DC United's supersub is... Adam Cristman?!
by Martin Shatzer on Jun 1, 2025 12:00 PM EDT
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PrintMany individuals, including myself, have intimated that the turning point in DC United's season could be the team's win over AC Milan.
From a confidence standpoint, that makes a lot of sense. If United can defeat a top Italian club, then they should be able to beat MLS clubs too right? And the fact that they did it while playing a more aggressive attractive style couldn't have hurt either.
But I actually have a different turning point in mind.
It caming during the Chivas USA match. DC played for 90 minutes. They did it as a team. And they did it with something close to their best lineup.
This match marked the end of Kurt Morsink's and Christian Castillo's all too comfortable stay in the starting 11. Chris Pontius, Santino Quaranta, and Dejan Jakovic are all returning from injuries, and Andy Najar has staked his claim on a starting role as well.
But the turning point came in precisely the 70th minute.
The score was knotted at 1-1. DC was looking to make a move at the top of the formation. Danny Allsopp was set to come off, and United prepared another forward to enter the match in his place.
Do they turn to the Godfather of Goals? To MLS's all-time leading scorer? Do they turn to Jaime Moreno?
No. They turned to Adam Cristman. And just six minutes later he was putting the ball in the net to give DC its first lead of the match, and only its second lead of the season.
Cristman's goal may have looked easy at first glance. It may have looked like he was just in the right place at the right time. But actually, there was a goalkeeper and two Chivas defenders who could have been in that right place at that right time instead of Adam Cristman. He didn't give up on the play. He finished his run and cleanly delivered the score.
That decision to insert Adam Cristman instead of Jaime Moreno was a key factor in this victory. It was a turning point because it was a departure from the past. Just like benching Morsink and Castillo was a departure from our early season struggles. If Coach Onalfo can continue to learn from what went wrong earlier in the year and what went right in our two victories last week, DC United might still have a chance this year.
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Good point
This club has needed to get out of the shadow of its illustrious past for awhile now. I can’t help but think that Soehn would have sent Moreno on in that spot. The simple reasoning being “He’s Moreno, so that’s all there is to say.”
Onalfo instead chose the like-for-like option, maintaining a very similar style up top. The team on the field was looking strong, and I’m guessing that, without the midweek friendly, Allsopp goes 90 minutes there. He was likely a little winded, though, so Onalfo just put fresh legs on rather than tinkering with what was a formula that was working at the time. Bringing Moreno on would have meant an adjustment for everyone on the field; going with Cristman didn’t require much change at all (fewer through balls, given Cristman’s lack of speed, would be the only real change).
Back to moving into a new era, I think we’re slowly figuring it out. You see more young players being given critical roles. With everyone fit, the starting team would feature Hamid, Jakovic, Wallace, Najar, King, Pontius, and Quaranta. Every one of those players is under 26 years old at the moment. Going a step further, if Namoff continues to struggle with his post-concussion syndrome/whiplash, we start Graye, who’s another young player with a good future. The trick is to maintain or accelerate the growth of these young players while supplementing them with savvy veterans like Simms and Pena (who, in my book, offers more than Talley). If we ever want to be as good as we were, the focus has to be on the promising future of our younger corps as opposed to assuming that players like Moreno can forever avoid the inevitable decline that comes with age. Moreno still has an important place on the team, but if we’re still looking at him to have a starring role, we’re going to struggle all year long.
by ChestRockwell on Jun 1, 2025 11:53 PM EDT reply actions
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