When D.C. United takes the field against the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday it will be without one of their mainstay defenders, Chris Korb, who is out for the rest of the season with a torn ACL he suffered against NYCFC on August 13th. Korb has played in 18 of D.C.’s 26 regular season games, and started 17 of them. He has been a versatile defender as he split those 17 starts between Left and Right fullback positions, playing his last 10 starts for the team on the right side after starting the season off on the left.
Korb is not a player that stands out, which is ironic to say on a team with no all-stars, however, in a league void of top quality fullbacks where week in and week out a new player emerges in the position as the best in the league, he has been a steady defender. He has played 1,445 minutes this season, tied with Steve Birnbaum for eighth on the team, and assisted on two goals, both coming in a miraculous comeback against the Philadelphia Union on July 26.
D.C. has several options to replace Korb though, having depth on their roster has prepared them to overcome potentially disastrous situations, such as losing your starting right back. Korb started off the season on the left side while filling in for Taylor Kemp who started off the season with a groin injury and re-injured it in late May. However, Korb moved to the right side when Sean Franklin went down with an ankle injury in June, but Franklin is now back and can take over his usual right back position after playing in the midfield the past two games since his return from injury. Ben Olsen has mentioned that other options to play in that position include Steve Birnbaum, Nick DeLeon and reserve defenders Luke Mishu and Jalen Robinson.
The Black and Red prepare for their final eight games of the season knowing they will be down one key contributor, however, don’t expect teams like the New York Red Bulls or the Columbus Crew or this weekend’s opponents, the San Jose Earthquakes to feel bad for them. D.C. holds a five point lead in the Eastern conference, having played three more games than their closest pursuer, the Red Bulls and hold a one point lead in the Supporter’s shield race over the L.A. Galaxy, who have played the same number of games.
Both D.C. and San Jose are coming off midweek games, in which they both won on the road. D.C. United traveled to Panama for their first CONCACAF Champions League tie of the tournament and pulled off a late 1-0 win, from a Miguel Aguilar goal while San Jose blasted Sporting Kansas City, 5-0 in Kansas City, behind two goal performances by Cordell Cato and Chris Wondolowski. San Jose is looking to get into the Western Conference playoff picture as they sit three points from the final playoff spot, so they know that a win could potentially put them in the top six, and in playoff position going into their final nine games after this one.
It is unlikely that San Jose will score five goals against D.C. United again, since it was the first time they had scored five goals in a game since defeating Chicago 5-1 in July 2014. D.C. on the other hand hasn’t allowed five goals since February of this year in the first leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinals in Costa Rica against Alajuelense, while the last time they gave up that many goals to an MLS team, it was to these San Jose Earthquakes in a 5-3 loss in May 2012.
Losing an integral part of the team isn’t new for D.C., last season United lost a key contributor in Chris Rolfe to a broken arm during the stretch run to the playoffs in early September and didn’t return until the playoffs. The team finished with a 3-4-1 record without Rolfe down the stretch but still managed to capture the top spot in the East. United is a team that is about the sum of their parts, rather than one player, and thus should be able to bounce back from this this injury loss. Now on to the clash with the Earthquakes, San Jose couldn’t possibly score five goals in back to back games could they?
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