A Little Bit Of Perspective
by Bald Pollack on Oct 6, 2011 8:20 AM EDT
Email
PrintFor some strange reason, after Sunday's loss to the Columbus Crew (a match in which we were without several players, and our biggest one coming off the heels of taking a knock only three days before), a word I've seen tossed around a little bit is "disappointing." I get the frustration and understand it, but along with the winnable games that haven't been, there are some things to consider in whatever form you choose.
So in number form (borrowing from my brain, the team site and ESPN soccernet game logs), some things of interest about the current DC United squad:
119 - Number of days since Sunday's starting right back Chris Korb played a full 90 minutes (since the 6/3 scoreless draw with LA). Additionally he had only appeared in one match (6/11 vs. SJ) since that date.
14 - Number of games played by Brandon McDonald since he was acquired June 28.
5 (part 1) - Number of games McDonald played with presumed (going forward) center back partner Dejan Jakovic since McDonald was acquired on June 28.
5 (part 2) - Number of goals allowed during that time (including 3 playing a man down against Toronto).
5 (part 3) - Number of rookies who have started this year for DC.
64 - Number of combined starts for DC rookies.
2,366 - Minutes played by current team leader (and rookie) Perry Kitchen.
17 - Number of starts from Charlie Davies in 2011.
20 - Number of combined starts from Davies from 2008 - 2010.
40 - Number of points Jason Kreis reached in his first full year of coaching in 2008 in 30 matches.
25.56 - Average age of 2008 RSL roster.
25.56 - Average age of 2008 RSL listed defenders.
38 - Number of points Ben Olsen has after 30 matches in 2010.
25.22 - Average age of the 2011 roster.
24.44 - Average age of D.C. defenders.
5 (part 4) - Number of RSL players who played more than 30 games in 2008.
27.2 - Average age of those players.
4 - Number of DC players projected to play more than 30 games in 2011.
24.25 - Average age of those players.
I don't really have a point to this number dump, other that this team is young, but we knew that. Currently of those 5 rookies, 2 have played prominent roles in back (Kitchen and Ethan White) and another (Austin da Luz) has recently seen some increased playing time on the left side of the midfield. And like the rookies before them (and with Conor Shanosky when he starts to see some more time in the 18), there are going to be first-year walls hit at various points by each. But at this point, I'd consider one other number, and that's two: the state of the roster when Olsen inherited this team and where the roster is under his watch now, and over the last 14 months (the first four of which was while he still had the interim tag on his business cards), the resulting work has been good.
As far as this year's playoffs go, while missing them may be disappointing to some, for me I'm looking forward to another year of what this core group has to offer, Olsen included, going forward.
4 comments
|
1 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Too soon
Let’s have a few more weeks of hope and optimism before thinking too hard about why it’s ok to miss the playoffs! (Though I agree generally, that overall this year is already a success and long term prospects are promising.)
The part that troubles me is the “going forward” bit with this core. I could easily see both Hamid and Najar in Europe this time next year, and who knows how much longer DeRo can maintain god-like form?
So much this on the latter part, complicated by DCU still being fairly horrid on international scouting. They’ve figured out how to rebuild in a sense (without actually saying it), we’ll see how they handle the next step.
"My favorite fan base in D.C. Is United's. Period. The end." - Steinberg
"This [job] would be so much easier if it wasn't for the fucking [customers]."
Hamid and Najar
I don’t know much about their personal desires or what timeframe the club has in mind for Hamid and Najar, but I think it would be a big mistake for Hamid to head to Europe at this point in his career. I worry that he’d wind up on someone’s bench, his confidence would suffer, and his form would follow. I’d like to see Hamid dominant at the MLS level before departing. He’s not quite there yet.
None of this is true for Najar. He could earn minutes in any league in the world and look good doing it. I don’t want to see him go anywhere obviously, but I think he’d do fine when he does decide to move on.
Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekly Columnist for SB Nation D.C..
by Martin Shatzer on Oct 7, 2011 4:11 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Black And Red United
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
