One by one, they filed out of the D.C. United locker room: the team’s five highest-paid players — well, except for Christian Gomez ($321,000), who declined to be interviewed — each answering a few questions on the team’s disappointing season.
First up, Fred ($257,000; 23 appearances, 17 starts, 2 goals, 4 assists in MLS play): “The same last year, we didn’t go to playoffs because of one point again so we’re all disappointed.”
Is it your intention to return to D.C. United? “I don’t know yet. They have a one-year option, and I have to wait now.”
“I think the games at home, we didn’t win the games at home in September. This, I think, is the key to why we didn’t go the playoffs. But you have your head up, and we do it again next year.”
Next, Jaime Moreno ($355,000; 24 apps, 11 starts, 9 goals, 3 assists): “Usually it’s good when you see the team playing the same kind of games, the same kind of football at least five, six games, where you see that we’re really connecting with each other. But I don’t think that happened this year.”
How do you feel? “I want to play. I don’t know where, but I feel like I still have it. I’ve been pretty healthy this year. I’m actually feeling better than a lot of years. Definitely, I want to play. Definitely, I’m not retiring. It would have to be something like a critical injury to retire, so far my mind is to keep playing. But like I said, I have to wait and see what happens.”
You don’t know where? Another MLS club? “To be honest with you, I am not going to close the door and say not in MLS, but I think that would be something very hard just because of all the years I have been in this organization… I know [Philadelphia head coach, former of DCU] Peter [Nowak] pretty well. But I’m sure he has got different plans. Like I said, for me it’s just basically to play in D.C. If not, I will have to look somewhere else.”
Would you like to see head coach Tommy Soehn return? “That’s an awkward question. I don’t know if he wants to see me back.”
Luciano Emilio ($759,000; 27 apps, 23 starts, 10 goals, 2 assists) hasn’t yet spoken with the team about picking up his option: “We didn’t have a good season, like last year… I think I can do better. Ten goals is not bad.” Despite his low individual numbers, Emilio pointed out that United finished the year with 43 goals scored, more than seven of the eight teams in the playoffs…
Now, Ben Olsen ($225,000; 20 apps, 18 starts, 1 goal, 1 assist): “I’d like to play again, and that’s certainly not my decision. I’m sure the club’s evaluating everything right now. I’m sure at some point I’ll be part of that discussion.”
Would you play at another club? “I’ve been here my whole career, and this is the place that I love and want to finish.”
You’re a Pennsylvania native. Would you play in Philadelphia? “I want to play next year. But I want to play here.”
You’re assessment: “It’s tough to evaluate it now because as a team, it wasn’t a great season. I’m a part of this team, and the team failed so I’m not happy with the way things went. I certainly could’ve done more to help this team be better. That’s how I kind of look at.
What about those ankles? “I’ve been told by other people, and sometimes you need that, you need an outsider’s perspective on what went down with me this year. I guess I can see how it was a lot better than people expected. A Kansas City coach grabbed me after the game, and said, ‘I saw you in preseason, and if you’d told me you would’ve had the season you had the way you looked in preseason.’ It was nice to hear those comments because it’s tough to look back on where I was this time last year, but again, I’d like to have done more and played more games for this club, be more helpful.”
What went wrong for the team? “A lot of it seemed like it was mental breakdowns. We weren’t, at times, professional enough to hold a lead or finish a team off. Those things, you can sometimes chalk up to youth, and maybe we are not as mentally tough as we need to be. But could we have used a break here or there, a little luck? Yeah, but that stuff usually evens itself out over the course of a year. Saying that, everybody expects D.C. United to walk into the playoffs every year and be this dominating team. Some years there are going to be times where you need to fight it out and get into the playoffs. At times, we showed that, but overall, I think our commitment level and our understanding that every game is dire throughout the season, and that you need 90 minutes of focus, you need 90 minutes of fight, all that stuff was not as consistent as we needed it to be. And that’s disappointing. Again, we meaning me, and everybody else.”
