They've won the regular season Eastern Conference title, and the top playoff seed that accompanies it. They've won the MLS Supporters' Shield with two matches to spare, and as a result club officials are already planning for their opening match in the CONCACAF Champions Cup in February. Their fans are snapping up tickets for another raucous postseason "Blackout" at imposing RFK Stadium.
So how can D.C. United players possibly maintain their focus on the two remaining regular season games, whose only significance lies in the possibility of an eventual Eastern Conference Championship showdown with one of the teams involved, New England and Chicago?
"I look at it differently," said striker Alecko Eskandarian, who is trying to recover from a frustrating knee ailment in time for the playoffs. "Maybe from an outsider's perspective, it's a chance for us to rest and it doesn't mean anything because we've already clinched first place, but for me, these next two weeks are crucial as far as us putting the work in and getting the timing right."
Unsurprisingly, head coach Peter Nowak takes a similar stance, and has told his charges to start from scratch - literally.
"It's important to realize that now is the second season: two [regular season] games and four in the playoffs," said Nowak. "A six-game season. The first step has been made, and now it's starting over again like we started in April - the same mentality, the same approach, and the same focus on the games. If this is going to happen, it doesn't matter who we play."
Even while paying tribute to the underrated significance of the Supporters' Shield, awarded to the league's most successful club in the regular season, Nowak has again raised the bar for a squad whose ambitions have grown steadily during his three years at the helm.
"I said to my guys after the [Houston] game, if you are in other countries in the world, you'd be celebrating today with champagne and raise the trophy as a champion," he said. "But this is something that means over the 30 games, you are very consistent. The whole team passed the test, every single week. Preparing ourselves for the playoffs, it means you have that much school, you learned the whole week, and now at the end of the week you have a test. Either you're going to pass or you will fail."
While the coaching staff might limit the playing time of key veterans like Christian Gomez and Jaime Moreno to safeguard the team's attacking edge, it's clear that no one in the D.C. locker room has forgotten last season's painful conclusion, when the squad coasted through the final stretch and saw their self-assurance punctured by a hungry Chicago side in the first round of the playoffs.
"We want to win all the games we're in, especially to be in good form before the playoffs," said center back Bobby Boswell. "It's not like a switch - you can't just turn it on and off, in my opinion. Either you're playing well or you're not."
Coaches and players alike describe United's situation as a "luxury," a sentiment that their potential first-round opponents, New York and Kansas City, would echo. The two clubs are knotted at 35 points and will not settle the East's last playoff spot until the season finale, when they clash at Giants Stadium.
"A lot of other teams don't have that luxury," said Eskandarian. "They are still concentrating on the game at the end of the week. But for us, we're looking at these games as preparation for the playoffs. If anything, it's even more intense. There's a bigger prize out there that we're eyeing."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
