DC United Season Wrap-up

This season can be broken up into thirds.

For roughly the first third of the season, nothing went right as DC United tried to integrate a boatload of new players. Complicating matters was our goalkeeper, Zach Wells, who struggled in the early days to acclimate himself to starting in MLS and let in easy goals.

Then, in the middle "third", that is, June and early July, DCU began to click, played some wonderful soccer, and won a lot of games.

Then came the final "third" of the season where we got bit by the injury bug, an overly congested calendar, and some unlucky breaks and simply lost too many games to get into the playoffs.

Here is what needs to happen in the offseason.

1) Get Jaime Moreno healthy and fit for his last year in MLS.

2) Get Gallardo, Peralta, Olsen, Fred, Emilio, and everybody else healthy and fit.

3) Add some defensive depth. Aquiring Janicki was a good first step. But we need a dominating central defender in the mold of Eddie Pope or Ryan Nelsen. Peralta when healthy might be adequate, but if an upgrade at that position is available, I say trade and go for it.

4) Get a better backup 'keeper who is going to push Crayton hard for playing time. Crayon is good, but needs hard competition on the training ground to be his sharpest.

5) Keep Tom Soehn. He wasn't perfect, but he showed he can coach and win games when he has healthy players. Give him another year.

6) Make the defensive midfield play every game like the one they played against Columbus the last game of the season. I haven't seen DC United pressure the ball and close down passing lanes like that since the late 90's.

7) Play the reserves in all nonleague midweek games. These superligas and Open Cups don't mean a hill of beans. Case in point -- this season we actually WON the US Open Cup, but the players, media, and internet fan sites all consider this season a failure. Winning the US Open Cup was not even a consolation prize. So if winning such "Cups" mean nothing, neither do losing them. Send the reserves out for these matches. If THEY win, it'll mean something to them.

With some well-targeted adjustments and some relief from the injury bug, DC United should be in good shape for a serious run at the MLS Cup.