Union fans might not get the reunion with Tai Baribo that they expected
Baribo has missed D.C. United's last two games with a thigh injury, and his status for Saturday's visit to Subaru Park is uncertain. The Union might be better off without the distraction.
The Union’s game Saturday against D.C. United (7:30 p.m., Apple TV) is one fans have had circled for a while as Tai Baribo’s return to Chester.
But that might not end up happening, since Baribo has been sidelined from United’s last two games with a thigh injury. D.C. manager René Weiler said Wednesday night that he was “not sure whether he [will be] ready” to play this weekend.
Some Union fans surely want the emotional release that would come from cheering his name with D.C.’s starting lineup — and whatever they’d release toward the owners’ box for selling a fan favorite, even if the deal was too good to turn down.
Within the Union’s walls, though, the removal for now of that outside noise undoubtedly is a good thing. A team coming off its first league win of the year can focus fully on aiming for a second, and what would be a first MLS win at home in the campaign after three losses.
“First of all, I hope it’s nothing serious,” Union manager Bradley Carnell said Thursday afternoon in his weekly news conference. “We always want to face the best opponents, and D.C. with Tai Baribo is certainly a force to be reckoned with. We’re preparing and planning accordingly, and we can’t control what we cannot control.”
It was clear from the moment the final whistle blew Saturday in Montreal that a burden was off the Union’s shoulders. But Carnell also has been sure this week to not let his team think that one win fixes everything.
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“I mean, it’s three points,” he said. “I think we’ve built such a high standard for ourselves and built high expectations, but that does not mean by any means you’re going to be automatically guaranteed points on the board. … The standard that we’ve been playing at is not at our level, and it’s not where we want to be, but I’m proud of the boys for fighting, and I’m proud of the boys for doing everything to get a result in Montreal.”
If you’re wondering how Baribo is doing in D.C., the answer is a mixed bag. He scored three goals in six games before the injury, but while one was against his old team, the others were a goal-mouth cleanup in a game his team trailed, 2-0 (and lost, 2-1), and a penalty kick.
The scale of Baribo’s task in leading United back to prominence — or even just being decent — was laid bare again on Wednesday. D.C. lost at home in the U.S. Open Cup to One Knoxville SC of third-tier USL League One, in a penalty kick shootout after a 3-3 tie. The hosts took 62 minutes to open the scoring, then fell behind, 2-1; tied the score; took a 3-2 lead in extra time; and couldn’t keep it.
United’s record is 2-4-1, also far from appealing. That the mark is good enough for ninth place in the East at the moment shows how bad the rest of the conference has been this year.
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Philippe Ndinga’s uneven playing time
It’s still early in left back Philippe Ndinga’s time with the Union, but he hasn’t yet locked down a starting spot in the way that some people had hoped for.
After starting three of his first four games amid the club’s busy March schedule, he has been limited to late-game cameos this month: six minutes at Charlotte and nine minutes at Montreal.
“He had been training in a good way in Europe up until he joined us, and then we wanted to put him in just to kind of see where he’s at,” Carnell said. “And now we can establish some baselines for the level we’re at, he’s at, and the league’s at, and then start working with him.”
Carnell praised Ndinga’s “incredible tenacity about defending forwards and taking time and space away, and braving the dribble when he has the ball.” He also praised how the 20-year-old has settled off the field.
“He’s integrated really well with the group,” Carnell said. “There’s always a smile on his face, and he’s always vocal, and he’s always singing and dancing and what have you. So he’s a great character around the group, and the boys embrace that. And I think it’s just a matter of time before he starts contributing.”
It was understandable that Carnell then said Ndinga is “far from a finished product.” But even if it was more of an outside expectation that Ndinga quickly would become the starter, it wasn’t solely an outside expectation.
So a question followed about whether he has been the player the Union expected they were getting, at a position that demands so much. Kai Wagner always will be one of one, but Frankie Westfield is another example of a player who does a lot at both ends of the field.
Carnell bristled as he answered.
“Service-wise, you can never expect two players to be exactly the same mold — there’s different players with different attributes and different qualities,” he said. “I spoke about [Ndinga’s] defensive tenacity, to defend forwards and take time and space away. We feel he’s really good at that. And then in transitional play and moving forward with the game, he’s a different profile, but he still has the physicality and the tools to do what we need to develop over time.”
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He concluded with words that could apply to many Union players.
“We’re a developmental club, and we brought in Philippe to be developed,” Carnell said. “And I don’t think he would even say he’s a finished product, which is good, because that means his ceiling is still yet to be reached, and he’s still got to grow a little bit.”
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