WASHINGTON — The last two seasons, D.C. United have made their biggest transfer splashes during the secondary window.
As star forward Wayne Rooney approaches D.C.’s 2019 opener against defending MLS Cup champion Atlanta United Sunday (6 pm ET | ESPN, TSN2) as the leader of a squad with more than half-a-dozen roster slots still open, he sees it may be that way again on Potomac Avenue.
“I came in the summer,” Rooney recalled Tuesday of his own arrival to D.C., and the push for the postseason that followed. “And you do tend to realize if you can place yourself in a good position going into the back half, then maybe it’s more important to do your business at that end of the season.”
Unlike Rooney’s English Premier League career, when the first match held as much weight as the last in determining a champion, it’s all about building toward the later portion of the season and the playoffs in MLS.
D.C. United coach Ben Olsen is reluctant to state any specific goal other than making the postseason, in part because it's the first thing that has to happen before a club can win anything else.
“This is a journey, man,” Olsen said. “We’re going to go through some tough times, we’re going to go through some good times. But staying even keel throughout this process and staying together and making sure we’re on the same page on a week-to-week basis so we can put up as many points as possible is the goal. And then if and when we get into the playoffs, we’ll prep for each one of those games to ultimately hold the trophy.”
D.C. were 12-4-4 following Rooney’s arrival last summer to rise from the bottom of the Eastern Conference standings all the way to the fourth seed in the postseason.
Goalkeeper Bill Hamid also returned on loan last August. And several other key contributors — among them Paul Arriola, Russell Canouse and Zoltan Stieber — arrived in the summer window the season before.
D.C. did add outside back Leonardo Jara and attacker Lucas Rodriguez through the international market this winter, and made several supplemental additions through domestic deals.
Still, Olsen and Rooney will lean largely on the same faces that were there when D.C.'s season ended on penalties against Columbus Crew SC in the Knockout Round of the playoffs.
“Obviously there’s things you want to happen, but it’s not my expectation,” Rooney insisted. “It’s down to the club and the manager and the owners to bring the players in, which they feel will help the club.”
Rooney said as constructed, the club should push to try and finish on top of the East, especially with the promise of playing postseason matches at home should they reach that feat.
They'll need to get much better on the road, where D.C. were only 1-9-7 last year, and 0-2-3 following Rooney’s arrival.
“Our away form was nowhere near good enough, even in the short time I was here,” he said. “That’s something we have to improve this season if we want to push for the first place.”
It's a good bet Rooney and Luciano Acosta — who nearly made a big-money move to Paris St. Germain last month — will be at the middle of any such improvement.
For Rooney, rediscovering that relationship shouldn't take too much effort.
"I know I’m not a player who is going to pick the ball up and go past three or four players at this time in my career," he said. "So I’ll let Luciano do that. And when I’ve got my back to goal, give him the ball and get in the box and hopefully he’ll find me. From my end it’s quite simple."
