WASHINGTON -- D.C. United are barely two weeks away from their 2009 season opener against the Los Angeles Galaxy, yet still find themselves dodging winter weather as preseason training winds to a close.
The squad returned to Washington from Puerto Rico last week just in time to have their schedule disrupted by the heavy snowstorm that inundated much of the mid-Atlantic region. The whiteout spoiled United's friendly match with the University of Maryland and prompted an early departure for the milder environs of Charleston, S.C., where Tom Soehn and his staff will use the Carolina Challenge Cup to push the Black-and-Red closer to full speed.
"You mean the blizzard of 2009?" quipped Brian Namoff, when asked about the sub-freezing conditions that greeted the team in D.C. "Yeah, I think we're eager to head down to Charleston -- we're excited to get to warmer weather. We had it easy in Puerto Rico."
Fittingly enough, the mercury in D.C. rose almost immediately after the team's pre-dawn departure on Thursday. But the trip south offers more than a temperate locale. The Challenge Cup, also featuring Real Salt Lake, Toronto FC and hosts Charleston Battery of the United Soccer League's First Division, will present United with quality competition at an important stage in the run-up to First Kick.
"It's a great way to lead into the season," said D.C. midfielder Ben Olsen. "Good games, and getting that game fitness in the next two weeks is crucial. The people down here do a very good job."
Evenings at the Battery's cozy Blackbaud Stadium typically offer a compelling gameday atmosphere for players and Soehn is planning to bracket his team's three matches with focused training sessions, starting with a "two-a-day" on Friday, as the buildup to match fitness escalates.
"I'm still factoring in some guys who are carrying just a couple nagging [injuries], but it's time to push the minutes a little bit more for some guys," he said. "Not necessarily 90 [minutes], but get them up and around 90 so that their bodies can sustain that when it comes to opening weekend."
United have taken part in four of the tournament's six renditions, most recently in 2006, and will be hoping it helps them open the upcoming MLS campaign as brilliantly as it did that year, when the Black-and-Red lost just one match in the first three months of the season.
In the two years that followed, early-spring participation in the CONCACAF Champions' Cup complicated the club's preparations dramatically. This time around, a fitter, more physical D.C. squad is more than happy to hone the finer points under less stressful conditions, inwardly focused and out of the limelight.
"Every team is going to say the same thing at this point. 'Yeah, everything's going good, we're ready.' It's always a time of optimism in preseason," said Olsen. "So we'll see. I don't want to get too confident with where we're at, but I certainly think we're in a better spot now than we were last year at this time."
United's 24-man roster is nearly set, with the only question marks lingering around the backup goalkeeper spots and the recipient of the final senior roster slot. Soehn believes those issues will be sorted in "the next week or so," and he has turned his attention to "the details stuff" -- tactical organization, set pieces and the like. With time rapidly ticking down towards March 22 in L.A., Soehn and his charges sound cautiously upbeat about the current side.
"With all the games we have, we need a deep roster and we need to have options so when guys go down [injured] we can't drop off too far," he said. "That's what we've tried to accomplish this year, and only in the course of time will we be able to tell if we did as well as we hope we have."
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