DC United All-Decade Team: Starting Central Defender
As an introduction to our next round of voting for the DC United All-Decade Team, I thought I'd address a couple of things that were brought up in the comments section from our last post. Commenter monk81 raised two excellent points that I totally agree with as to how the voting for this team differs slightly from the voting for the Redskins All-Decade Team over at Hogs Haven.
1. There are no automatic selections here. I want to give every fan the chance to vote for every position. Jaime Moreno may have been the most obvious automatic selection, but I think it's better for that to work itself out in the voting, as it so clearly has. For Moreno, there was really no doubt, but there might be some other players (some listed below even) that I personally might include as automatic selections, but that others might disagree with. Plus, holding a vote for every position allows me to increase my post count without too much effort!
2. We are focusing only on 2000-2009. So please don't let a player's performance prior to 2000 influence your voting. Is it a coincidence that I'm bringing this point up now specifically when one of the players listed below would have easily been voted #1 in the 1990s but only played 3 seasons for United in 2000s? Perhaps…
So with that out of the way, let's move on to the voting for the first starting center back for the DC United All-Decade Team.
Ryan Nelsen (2001-2004), 81 matches, 7 goals, 5 assists
Bobby Boswell (2005-2007), 80 matches, 4 goals, 4 assists
Devon McTavish (2006-2009), 64 matches, 1 goal, 4 assists
Mike Petke (2003-2005), 58 matches, 5 goals, 1 assist
Eddie Pope (2000-2002), 57 matches, 1 goal, 5 assists
Facundo Erpen (2005-2007), 49 matches, 4 goals, 4 assists
Judah Cooks (2000-2001), 16 matches, 2 goals, 1 assist
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defenders
I voted for Nelsen even though he never (to my knowledge) had a bicycle kick clearance off the backline… When I started bringing a friend (hi muse!) to games, he initially liked Erpen because he was a lively player. I agreed but said that I like my defenders boring. After watching more of Erpen, my friend quickly came around to the merits of the boring defender!
Second choice was Boz here, then Pope (believe Pope did more in the 90s)
by Irrlicht on Feb 10, 2025 1:24 PM EST reply actions
I’ve long held that Nelsen’s best years here was as impressive as Pope at his best. The difference was the supporting cast (we wouldn’t have won any titles in the 90s if Pope had Scott Vermillion to his right instead of guys like Carey Talley and Diego Sonora). He’s got to be top choice for this poll.
After that, I’d say votes for Pope and Boswell are roughly evenly merited. Pope was still a good player on a bad set of United teams, while Boswell’s play in 2005 and 2006 was at a high level as well. Petke also deserves some acknowledgment, though I think he’ll just miss out on making this team.
by ChestRockwell on Feb 10, 2025 4:11 PM EST reply actions
I like Nelsen
He was part of a title winning team in the 2000’s. And he was exceptional for us! Its tough not to vote for Eddie Pope. He had a terrible supporting cast, he was still high quality but he didn’t win any titles this decade. I wish Nelsen was here longer than he was but alas Blackburn needed him too. We are about winning trophies, right. Well, Nelsen was a key to that title without a doubt. In my opinion, he was the best central defender in this decade for us.
by monk81 on Feb 10, 2025 4:58 PM EST reply actions
OK, so I'm an idiot
I completely missed the warning about this being ONLY for this decade. Hence my vote for Pope. Eddie was on the decline at this point. I’ll still say that he is our best defender over his career.
Boswell had one good year, and I don’t think he belongs in this discussion.
Anyway, given the limits of the poll, I change my vote to Nelsen.
by Matt Mathai on Feb 11, 2025 9:51 AM EST reply actions

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