Crew’s Etienne eager to prove doubters wrong
Derrick Etienne Jr. is hyperaware of what is said about him, whether he’s checking his Twitter feed or his dad is sending him tweets.
His words to those who doubt him: Keep it coming.
“I love it. People don’t understand, like, I see all the tweets,” Etienne said. “And I’m glad they feel that way because when I do score, I much rather you not say nothing. I don’t want you to switch up your tune, nothing.”
Etienne scored his first goal since March 12 on Saturday at home against D.C. United in a 3-0 winas the Crew snapped a five-game winless streak in MLS games. The finish on the left side of the box has become Etienne’s signature shot, reminiscent of his goal in the 2020 MLS Cup final.
With three goals and two assists through nine games and 676 minutes, Etienne is showing potential to be a lethal winger. Part of what’s driving him is the narrative that he and other attacking players can’t be reliable scorers.
“When I see, I hear those things and all that stuff, I kind of smirk and I laugh at it because I love when people are talking bad about me,” Etienne said. “Because it just makes me want to shut them up even more.”
Prior to this season, Etienne mentioned how there was a lot of talk about a lack of production from the winger position in 2021. Outside of Pedro Santos, the Crew had just three goals from four wingers combined. But by season’s end, Etienne started to show what was possible.
He became the starting left winger and had one goal and five assists. He started just eight games in 2020, his first with the Crew, but started in 21 last season and has made eight of nine starts this season.
Etienne is well on pace to top his season high of five goals, which he set with New York Red Bulls in 2018. With the chances he has had, Etienne could easily be there, but he’s still developing a consistent finishing quality around goal.
A good example of this came in in the fifth minute against D.C. United. Etienne received a cross from right back Steven Moreira about 10 yards from a mostly empty goal but missed the net. There was also a breakaway chance against the Red Bulls that he couldn’t convert.
Etienne is driven by criticism, but he isn’t naïve to areas of the game he can improve on.
“I’m a very competitive person,” he said. “I have a lot of confidence in myself, and yes, sometimes — I’m not Cristiano Ronaldo. I’m not Messi. You’re not going to score a goal a game. Sometimes you go on a drought and just the best thing for yourself is just forget about that stuff and keep grinding. That’s my mentality.”
Etienne has endured criticism from coach Caleb Porter this season. After a 1-0 loss to the Philadelphia Union, Porter mentioned Etienne’s name along with Yaw Yeboah, Miguel Berry and the since-traded Gyasi Zardes as players who needed to be “nastier” around the goal.
With the Crew changing formation to a 4-3-3 and James Igbekeme playing the way he has on the wing, Etienne might need to keep producing to keep his starting spot once Lucas Zelarayan returns to the lineup — assuming the Crew keep the same formation.
Just tell him he’s not a starter and he’ll have the motivation he needs.
“I told him before the game, ‘You need to play with that edge and something to prove,’ ” Porter said. “Like all players, coaches, we all get doubted, we all get questioned. He’s had some criticism and ultimately it was great for him to score a goal.” jmyers@dispatch.com @_jcmyers