My D.C. United print edition story today touched on the continued inconsistency with lineups that played a big role in last year’s struggles and certainly have spilled over for Curt Onalfo in his first season as United’s head coach. To me, it’s hard to look at what has happened so far this season without linking it back to the last two years.
“I think, no doubt, over the last couple of years, it’s been frustrating,” said Devon McTavish. “Starting the season, there was a lot of optimism about the organization, and we were ready to get back on track. We’ve lost the first four games, but I think the optimism is still there. I think it starts with Curt. He’s such an optimistic guy, and he’s keeping all the players’ heads up, and we’re all in this together. No one’s going to give up on this season just because we’re 0-4 doesn’t mean we can’t pull out of this and end up having a good season. Some things need to start going our way, but I think eventually that will start happening.”
I asked Onalfo yesterday about the patience he had preached from the start, and how his approach to building the team this year was affected by the departures of key attacking players like Christian Gómez and Luciano Emilio.
“I came in pretty late in the process, and as much is everybody’s just looking at the season, for me this is a process, in terms of changing a culture, in terms of doing what I think is right over a long period of time,” said Onalfo. “And it takes time for the personality of the coach, and things don’t just happen overnight. It’s all part of the process.”
I’m not making the argument that either of those players should still be in D.C. It’s more of the fact that they were here last year, and they cost United a pretty penny. So when they departed, the vacuum was left that drove the thinking to move Santino Quaranta into the middle and Chris Pontius permanently up front, an experiment which failed pretty spectacularly in the first two and a half matches. Now both players are back out wide — at least, that’s where Pontius is expected return to after his 4-6 week layoff with a hamstring injury. And it’s not that the decision by Onalfo to focus on getting more width out of the attack is that radical, it’s simply that the team is already tinkering, and MLS history shows, if nothing else, only consistency breeds success. Between injuries and tactics, there simply hasn’t been that much in D.C.
“It’s different,” said Clyde Simms of the tactical moves, in particular with Quaranta. “But for most of us, that’s the only place we’ve seen Tino, out wide, so we’re used to it. I know Tino’s used to it so I think that’s the biggest thing. If he’s comfortable there, then it’ll be alright.”
Speaking of Simms, D.C.’s push to get players back in action is getting increasingly suspicious, given his injury debacle and the recurrence of Pontius’s hamstring. Dejan Jakovic also learned he has a broken clavicle more than a week after suffering the injury, and Brandon Barklage did not participate yesterday either. Even Carey Talley was sitting out after having a wisdom tooth removed. At least Juan Manuel Peña was jogging and kicking some balls, and of course, Simms was optimistic about at least playing in next week’s U.S. Open Cup play-in.
“I share [that optimism] cautiously,” said Onalfo, “because let’s be honest: He was out four weeks with a knee injury, he trained one week, and then is out four weeks.”
At least the layoffs have been consistent.
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