After reading of my team’s further descent with a 1-0 loss to Toronto FC (TFC) last night, I think it’s come time for me to lay out what I think are the big problems affecting the greatest club in MLS. While I was unfortunately (not really) not able to see their game last night (first adult league game back after 6 months rehabbing a knee reconstruction), I did manage to DVR the loss to Chivas USA on Saturday night. I’ve watched several of their games over the season and I try to watch them whenever they’re on TV here in PA, so I feel like I have the requisite knowledge of their players and tactics to comment. So without further ado, let’s examine the breakdowns:

Expectations - While I think this is less of an immediate issue and rather one that contributed to some early losses, I think it’s still worth discussing. All the buzz around the league in the offseason/preseason was just how incredible DC looked on paper. Reigning MLS golden boot winner and MVP Luciano Emilio was returning to lead the attack. I don’t know off the top of my head how many years it had been since there was a 20 goal scorer in MLS, but that was Emilio last year. The expectation was that he would probably come close to his total and additional help up top would only make DC’s attack more effective. While Moreno doesn’t contribute much besides holding the ball and scoring chip shot pks, Kpene and Addlery did nothing last year. The arrival of bite sized striker Franco Niell (on loan from Argentinos Juniors of Argentina’s premier division) and the return of a supposedly reinvigorated Santino Quaranta (imagine having to salvage your career at 23) were cause to believe that an even more dangerous attack was on the cards. Add in the arrival of Zach Wells at goalkeeper, Gonzalo(s) Peralta and Martinez (the latter with Serie A and Colombian national team experience), the return of Fred, and most importantly, the designated player signing of Marcelo Gallardo and it looked like DC had cured several of their problems from last year (Boswell and Vanney at center back, the sometimes inconsistent Troy Perkins at goalkeeper, and the aging Christian Gomez at playmaker). No one doubted DC’s credentials in the offseason and while other teams made some bold moves, like LA hiring Ruud Gullit as coach or KC signing Claudio Lopez as their designated player, it looked like this would be the year DC should return to glory. So after another heart breaking loss in the CONCACAF Champions’ Cup and a couple early season losses, the wolves had already come out, disappointed by DC’s surprising fragility.

Injuries - Loss of key players Josh Gros and Ben Olsen have been especially hard on DC for the lack of depth at their positions. In all honesty the salary cap in MLS prevents teams from having anything resembling depth so injuries to big time players can really kill a team. Josh Gros provided solid defense and very good overlapping runs/crosses down the left flank as either a outside back or wide midfielder. His combativeness and determination allowed him to really push and make plays when the team needed them. Similarly, Ben Olsen’s injury is the worse of the two. While Gros was in and out of the lineup last year due to his concussion/headache problems, Olsen has been the heart and soul of DC for several years now. You can’t mention the words combative, tireless, or determined without picturing Olsen going box to box to make plays on both ends of the field. McTavish looked decent in the beginning of the year, but he too has suffered injury problems and from the sounds of it, didn’t have a great game on his return last night. DC’s best player (in my opinion), however, is Fred and with quadriceps and hamstring problems causing him to miss several games there’s seemingly no one to play the left flank, not to mention that the defensively weak Quaranta has been deployed out of position on the right flank. No team plays well missing key players and playing other important ones out of position and DC is no different in this regard.

Leadership - The injuries segue nicely into the lack of the leadership that seems to currently envelope the team. That is a minor problem when a team undergoes cosmetic surgery over the offseason, but can be a serious issue when the entire squad is overhauled at nearly every position. With a new goalkeeper, new center backs, new playmaker, and season ending losses to two of your biggest on field leaders you need to have some strong personalities step up, immediately establish their credentials to the rest of the team, and then play extremely well while motivating the rest of the group to match their intensity/playing level. So far it appears that this hasn’t happened. I’ve seen pictures of Olsen helping out at practice, but he’s not able to be on the field during the games. Moreno possesses years of experience, but he doesn’t seem to be an outspoken individual on the field. Nor does anyone for that matter. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen defensive miscues, particularly between one of the centerbacks and Wells. I’ve read quotes where Wells claims he has to be more outspoken on the field. But being outspoken doesn’t mean rushing out blindly, which is what he seems to do most of the time. Someone needs to step up, play well consistently, and then get on his teammates when they slack. Unfortunately I don’t see that happening with anyone this season (maybe Fred if anyone).

