United prepares for encore, at the least
The Black-and-Red had a great season in 2014, they didn’t bring home a championship, but a good year none the less. Ben Olsen led this team to a remarkable turn around, going from last place in 2013 to being the top seed in the Eastern Conference.
Unfortunately it resulted in a loss in the semifinals against the New York Red Bulls due to the aggregate score. United lost the first game, but won the second, the issue was they scored one fewer goals than New York, giving the Red Bulls the victory and the reward of moving on.
United had one of the better defensive units in the league last season, anchored by net minder Bill Hamid. In front of the stellar keeper were Steven Birnbaum, Bobby Boswell, and Sean Franklin. Fabian Espindola and Luis Silva led the team in scoring, netting 11 goals a piece.
Now that they went from worst to first in consecutive seasons, the challenge this year will be to keep that high level of play going. That shouldn’t be an issue, but it is always different when teams go from being the hunter to one of the hunted.
DC United majority owner Erick Thohir mentioned that there could be an additional influx of talent during the year as well. In a conversation with Goal.com Indonesia, Thohir said “There are possibilities to send Inter players to help DC, maybe some hot prospect youngsters to help them get minutes. It will be a great opportunity to play in a big league like MLS.”
That is certainly a positive, a huge one at that. D.C. kicks off their preseason tonight against Orlando City SC at 7 pm EST, below is the current roster for the Black-and-Red.
| Taylor Kemp | D | 2 | 5’11/153 | 7/23/90 | Highlands Ranch, CO |
| Markus Halsti | M/D | 4 | 6’1/185 | 3/19/84 | Finland |
| Sean Franklin | D | 5 | 5’10/160 | 3/21/85 | Panorama City, CA |
| Kofi Opare | D | 6 | 6’2/190 | 10/12/90 | Ghana |
| Eddie Johnson | F | 7 | 5’11/163 | 3/31/84 | Daytona Beach, FL |
| Davy Arnaud | M | 8 | 5’11/160 | 6/22/80 | Nederland, TX |
| Fabian Espindola | F | 10 | 5’9/160 | 5/4/85 | Argentina |
| Luis Silva | M | 11 | 5’11/163 | 10/12/88 | LA, CA |
| Chris Pontius | M/F | 13 | 6’/168 | 5/12/87 | Yorba Linda, CA |
| Nick DeLeon | M | 14 | 5’10/170 | 7/17/90 | Phoenix, AZ |
| Steven Birnbaum | D | 15 | 6’1/180 | 1/23/91 | Irvine, CA |
| Dan Metzger | M | 16 | 5’9/155 | 8/6/93 | Holmdel, NJ |
| Miguel Aguilar | M | 17 | 5’9/172 | 8/30/93 | Sacramento, CA |
| Chris Rolfe | M/F | 18 | 5’8/155 | 1/17/83 | Kettering, OH |
| Jairo Arrieta | F | 19 | 5’9/150 | 8/25/83 | Costa Rica |
| Jalen Robinson | D | 20 | 5’9/145 | 5/8/94 | Catonsville, MD |
| Chris Korb | D | 22 | 5’9/160 | 10/8/87 | Cleveland, OH |
| Perry Kitchen | M | 23 | 6’/160 | 2/29/92 | Indianapolis, IN |
| Jared Jeffrey | M | 25 | 5’11/165 | 6/14/90 | Richardson, TX |
| Collin Martin | M | 27 | 5’11/150 | 11/9/94 | Chevy Chase, MD |
| Bill Hamid | GK | 28 | 6’3/225 | 11/25/90 | Annandale, VA |
| Michael Seaton | F | 29 | 6’/180 | 5/1/96 | Capitol Heights, MD |
| Conor Doyle | F | 30 | 6’1/175 | 10/13/91 | McKinney, TX |
| Bobby Boswell | D | 32 | 6’2/185 | 3/15/83 | Austin, TX |
| David Estrada | M/F | 34 | 5’8/160 | 2/4/88 | Mexico |
| Andrew Driver | M | 36 | 5’9/152 | 11/20/87 | England |
| Rauwshawn McKenzie | D | 38 | 6’1/185 | 11/19/86 | Hartford, CT |
| Mamadou Danso | D | 40 | 6’3/185 | 4/27/83 | Gambia |
| Sean St Ledger | D | 41 | 6’/168 | 12/28/84 | England |
| Rod Dyachenko | F | 43 | 6’1/185 | 9/22/83 | Russia |
| Riccardo Anedda | GK | 48 | 6’2/174 | 7/8/93 | Italy |
| Andrew Dykstra | GK | 50 | 6’4/195 | 1/2/86 | Woodbridge, VA |
| Diego Restrepo | GK | 55 | 6’/175 | 2/25/88 | Venezuela |
| Jorge Calix | M/F | n/a | 5’7/154 | 2/6/96 | Alexandria, VA |
| Eryk Williamson | M/F | n/a | n/a | 6/11/97 | Alexandria, VA |
