WASHINGTON -- Playmaker Christian Gomez has returned to the D.C. United fold. Inspirational veteran Ben Olsen and his troubled left ankle are gradually easing back into the daily grind of team training sessions. A stable of young talent has been secured with new contracts.
As D.C. United's technical staff works its way through the 'to-do list' for its 2009 squad makeover, one pressing item remains a very open question, however: improving the stability and rigidity of a defense that ranked second-worst in Major League Soccer last season.
"We went from a year [2007] where we were in the top as far as allowing goals -- we were very good -- to a year where we were at the bottom," said head coach Tom Soehn in the early stages of preseason. "That came from several different areas, but that's something that we're going to pride ourselves on, to make sure we defend better as a team, from front to back, through the goal."
Even the club's most attacking-minded players are echoing those sentiments. On Gomez's first day back in United colors, Santino Quaranta took pains to put the Argentinean's arrival in perspective.
"When you got guys like him and Jaime [Moreno], Luchi [Luciano Emilio], our attack is going to be something else," said Quaranta, who presently tops the D.C. depth chart at right winger. "But we've seen before that we have to try to steady this defense first before we try to win games 4-3. We're trying to start from the back and go to the front."
As Soehn noted, the back four are certainly not the only ones responsible for defending in United's system, but that group is presently under the most scrutiny given its 2008 struggles, relative youth and dearth of high-profile new arrivals.
First-round SuperDraft pick (and Generation adidas member) Rodney Wallace offers ample potential along the left flank, and the club has shown its faith in Bryan Namoff, Marc Burch, Devon McTavish and Greg Janicki with new contracts. But Soehn and his staff continue to stoke competition among the current crop of defenders, especially in the center back slots, with trialists Kyle Veris and Mamadou Danso under evaluation amid a continuing hunt for potential veteran acquisitions.
However, those efforts hit a setback earlier this month when Roger, a well-traveled Brazilian capable of playing centrally or on the left, elected not to sign with the Black-and-Red after spending more than a week with the team.
"We're working on the guys we have, but potential signings, we're always going through the process," said Soehn last week.
In retrospect, last year's decision to bring in the talented but unfamiliar South American duo of Gonzalo Peralta and Gonzalo Martinez backfired considerably, leading to a greater focus on chemistry and cohesiveness this time around.
"Last year our organization, defensively, was a disaster. No one ever really seemed to be on the same page and I think from day one this year we need to start working on that, because obviously if you let in goals it's tough to win games," said McTavish, a utility player who spent most of his time at center back down the stretch last season.
"We have good one-on-one defenders, we have good people who read the game well -- as long as we can get everyone on the same page and defending as a unit."
McTavish, Janicki and Burch were just three of more than a half-dozen players to see time at center back in the course of the marathon '08 campaign as injuries, suspensions, fatigue and ineffectiveness forced Soehn to constantly rejigger his back line down the stretch. But the Black-and-Red hope that experimentation can pay off in the form of a clearer focus and stronger start this time around.
"Get a group of guys and let us play together every day," said Janicki. "I know it was an injury here, an injury there -- they were kind piecing things together back there for a while for most of [last] season. I think once you just get used to playing with the same guys in the back, communication gets better and you play better as a group. So I think just finding those core guys and sticking with it for a while is more the biggest thing."
This week Soehn said that tactical awareness and collective understanding are a high priority for the team's week-long stint in Puerto Rico, which began on Wednesday.
"We're going to work on tactics a little bit more," said the third-year boss. "Every day we get closer to the [season] opener, we start talking about tactics and making sure that we're understanding what we're about and each person knows their role within a system -- not just one system, but several systems so you can adjust."
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