The New Guys - As I mentioned, the roster was almost completely overhauled in the offseason. While they looked great before the season started, I’m not sure if any of the additions were upgrades over what DC already had. In my mind Wells has been worthless as a goalkeeper. I’d love to have a really solid guy back there, and while I don’t think Perkins was great (he was much better when he was worried Rimando would take over the starting job each week, which makes me wonder about his inner drive/personality), I think Wells is pretty dreadful. Sure Perkins basically cost us the Champions’ Cup series against Chivas (the real one) last year when he let the wet ball slip through his hands, but his positioning was pretty good, he made pretty good decisions, and only occasionally let in soft goals. He could be depended upon for the most part although I did think his lack of motivation was the reason he never looked as good as when Rimando’s injury allowed him to become the starter. But Wells’ positioning is pretty bad. He frequently gives up the near post and has allowed goals where no opportunity should really exist. The goal in the 2nd leg against Pachuca was back breaking for the team and while you have to anticipate the next play at every position, you can’t allow goals to the near post, it’s like Goalkeeping 101. His reflexes are good and he makes some great saves at times, but his communication is poor on top of his bad positioning. There have been several miscues throughout the season between Wells and his defenders which have on occasion lead to goals. Too many soft goals like the one Jorge Flores scored against DC on Saturday are examples of why I think Perkins was better.

The center backs are roughly an upgrade from Boswell and Vanney. Vanney was never that great and Boswell really blew it last year. He was very much involved in the two goals Chicago scored against DC in the playoffs (2nd leg I believe) and I had no problem with him being shipped out no matter how well he had performed previously. I’m not sure he’s done particularly well in Houston since leaving DC either. Martinez is on the wrong side of 30, but is pretty solid. He routinely shows good speed and excellent timing with moving out wide to tackle players on the flanks. A good upgrade over the old guys. But Peralta, taken from a 2nd division Argentine team, looks very good at times and at other times leaves no doubt as to why he was in the 2nd division. Too inconsistent in his play, Peralta will make some good tackles or good headers to clear dangerous balls, but can also get in the way of others’ defensive efforts and can be pulled out of position with good running from the other team. Not sure whether he’s worse than Vanney or similarly bad.

In the midfield, I think McTavish is an adequate deputy for Olsen. While not new and featured in some games last year, I think he looked pretty decent as a wide midfielder early in the season. I hope he helps ease the pain we all feel from Olsen’s shaky ankles. But the real change in midfield is showing Gomez the door to make room for Gallardo. Now Gallardo’s pedigree is much superior to Gomez’s, who has never been capped by Argentina, much less traveled with them to the World Cup. Gallardo also played for Paris St. Germain, a typically top team in France’s Ligue Un. However, he hasn’t really proven to be an upgrade over Gomez. Frankly I’m surprised at Gomez’s renaissance in Colorado and thought showing him the door, while tough from a personal perspective, was necesary in the ruthless pursuit of success. But I think Gomez, who prefers to receive the ball fairly high up the field and dribbles at opposing defenses where he can shoot if the opportunity arises or slide balls through to teammates to finish, is better suited to MLS’ style of play. Gallardo is clearly a more nuanced passer and I daresay more intelligent playmaker than Gomez, but his style is pretty dependent upon the talent that surrounds him. He’s a pure passer who drops deep to receive the ball and can spread it all around the field. But he’s not going to be able to carry half of a team’s scoring load. He can rack up assists if his teammates are up to the task of making crafty runs or applying a decent finish, but without that, Gallardo doesn’t offer anything more than Gomez. Could be an upgrade, but needs some more talent to help out, especially up front.

In attack we have Niell and Quaranta joining Emilio and Moreno. Quaranta seems suitably reinvigorated as all the preseason hype suggested and I’m glad he seems to have come to terms with what it takes to make it as a professional. Unfortunately he’s probably wasted his talent to a degree and won’t be able to make up for the time lost during prime development years that maybe could have seem him turn into an extremely good player. At the very least he probably could’ve become as good as Bobby Convey, who’s a decent Premiership winger and would be very good in MLS these days. But I don’t know that he’ll ever become a standout MLS player. He maybe will always be in the league as a number two striker, but we’ll see. He has the talent is a youthful 23 years old. I think his speed and skill can be dangerous up top and I thought he sparked the rout of Harbour View in the return leg at RFK when he entered as a second half sub. But as an outside mid he’s not great. He has too much defensive work to frequently get involved offensively and then the coach blames him when the team concedes goals. Put him up top to complement one of our slow strikers and I think we’ll see the best of him. And Franco Niell sucks. His feet are quick but he puts his head down and dribbles into three defenders and loses the ball. Plus he’s slow so his runs aren’t dangerous and while his feet are quick he really does nothing 100% of the time. Except the one goal he scored, which was nice. I hope for the sake of the Front Office that they never saw him play and signed him on reputation alone. But seriously, 150k/yr could be spent on like 2 decent players in MLS. Or put it all at one solid player who can start or come off the bench. Seriously, as bad as Addlery or Kpene and paid almost 10 times more, utterly ridiculous.

