D.C. United season review: Luciano Acosta

After paying a large transfer fee to acquire him, D.C. United primarily kept the same team around Luciano Acosta to begin 2017. His season start was delayed, as an ankle injury that he suffered in the last game of the preseason forced him to miss the first two games and seemed to bother him intermittently throughout the season.

As the summer approached it was clear that the forward line was ice cold and that Patrick Nyarko was the only other consistent creative presence; when he was sidelined with another concussion, teams could focus in on Acosta, be physically with him, and take him out of games. From there, frustration mounted and play suffered.

However, Acosta had a resurgence from the midseason malaise that struck the entire team with the additions of Paul Arriola, Zoltan Stieber, and Russell Canouse. He had a goal and two assists after their addition and looked lively and aggressive on the field.

At this point, we can say that Acosta has a trend of retaliating after hard fouls that will sometimes get him a yellow or a red. He is still young and had to try and carry basically all of the offensive production burden for the team for much of the season. Next year, with an offseason practicing with Stieber, Arriola, and the new forward that the team will hopefully sign, the team should hopefully be able to force opponents to not just key in on one individual player.

For those of you who are new, at the end of every season we go through every player on the team and ask you whether or not they should come back next year. This series has been called River or Life, Cake or Death, and now is called Season Review. Some of these decisions will be obvious, and others less so. So, I call the question: Do you want Luciano Acosta back next year?