WASHINGTON – They’re sitting atop the Eastern Conference, off to their best start in club history, are led by the 2014 MLS Coach of the year and backstopped by the reigning Goalkeeper of the Year. And still nobody takes D.C. United seriously. They’re just a lucky bunch.
Or so their head coach might have you believe.
On Saturday, after his side’s resounding 2-0 victory over visiting Columbus Crew SC, United head coach Ben Olsen was asked to what he attributed his club’s red-hot start.
“We’re lucky,” Olsen said, smirking as he answered the question in his typically acerbic fashion. “Haven’t you read everything about us?"
It’s a narrative that’s followed Olsen’s side for several years now.
In 2012, United ground out results and used a favorable late-season schedule to finish near the top of the table, then made a run to the Eastern Conference Championship. In 2014, Olsen’s side completed a historic turnaround, doing so with a collection of players Olsen often described as having a “chip on their shoulder,” having had their contract options declined or being left unprotected by their previous teams.
And in the build-up to 2015, United made few offseason moves, preaching consistency and retaining the core that got them so far a year prior. And it’s worked. D.C. have charged to the top of the East, and have done so often lacking several key contributors.
And yet some players and coaches at a lively United training session on Tuesday still didn’t hesitate to point out that pundits and fans alike often hesitate to heap adulation on United, reserving their praise for the league’s higher-profile sides.
"I’m a little disheartened that we don’t get as much publicity as other teams because we [typically] do pretty well,” United ‘keeper Bill Hamid, who last week signed a multi-year contract extension, told MLSsoccer.com. “It’s a little disheartening that we don’t get as much publicity as some of the bigger markets.
"But maybe at the end of the day it takes a little bit of pressure off our backs when the media and other folks aren’t paying attention – we just have to go out there and play our football and leave all the pressure to the Galaxy, the Sounders and the Red Bulls.”
In reality, United are playing some very attractive soccer at the moment. Those MLS stalwarts pulled them closer to the promised land in 2014 and are now looking to finish the job in 2015. Strikers Chris Rolfe and Fabian Espindola (pictured at right) are rapidly becoming one of the league’s most entertaining pairings. Perry Kitchen has continued his progression and now ranks among the league’s premier defensive midfielders. Hamid has been lights-out in goal.
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But it’s difficult to deny that aside from Hamid, now a burgeoning US international, United lack a true big-name player. There’s no David Villa, no Kaká, no Clint Dempsey or Obafemi Martins.
"When it comes to marketing, what do we have? We have Bill,” Rolfe said. "The rest of it is just your standard, hard-working, American player – some of us have been around for a while. You can look at that however you want to look at it. We’re tied for the top of the table, pretty much, and you don’t hear anything about us. When I first got here, people were like, ‘D.C. United don’t get a lot of credit,’ and I sort of feel it now.”
The former Fire midfielder was quick to note that he doesn’t pay a ton of attention to what’s said about the team in general, a sentiment mirrored by most everyone polled on Tuesday. Even Olsen himself, when asked about his “we’re lucky” comment, was deflective.
“It’s probably just my imagination,” Olsen quipped. “I wouldn’t look too far into it.”
Added a smiling Rolfe: "I’m kind of used to not getting a lot of credit. I’m just a little guy from Ohio."
