New season, new expectation, D.C. United will look to 2025 to make the final push for a playoff berth
- Mario Amaya
- Feb 22
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 23
By: Mario Amaya
X: @MarioAmaya1
The end of the 2024 season was promising for D.C. United, as they were in the driver's seat for one of the two final playoff spots heading into the last day of the season. However, a devastating three-nil defeat at home against Charlotte FC ended their playoff hopes, with the club missing the playoffs for the fifth season in a row.
Now entering the 2025 MLS season, which marks the league’s 30th season, one of the MLS original clubs looks to recapture glories past this season and make it to the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
Restructuring of the team
D.C. ended their 2024 campaign in 10th place in the Eastern Conference, behind Atlanta United who finished with the final playoff berth. Both teams finished tied in points in the standings, however Atlanta was able to secure the final playoff spot on goal differential over D.C.
The offseason was a busy one for United’s front office, seeing an overhaul of the majority of the roster, including letting go of all four goalkeepers and letting go of club stalwarts such as Russell Canouse whose option D.C. did not pick up and trading Polish international Mateusz Klich to Atlanta and the transfer of homegrown players Matai Akinmboni and Ted Ku-DiPietro.
When it came to the transfer D.C. General Manager Ally Mackay had a different approach when it came to building the roster. Instead of bringing in a big name, D.C. used various mechanisms to fill up a full roster, like picking up players in the re-entry draft, picking up players through the wave wire and the SuperDraft.
“For those that have that perception, that’s understandable,” Said United head coach Troy Lesesne “We’ve signed some players that may not carry that type of [big] name but are very talented themselves. They fit our game model, and we believe in them, and we hope that D.C. United is going to be a platform for them to take off in their career.”
They did also use the international transfer window to pick up young international players that the team can build on, such as Brazilian winger João Peglow.
United also filled two positions of high importance such as center back and goalkeeper with signings of South Korean goalie Kim Joon Hung and Australian international Kye Rowles at center back.
Rowles who has been capped 24 times for the Australian national team, and a member of The Socceroos for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, was named the club’s vice-captain and has come in as the natural replacement of former United captain Steve Birnbaum who retired last June.
Lesesne has named Joon Hung as the starting goalkeeper for the Black and Red in their season opener against Toronto FC. The 21-year-old goalie has impressed so far with his performances in the preseason.
Looking to improve on playing style
D.C. playing style is a high pressure that is designed to force defenses into committing turnovers and to intimidate the opposition. One of the main benefactors of this system is team captain and last season’s golden boot winner Christian Benteke.
Benteke led the league in scoring last season with 23 goals, beating out the likes of 2023 golden boot winner Dénis Bouanga of LAFC and current league MVP Inter Miami’s Lionel Messi.
“It’s in constant evolution and improvement,” Lesesne said. “If you watched us in preseason, you could see, ‘Okay, they’re trying to go for something a little bit different.”
This season Lesesne will look to build more on this style of play that will be a little less reliant on Benteke but still have the Belgian striker as the focal point of the attack but will look to have a more even distribution of the ball that will allow others to create goal scoring opportunities.
Another benefit from retooling their style of play is that this will allow for more stability on the midfield and on the defense, which looks to avoid possible counterattacks from their opponents and lessen the chances for the opposition to create goal scoring opportunities on transition.
“Your best defense, a lot of times, is your offense and being on the ball and keeping the ball away from the other team,” said defender Aaron Herrera. “Seventy goals won’t happen again. I could tell you that right now, it was a bit wild that that did even happen last year. So, we’re doing everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen again. And it definitely won’t.”
United allowed a total of 70 goals last season, which was the third most in the league and second most in team history.
Looking to improve at home and team chemistry
With so many new additions to the roster, one of the things the team will look to build upon is team chemistry and it looks like they have been able to build that with players and coaching staff.
“We created a good group,” Benteke said. “Even though I’m the captain [and] I’m the leader, I believe the star of the team is going to be the group because the way we want to play, we will need all of us.”
One of the other things D.C. will look to improve on this season is their form at home. Since 2021 D.C. has only been able to win 14 league matches out of 51 matches inside the confines of Audi Field.
Lesesne addressed this during the preseason and during the team’s press conference Thursday afternoon, addressing the ways he is looking to get his team to improve at home.
“We want to win at home. That’s something that we did not fulfill enough last year,” he said. “One thing (the players) want to have more of is an expectation to win, not just compete. And we were competitive last year, but we want to take a step forward this year.”
While improving their form at home is one of the things they look to do in this upcoming season, D.C ultimate goal is to end their six-season playoff drought. This is especially true for Benteke who has had a desire to play in the playoffs since his arrival to MLS in the summer of 2022.
“So why not us?” said Benteke. “We really have to believe that we can go through everything this season.”
D.C. kickoff the 2025 season at home Saturday night against Toronto at Audi Field in Washington DC.
