In giving David Stokes his first start since April 2005 — and his first appearance in more than a year — D.C. United coach Peter Nowak made sure Stokes didn’t have time to get nervous by announcing the decision too early.
“I found out when I got here to the game,” said Stokes after playing the first 45 minutes of Saturday’s 1-1 tie with Colorado. “I prepared just in case. I knew [defender Bryan] Namoff was out.”
The 24-year-old defender from Dumfries has battled through a sequence of ankle and leg injuries in the past year — the low point came in early June when Stokes engaged in a very heated discussion during practice with Nowak and assistant coach Mark Simpson over his rehabilitation exercises while the rest of the team played a full-field scrimmage.
“It was just a miscommunication between the coaching staff, the trainer and me. We just wanted to get on the same page,” said Stokes. “That was a frustrating part, but it feels good when you do come back.”
Stokes has showed steady improvement in reserve matches over the last two months, leading to his start against the Rapids.
“David was pretty good in the last couple of weeks and played a pretty good game in New York in the reserve game, and that’s why we decided to give him a shot,” said Nowak, who replaced Stokes with Jamil Walker at halftime.
“I think he did very good. Unfortunately, we were behind so we had to change the lineup a little bit. It was unfortunate because he deserved to have the shot.”
