Veteran goes shirtless after scoring first goal
Just because Josh Wolff was brought to D.C. United to help keep the team’s younger players in line doesn’t mean he’s not allowed to let his hair down — or take his shirt off and jump into a sea of hard-core fans.
That’s just what he did after scoring D.C. United’s first goal of the season, celebrating the strike with zeal hardly expected from a 34-year-old, 12-season MLS veteran, hurdling the field barrier and leaping bare-chested into the RFK Stadium stands.
“[D.C. United coach Ben Olsen] brought me here to be a player first and a camp counselor second,” Wolff said. “It was a good moment. Obviously, first goals in this league are huge, and we all know that. It doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been in the league or how old you are or what you’ve done. Each year is your opportunity to prove what your worth [is] and who you are.”
| Up next |
| United at Revolution |
| Where » Gillette Stadium, Foxborough, Mass. |
| When » Saturday, 4:30 p.m. |
| TV » CSN |
Wolff has played in two World Cups for the United States and had a career-high 11 goals for Kansas City in 2009, but last year he scored only twice as the Wizards moved him from forward into an unfamiliar outside midfield role.
When the Wizards declined the option on a contract that paid Wolff $220,000 last year, the door was opened for Olsen, who saw a longtime friend and U.S. teammate who could stabilize a young locker room and a player itching to prove the tank wasn’t empty. United took Wolff in the second stage of the re-entry draft, which allowed them to negotiate new terms.
“We’ve been through a lot together,” Olsen said. “He knows me very well, and he knows the game very well. If I’m out of line, he’s one of the guys that could maybe pull me aside and say, ‘What do you think about this.’ He’s never going to overstep his boundaries in that relationship, but as a coach you need guys like that.”
Wolff did more than score against the Crew, zipping all over the field and setting the tone with a stop-start move that left former D.C. United defender Julius James on the ground. Even though Charlie Davies’ two goals were the story in Saturday’s 3-1 win over Columbus, Wolff was Olsen’s man of the match.
“Anytime you score it’s euphoric,” Wolff said. “I’m always up for enjoying it with the fans, and I felt like celebrating that goal with them was the right thing to do.”
Olsen loved Wolff’s celebration — despite the automatic yellow card for removing his shirt — and said he’d never done the same because “I didn’t want anyone to see how hairy my chest was.”
Wolff doesn’t have that problem.
“He looks good for a man his age,” Olsen said. “He’s entitled.”
