It’s officially cherry blossom season in the District!
D.C. United will debut their new kits against New England Revolution at Audi Field tonight. The home team is looking for all three points to lift spirits and standing in the Eastern Conference after a loss on the road in New York City. Perhaps the new cherry blossom kits will provide a little extra boost.
Bruce Arena’s men will be coming to D.C. off a home win over Nashville SC that bumped them up to second in the Eastern conference. Despite the Black-and-Red’s home advantage, the Revs could prove to be difficult opponents. They’ve managed three clean sheets in four matches.
With numerous players injured, D.C.’s roster is certainly strained, but confidence in the squad’s ability to get the job done is high. Assistant coach Pete Shuttleworth said to the media, “that’s the message to the lads today, that the performance has been good. And we can only control the process and the elements of the performances…I think we feel we’ve got a good group of players, we feel they’re buying into everything we’re asking them to do and the style of play that we like to implement. And, you know, we have to believe we keep doing that process, and performances keep being positive, and results will take care of themselves.”
Hear more from assistant coach Pete Shuttleworth:
Key Player: Christian Benteke
Christian Benteke brings a wealth of experience and skills to D.C. United’s attack. Benteke is known for his physical presence and aerial ability, making him a dangerous threat in the box. He also possesses excellent finishing skills and is adept at creating scoring opportunities for himself and his teammates. Benteke has scored two goals in four appearances so far this season, and we certainly look forward to him playing the danger man against the Revs.
Watch Out For: Henry Kessler
Kessler will pose a challenge to Benteke, and the Black-and-Red attack as the Revs will look to stifle D.C.’s home-field advantage and add another clean sheet to the book – the Revs have recorded three clean sheets in four matches so far in 2023. The center back has been named to MLS Team of the Matchday twice now for strong defensive performances. It’s no surprise, as Kessler is a skilled defender who is strong in the air and can read the game well.
Challenges: With a strong New England defense, it is critical that the Black-and-Red’s attack be clinical in the final third. Additionally, the challenge of having so many key D.C. United players sidelined due to injury cannot be understated. Missing pieces have the potential to not only impact the team’s on-field performance but can disrupt the momentum, force adjustments in tactics and lineups, and limit depth and versatility.
Previously: While New England has won two of the last three meetings with D.C. United, the last time the teams met at Audi Field in April of 2022, the Black-and-Red took all three points.
D.C. United Availability:
Out: Brendan Hines-Ike (foot), Martin Rodriguez (knee), Andy Najar (thigh), Pedro Santos (knee), Matai Akinmboni (head), Victor Pálsson (international duty)
Questionable: Taxi Fountas (thigh), Derrick Williams (thigh)
New England Revolution Availability:
Out: Dylan Borrero (international duty), Nacho Gil (right leg), Jacob Jackson (ACL), Maciel (Achilles), Christain Makoun (international duty), Tommy McNamara (leg)
Location: Audi Field, Washington, DC
Kickoff time: 7:30 pm ET
Referee: Filip Dujic
Available streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Greene gets a nod today. I like his energy. Hope he does well. This lineup reads as a more obvious 4-3-3 than in previous weeks. Also, Taxi is on the bench!!!
I noticed Taxi too! I also thought it was a 433 but on second look, maybe a 4231 with Durkin and Canouse running the double pivot?
4231 makes sense too.
Think Bruce is smart, and congests the midfield early, making Klich, Durkin, and Canouse’s life tough. I bet a lot of our hopes lie in our ability the both shut down their fullbacks and make the wings ours, and that will fall to Greene, Ruan, Hopkins, and TKD- and that just might be the group in our ranks to do it. Greene especially has to make the best of this opportunity, haven’t seen enough defensively from Jeahze to feel bad if he gets supplanted.
Let’s answer some questions, or at least getting the league asking a few.
Vamos United!!!
Something funky about our lineup, roles are a bit unusual
Looks like Durkin is playing on the backline, Ruan as winger on right
Don’t know if I’m a fan of that tactic, personally, leaving Durkin isolated with their speedy LB might be a bad matchup
I’m really confused by that. Tbh.
I think that’s an error on MLS’ part.
Bou with a horrendous miss, keep it up!
Playing with fire early. Could easily be down 2-0
They’re ramming it down our throats, and our slow buildup is being shrugged aside
I’m not convinced that Hopkins is much use on the left. His whole skill set is built around the right touch line,
I say as he manages to find an inside lane, and misses a chance
So Ruan is clearly playing RM right now. But why? Why not being in Robertha and have an actual winger?
