Here’s what D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen said on Friday when asked about the possibility of lineup changes after Wednesday’s unsatisfying 2-2 draw with Chivas USA: “I still trust the group who is on the field last week. I just think we didn’t keep the emotion high after we were up 2-0. That can be fixed.”
Interestingly enough, Olsen has fixed it by making some pretty significant changes to the lineup tonight against Real Salt Lake.
The full starting 11: Hamid; Kitchen, White, McDonald, Burch; Najar, Simms, King, da Luz; De Rosario, Wolff.
The explanation: As I wrote in my advance story, the limitations of Daniel Woolard at left back have become apparent of late, and the chemistry and production of the forward pairing of Josh Wolff and Charlie Davies have both been inconsistent. Olsen has made changes both places.
Woolard is back on the bench after 20 straight starts, losing his place to Marc Burch, who started in that position for the first seven games of the season.
Davies, 180 minutes after his hat trick at Chivas USA, is replaced by Dwayne De Rosario, who moves to forward – even though he’ll play a withdrawn role behind Wolff.
Santino Quaranta is also back on the bench, replaced by Austin da Luz, even though he took some exception to the notion that he was among the D.C. players that wilted mentally against Chivas USA.
“I disagree with that for my own self with that heart, mental toughness, that kind of stuff,” Quaranta said on Friday. “But as a group maybe, that makes sense. Whenever you are challenged by your coach about heart and mental toughness, it’s not the best thing in the world, especially this time of year. It shouldn’t happen. He shouldn’t need to do that. At this point in this season, to be questioned about if you want it enough, if you’re capable, that’s unacceptable. It’s a challenge for us because no one wants to be questioned like that. It’s a fair point because I think he’s right in some sense.”
After his solid outing off the bench on Wednesday, Stephen King has earned his seventh start of the year.
As for Real Salt Lake, they’ve loaded up the bench after a 3-1 win at New York on Wednesday. That’ll be where Will Johnson, Alvaro Saborio (9 goals), Fabian Espindola (9 goals) and Javier Morales – who is available for the first time since May 7 (a span of 23 matches), when he suffered a broken left ankle.
