Dispatches from Florida: D.C. United strives for the right balance
BRADENTON, FLA.
Every moment and every sequence counts for D.C. United over the next few weeks. Time is a precious commodity for a revamped team coming off a three-win season. The noticeable application and the diligence of the assembled players in the opening stages of training camp reflects the urgency to establish the right formula sooner rather than later.
United coach Ben Olsen will function mostly as an alchemist during that period. He must blend his returning young core with the influx of seasoned warriors acquired to shepherd them back toward the proper path. The potential mix looks promising on paper, but there are no assurances it will come off as expected.
“We have a lot to do,” Olsen said. “There's plenty of work to be done here in a short amount of time to make sure we're getting on the same page and setting ourselves up to succeed early in the season. But the attitude and the work rate has been unbelievable from the guys so far. They seem committed to each other already. They're gelling as a group off the field. Everything's going according to plan.”
Olsen and general manager Dave Kasper formed the blueprint during the offseason. They wanted experienced MLS campaigners to augment the foundation already in place. The ensuing arrivals of Davy Arnaud, Bobby Boswell, Fabián Espíndola, Sean Franklin, Eddie Johnson and Jeff Parke fulfilled those objectives and left United with a more resolute composition heading into 2014.
No longer would United rely on one or two players – primarily the departed Dwayne De Rosario, in this instance – to supply most of the institutional savvy required to navigate through the travails of a protracted season. This revised group possesses players with the ability and the knowledge to instill the proper expectations, maintain them in trying circumstances and produce the necessary results.
“When you add guys like Parke, Bobby, Davy and some of the older guys, it really helps,” United midfielder Perry Kitchen said. “These guys have played in this league for a long time. They've been in big games, in the playoffs. It's good to have that experience and that leadership.”
United midfielder Perry Kitchen believes the influx of veteran players will provide the necessary leadership to push the club forward.
For this particular team, those qualities offer much needed reassurance after the horrors of a year ago. United isn't short on talent with the new pieces now in place and Kitchen, Nick DeLeon, Bill Hamid and Chris Pontius among the holdovers. It just needs to believe that last year – even with the U.S. Open Cup triumph in the midst of that frustrating regular season – constitutes an aberration rather than some sort of new reality. The signal sent by the close season reinforcements went a long way to addressing those concerns and laying the groundwork for substantial improvement this season.
“There are a lot of guys who are eager to show what they can do,” Boswell said. “It seems like a pretty hungry group from the guys who were here. The guys who are coming in, the veteran guys, are hungry as well. The hardest thing is just trying to get adjusted quickly. When the games start rolling around, there is no time for mistakes. We're trying to get everything out of the way now.”
Leeway remains at a premium for a side with significant pressure to churn out results with Kasper and Olsen now in the final year of their contracts. The schedule offers United a chance to break quickly with five of the first seven matches matches slated for RFK Stadium, but the composition of the starting XI – particularly with Pontius still working his way back to fitness after hamstring surgery and the multitude of versatile attacking pieces at Olsen's disposal with or without him – still remains in some flux.
Olsen said he believes it will take some time for United to establish its chemistry and find its footing. Those considerations do not diminish the need to procure results along the way as the coherence and the consistency develops, though.
“That's a big part of it,” Olsen said. “Apparently, that's part of this job, the results. We need to do that. We need to do that early. That's the plan. We're not going to look until the summer until we're clicking. In reality, that might be the case. But you can still find results early in the season if you're not perfectly connected.”
Most of the work over the next few weeks will build toward that goal and loftier ambitions down the line. Optimism naturally reigns in the early days of this camp, but resolve reinforces the positive outlook. It is the only way forward for a group determined to atone for last year and secure a playoff berth at the end of the season.
“It's exciting, but we're also aware of what happened last year,” Boswell said. “In a way, we're here to make sure that doesn't happen. I don't just mean guys coming in – I mean the whole group. The guys who were here don't want to be a part of something like that again. The guys who are coming in sure as heck don't want to be a part of anything like that. We're taking care of business now to make sure we're ready come First Kick.”
