Perry Kitchen (en la foto) ha jugado un papel clave en el resurgimiento de DC United en 2014. (Foto: Linda Cuttone / Deportes Vue Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - On a side full of veterans, the frighteningly still young Perry Kitchen may be the steadiest of the bunch for CONCACAF Champions League (CCL) participant D.C. United.
Including his lofted through ball to Eddie Johnson to help seal D.C.’s 2-0 victory over the New York Red Bulls last Sunday, the 22-year-old holding midfielder now has four assists to go with four goals in his fourth Major League Soccer (MLS) season.
Couple those career-high offensive numbers with helping a defense that has conceded the second-fewest goals in the league, and Kitchen is emerging for Eastern Conference-leading United (14-4-8, 46 points) as one of the league’s best box-to-box midfielders.
“Perry’s been great,” said D.C. head coach Ben Olsen. “How comfortable he is on the ball. His passing, his ability to create opportunities, his second-line running has improved, his production from goals, not only set pieces but from the run of play. He’s taken a huge step forward this year.”
Part of that owes probably to natural progression accelerated by Kitchen’s ability to stay healthy and fresh. In four seasons, he’s missed only 10 league matches, and has appeared in virtually every minute of his 118 matches.
“You forget how young he is with the way he plays and how experienced he plays,” said teammate Davy Arnaud, who himself has transitioned into a more defensive role with United. “I admired Perry before I got here. I think once we got to play together and learned each other, how each other plays, I think it’s been good for us. I think we balance each other out well.”
Kitchen appears energized by the reconstructed United, which typically starts seven or eight players who didn’t suffer like he did through last year’s last-place campaign.
“From the start I thought we definitely had a talented group,” Kitchen said. “You never know, seasons are always up and down. You never know how they can turn out, but, yeah, I can’t say that I’m surprised.”
D.C. (1-0-0, 3 points) returns to CCL action on September 16 at Group 4 leader Waterhouse FC (2-0-1, 6 points) in Kingston, Jamaica.
