D.C. United left back Daniel Woolard, who has been sidelined since Aug. 4 with a concussion, has started jogging on the side but still is suffering headaches when he increases his exertion, coach Ben Olsen said Wednesday.
“He’ll be day to day,” Olsen said. “You rev it up a little bit, see if there are no headaches. If no headaches, you rev it up a little bit more. But he seems to be getting headaches when we get to a certain point, so he’ll just keep plugging along. It’s frustrating.”
Woolard, 28, started 20 games before suffering the concussion while colliding with teammate Emiliano Dudar in a 1-0 win over the Columbus Crew. Second-year player Chris Korb has filled in adequately in Woolard’s absence, with midseason acquisition Mike Chabala also seeing time at the position.
Midfielder Stephen King (hernia surgery) also was jogging.
Here are more notes from an upbeat training session at RFK Stadium that included a clinic for area coaches attended by some 200 people:
GETTING OVER THE ROAD HUMP
United’s 1-0 win over Philadelphia on Thursday ended a six-game road losing streak for United dating back to mid-June. With three of United’s final four games on the road, the result has given the team a key confidence boost heading into Saturday’s match at the Portland Timbers.
“It’s clear in the results of away games that we haven’t done as well as we can,” goalkeeper Bill Hamid said. “But Philly is a difficult place to play, a difficult team to play against, being that they’re a young, feisty group. So for us to go there and get a result, it was very massive. Hopefully we can go to Portland and do the same thing.”
Olsen added: “It would be nice if they were all at home. We’ve got to go three away. That’s something we’ve been harping on as far as getting better at, getting results on the road, in particular in tough spots like Portland and Toronto, and obviously Chicago is going to be a tough one too.”
A STINGY BACK LINE
With 1-0 triumphs over Philadelphia and Chivas USA in their past two games, United recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time this season, embracing a stingier approach in the absence of injured captain Dwayne De Rosario.
“1-0 wins are great,” Olsen said. “We don’t have many of them at this club in the last four, five years. Hanging on, especially when these teams have nothing to lose and they’re just throwing crazy numbers forward, it’s not an easy task for us. We’re hanging in there. We’re giving up chances in these games. As I said, we could have tied these, we could have lost them, we could have won 4-0. That’s how these types of games go down the stretch.”
Added center back Brandon McDonald: “These past three games, we’ve been buckling down. You look in guys’ eyes and the concentration they have and you can see it.”
