D.C. United kick off a two game road trip tonight with a game against third place Nashville SC at GEODIS Park. The Boys in Gold have only lost one game at home this season (7W-1L-2D), presenting a challenge for the Black-and-Red as they look to claim three points on the road to maintain their playoff spot.
The Black-and-Red will face a twofold challenge tonight. First, they will look to break through Nashville’s defense, which is arguably the best in the league with the lowest number of goals allowed against them (16) and the lowest goals against average (0.80). Second, they will have to defend Hany Mukhtar and company. Mukhtar has scored the most goals in MLS so far this season.
Wayne Rooney said, “It’s not down to one man to defend him because he moves in different areas and different spaces. So it’s about how we defend as a team, how we try and close that space in and deny that space, really, for these attacking players. But ultimately, we have to do that as a team.”
While Nashville is a strong opponent, they haven’t scored in two straight matches – losses to Columbus and Montréal. Meanwhile, D.C. United has just beaten best in the league Cincinnati 3-0, shoring up confidence.
We’re ready! Vamos United!
Key Player: Tyler Miller
Miller will have his work cut out for him tonight against Nashville as he’ll look to keep a clean sheet. Mukhtar won’t make it easy for D.C.’s goalkeeper though. Miller and the Black-and-Red defense will have to be just as focused as they were against Cincinnati.
Watch Out For: Hany Mukhtar
The 2022 MLS MVP, Mukhtar has recorded eight goals and six assists at home. He leads MLS in the race for the Golden Boot with 13 goals so far in 2023. While his style is more direct than Cincinnati’s Lucho Acosta, the Black-and-Red will have to be every bit as wary.
Challenges: The Black-and-Red will need to break down a tough Nashville team while on the road as they fight to stay in a playoff spot.
Previously: D.C. United has never won over Nashville SC and in their last meeting in August 2021, the Boys in Gold won 5-2 over the Black-and-Red.
Nashville SC Availability:
Questionable: Teal Bunbury (lower body injury)
D.C. United Availability:
Out: Martin Rodriguez (knee), Mohanad Jeahze (leg), Ted Ku-DiPietro (ankle)
Location: GEODIS Park, Nashville, TN
Kickoff time: 8:30 pm ET
Referee: Guido Gonzalez Jr.
Available streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV
Walker Zimmerman is a beast in the air. But then you have Benteke. And frankly, a DCU team that fields Pines and Birnbaum–so many good aerial targets on corners and restarts. I think how this game plays out in the air will be fascinating, particularly how Benteke does.
I miss day games!
I thought Birnbaum was out because of the red. He’s listed as a sub on apple TV and the club app.
He served his suspension against Cincinnati.
Hines-Ike has had a really tough game — his poor clearance attempt led straight to the 2nd goal. He also nearly produced an own goal when he blasted it straight at Pines instead of dribbling clear first…. Birnbaum will be back.
Whelp OGDC went into Ft Quincy and got taken to the woodshed. The New England Free Jacks took care of OGDC 25-7. It was 18-0 at half and the try for OGDC came too little too late. Full write up on Monday. NE’s home stadium is called Ft Quincy because they are now 23-2 at home since they were an expansion team in 2020 along with OGDC. OGDC also has yet to defeat New England. New England have now won 11 in a row. They were 14W-2L-0D with the best regular season record in Major League Rugby.
New England had a bye last week and OGDC just played last Sunday. On top of that they got back to DC from New York at 3 AM on Monday. Then they lost their practice day on Thursday due to weather, so it was short rest and no practice time for OGDC. Not an excuse, but it definitely showed.
Bailed out by the offside flag in the first 2 minutes of the game…not a good sign.
Most I’ve seen DCU on the backfoot in a while. Understandable (Nashville on the road is always gonna be tough), hopefully they can settle things down a bit.
Replay angle on the goal is pretty horrible to judge offsides, but looked like it was Hines-Ike who played Leal on. Easy goal from there, whether Miller is off his line or not.
Leal seemed to be bending his run, I still think he bolted early from his position. VAR didn’t look at it too hard, that’s for sure.
Have to say, 2-0 feels about right for this half and this uneven performance.
Frankly this definitely is feeling like a loss already. Unless we somehow come out way different in the 2nd half.
That yellow to Benteke means he misses next game due to yellow card accumulation.
Yeah, this definitely feels like a no-good night, need to limit the damage even in a loss
Klitch and Pines are both 1 yellow away from accumulation suspension.
I certainly don’t agree with every reaction they have, but the Nashville crowd are really feeding this team and they’re responding. This is quite bad, in that DC haven’t been close to getting a foothold.
Thoughts on halftime changes? KDP for Dajome, or maybe Fletcher? Worried Fountas would just dissapear in a game like this one (especially given his poor play/fitness during the first half of the season).
