PHILADELPHIA — Reinforcements are on their way for D.C. United, but not from the first two rounds of the 2018 MLS SuperDraft.
That was the message the club announced by trading the No. 3 overall pick to LAFC for $100,000 of Targeted Allocation Money and $100,000 of General Allocation Money.
“Look, it’s no disrespect to the college game or some of the players who were here,” D.C. United coach Ben Olsen said from the draft on Friday. “But there’s some other guys we think can help us in a bigger way, in a more immediate way in the next week or two and every dollar counts with that in those type of deals.”
Olsen was vague about identifying the targets, but he said he hopes to add “two, maybe three new pieces” in the next week or two.
“Certainly, an attacking piece is being searched for and also some help on the defensive end,” Olsen said. “We still have some open spots on the roster and we have a little money to play with. We have some potential players who we think fit us and again, take us to a higher level as a group, whether its depth or guys challenging for starting spots.”
The trade, which was the first in a flurry of draft-day moves, comes on the heels of D.C. United trading the player rights to midfielder Perry Kitchen to the LA Galaxy for $200,000 of TAM and $100,000 of GAM earlier this month.
It’s been an already busy preseason for D.C. United, which acquired goalkeeper David Ousted, defender Frederic Brillant and forward Darren Mattocks in trades and signed Costa Rican midfielder Ulises Segura and Venezuelan midfielder Junior Moreno.
While there’s a chance D.C. acquires players in the summer window, Olsen said it was important to have as many players as possible together for the start of preseason.
“Its important because of how new the group that we have is. The more we can get into Florida the better so we can get everyone on the same page,” Olsen said. “However, the idea is to get the right player. We’re not going to rush it if it's not the guy who is going to fit us and make sense over the course of the year. That’s a balance. We’ve got some players we’ve identified that we know can help us. Every dollar counts in getting some of these deals over the line.”
