This afternoon, DC United will square off against another MLS original, the New England Revolution. United (1-2-2) will look to get three points on the road against a club that could be without a majority of their stars.
After scoring just five goals in five matches, and earning just five points, there is a good reason for some of us to have early season worries. Are the guys clicking? Is there something wrong? I’m sure I wasn’t alone when I thought we had one of the best offenses in the MLS. But here we are staring at an early schedule that features three matches where DC failed to score a goal. It seems sort of worrisome.
However, I expect that to change on Saturday. New England (2-3-0) is coming off a 1-0 loss to Dallas (the club we shellacked 4-1 two weeks ago) and received word this week that their captain Shalrie Joseph, the main man of the Revolution in the midfield, is suspended for one match due to a tackle he made against FC Dallas. Debating whether he should have been suspended or not is for a different article, but all I know is this works out amazingly well for DC United. Add on the possibility that Benny Feilhaber, Sainey Nyassi, and Kevin Alston won’t play, and we have a club that is ripe for the picking, even if the match is on their home turf. The Revolution do have a few players that could give DC a little trouble though. The rookie out of UCLA, Kelyn Rowe is a player to watch as well as midfielder Lee Nguyen. Both players are talented and could make something happen. Also watch for Clyde Simms, the former United player, whose role in this match is major. He’s a defensive midfielder and his play could determine if New England win or not.
The unit in charge of keeping those players at bay would be a Black and Red defensive unit that has just allowed one goal in the last three matches. Emiliano Dudar has been huge, both figuratively and literally, in the center, and the outside backs have played fantastic. Joe Willis has been solid in goal, and it looks like DC has finally put together a defensive unit that can win.
One question that is on every fan’s mind this weekend is the goalkeeping situation. Joe Willis has been one of the best keepers in MLS these past few weeks while Bill Hamid has been away on Olympic duty. But now that Hamid is back and nearly recovered from his ankle injury, who do we go with? My gut tells me that Willis will get the start on Saturday against New England, but look for Hamid to jump back in the lineup the following Wednesday against Montreal. Another position battle that might open up this season is the battle for the other center-back position between Brandon McDonald and Dejan Jakovic. Jakovic played pretty good while subbing for McDonald during his suspension last week, but I expect McDonald to be back in the thick of things unless he gets hurt.
Lastly, this DC offense that I started off the article with should get into gear again. With instrumental midfielders out for New England, DC should be able to control the midfield. Hopefully we’ll see Branko Boskovic get some more minutes seeing as his appearance, along with Chris Pontius, literally changed the match last week against Seattle. Hamdi Salihi is begging for a goal after watching his best chance of the year rebound off the goalpost last week. I don’t think I’m being too optimistic when I say this side should be able to register three goals against New England.
To round things up, if United doesn’t get the win, I’ll be disappointed. We need to start seeing wins stringed together instead of draws. Winning matches like these are what the playoff clubs do, and if United want to finally get back for the first time since 2007, these early matches need to start counting.
This week I had the great opportunity to chat with Renny Swan, the New England writer for Total MLS, on the Rebel Alliance Podcast about the upcoming match. I encourage fans from both sides to listen in. Just click the link. What is ironic is the fact that while New England and DC United are original clubs of the MLS, Renny and I are original members of Total-MLS. I found that fact to be sort of cool.
(image courtesy of dcunited.com)
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