DC United’s Goals are to Score Some
DC United returned to Washington this week without a lot to show from their pre-season travels. read more...
DC United’s Goals are to Score Some
Mike Martin
February 29, 2008
United Players participate in warm up drills
Photo: Martin Fernandez
Despite adding a designated player and a bucketful of other talent in the off-season, DC United has had a pretty anemic and lackluster pre-season to date. However, the team and coaching staff remain confident that the goals and results will come.
Washington, D.C.
United returned to practice in the nation’s capital this week after posting a dismal 1-3-3 record so far this pre-season in exhibition matches played in Florida and California. Even worse, they have only scored two goals since their first game (a 6-0 win over the U-17s) and neither of those recent goals were even scored by an offensive player, much less one of the heralded new signings.
However, after today’s practice when asked about the anemic start, coach Tommy Soehn pointed out that during those first two stages of the pre-season, the team needed to emphasize fitness and cohesion at the expense of everything else, including results.
“It’s always difficult when you add new faces. So that they understand the system we want to play. The starting point for fitness wasn’t where I’d like it to be, so we had to take our time to work on that before we could move on to the tactical part. Players had to be fit enough to give each others options off the ball. All those intangibles off the ball that make your team successful they’re able to do now. It’s still not quite where I want them to be, but it’s a lot better than where we started. It’s only now that we can work on real tactics. We’ll focus on that these last two weeks.”
Assistant coach Mark Simpson added that “All you’re looking for (at this point) is for some of the pieces to fall together. We have the quality of guys on our team, especially the new guys coming in, plus “Luci” (Luciano Emilio), Jaime, we have the quality enough guys that can put the ball in the net. The goals will come. I’m not worried about the (lack of) goals. The goal is to be ready for Concacaf and the beginning of the MLS season.”
Further, Devon McTavish pointed out that the team is progressing very well in everything except in that pesky final third of the field, which is pretty clear when you look a bit more critically at their results. Despite being outscored 6-2 in their last six games, they have three ties to go with only three losses. Obviously, the team has tightened up considerably on the defensive end in close games which was a major concern after defensive mistakes doomed United in crucial games the past few seasons.
However, if the lack of goals continues to fester in your mind, Rod Dyachenko has a bit of wisdom to maybe ease a bit of your pain.
“Of course everybody likes to see goals and good things. But, I think we’ve seen in the past where we scored plenty in the pre-season and then didn’t score in the important games when we needed them. I really think it’s going to be a whole different thing once we get into a different atmosphere and playing games that count. I think the goals will be there then and that’s what is important.”
United leaves for Texas this weekend to wrap up their pre-season by playing the Texas Pro Soccer Festival on March 3-9 in San Antonio against Toronto FC, ChivasUSA, and the Houston Dynamo.
Visitor Comments
I thought Santino looked good. It was brass monkey cold, so no one had their best day, though.
That said, Tino is clearly in great shape and his ball skills are unquestioned. In the final scrimmage he played wide and supported the attack very well, good vision, lots of heart and hustle. All good to see, but he looked a little shaky on the defensive side. He makes finding your man look like algebra, but if his effort remains, he'll pick that up as he has so much talent and feel for the game.
There you go all the analysis you should expect from a one two hour practice. : )
Thanks for the great assessment mike; Glad to see coaching and players are not worried about the lack of scoring - I kind of agree - once everything is in place and matches matter the results will come. Any word on how Santino did?
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