In 2013, DC United set the wrong kind of Major League Soccer records. Collecting only three victories in league play, they finished the season with a record low in goals scored and a record high in goals conceded.

Fans decried the mediocrity on Twitter with the hashtag “SadStats”, jockeying to identify the statistic that best encapsulated United’s abysmal campaign. Off the field, prospects appeared just as bleak as average attendance fell to 13,646, a record low for one of the league’s founding clubs.

In Europe, such awfulness would have been punished with relegation and a massive decline in TV and sponsorship revenue. But in parity-driven MLS, United were actually rewarded by league mechanisms designed to improve their squad.



“It’s no secret that if you finish last place you get a lot of options,” said head coach Ben Olsen, who retained his job to lead the turnaround along with general manager Dave Kasper. “Maybe too much in a lot of ways.”

Armed with the first pick in the annual MLS SuperDraft, the first spot in the recently created Re-Entry Draft for veteran players and a war chest of allocation money, United cobbled together a squad of castaways and MLS veterans. They now occupy first place in the Eastern Conference.



“We’re in a better position than I thought we would be at this point,” said Olsen, pleasantly surprised that his new-look squad has gelled so quickly.

Olsen and Kasper wanted to build a team with a strong spine of veterans and add, according to Olsen, a few “game-changers”, but the club’s financial situation dictated that they devise an MLS-centric strategy. Lacking a soccer-specific stadium with luxury amenities to raise match-day revenue, United cannot compete with the moneyed MLS clubs that splash millions on expensive talent like Jermain Defoe (Toronto FC) and David Villa (New York City).



“We’re not going to spend that type of money,” said Olsen, arguing that United’s domestic approach was “a smart way … to put us in a position to make playoffs”, given the team’s limited financial resources.

Using the Re-Entry Draft, which was the result of a compromise between MLS owners and players in 2010 and which facilitates the movement of veterans around the league, United found two defensive starters, Sean Franklin and Bobby Boswell, to solidify a backline that conceded 59 goals in 2013. They also acquired the Argentinian forward Fabian Espindola, who now leads the team in goals and assists.

Prior to the introduction of the Re-Entry Draft, these three players would have faced a situation in which, according to MLS Players Union executive director Bob Foose, “their existing clubs could sit on their rights” and force them to accept a pay cut to stay in MLS. With the Re-Entry Draft, Franklin and Boswell signed with United at their current salaries and Espindola, selected in the second phase, was able to negotiate a new contract. United did not need to compensate his former club.

For Foose, the Re-Entry Draft has helped mitigate the “downward salary pressure on veteran MLS players” and, perhaps more importantly, forced clubs to resign veterans earlier in the calendar year, to avoid losing them. Before the Re-Entry Draft began, in 2010, Foose noted that in some years more than 40% of the MLS player pool would be out of contract in January with “no paycheck, no insurance”, as individual players negotiated deals with teams who held their MLS rights even after their contracts had expired. The number of out-of-contract players every year is now under 10%, which Foose cites as the greatest positive effect of the change.

While United’s success might encourage other MLS sides to look to the Re-Entry Draft to rebuild, it might not endure much longer. After the current season, MLS management and the players union will discuss a new collective bargaining agreement. Player movement will be a major component of the negotiations. According to Foose:



It’s not a scary concept, having players play where they want to play. That’s how it works everywhere else in the world and that’s how it should work here.



Foose contends that MLS will only be a top league globally when MLS teams truly compete against each other for the top talent within the league, which could mean that a team looking to retool like DC United did this past offseason will face more competition for veterans. “It’s actually a good thing for the league,” argued Foose, “The system will evolve. It needs to evolve.”

For the few players who remained with United after the cataclysmic 2013 season, the influx of veteran MLS talent has brought a cultural shift in the locker room.



“It’s night and day from last year,” said midfielder Perry Kitchen, whose solid play anchored the team. About last season, goalkeeper Bill Hamid added: “We weren’t in the right mindset going in game to game.”



DC United goalkeeper Bill Hamid makes a save against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Photograph: Darryl Dyck/AP

Hamid’s show-stopping saves have helped United win several matches, earning the fifth-year player a first MLS All-Star selection and a spot on Jurgen Klinsmann’s short list to succeed Tim Howard in goal for the national team. Last week, Hamid continued to bolster his case for national-team minutes, making five saves in a 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls after a controversial red card reduced United to 10 men.

After the match, the Red Bulls striker Thierry Henry mused: “Oh, [Hamid] was good. He kept everything out apart from the last one, thankfully for us.”

Off the field, Hamid is emerging as a leader. He said: “We approach every week how we’re going to play against this team, how we’re going to defend against this team, and how we’re going to exploit this team. That’s a big difference from last year.”



As United enter the final stretch of the MLS regular season, however, success has not reshaped their goals.



“It’s pretty simple,” said Olsen, “Get to the playoffs.”



A Tuesday trip to Jamaica for a match against Waterhouse FC in the Concacaf Champions League complicated that objective. United qualified for the regional tournament after winning the US Open Cup last season, the lone bright spot in a season mired in mediocrity; Olsen now needs to manage player minutes to ensure his team remains fresh for MLS.

While Olsen used reserves in 1-0 victory over Waterhouse at RFK Stadium last month, he may opt for his regular starters tonight as a victory would almost guarantee passage from the group stage, allowing Olsen and his team to remain focused on their main goal, making the MLS playoffs.

If they make it – which appears likely – the 2014 season will purge many of the bad memories made in 2013, offering redemption for a team that has endured long stretches of mediocrity after its halcyon early years.



“We all have something to prove,” said Olsen, “I do … the guys from last year have something to prove. Our staff does. Our organization does. And these guys that were let go from other teams have something to prove.

“I think you add that up at times and we can be a tough team to play against.”