Offensively challenged D.C. United could cure long winless streak
CHESTER » When the topic is broached, the stock answer from players of the Philadelphia Union is faithfully produced. Last year was a different year, a different team, etc.
While those platitudes are all true, equally accurate is the current predicament: The Union haven’t won in 10 MLS games, the longest such streak in franchise history. And until that stat is rectified, queries about last year — however distant it may feel to them — will persist.
The latest chance to climb out from months of winlessness transpires at RFK Stadium Saturday night when the Union visit fellow stragglers D.C. United (7, TCN).
D.C. (0-2-1, 1 point) is the only team below the Union in the Eastern Conference standings, still looking for its first goal. With Satur- day representing its third home game, the pressure profile is slightly different than on the Union (0-1-2, 2 points), in their third road game.
“It’s a scary thing,” Union manager Jim Curtin said Wednesday. “You don’t want them to be the team that breaks out against you. (Coach) Ben (Olsen) is a guy who is as hard a worker as there is in our league. He has a good team. If you actually look at the performances and watch the games as we have now on tape, they’re creating chances, they’re dangerous.”
D.C. will be sans starting striker Patrick Mullins, which paves the way for former Union man Sebastien Le Toux to get the nod up top. Le Toux, whom the Union traded to Colorado last August, signed with D.C. in the offseason and played 30 minutes in its game two weeks ago.
“Sebastien is a professional, I’m sure he’d like to be out there, I’m sure he’d like to score against us, for sure,” Curtin said. “That’s the nature of pro sports. You see it so often. Guys move from one club to the other and there’s a chip on their shoulder to score against their old team.”
Olsen will have other MLS vets on the wings, like Patrick Nyarko, Lloyd Sam and Lamar Neagle, to construct his attack around.
The Union aren’t bogged down by health issues, save for a late-week concussion sustained by John McCarthy which requires thirdstring rookie Jake McGuire to travel as Andre Blake’s backup. All of the knocks incurred in the last couple of weeks — Chris Pontius’ broken hand, Jay Simpson’s rib contusion — have healed during the international break to give Curtin unfettered options. Ilsinho, with an extra week to strengthen his hamstring and build fitness, could be the major beneficiary in making his first start.
The dire starts by both teams add fuel to a usu- ally combustible mix when these teams meet. Both sides made the playoffs last year and at times looked to threaten the East’s elite. The Union’s peak arrived early, with the club unable to regain that form after Alejandro Bedoya’s August arrival. D.C. went on a torrid run late in the season after the acquisition of Mullins to earn the fifth spot in the East.
“Both teams, they need points,” Pontius said. “Both teams, they need wins. It’s never an easy place to play. It’s kind of what it is down there in D.C.”
The Union’s changes are in service of breaking an 0-4-6 run, plus the playoff loss to Toronto last year. Their last away win came Aug. 24 at Columbus.
Curtin and company will take pains to assert, week after week, that things have changed. The group is different, as are its strengths and weaknesses. Eventually, they reason, so too will be the results.
In that vein, Saturday presents a momentous opportunity. The Union will return home for a threegame homestand. A result in D.C. puts some wind in the sails for the trip north and lessens the pressure on those outings.
And it prevents another week of Curtin and company enduring the same questions.
“You’ve got to to go on the road be able and get points no matter what,” Pontius said. “You’ve got to be able to find a rhythm on the road and hopefully carry that over to the home games. After this, we’ve got a few home games where we can hopefully grab maximum points. But this one, if you can grab points on the road and win games on the road, you set yourself up for the end of the year.”