With two days to go before D.C. United goes on national television to host the New York Red Bulls (Thursday, 8, ESPN2), head coach Ben Olsen said he started to educate his team on where this year’s first clash in the long held rivalry fits within the longer history of Major League Soccer.
“It’s been a little bit lopsided over the history of this league, but now it’s a little different,” Olsen said. “They’re the favorites, and they’re the team with the stars and putting on some really good performances as of late. It’s going to be a great task for us, a great measuring stick of where we’re at right now because they’ve got some real players out there. It’s a much better team than Toronto is at this point. It’s a big challenge for us, but it’s exciting. Thursday night, ESPN, it’s going to be a big crowd, a big night for our young team.”
After battling a slew of injuries, suspensions and call-ups over the season’s opening weeks, Olsen expects nearly a full complement of players for the match. Andy Najar has recovered from the flu and Perry Kitchen was back as a substitute last weekend at Toronto.
The usual holdouts remain the same. Devon McTavish (concussion) didn’t train on Tuesday. Neither did Jed Zayner, who told me Monday that his hamstring issue isn’t a serious one, just a situation that the team is trying to approach with care. Zayner, who re-aggravated the injury just before the Philadlephia Union U.S. Open Cup qualifier, said his biggest challenge is getting back in shape after missing the last month. Junior Carreiro (ankle) did some individual ball work on Tuesday, and goalkeeper Steve Cronin (wrist) is back in full training.
Cronin’s situation will create an interesting dilemma later this week, as he comes off the injured reserve list as of the Red Bulls game (D.C.’s sixth match of the season). It appears United has no intention right now of moving Pat Onstad back to solely coaching. Cronin may be healthy, but getting back to where he’s competing for playing time could take more time – at the very least, he missed basically all of preseason. The team has also been pleased with rookie Joe Willis. It’s hard to see a situation where D.C. keeps three starter-level goalkeepers so we’ll have to see who might lose out.
Asked about Bill Hamid’s progress, including his first shutout since his rookie debut last weekend, Olsen had this to say: “I think Pat is extremely helpful for Bill. In a lot of ways, they’re opposites as far as what type of goalkeepers they are. Some of the things that Pat can teach Bill – if he can get a good grasp of those things, the sky is the limit for Bill because the athletic ability is obviously there. What made Pat so special is the mental side of being a goalkeeper, and he’s going to give that to Bill day in, day out, and hopefully make Bill the goalkeeper we all want to see.”
