United searching for right formula
Black-and-Red experimenting with different formations
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"The team, outside of the soccer arena, is fine. Good guys, good young guys, all that stuff is fine," said midfielder Ben Olsen on Tuesday, referring to his squad's bonding process. "On the field, we're still a work in progress. We need to still come together a little bit defensively."
While the coaching staff's efforts to mold their diverse group of veterans and newcomers throughout a long, nomadic preseason has borne fruit, United's final tuneup games in the Charleston Challenge Cup presented a mixed bag at best.
First D.C. endured a nightmarish 3-0 loss to Real Salt Lake that featured numerous breakdowns and injuries that will sideline their first-choice wingers, Fred and Santino Quaranta, for at least one regular-season match. Another uneven performance saw United fall 2-1 to Toronto FC before ending their South Carolina trip on a better tone with last Saturday's 2-0 win against tourney hosts Charleston Battery.
Head coach Tom Soehn sounds unconcerned, however, insisting that he and his assistants took away many meaningful lessons from the trio of friendlies.
"We were still experimenting in a lot of ways. So we got out of it what we needed to do," said Soehn. "You always want to end on a positive note and we took the last game as a meaningful one. Regardless, the next game that's important is L.A. We use preseason as a stepping stone to the start of our season."
From the outset of preseason training, Soehn's players have been stressing the importance of tighter defending this season. But the club's young rearguard is far from settled and United have seen some positive results from a return to the 3-5-2 formation that was once a D.C. mainstay under former boss Peter Nowak, and it's highly possible that the shape will be employed against the Galaxy on Sunday.
"The 4-4-2, sometimes with a young back line, it's confusing," acknowledged Olsen, moments after his tongue-in-cheek attempt "to duck what formation we're going to play this weekend" drew laughter from the media in attendance.
"Sometimes three in the back makes it a little bit more concrete for them as far as their decisions," he continued. "But we're working on that stuff this week and the coaching staff will take care of that."
Soehn is hardly the sort to discuss his team's tactics in advance, but he acknowledged that center backs Dejan Jakovic -- one of the team's final preseason acquisitions -- and Greg Janicki need more time to craft a mutual understanding.
"You obviously go through the process of making sure you simplify things for them, so they have a basic understanding of it," said Soehn. "And they're going to learn from each other on the field. Dejan hasn't been here long, so he's had a limited time to adjust with everybody, and they're still growing together every day that we train. Every day a new light turns on."
A three-man back line requires diligent backtracking from United's wingers, but the formation grants extra freedom to playmaking midfielder Christian Gomez, who thrived in the 3-5-2 during his first stint in D.C. It also plays to one of the team's positional strengths: deep-lying midfielders like Olsen, Clyde Simms and Andrew Jacobson.
"It's something that we just added in, but we picked it up really fast and it's worked well for us during preseason," said rookie Rodney Wallace, whose work rate along the flanks makes him a leading candidate to step into Fred's left-sided role. "We've gotten some results off it and we've played some good soccer off the 3-5-2. So maybe if we do that then we'll all feel comfortable in it."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com.
