DC United Opens Season With 1-0 Win

In an evenly played game against a team that had dominated them in the prior season, DC United showed that a determined effort could yield a good result. As Coach Rene Weiler put it, “I remember the first game (Weiler’s first in September) against them at home last season, six zero, and we won this game, so we did a step forward,”

Over the winter break, United revamped its attack following the loss of Christian Benteke, bringing in Tai Baribo and Louis Munteanu. The former came from Philadelphia, scored the only goal and “saluted” his former fans with a turned back and raised name thereon. He went on to place a near miss off the goalpost later. However, that was the extent of serious threat to the Union.

The game was played very evenly in possession to moderate Philadelphia’s danger as Weiler’s study of their style allowed the defense to frustrate an attack focused on direct play, “You have to be very attentive, because there’s always a danger against the team like Philadelphia, they play very direct.”

In the 46^th minute of the game, the Union inserted Cavan Sullivan into the wide left attacking role and took advantage of that central focus. DC played Silvan Hefti against him and as Captain Lucas Bartlett stated, “We kept our right back completely tight in the back line. They were really difficult to break us down. They stayed in the channel, and they tried to penetrate in one channel. They didn’t really switch the field.” Until the Union exploited Hefti’s central location. The result was a series of dangerous crosses which were countered by a noticeable correction very late.

Weiler brought in Nikola Markovic for a tiring and carded Jackson Hopkins in the 90^th minute, “It was because of the height of the players. They try to have some free kicks or quarter kicks at the end, and I needed some good headers in our team.” It is notable that wide defenders, Keisuke Kurokawa and Hefti are not particularly tall.

Both displayed confidence and competence with the ball and could have performed well if Weiler chose to build from the back. However, goalie Sean Johnson favored the long ball much more than United had played it last year when the presence of Benteke might have rewarded the tactic. As the team becomes more cohesive and comfortable with the coach and each other, one can expect a more balanced flow from front to back.

The DC coach chose variety on offense from the beginning, “We want to be unpredictable. So, we played some diagonal balls. Then we played some long balls, because they prefer to press us to have their high standing. So that is an option to open the game.” There is a tendency in the MLS to play a half-width game in contrast to the discipline in the top leagues of maintaining width. The long diagonal is one way to exploit that.

For an opening game, United seemed unusually coherent, displaying sharp passing and strong coordination. The young midfield is developing nicely and its maturation will be the key to United’s making the playoffs. The emphasis on variety will be tested in the next few games as the team face Austin this Sunday and then the experienced Miami in Baltimore on the 7^th of March.