Photo Credit: DC United Twitter
By Steve Long and Sean Maslin – DC United’s 2015 MLS season sits just around the corner and, as always, hope springs eternal and fear lurks in the background.
So without further adieu let’s take a look at the three hopes and one fear for D.C. United in 2015:
Hope #1: That this team can stay healthy.
This was perhaps United’s greatest asset in 2014: that the club was able to go through the entire season with minimal injuries. Although the club had a handful of players who missed some matches last season due to injuries, only four starters missed a considerable amount of time: center-back Jeff Parke (eye,) and midfield-forwards Chris Pontius (hamstring,) Luis Silva (11 goals in 2014,) and Chris Rolfe(arm). Parke’s loss was minimized with the play of Steve Birnbaum while the Pontius/Silva/Rolfe combination seemed to rotate at being in and out of the lineup.
Having a starting eleven that are used to one another and comfortable playing with another is a skill that all successful teams have. When one looks at the most successful clubs in MLS history, one would see teams that over time make very few changes to their starting eleven. That will be the challenge that D.C. United faces in 2015, particularly on the defense where Birnbaum, defensive-midfielder Perry Kitchen, and goalkeeper Bill Hamid will all likely be pulled away for U.S. Men’s National Team duty.
Hope #2: That they have the roster depth to make a late- season run.
Although the club did manage to make it through the season relatively unscathed, the club did look to be a bit run down at the end of the season. The injuries to Silva and Rolfe crippled their attack in particular against the New York Red Bulls in their two-game playoff series. To say that the club was flat in Red Bull Arena would be an understatement.
With injuries, National Team duty, and the club playing in both editions of the CONCACAF Champions League and the U.S. Open Cup their depth will be tested. The club wisely signed midfielder Markus Halsti in the off-season, which will likely mean that Davy Arnaud will be Olsen’s first substitute off of the bench. This should help negate the loss of spark plug Lewis Neal, who was picked up by Orlando City in the Expansion Draft. Look for Michael Farfan to contribute significant minutes as well.
On defense, the club will look towards Kofi Opare and Chris Korb for support. United’s bread and butter last season was their defense where the club allowed just 39 goals. Both Opare and Korb are veterans in this league and have experience starting. Although center-back Bobby Boswell and right-back Sean Franklin are rocks on defense, left-back Taylor Kemp has yet to prove himself over the course of a season.
The one forward on the bench who supporters should keep an eye on is Jairo Arrieta. The ex-Columbus Crew SCer has never really replicated his 2012 form (9 goals) but he should provide a lift late in matches. Considering that Eddie Johnson is suffering from an undisclosed medical problem and that Miguel Aguilar, Michael Seaton, and Conor Doyle are all young and unproven, Arrieta is their best option right now.
Hope#3: That the club can find an offensive spark without Fabian Espindola.
Given the 6 game suspension of Fabian Espindola and the medical situation keeping Eddie Johnson out of action indefinitely, Olsen’s attack will be short on creativity and power. In an attempt to infuse some of that power, Olsen has pushed Chris Pontius forward and is likely to continue to use him there for a while.
Paired with Espindola, a healthier Pontius should perform well against Alajuela, but his effectiveness may wane when paired with Arrieta or Silva in early MLS action. In Espindola’s absence (11 goals, 11 assists in 2014) there is great uncertainty about where Olsen will find the creativity needed to score enough to win.
In midfield, Olsen is fortunate to have Rolfe to provide some of the flair needed, but can’t rely on Nick DeLeon to be sufficiently flexible to put his basic skill set to effective use. In his natural tendency to drive to the center he is joined by Pontius and therein lies the great fear that I have for United. The midfield has become too predictable and requires a more flexible approach.
If Olsen can retrain both Pontius and DeLeon to vary their approaches, he will present opponents with a far more formidable attack to contain. From a forward position, Pontius should become more like Jaime Moreno in his later years, finding space wherever he might, be it wide or centrally. He would still have the option to use his main strength by charging forward but needs to circle wide and set up others more often.
By attacking down the wings more frequently, DeLeon will add an element of uncertainty to defenders. It is easy to say what players should do, but under the pressure of game situations they will revert to habit which comes from long experience and can only be modified by deliberate and repeated training. Olsen and his staff must include flexibility in their training regimen with an emphasis on taking Pontius and DeLeon outside their comfort zone often enough that all zones become comfortable.
That’s the hope, and opportunity.
The One Big Fear: That the club will be unable to adapt in 2015.
The fear is that coaches too are creatures of habit and Olsen, with the sole exception of Johnson in 2014, has shown a propensity to put players where their natural tendencies are reinforced, rather than fit them to a creative system.
The dean of American coaches, and Olsen’s primary influence in his early years, is Bruce Arena. His practices were always highly focused and tightly controlled, featuring vision and control, at speed, and under pressure. With that, he formed habits and comfort zones which would allow his players to adjust and overcome whatever they saw.
In the past several years, Olsen has used his training sessions to push the modern game with overlapping defenders and centrally focused wide midfielders. He has had some success, but now needs to build in greater variety.
If Olsen has paid close attention to how Arena has been so successful, he will spend enough time forming the play of Pontius and DeLeon and integrating it with the team to realize more hope than fear.
