D.C. United is Living on the Edge

D.C. United is living on the edge these days; three 1-0 wins, two of them occurring with injury time goals, make up the team’s nine points on the season so far, good for first place in the eastern conference. Outside of those wins, there is one blemish, a 2-0 road loss to the New York Red Bulls. Last year DC won four 1-0 games, they need one more to match that season total, only four games into this current season. Those who don’t pay attention to this team may look at those results, especially the last two wins, and think that DC is lucky. However, upon closer look, the team is built for 1-0 games. This is not to say that DC can’t score more than one goal per game, the team constantly looks to attack. Coach Ben Olsen a few weeks ago criticized Chris Pontius, a starting forward in every game thus far, of playing too defensive and that he needed to open up on the offense a little more. Pontius responded with a game winning header against the LA Galaxy. The team is currently third from the bottom in the league in shots (42), only Montreal (32) and Seattle (30) have attempted less than DC has. Those numbers are expected to rise now that Luis Silva is back from his injury and Fabian Espindola returns from his early season suspension, he is eligible to return for the April 25 game in Vancouver. Even with the expected rise in shots, DC is not a team that takes a lot of them. Last year they took the second lowest amount of shots in the league, while in 2013 they took the fourth lowest amount. Winning 1-0 games doesn’t necessarily mean success for a team. Last year’s league leaders in 1-0 wins were Chivas USA and Houston Dynamo, who both finished outside of the playoffs and with losing records. The area where DC differs from those two teams is that they play a more defensive minded game. Perry Kitchen, a former center back, plays the team’s defensive midfield position while fullbacks Taylor Kemp and Sean Franklin are fully capable to start runs from the back, but know their roles in a defend first strategy. The shift now focuses to the Atlantic Cup rivalry against the New York Red Bulls this weekend, giving the team a chance to avenge their only loss on the season so far, and perhaps one of the least inspired games played by the team during Ben Olsen’s tenure as coach. There is a good chance the team doesn’t repeat that performance again. In the history of these two rivals, there have been 12 games decided by 1-0 score lines; eight of them were won by D.C. United. The most recent 1-0 game between these two teams occurred last season on September 10, 2014 in Red bull Arena when Lloyd Sam hit a game winner in the 90^th minute to defeat a 10 man DC team who lost, ironically, Fabian Espindola to a red card early in the game. There are no guarantees that if DC continues to win 1-0 games that they will make a run at an MLS cup this season; however, it certainly helps in the standings.