FanPost

Is Chris Pontius a club legend?

A question hangs over the head of the longest tenured player on United's current squad: Will Chris Pontius be back for the 2016 season? As we wait to find out the answer to that, let's discuss what Pontius's career has meant for the club. Is he one of the greats?

I update the All-Time DC United Roster Wikipedia page after every game, and it's fun because it lets you get to sort players by games played, goals, and assists. So using those metrics, let's look at Pontius. He has played 152 games (9th most), scored 31 goals (7th most), and has 17 assists (10th most). So, fairly impressively, Pontius is in the top 10 of all three of those stats. Only four players can make that claim: Jaime Moreno, Marco Etcheverry, Ben Olsen, and Santino Quaranta.

Those first three are indisputably club legends, and are in the Hall of Tradition. Quaranta is the most similar to Pontius (152 games, 31 goals, 17 assists for Pontius, 159 games, 24 goals, 29 assists for Quaranta), but each of the players besides Pontius have won at least one MLS Cup, and rank in the top 5 of at least one of the three categories. Pontius ranks no higher than seventh in any category (goals scored), and has only won a US Open Cup. And I had to look it up to make sure he even played in that final. Pontius has played in six playoff games in his career, scoring only once in his most recent one against New England. He left that game shortly afterward, injured. He had a pretty egregious penalty attempt saved against New York in 2012, and his greatest playoff contribution is arguably getting fouled by Rafa Marquez to draw a second yellow.

Does Pontius have any truly memorable moments for United? His hat trick against the Red Bulls has to stand out. He scored against the Galaxy in his debut. He had a cracker of a goal in Mexico in Champion's League play. He had seemingly a hat trick in Seattle (the third goal ended up being claimed by Adam Cristman), and three assists to Charlie Davies in a game against Chivas USA. He does have a signature goal style, The Pontius Special, in which he runs at a defender from the left, cuts to his right, and curls the ball into the net. He also has a terrific nickname - Party Boy - and a less terrific one, PontiNomNom.

So, is he a legend right now? Pontius had a high peak, being named to MLS Best XI in 2012 and also being named the MLS All-Star Game MVP. His 12 goals scored that year is nearly 40% of his career total. He had 7 goals in 2011, but has never scored more than 4 (2009) in any other season. Mostly what we remember is the squandered potential. All the injuries at inopportune times, never being able to break into the national team because of them. To me, he seems very similar to Santino Quaranta, a good looking player with scads of potential that is thought highly of by the fanbase because of their devotion to the club. So, ultimately, your feelings about Tino will probably inform your thoughts about Pontius. If Tino's a club legend, then so is Party Boy. Personally, I think they were both pretty good, but fall short of Hall of Tradition status.

Of course, Pontius may yet return to United. If he were to match his best season (31 games played, 12 goals, 4 assists), his career totals would look like this: 183 games (5th), 43 goals (4th), and 21 assists (9th). That looks a lot more legendary, especially if United were able to add some more silverware. So now you know what you need to do Party Boy. Go get it!

Trending Discussions