Tom Soehn - Now we’re starting to get to the real problems. I was cautiously optimistic when Soehn was hired seeing as he was assistant to Nowak when DC dismantled everyone in MLS en route to realizing it’s not how you play the regular season, like nearly every other league in the world, but how you do in the cup run at the end (called the playoffs here in the states), and the lack of squad rotation left the burnt out players too tired to finish what they started (twice). But his playing pedigree wasn’t really good and while I always hesitate to consider that a flaw seeing as I aspire to coach professionally and will probably never play at that level (neither did Mourinho or Rafa), it still worried me. MLS defenders, particularly in the earlier days, weren’t known for their tactical nous and Soehn has looked out of his depth most of last year and all of this year. He at times gets it all right, like the 2nd leg against Pachuca (I thought the idea of high pressure and winning the ball up high clearly worked well, DC just couldn’t score), but those times are few and far between. It’s impossible to tell if it’s really Soehn’s fault for DC’s recent struggles, but it just seems to me that most of his comments to the media are of the typical American soccer coach variety. We need more hustle, we need to work harder, etc. All the intangibles that at the youth level are typically indicative of a lack of understanding of the game. I don’t think this is necessarily any different. While Soehn undoubtedly has a deeper understanding of the game than myself, I see the fact that Emilio is typically receiving the ball about 30 yards from goal as a serious problem. The fact that we really have no fast strikers, besides maybe Quaranta, further compounds this problem. This just allows the opposition to compact the field and really squeeze DC until they give away possession. But really Emilio works best inside the box. He’s ok holding up the ball a la the typical target man but is terrible turning with the ball and has no pace so is unable to beat defenders 1v1. He needs to stay high where he has the best chance of finishing crosses and hitting shots from the edge or inside of the box. I think Soehn has worked to get Gallardo to play higher up the field which should help the attack as well, but best case scenario is he’s struggled to accomodate the new faces and get the team on the same page and worse he’s completely outmatched by other coaches in MLS and shouldn’t be a head coach. I don’t think Tom Soehn is the coach to lead this club forward. I like the idea of continuity within a club (see United, Manchester) and belive it breeds long term success, but the guy needs to be capable and I don’t know that Soehn is the answer.

Luciano Emilio - I really place a lot of blame on Emilio. And it’s not really fair to blame one guy for all of the problems DC is experiencing. But when you’re making the big bucks and you’re the league MVP, a certain standard is expected. I’m personally a fan of recruting quality individuals, guys you can count on to exhibit certain character traits you have deemed important. I think this is the basis of every organization, every team. And you try to find players to fit that mold and you rarely stray from that path or you’re lenient with your decisions and it comes back to haunt you. I believe DC strayed from the path with Emilio. While his club list isn’t extraordinarily long, I really think he’s basically a mercenary. The rumors swirling around online this offseason were that Emilio was unhappy he wasn’t offered more money after a great season and was hoping to be sold to a club in say, Mexico, where he could make a lot more cash. Money motivates a lot of modern athletes, but as a professional you’re required to honor the contracts you’ve signed and act in a professional manner no matter how bad the conditions may be. David Beckham is a model professional who has never looked to blame others or gotten upset and whined to the media when things haven’t gone his way. I think he was treated somewhat unfairly toward the end of his time at Real Madrid but again he handled it with dignity and preserved his class. Emilio on the other hand, has come back out of shape (according to Tom Soehn) and his touched has looked awful. Particularly in the early part of the season he squandered opportunities to score when it was harder not to. While it’s easy to overlook problems when you lead the league in goals scored, I’ve never been a big Emilio fan. I hate streaky strikers. Yeah it’s great you can score goals and when you get hot you put in two or three. But what about those clutch games when it doesn’t seem like the team’s going to score and you badly need a win? Will you step up and get a clutch goal? Maybe not if you regularly go through hot and cold streaks as Emilio has shown he is prone in his season and a little bit in the nation’s capital. I think last season his inconsistency, poor first touch, and poor decision making (I routinely yelled at the TV when I would see him misplay passes back to the midfield which would kill a promising attack) were overlooked by the goals he scored. But I noticed. And everyone does when you’re not scoring. The fact that the club has to up your contract and put you into the designated player bracket (which is really a pretty minor issue in terms of the money increase he gets) to try and motivate you just screams to me like he’s the wrong type of guy to have on your team. I only hope they manage to offload his bloated contract in the summer so they can sign a real striker. I don’t think Emilio offers enough as a goalscorer (unless he suddenly hits 20+ over the rest of the season) to justify his weaknesses and his contract. When someone gets that kind of money (particularly in regards to the rest of the team), there’s an obligation to play him. I hate to blame one guy for so many problems, but I really think that maybe Emilio is the biggest problem of all.

I know a lot of people online are talking about Henry possibly coming to MLS next year or a player that MLS should target, but why not Shevchenko? I think he’s in a similar position only a year older and his wife’s American. Plus they were even married in DC I believe. He’s reaching the end of his playing days, but like Angel has some good years left. I think he could tear MLS apart seeing as the offensive quality of the league has far outgrown the defensive quality over the past few seasons. I would love to see him wearing black and red. Does anyone else think he would make a good signing for an MLS team?

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