those annoying characters placed somewhere around half way through the plot of most Hollywood films. The ones who, just when things seem hopelessly irredeemable, and when all the other characters have given up or killed themselves, stand up with a roar and say, "No way are we giving in. This is what we’ve got, and this is what we’ve got to do." Then they embark on some implausible solution in the face of extreme adversity that leads to the cinematic equivalent of an MLS Cup triumph just twelve months after a 4-0 playoff elimination.

What action would our Hollywood hero be about to take if he were starring in ‘RFK 9 — The Return Of The Comeback’? It’s difficult to say, given that we do not yet know who will be on the playing and coaching staff in five months’ time. And at a time when, I must confess, I feel more like the kind of fan who would be heading off for those Finnish language lessons, it’s hard to pinpoint the season’s positives without dissolving into the rage of the tailgate beer monster.

Still, it’s generally accepted as a good thing that Ben Olsen and Dema Kovalenko have signed new contracts. Both were the most significant creative players during that mid-summer streak when the team returned to contention in the Eastern Conference, and their productivity in terms of goals and assists was more than matched by their industry and attitude.

They were ably backed up by a defence with one of the best records in MLS, and there’s little reason to see why Ryan Nelsen, Mike Petke, Brandon Prideaux and Bryan Namoff — together with a recovered Milton Reyes — will not form the bulk of the roster’s backline in 2004. The same can be said of the goalkeeping positions, with Doug Warren having shown himself as an able back-up to the nonetheless missed Nick Rimando.

Generally, although United’s road record did not cause any headlines, it was at least a huge improvement on the previous three years, and on top of the four victories, many of the games that ended in single-goal defeats really deserved to be ties. In fact, if you take away the over-time fiasco (which MLS must surely do), United only lost six out of 30 games over the regulation 90 minutes. They may not always have thrilled the crowds, but they rarely made us feel ashamed.

Over the remainder of the players and positions, I can offer little but question marks. The mediocre regular season run-in and the two lacklustre playoff games did much to make us forget the painstaking but concrete improvements this team had made after its winless, goal-shy start. On the other hand, the season was rarely ever less than absorbing, even as it baffled, frustrated and, ultimately, disappointed us.

Ray Hudson was realistic enough to offer no more than the promise of a playoff place at the start of the season. Although in our hearts we hoped for more, most of us perhaps knew that he was right to temper expectations. But for next season - as I begin to abandon my attempts to master the Finnish perfect tense - I’m already expecting more.