GORDON WILLIAMS, Contributor

Lenworrth Hyde Snr. - Ricardo Makyn

WASHINGTON DC, United States:

It's back to the drawing board for Harbour View, following Tuesday night's 5-0 drubbing by DC United in the quarter-finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup (CCC).

But the Stars of the East are not the only ones who should take heed. Like the rest of the budding professional football teams in Jamaica and the Caribbean, Harbour View will have an extremely tough task if they are to close the gulf between the top leagues from the region and Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States.

"Yeah, most definitely," admitted coach Lenworth Hyde after the game, which eliminated Harbour View from the CCC on a 6-1 aggregate.

"There's a big gap between us and the MLS (Major League Soccer) up here. It's more professional than us and we need to work harder and take a page out of their book. Go back home and work hard. We are far away from professionalism."

Of particular concern to Hyde and football observers who witnessed Harbour View's CCC exit, was the dramatic second-half disintegration by the Jamaica and Caribbean champions. Despite fielding a team drenched with current and former senior national players, Harbour View failed to display the experience necessary to adjust to DC United's stepped-up tempo in the second half. The result was disastrous, as Harbour View lost control of the match and conceded three goals in a five-minute period just after the hour mark.

The Jamaican club never recovered physically or tactically from DC United's rampage and the score could have been worse if the home team did not waste a slew of scoring chances at the RFK Stadium. According to Hyde, it was simply a case of one team being superior to the other.

"Class and everything," he said. "They showed more composure passing and they know how. They are the professional team. They are a cut above us."

However, despite the difference in quality between the teams, Hyde said he was "disappointed" by Harbour View's showing. He was critical of the lack of coordination of his defence, which made a consistent hash of attempts to trap DC United offside.

He also lamented that his attackers could not wriggle free consistently enough to create solid scoring chances. His half-time instructions to the team were not, or could not, be executed either, even though at that point Harbour View were only a goal down and still very much in the match.

"(I told them) just lift our head up, keep possessing the ball and try and get the ball behind their defence," Hyde explained.

"We didn't have people popping up in that position. We were getting in front, but nobody was sprinting behind the defence. We didn't get any chance (to score) as such."

In the end, it didn't matter. The quality of DC United, led by the playmaking of Marcelo Gallardo and the attacking quartet of Luciano Emilio, Fred, Devon McTavish and substitute Santino Quaranta was too much for Harbour View.

"They outclassed us today," Hyde said.

Gordon Williams is a Jamaican journalist based in the United States.

DC United's Fred (7), with pacifier in mouth, celebrates his goal with Luciano Emilio (11) as Harbour View FC's Jermaine Taylor walks by during the second half of their CONCACAF Champions Cup football game on Tuesday night in Washington. DC United won 5-0. -AP