When we last took an in-depth look inside the D.C. United net, it was to forecast that although Bill Hamid merited his first professional start in United’s U.S. Open Cup qualifier against FC Dallas. Instead, Troy Perkins got the start to help his flagging confidence, and United earned its first win. Of course, it didn’t translate into regular season success, and Perkins was swapped out after giving up two more sketchy goals the following weekend against New York.
Hamid then was superlative in United’s win over Kansas City, and last weekend he was again solid at Dallas despite a 1-0 loss, including earning a nominee for save of the week. But will the defeat cost him his starting spot?
“We’re coming off what we think are two very good performances even though we didn’t get the result last weekend, and we’re just looking to build on that,” said United head coach Curt Onalfo earlier this week.
“Competition is the best motivator,” Onalfo responded when asked about what he has on his hands in the net, “Certainly, Bill’s done very well with the opportunities that have been presented to him, and what that does is create competition. That’s a good thing. We need to have that, and we want to have that in every position.”
Not sure quite what that indicates.
Similar questions exist at forward, where the evidence of the past two games offers little reason to change against Colorado on Saturday – and I’ve taken that approach in writing my story for tomorrow’s print edition about Adam Cristman and Danny Allsopp.
“Certainly, they bring a work ethic that’s been contagious through the team,” said Onalfo. “Adam has the ability to get in behind. He’s got very good pace and is extremely strong and has done well as has Danny. Danny scored two good goals here at home, and it’s just a matter of progressing and making sure they continue to get better and when they have the chances they take them.
“Right now, Danny took advantage of his opportunity so that’s given him more minutes, and so has Adam. Adam scored two goals in the Open Cup game, and he had a good assist against Kansas City. That’s part of it, but we have other guys that can come in and do the job as well. Competition is a good thing, and we’re going to continue with it.”
Add Penalty Kicks to your RSS: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Penalty-kicks
Follow me on Twitter: @craigstouffer