Durkin at RB is the dumb thing for me, it’s like they know nothing about his strengths. Would be fine with Ruan at RB
I hope DC is getting a pretty penny from the XFL to use the field. That far end of the field is essentially useless.
Just as an aside: we’re starting 4 home grounds this match. Way to go DCU!
Wow, Ruan on the wing has one good play, 1-0
Great ball movement. Great goal!! First time DC has scored first this year too.
I’m watching at home, got sick last week, and couldn’t fit a ticket into the monthly budget, so I’m dealing with the wreck that is Apple TV’s audio presentation. I of course wanted Dave Johnson and the radio team for the home game, instead all that feature yielded was muffled official Apple audio… until toward the end of the half when Dave Johnson’s voice became audible OVER the official commentators… so he IS talking this whole time, so I switch to Radio again, dead silence.
Update: halftime, and now they’re just both official audio with no difference. Give me Dave, you idiots
So I wasn’t dreaming when I briefly heard Dave Johnson…for a few seconds, the broadcast was good.
Switch to the Radio feed again, it’s finally working!
To be honest, that goal was the only good thing about that first half. DC can’t sit for 45 minutes.
Genuinely concerned what Bruce will cook up having watched that, he’s very good at altering the conditions of the second half
Shep with some interesting insight that we haven’t been in this position with a lead so far. Factually wrong insight, but thanks for trying.
Give me Dave.
Hopkins with a wide open opportunity, right into the goalie
Hey, Dave’s finally on!!!
Tyler Miller cleanly tackles Bobby Wood in a dicey position, flops filthy to make sure we don’t concede. Masterful.
Here come Gil and Altidore.
Shit, Bou remembers how to play off a Gil assist. 1-1
Like clockwork. Gil comes on and creates a goal.
Saw Taxi take off the bib, maybe we can answer
Interesting choice to take off TKD and Hopkins in order to put on Taxi and Asad, they were involved
Jozy blatantly drags down Benteke in the box to start a free kick, gets away with it cuz he’s a forward?!
Little bit of Taxi magic forces an acute save, gets us a corner
Boateng coming in, if he kills us again, fuck everything
Shit ass deflection off a corner, and that could be it.
This team can’t hold a lead against New England. Every single time. What a dumb deflection.
The ref delayed play for at least thirty seconds with weird whistles in stoppage, blows it right after 3. Fuck him.
Well, damn. NE are a good team, but we did not adjust to Gil’s presence until he got an assist, and then NE got the bounce in the box we needed.
New England deserved the win. Coaches need to stop over complicating things with the defense. Durkin isn’t a RB. That first goal is his fault. Second goal can’t do much about. Taxi’s quality showed in just those 20ish minutes. Frustrating game. New England isn’t any better than DC, in my opinion.
Taxi and Benteke will make us better up front, no doubt, will be frustrating if the margins are this disappointing all the way to the end
The inconsistency frustrated me today. The team looked confident on the ball prior to NYC and even in the second half at NYC. Today, at home, they looked like a mess. Disorganized, looked like everyone was playing together for the first time. Was it cuz Rooney wasn’t there? No clue. Taxi coming back will help the attack, but it doesn’t matter if they score 3 goals a game if they let in 4. No confidence in this defense right now.
I’m a bit surprised you’re perceiving this as our one inconsistent game. I’d argue that the weird decision to play Durkin at RB yielded no advantages and screwed us when Gil came in, and Ruan had one good cross in him that I think Hopkins could also have made, probably more consistently. Other than that, we lost to a team that generally has more going for it. To my mind, we’ve been inconsistent all season, we haven’t really put together 90 minutes yet, and rely on frenzied segments of play to score.
To me, at least, DC looked to be building and progressing towards a playing style coming into this game. Sure the defense has been inconsistent these first 5 games, but the midfield and attack looked competent aside from the first half at NYC. This game, though, it looked like 11 guys who never played with each other.
First, Durkin got completely undressed on that first goal. Second, glad we’re seeing Benteke score. That’s going to open things up for Taxi. Third, I didn’t expect us to have the league’s best defense. But between adding some guys and then having depth, I figured we’d have to be better defensively. But we’re still mediocre defensively (at least at key times). Argh!
Agreed all round. The I have no confidence
in this defense. I’d feel better if it was a miscommunication here or there, but not only has DC not held a clean sheet yet, they’ve given up some painfully soft goals. New England should’ve had at least one goal in the first 15 minutes.