WASHINGTON, D.C. — D.C. United head coach Ben Olsen knows the intricacies of a Major League Soccer season. In his 22nd season in the league, he is quite familiar with the long season, suspensions, injuries and the art of having to put together several iterations of a team.
Although prepared, those obstacles challenged United last week. Following a 4-0 defeat at home to Los Angeles FC, United hosted the Montreal Impact in a 0-0 draw without captain Wayne Rooney, who was suspended.
During the game, United faced the ugly truth of injury spells and had to deploy a new formation with fresh faces. Defender Joseph Mora (jaw), Leonardo Jara (shoulder) and Chris McCann (hamstring) were all injured ahead of United’s game against the Colorado Rapids.
“This is the MLS season, so buckle up,” Olsen said after the LAFC loss, as if he had additional foresight into what United was about to face.
Olsen was forced to shift the lineup versus Colorado. He inserted rookie Donovan Pines and Chris Durkin and opted for a 5-4-1 formation instead of the 4-2-3-1 formation from previous weeks. United fell behind early, but in an eight-minute stretch of time bounced back to win 3-2.
“Considering we played a really good team in LA, a tough defensive team in Montreal, to go away in Colorado with fatigue — I think getting four points out of that is pretty good,” Olsen said. “It puts us in a good place moving forward.”
The youngsters, Pines and Durkin, stepped up in their season debuts. Pines played in the center of the back five as a stopper while Durkin took his typical No. 6 role in midfield. Durkin pushed forward in the 38th minute to score his first professional goal and give United its first lead of the game.
“You can see from my celebration that I was extremely excited, not only to get the goal, but just to have an impact on the game,” Durkin said. “I see my role as any other player: being ready when your time comes. We have a great competition between me, [Junior] Moreno and [Russell] Canouse that is healthy.”
In addition to players like Durkin, who has played several games in the last two season, United has added young homegrown players who have already made an impact.
“We have always played academy players,” Olsen said. “It is all we do. Nothing is new there.”
United signed Pines out of the University of Maryland to a homegrown contract before the start of the 2019 season.
“They had all the rosters on the screen and they had the starting players,” Pines said. “It said ‘DP’ and I was like, ‘Who’s DP? Oh, that’s me. Wow.’ It is incredible. … I knew I had to get focused. I have to work hard and do what I have to do to be successful.”
The 6-foot-5 NCAA Champion played three games with USL Championship side Loudoun United before getting called up to MLS. This is the first season United has had a second-tier USL team directly connected with the club. Without Loudoun, players like Pines would not get the chances he did, Olsen said.
“No question that is what Loudoun is primarily for, to get guys minutes and get them ready for when we need to call them for the first team,” Olsen said. “He is a prime example of going there, playing well and earning the trust of his teammates and staff to put him in a tough game.”
This week, Jara will most likely be on the 18-man gameday roster again, which will allow a return to the four-backs formation. That said, Olsen was tight-lipped about how exactly United will lineup against NYCFC.
NYCFC head coach Domènec Torrent also has a tendency to switch up his lineup. The two teams that faced off last month at Yankee Stadium in a scoreless draw may look different this time around at Audi Field, but the men in net will likely stay the same.
“He tweaks the group quite a bit tactically and you have to take your best guess and prep your team accordingly,” Olsen said of Torrent. “Like any game, they might throw something different at us and we will have to adapt.”
Match Information
When: Sunday, 4:00 p.m. ET
Where: Audi Field, Washington, D.C.
Broadcast: ESPN