With the trading of Paul Arriola and the sale of Kevin Paredes, Coach Hernan Losada has a complicated task to improve his DC United team that missed last year’s playoffs by a single point. As MLS opponents have gone the route of bigger signings, Losada has focused on less flair and more solid play across the field.
At today’s open practice under a cold light train, he first emphasized width in attack and finishing with diagonal play. Later the team worked on set plays of various sorts. The latter is basic to any game preparation but the former leads me to hope for a deviation from unfortunately typical MLS narrow play.
During the early phase of practice, one could see the desire to play from the back, inviting pressure from opponents to balance the pressure he prefers to have his own players place on them. The result is a game in which all play both offense and defense.
That leads to the question of how one creates space. An old maxim is “front to back – play compact, side to side – keep it wide”. If an opponent places its restraint line near midfield, the former is inevitable and escape must come from width and rapid side to side transition with quick and random slanting runs to defeat he offside trap which one faces.
Losada has brought in Brad Smith from Seattle to bolster his wide attack in the absence of Arriola and with Julian Gressel on the other side of defense, United’s attacks will come even more often from deeper in the formation.
In response to a question, the coach expressed a continuing concern about the striking power of his team even with the signing of Ecuadorian international Michael Estrada. With Ola Kamara healthy, the team should have adequate depth up front. The expected arrival in June of forward Taxiarchis “Taxi” Fountas, a Greek international, should provide a spark as the heat of summer tests United’s resilience.
Success in top level soccer depends on position discipline too often forgotten in much MLS play. That does not mean restricting oneself to a narrow channel, but on an understanding among teammates of the need to keep triangles available by using the full width of the field. Losada likes to keep his midfield well filled which makes movement in concert with teammates essential. If you see maintenance of width in the first few games, United is more likely to be successful.
Defensive stalwart Steve Birnbaum spoke of the off-season preparation of the team with an emphasis on the collective over the individual and the belief in outworking the other team. He believes that as a matter of attitude one should push for the MLS Cup by paying attention to the details to avoid the loss of points that denied United a playoff spot last year.
The opener at Audi Field at 6:00 PM Saturday should give us a hint of what to expect.
On another note, we were given a first look at United’s new training facility near Segra Field in Leesburg. It features two full-sized artificial surface fields and two full-sized grass fields flanking the “Performance Center” which is almost fully built out with workout gear and dressing areas already open. Facilities will also be used for Loudoun United, DC’s reserve team in the USL, and DC United’s own Academy.
