D.C. United Roster Depth To Earn Early Defensive Test

by Martin Shatzer on Mar 21, 2011 11:47 AM EDT

Perry Kitchen was an important part of United's win on Saturday. Too bad he'll now be missing for two weeks.

The back four for D.C. United deserve a good amount of credit for the team’s 3-1 win over the Columbus Crew in the 2011 MLS opener on Saturday night. They did a great job of limiting the Crew’s attack, giving up very few legitimate chances other than some free kicks and corner kicks.

Don’t get too used to seeing Jed Zayner , Perry Kitchen , Dejan Jakovic , and Marc Burch together on the back-line though. Only two of them (at most) are likely to start against the New England Revolution this coming Saturday.

Kitchen has already departed from D.C. to begin training with the U.S. U-20 National Team in Dallas this week, and will miss at least the next two regular season games for United. The U-20’s face Suriname on March 29 and Panama on April 2, and if the U.S. finishes in the top two of that three-team group (we’d all be shocked if they didn’t), Kitchen and the rest of his team will compete in the FIFA U-20 World Cup from July 29-August 20 in Columbia.

We knew that Kitchen would miss some time this year due to international commitments. That’s why we brought in Rodrigo Brasesco , who has looked good enough in limited work that we shouldn’t be too worried about Kitchen’s absence. I actually think Kitchen himself should be the only one worrying, because he might find his starting job has disappeared by the time he gets back.

But we didn’t expect having to play without two of our regular starters on the back-line this early in the season. Jed Zayner picked up a hamstring injury on Saturday night, and he may have to miss the trip to Foxboro. In his press conference after the game, Ben Olsen specifically mentioned rookie Chris Korb as a potential replacement for Zayner. I guess that would maintain our quota of having one rookie Akron defender in the starting lineup at all times.

I was personally a bit pessimistic about our defense’s chances last week against Andres Mendoza, Emilio Renteria , and Robbie Rogers of the Crew. Fortunately, Rob Warzycha let us off the hook a bit by using only one of those three dynamic attackers. I wouldn’t expect Steve Nicol to make the same tactical errors as Warzycha, but we may get a bit lucky once again as Marko Perovic had to be removed from the Revolution’s match against the Los Angeles Galaxy yesterday after suffering a hamstring injury, and Ousmane Dabo and Didier Domi each were held out due to injury.

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Kitchen really impressed me on Saturday

I wasn’t kidding when I called him the Organizer We’ve Been Waiting For. At one point after a set piece, I saw him yelling and gesturing for Burch to get out of the center and back to the left. Every time he got pulled upfield with or without the ball he was quick to recover. He was pretty constantly signalling to other players on the field where they needed to be (as was Dax, actually).

I can’t believe I’m saying this about a rookie, but I really hope we don’t drop off too much without him on the field. That organizational ability is a big part of what we were missing last year. We know Jakovic – for all that he is – isn’t that. If Brasesco isn’t either, we could allow a soft goal or two next weekend. Hopefully that’s not the case.

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by The AMT on Mar 21, 2011 12:27 PM EDT reply actions

Kitchen

Earlier when I mentioned that our backline looked transformed (in a good way) on Saturday night, the thought occured to me that the only difference between the back line of a year ago and the one on Saturday night was Perry Kitchen. It’s hard to imagine that a kid that just turned 19 can have that sort of impact, but it’s unnanimous, as far as I can tell, that the kid is a true leader and organizer, as you say. Add to that his obvious skill, and I have the feeling that I may be watching my soon to be new favorite USMNT player getting his start with DCU. Plus, he had the guts to wear #23 for United. You gotta love that.

by madavis on Mar 21, 2011 12:47 PM EDT up reply actions

Onstad

Playing devil’s advocate a bit just because I don’t want us all gushing over the kid after only one game… Onstad was a difference from last year too. As Olsen put it, Onstad was “like having a coach on the field.”

But you guys are right. We’ll find out the next two weeks just how much of a difference maker Kitchen really is. Hell, it could be Jakovic losing his starting job instead.

Managing Editor for BlackAndRedUnited.com. Weekend Writer for SBNation DC.

by Martin Shatzer on Mar 21, 2011 6:33 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions

This is a good point

All the same: gush gush gush gush gush. :)

Vamos United; Boiler Up
Support your local club.
Black & Red United

by The AMT on Mar 21, 2011 7:07 PM EDT up reply actions

True

In my first comment, I had thought of mentioning that Onstad could be our defensive organizer in the absence of Kitchen, but I left the point to focus on my gushing over Perry Kitchen :)

You know, another kid we’re going to start losing to U-20 duty is Andy Najar. That’ll be a new one for us this year.

by madavis on Mar 21, 2011 9:03 PM EDT up reply actions