Preseason Look: DC United

Ben Olsen and his merry brigade of nobody over in DC have turned themselves into a sort of free electron. Not bound by any universal rules or fear of failure.

DC's starting lineup is surprisingly strong, right there with the NY Red Bulls in the 3rd spot. Look beyond that, however, and you see the differences. DC has no bench. In fact, they only have 19 players on their roster. It's almost as if Olsen is checking off 11 spots and letting someone else worry about the rest.

		Player Ratings (avg)		TransferMarkt Value (000)
	Team	Starters	Bench	Starters	Bench
1	ATL	70.9	65.9	$ 52,497	$ 6,067
2	TFC	70.5	65.7	$ 25,027	$ 4,315
3	DCU	69.7	56.6	$ 21,934	$ 2,990
4	NYR	69.7	64.9	$ 20,192	$ 3,745
5	CLB	69.3	66.2	$ 24,671	$ 4,180
6	NER	68.7	64.5	$ 13,278	$ 5,115
7	PHI	68.2	56.5	$ 9,933	$ 5,529
8	CHI	67.8	63.7	$ 17,022	$ 3,955
9	FCC	67.5	64.7	$ 11,014	$ 4,383
10	ORL	67.2	62.2	$ 10,365	$ 3,309

Regardless, they are only really missing one starting role - right back.

Rating	Name	Position	FM19	FIFA	WS
79	Wayne Rooney	Centre-Forward	79	80	75
73	Luciano Acosta	Attacking Midfield	70	77	73
72	Russell Canouse	Central Midfield	72	72	70
71	Paul Arriola	Right Midfield	71	72	69
70	Lucas Rodríguez	Attacking Midfield	70	74	69
70	Bill Hamid	Goalkeeper	69	73	70
70	Steven Birnbaum	Centre-Back	68	70	70
69	David Ousted	Goalkeeper	69	70	65
69	Frédéric Brillant	Centre-Back	69	66	69
68	Zoltán Stieber	Left Winger	68	71	68
67	Joseph Mora	Left-Back	64	67	67
67	Junior Moreno	Defensive Midfield	67	68	67
66	Chris Durkin	Defensive Midfield	56	67	66
66	Ulises Segura	Attacking Midfield	66	67	66
65	Earl Edwards Jr.	Goalkeeper	65	61	65
63	Chris Seitz	Goalkeeper	63	67	63
62	Jalen Robinson	Centre-Back	62	61	65
60	Chris Odoi-Atsem	Right-Back	57	60	63
0	Akeem Ward	Defender	0	0	0

It's not particularly a problem to have a short roster. MLS is obsessed with roster rules. In the past it was "you must have 30 players," but now that the league is expanding, they have limited it to 28. Many teams regularly dip below that these days.

DC's starting eleven is loaded. Wayne Rooney, Luciano Acosta, Paul Arriola are players that could start on any MLS side. Steve Birnbaum, Frederic Billant and Bill Hamid are solid MLS starters. Color me a little surprised that DC has this strong a gameday roster.

Problems arise at depth, however. There's nothing behind those players to round out a long MLS season. If they can keep it together, they should be fine.