The fluidity and effectiveness of D.C. United’s front line has led to many automotive comparisons over the years, with playmakers like Marco Etcheverry and Christian Gómez habitually described as drivers nimbly wielding “the keys to the attack.”
With two goals in three matches, this year’s offensive machine is sputtering, to say the least, with stalls and misfires suggesting that some fine-tuning is needed. Santino Quaranta is the latest man to accept the responsibility of a central creative role and his move into the middle has been a bumpy ride thus far.
“It’s different for me, you know?” Quaranta said. “I’m just so used to driving and attacking guys, and when you change to more of a distributor, [you’re] not flying forward always. The first instinct for me is to go forward.”
A striker when he joined United as a 16-year-old prodigy nine years ago, Quaranta has resurrected his career with strong play on the right wing over the past two seasons. But a growing maturity and some promising displays further infield convinced the D.C. coaching staff entering this campaign that he was the best candidate for the attacking midfield spot, which was up for grabs after Gómez failed to recapture the old magic in his second stint with the club.
Quaranta took the challenge to heart, and he says that he and the coaching staff have analyzed every single touch and every decision he’s made in match play this year in an attempt to build tactical coherence.
“There’s times where I play more of a conservative ball sometimes,” he said last week. “I think I can turn out of plays more. There’s times when I can get out of things, and if I can understand that, see that, I’m that much better.”
The Black-and-Red attack looked distinctly out of sync over their first two games, and Saturday’s two-goal comeback against Philadelphia took place after Quaranta and teammate Chris Pontius switched out to flank roles for the second half, with Brandon Barklage shifting inside to cover more ground alongside Kurt Morsink.
“I just felt like in this particular game with such a narrow field, I thought it would help [Quaranta] to be wide and create some chances wide for us, and he did,” head coach Curt Onalfo said.
Indeed, Quaranta looked distinctly more comfortable with the action in front of him and the touchline at his back. He surged forward to collect a wayward Union pass in the 63rd minute, scoring his team’s first goal of the year with a deflected shot past goalkeeper Chris Seitz that was made possible by his slashing inward run.
Afterward Quaranta called the switch “a good move by Curt,” but he sounded unsure about the very concept of a central maestro for his team this season.
“With this league, what I have come to realize, the middle of the park on a field like this, it’s more of a bang-bang,” he said. “We want to play this pretty brand of soccer and these teams are so physical -- every team in the league now. It’s very difficult to play clean touches. Moving out wide was better for me and for Chris. We get to see the field more, get more service and be more dynamic.”
Rapid cohesion was always going to be elusive for the D.C. attack, given additional challenges like United’s change to a 4-4-2 formation and the task of incorporating burly target men Danny Allsopp and Adam Cristman into the tradition of subtle buildup epitomized by veteran Jaime Moreno.
None of the team’s frontrunners have been able to build perceptive partnerships yet and the squad’s style essentially remains a work in progress. Quaranta’s direct movement and nose for goal beg to be utilized, but Onalfo and company may have to adjust their system to make the most of it.
The tradition of the South American-style No. 10 still casts a powerful shadow at the Nation’s Capital, but the present roster seems fated to test the purity of that notion for United and their fans.
