DC United coach Tom Soehn is very aware that his team's performance last season was not what he, the players and supporters expected. "All of it goes together -- having the right guys, and the right mix of guys, and staying healthy," Soehn said. "I can't say it enough: I still think we had a good team last year. But we didn't have many of the same guys on the field and it was a lot of the key guys [out]. It makes the going tough sometimes."

Speaking to his team's official website Shoen made it clear taking lessons from last year was of a number one priority: "The one starting point you always want to have is an honest, hard-working group, and we definitely have some guys with flair, so we have some balance -- and a deep team.

"I know more than anybody with all the games we have, we need a deep roster and we need to have options so when guys go down we can't drop off far. That's what we've tried to accomplish this year.

"Anytime you have a group of guys with common goals, common interests, fighting for each other like a bunch of friends, great things happen," said Soehn. "I've always said the locker room is a place where championships are won -- if you have a good locker room. So we've really addressed that this year, making sure we get that right."

D.C. United face LA Galaxy on March 22nd in their season opener.