A bouncing clearance. An approaching defender. One choice: Hit it first-time. One requirement: It’s got to be perfect.
Third-year defender Taylor Kemp’s first goal of 2015 was the ultimate dream strike. When he stepped up and put his left foot through through the ball in the 59th minute of D.C. United’s match against Real Salt Lake on Aug. 1, he carved his name into Black-and-Red lore using a tool that he has begun to wield in expert fashion time and again in his young career: technique.
Kemp knows how to kick a soccer ball. Seems simple enough – that’s what happens in the sport anyway. But in Kemp’s position, playing left back for D.C. United, it requires so much more, and those who reach that level of expertise separate themselves and become indispensable.
The University of Maryland product has scored just twice since he moved down the road from College Park to RFK Stadium in 2013. Neither goal will be forgotten anytime soon. Kemp is also tied for the team lead with a career-best five assists this season; they’ve all been timely, pretty, or both. Moments after his AT&T Goal of the Week against RSL, in trademark style he curved a cross into Perry Kitchen’s path to put United ahead for good in what finished as a wild, 6-4 thriller.
Power. Pace. Bend. Kemp’s service has all the attributes that give defenses fits. He can deliver on a set piece, either a free kick or corner kick, but he might be even better when he can push the ball to his left foot and hit it in stride as it's rolling forward. Teams have begun to overplay him when he gets into the attack because they know what’s coming, and once the cross is away it can be incredibly difficult to stop.
“It’s tough, because his left foot is obviously the best left foot on the team,” United midfielder
Davy Arnaud
said earlier this season. “You see when he whips balls in, they’re dangerous. They’re whipped in with purpose.”
Kemp has also served up three game-tying assists this year. His free kick set up Kofi Opare’s header in a 2-1 win over Orlando on May 13. Ten days later, he combined with fellow substitutes Facundo Coria and Jairo Arrieta for United’s lone goal in a 1-1 draw at New England. Chris Pontius finished his long service into the box for a crucial goal just before the halftime whistle in a 2-1 win over Philadelphia on May 30.
“He gets up the field and he serves a very, very dangerous ball,” United midfielder Nick DeLeon said. “When I know he’s putting in a ball, I trust that it’s usually going to get there. It’s another element of danger for us.”
In 2014, Kemp set the table for one of the Black-and-Red’s best goals of the season and then put his own name on the scoresheet for the first time in his career. He had a pair of assists in a 4-2 win over Colorado last August, none better than the one that came following his one 70-yard run with the ball down the left wing, capped off with a neatly placed ball for Chris Rolfe to redirect just inside the far post. Kemp also cemented United’s first-ever victory at BBVA Compass Stadium in Houston with a daring one-timer.
Perhaps it foreshadowed the magical shot against RSL, a shot that has already grown familiar. Kemp hit it clean with his laces. The ball exploded off his foot. It swerved out and back in, just inside the upper right corner, past outstretched goalkeeper Jeff Attinella.
The thing is, there’s no doubt, given the chance, that Kemp can do it again.