As I said elsewhere, I think we need to not sub for an unlikely result, and sub to protect players with a midweek game approaching. Maybe Rooney will want to think about his Benteke replacement once the game is over, if he has an alternate idea immediately, let’s get it minutes. Additionally, Klich and Pines should be taken out for caution’s sake with accumulation
Yeah. Benteke will go the fully ninety since he is gonna miss Tuesday. Maybe take Klitch off so he doesn’t miss Tuesday on yellow card accumulation (as mentioned above). Get the youngsters some minutes. Leave Taxi on the bench.
Nashville look like a playoff team, we do not tonight. I’m sure Rooney will want to get it going in the second half, might be wiser not to prove the point as much as get some subs minutes and get out.
I agree. The starters had their shot, were a teensy bit humiliated, make some subs and live to fight another day.
When is this team going to show some consistency week to week. Smoke Cincy at home and back to low energy and ineffective the week after. I wasn’t expecting a win here, but this has been really poor.
Also, the team just needs better players. I’m not sure there’s been a single match where DC had the best player on the pitch. It’s hard to win like that.
Think a healthy Taxi competes with many of them, but I see your point.
I think a lot of it was the FO thinking Pedro Santos’ floor would be way higher, and that his mobility wouldn’t be an issue. He’s not the whole problem, but playing with wingbacks and one of them be that slow really limits the forward progress and the other team’s need to fear it.
My expectations are more of these ups and downs. As you pointed out this isn’t a great side (better than last year for sure). Just about every team above DC in the table is a better side right now, except maybe MTL and ORL (tough to look at the table and see MTL above DC with a game in hand). They need a return to form from Taxi or more depth/additions. The latter seems unlikely. Best case scenario DC find a way to keep O’Brien. More likely we see a key player like O’Brien departe without an adequate replacement.
Random, but just saw an announcement on Facebook that Segra Field will be hosting an international friendly between Ethiopia and Guyana on Wednesday Aug 2.
Think we might be playing a diamond now, but not sure.
Taxi lively (happy to be wrong on that one). This is Rooney rolling the dice and trying to get something out of this, with the sub and change of formation. Hopefully Klich can avoid a yellow.
Wow these Nashville fans really hate the ref.
Yep, think he’s been pretty damn good all night. They’re howling at anything that is out of line with the vibes.
Taxi robbed by the offside flag and yeah Klich is offside.
Oh, wow, Zimmerman gets a second yellow, redso.
My prediction is that Nashville really close up shop and play Mukhtar forward when they can to relieve pressure, and that we still don’t do much of a comeback.
Yeah, hope imm wrong.
Dear reader, I was not.
Fountas absolutely baited the ref into giving a 2nd yellow to Zimmerman. I guess props to Taxi for knowing the situation, but that was massive dive.
Very professional thus far from Nashville. DC gonna need to a be a bit quicker/cleaner in the final third if they want even a goal in this one.
Not a good sign that Nashville still have the more dynamic attacking players on the field having subbed for defense with 10 men
DCU not really had a good look at goal since Nashville went down to 10.
Poor service from DC tonight, thus far.
Not bad from Fletcher, probably narrows down the angle a bit too much with that touch, but I’m hopeful about his ceiling
Yeah, easily the best he’s looked tonight. He’s got skill and audacity to shoot, but I keep expecting more than is probably realistic from him at this stage. But hopefully he really blossoms soon, just as Jackson Hopkins is putting things together.
Fischy certainly right about Hines-Ike being off for the night, now that I see it, I can’t unsee it. Bad game.
They’re just too slow and predictable, even with a man advantage. Maybe even more so with the man advantage.
The Onion Article would probably be: DC unable to break down their inconsistencies and poor decision making in the last ten years… oh, and they played Nashville
Welp, this DC side are easy work for a side like Nashville. Haven’t been to many measuring stick matches this season, but this was certainly one and this DC team has come up well short.
Pretty sure that DC hasn’t ever beaten Nashville. I think we may never have even gotten a draw.
We drew them in May.
That’s an impressive result for us that I apparently forgot about.
Frankly, so had I, it was a google search, but I thought we had gotten a draw against them recently, just don’t recall it very well.
Yeah, hopefully we’ll get one soon. Consistently beaten by a perennial playoff team and one of the better teams in the East over the past few years. While DC are better than last year, its moments like this that show just how far this side has to go.
I’m sure the pundits will put this down as a “gutsy, 10-men win” for this one, in reality, this was a up and down the squad dunking. Nashville have made very consistent choices pretty much from their inception, and know how to get bang for their buck in MLS. We’re the opposite of that.
This is not to say that DC hasn’t been better this year, but none of our pillars are inexpensive or particularly young. We made a conscious decision to try to have Rooney impress in one season with an older squad before he returns to England and his family, this organization is going to have to really go back to the drawing board whether he stays or goes.
Agreed. Certainly an easy one for NSH. At least this side can be a legitimate joy to watch at times, in terms of results and style of play. Just not quite consistent enough, nor as deep or talented as other sides in the East. Defensive side of things needs some work too. Mid-table in the East seems about what DCU deserve thus far.