CHESTER, Pa – Mired in the middle of the worst season in MLS history, D.C. United travelled to PPL Park on Saturday night with nothing on the line. Their opponents — the Philadelphia Union — had much more to play for, having found themselves a stone’s throw from the top of the Eastern Conference table.
With any real chance of making the playoffs long gone, United head coach Ben Olsen has shifted his focus from winning games to evaluating talent, and his starting lineup on Saturday night was indicative of that — the average age of the eleven players who took the field was just over 22, an all-time record for United.
“We knew it was going to be a tough task tonight,” Olsen told DCist after the match. “We were hoping for a bounce to go our way and to come out of here with some kind of result. They were good on the day – we almost leveled it at 1-1, and our hope was to get that back and hold but they made a big play clearing that one off the line. It’s a learning experience for a lot of people out there, a lot of guys.”
Though in part by design, the youthful lineup was also a product of necessity. Seven players on United’s roster were injured prior to the match, while others (Daniel Woolard, Dejan Jakovic and John Thorrington) were rested after going the distance in the club’s Open Cup match earlier in the week.
United’s youthful inexperience showed in a game thoroughly dominated by the Union, in particular by Conor Casey. Philly rode the thuggish forward’s second brace of the year to a 2-0 victory, sending the sellout crowd of 18,652 home happy.
Casey waited just 35 minutes to find the scoresheet. Union right back Sheanon Williams played a looping cross to Sebastien Le Toux; the Frenchman flicked the ball to Casey, who controlled the ball between defenders and pushed it past D.C. goalkeeper Bill Hamid.
Casey would find the net again 15 minutes from full time, slotting home a Fabinho cross to put the game out of reach. The strike was his ninth of the year, a goal tally nearly equal to United’s team total for 2013.
There were a few bright spots for D.C., most notably the appearances of Michael Seaton and Collin Martin. Martin — who just a couple of years ago was a senior at Chevy Chase High School — was given his first MLS start and played a confident, collected 76 minutes, nearly finding the back of the net in the second half. At an age where most kids are worried about getting a driver’s license, Seaton looked serviceable as a second half sub.
How young is Seaton? Michael Seaton was born on the same day that D.C. United won its first ever match: May 1st, 1996. When he stepped to the center line in the 76th minute to relieve Martin, he became the first player born after the league’s founding to appear in an MLS match.
Martin, who looked a bit nervous during the game’s opening minutes, quickly settled into his role in midfield. During a post-game chat, the midfielder revealed that some of his veteran teammates — Dwayne De Rosario and John Thorrington in particular — have been quick to impart some veteran wisdom on their young teammate.
“Yeah, it’s pretty simple what they’ve said to me,” said Martin in a hushed post-game locker room. “Do what you’ve been doing the past couple weeks in training and just have fun – in the end that’s why you play the game, to have fun and just basically work hard. If you work hard then good things are going to happen.”
Midfielder Conor Doyle also continued to impress and found himself in the middle of the majority of United’s scant scoring opportunities. “He’s always gonna be a product of who we are as a team,” Olsen said after the match. “He got a couple of good looks. He usually gets his shots on target. He continues to be a nice piece that we’re happy with.”
D.C. next travel north of the border to face Montreal on Saturday before returning home to take on Toronto FC a week later. While some of United’s veteran pieces will be plugged in as they regain their health in the weeks to come, it’s likely safe to say that D.C.’s youth movement has only just begun.
