News: DC United: Pre-season thread:

I'm concerned the success of the other players is going to ride on the ability of the forward to threaten and create space. Given the evidence of 2016, Mullins ought to be good once he's developed a repoire with the new pieces, and Mattocks (who just has to put himself in good spots) has shown dangerously in preseason. If we're able to move the ball effectively through midfield, I think he'll be dangerous. If he's not getting goals, it means we have midfield issues, and at that point, everyone's scoring chances go out the window.

 

Given the number of active young midfielders we now have do you see any chance that Benny would abandon the four-man back line in favor of a 3-5-2 or some variation thereof?

Me neither.

 

Not enough CBs or forwards

 

If Ben is adventurous, he'll sprinkle in a 3 man backline with Arriola and Asad as wingbacks against a narrowly aligned opponent. He typically sticks with the same formation all season long with changing assignments for each player which is almost the same. The cool thing about Durkin is his ability to pivot up into the midfield from a centerback position. Arriola, Asad, Durkin, DeLeon, Segura, and Stieber can all play a ton of positions so Olsen will be wasting flexibility if he doesn't try different things with all of those guys.

 

Mullins scoring somewhere other than DC is a good sign.

Also, starting 11 (from twitter feed): Ousted; Fisher, Opare, Robinson, Odoi-Atsem; Durkin; Asad, Acosta, Harkes, Arriola; Mullins

EDIT: Assist by Arriola, which is thematic going back to last season.

 

#DCU changes:

Clark for Ousted
Brillant for Opare
Birnbaum for Robinson
Stieber for Arriola
Mattocks for Mullins

Second half underway

— Uncle Steve (@streffsoccer) February 21, 2018

 

Second half starts:

46': line up changes
Clark for Ousted
Brillant for Opare
Birnbaum for Robinson
Stieber for Arriola
Mattocks for Mullins

1-0 | #DCU #DCvJAX

— D.C. United (@dcunited) February 21, 2018

 

2-0 DC

The pressure, the pass, the finish 👌

2-0 | #DCU #DCvJAX pic.twitter.com/2we3CiWRK6

— D.C. United (@dcunited) February 21, 2018

 

Chinese fire-drill for DC

63': #DCU Substitutions
Segura for Lucho
Moreno for Harkes
Miranda for Asad
DeLeon for Fisher

COA now playing left back

2-0 | #DCU #DCvJAX

— D.C. United (@dcunited) February 21, 2018

 

Not attending the game again but on a tourism note St Pete is really cool, The stadium is no great shakes but there's abundant parking, a beautifully manicured, well lit, safe downtown with a virtually free trolley system, lots of dining and drinking and good looking affluent people. The team has 2 stores selling stuff and tickets one at the stadium and one at a high end retail/ dining area called the Sundial. Lots of hotels.The Hollander is ultra quirky with a balls to the wall bar and restaurant. If this happens again next year you could do worse than visiting.and taking in the games. If the Audi ends up as well located it will be a treasure

 

Looks like Durkin went the full 90. Any reports on how he did?

 

The DC twitter feed was turrible. Hopefully Steven Streff puts up a piece on B&RU. Durkin has to be a major storyline.

You've got to be happy about Miranda's preseason performances, too. The depth of our young core is real.

 

Granted it's preseason, but togetherthey have 3 in 3 games plus mattocks had an assist.
Acosta also has 2 in limited minutes.

 

It seems the hype around Durkin is that he'll end up being what everyone hoped Kitchen would turn into years ago.

 

Watched the video of the second goal. That was beer league goalkeeping. I wouldn't get too excited.

 

Familiar names/faces In Jacksonville's lineup: Conor Doyle and Danny Szetela.

 

Did a little math, and if every DC player hits their all time career best in goals, we'd end up with 69 goals. Of course there's no way Brillant ever scores 6 in MLS. De Leon will never score 6 again in his life. Even Segura is a very long shot at 6. And Birnbaum is unlikely to score 3 with his head issues. So if you take most of those goals off the board, you end up with around 55.

So in conclusion, if all our main attackers (Stieber, Mullins, Mattocks, Acosa, Asad, Arriola, Harkes, Segura) have career years, we have a good chance at being one of the best in MLS. But realistically, how likely is that since most of these guys will be heavily rotated? A more realistic "best scenario" is only some/most of these guys will hit their career bests. Which puts us at maybe 45-50 goals ... one of the lesser playoff teams.

Of course the remedy to all this would be if one or two of these guys have a breakout season and shatter all previous expectations. Maybe a Mullins getting into double digits. Or Arriola getting up to 6-7 goals. Not impossible of course ... our team is young.


Stieber - 10
Mullins - 8
Asad - 7
Mattocks - 7
Brillant - 6 (lol ... I couldn't believe it. He got 6 once in Belgian 2nd division)
De Leon - 6
Segura - 6
Acosta - 5
Birnbaum - 3
Arriola - 2
Harkes - 2
Jeffrey - 2
Opare - 2
Canouse - 1
Kemp - 1
Moreno - 1
Fisher - 0
Miranda - 0
Odoi Atsem - 0
Robinson - 0

 

This is hilarious. I' mean the part about DeLeon scoring multiple goals. Wasn't Reagan president when that happened?

As for the rest, Acosta could surprise. He got himself in so many dangerous positions last year. If he could start to shoot like he dribbles...

Si mi abuela tenia ruedas, I know.

 

They're tanned rested and ready for that bar crew from Baltimore. It's nice to be positive but the competition was all lower division although Malmo may be an equal

 

Um. We joke about philly, but they are an mls team.
You are 1/3 right though.

 

My bad

 

Exactly. All the evidence suggests that Ben plans to win the home games 1-0 and tie all the road games 0-0.

 

I'll take 68 points