D.C. United keep finding new ways to describe the same problem: brilliant for twenty minutes, ordinary for seventy. The summer stretch — nine matches in six weeks — will decide whether this is a team chasing a playoff line or shopping veterans in August.
The manager has tinkered with three formations in a month, and the players insist the instability is a feature, not a bug. Opponents preparing for United genuinely do not know what shape they will see.
The supporters have noticed what the table obscures: this team is four points better than it was at the break a year ago, with a friendlier run-in.
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