Peter Nowak had a chance to put the Freddy Adu mess behind him and his team, and get on with the playoffs. He blew that chance big time.

Earlier this week Freddy Adu went public with what should have been an internal team matter, and he was wrong to do so. As DC United’s coach it was Nowak’s responsibility to make sure the situation was resolved in time for his team’s playoff game on Friday night.

Adu made his comments on Tuesday. By Wednesday the team was in damage control and the Washington Post ran a quote from Kevin Payne reporting that “Freddy said what he had to say and it’s over with,” and that “It’s a bigger deal to the media than anyone in our locker room.” Similar reports came in from MLSNet and the Washington Times.

By all accounts it seemed that Nowak had a firm grasp on the situation and was handling it appropriately to insure that it wouldn’t interfere with the game against Chicago. But clearly Kevin Payne had his facts very wrong. It wasn’t over with and it was a big deal in the locker room.

It turns out Nowak had allowed the affair to fester all week. And on Friday, in a move that seemed calculated mostly to humiliate Adu while confirming Nowak’s authority, the mess came to a head with the coach giving Adu an ultimatum to apologize to his teammates before the match, or - it would seem - serve a one game suspension. Adu refused to participate in his own dressing down and was suspended.

Perhaps Adu should have swallowed his pride and apologized. And maybe Freddy’s a schmuck for not doing that. Or maybe he’s just a teenager. (And perhaps those two things really aren’t that different.) That, however, is not the point.

This is the point: Peter Nowak never should have allowed it to come to that. That it did was Nowak’s failure. If there was a locker room problem then Nowak should have dealt with it in the locker room immediately. Instead he let it drag out so long that it effected the game against Chicago. And by suspending Adu for a game rather than disposing of the situation quietly and privately he also succeeded in making it even more of a public spectacle than it already was.

And what good has Nowak accomplished in doing those things? Will this suspension ameliorate the conflicts in the locker room? I quite doubt it. It will probably just make them worse. He’s given the players even more reason to be aggravated with Adu, and he’s put Adu in an intractable situation. Has the suspension put an end to the public spectacle? Not at all. It’s given it new life and an entirely new sub-plot, namely the contest of wills between Nowak and Adu. Did the suspension help Nowak’s team? Judging by its dismal offensive performance (zero shots on goal) in a 0-0 draw against the Chicago Fire, I’d have to say no to that as well. DC United sorely could have used Adu on the field.

Peter Nowak always says the team comes first. Had Nowak found it in himself to take charge of the situation and put a quick end to it on Wednesday or Thursday then it’s quite likely his team would be better off tonight. It’s also quite likely that by now the whole sorry Freddy Adu affair would be well-forgotten yesterday’s news. But he didn’t have it in him to do that. This week Peter Nowak failed the team.

Freddy Adu’s failure began this mess. Peter Nowak’s failure compounded it and prolonged it.