the sun.
After two weeks of unseasonably cold and gray weather in the Washington, D.C. area, including a home opener against Kansas City played in a strong, constant rain, the four-time MLS Cup champions were met by a shining sun amid a clear blue sky.
"It's actually nice to take a couple of days off and jump right into summer," said coach Tom Soehn. "We missed spring somewhere along the way."
"At least the humidity hasn't hit yet," continued defender Bryan Namoff.
Despite the ideal conditions, training has been no day at the beach. Having gotten off to an 0-2-0 start for the first time in seven years, United are working to correct the uncharacteristic defensive problems that have seen them let in six goals in their first two games.
"We've gotten back to the basics," said Soehn. "We got away from the things we were good at and we spent a lot of time working through that, watching it, and, as we addressed in training today, I think there is more of a commitment to defending."
Ben Olsen was part of an underperforming United squad in 2000, when the club missed the MLS Cup Playoffs for the first time in league history, and he sees how the level of play in MLS these days means that players can not let up for a second during games.
"Every day this league gets better and more athletic, and your focus has to be for 90 minutes," he said. "Every play matters, whether it's the difference of a couple of yards or bad passes, all the little things can kill you now that the league is better with players that can punish you."
Still, Olsen believes that, although the team has not looked very good, there is no reason to panic.
"We're optimistic that we can fix everything. We haven't lost hope yet, but we should be concerned. The bells are starting to ring," he said.
With no game scheduled for last week, United used the extra days to work on regaining the chemistry that saw them win the 2006 Supporters Shield with the best record during the regular season.
"I think we lost that drive a little bit in starting the season," Namoff said. "We're trying to pick it up and get back to knowing and believing and working for each other, so that we can concentrate on the things we do well, like possessing, getting the ball into attack, scoring goals and defending well."
As United heads into this weekend's game against Columbus, Namoff sees positives he can take from getting off to a slow start.
"It's a good wake-up call for us. It shows we're not as good as we thought we were going into the season," he said. "We're opening up our eyes and figuring where we went wrong in a small period of time, and gathering everybody up collectively, and begin rebuilding that strong unit that we had."
With the memory of the loss to the Wizards put behind them, Soehn believes that his players understand the task in front of them, but acknowledges that they are not there yet.
"I could tell today it was a different mentality coming in. We addressed a lot of issues last week. I see progress, but there's still more progress to make," he said.
David Lifton is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
