D.C. United 2016 Preseason Minutes Tracker v1.0

As short as the MLS offseason has gotten over the years, there's no such thing as "short enough." So it was with great excitement that we here at B&RU have been tracking roster news and rumors and welcomed D.C. United's first preseason game of 2016 into the world (even if it was a 1-0 loss most notable for the poor streaming quality of the pay-to-stream feed).

Now that we have a preseason game in the books, it's time to dust off our handy Preseason Minutes Tracker to... well, track minutes and positions through the preseason. We'll update this several times between now and United's Concachamps quarterfinal kickoff against Queretaro on February 23.

Before we get to the table, it looks from what little data we have so far that Ben Olsen will be doing some tactical experimentation this year. So bear with us as we make editorial decisions as to when somebody is playing defensive midfield, attacking midfield and plain-old central midfield.

And now, the debut of our 2016 tracker.

Observations here?

• Formation is the first thing that will jump out at you here. At no point in the first preseason game did D.C. United play the vanilla 442 that Ben Olsen has preferred over the last couple years. They came close for about the middle third of the game, when they lined up in what looked to the world as a 4411, but always there was an extra man in central midfield. When Benny talked at the end of last season about the possibility of the team having gone as far as they can under the old system, maybe it's worth listening to him. Or maybe he was just trying to get guys on the field to see what he has to work with. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
• Speaking of new tactical looks, I see you playing in the #10 spot, Collin Martin.
• This is a really big camp, player-wise. There are 40 - forty - names on our tracker this year. Granted, that ignores absences due to injury or national team call-ups, and it includes names like Academy #40 (bright future for that one!), but this preseason training camp rolls deep. Look for the "Not Appearing" list to get a bit shorter when United retake the field tomorrow - which is not to say that the list will become "short" by any reasonable measure, just shorter.
• Looking at some of the names on that "Not Appearing" list, one wonders whether some of them were held out for what amounts to "split squad" game-planning like we see in baseball. For this first phase, maybe Rolfe, Saborio and Opare are simply on Team Black instead of Team Red. Or maybe they weren't ready for gametime for whatever reason(s). We'll find out tomorrow, I suppose.

That's it from me this week. Let us know in the comments what strikes you in the tracker and what trends you'll be on the lookout for as United builds toward February 23.