Welcome back! A rivalry match against the New York Red Bulls kicks off the return to regular season play for D.C. United.
For the rivals, it’s their 87th regular season meeting and first regular season meeting of 2023. While D.C. United is looking to hang onto a playoff spot, and the Red Bulls are looking to claw their way just a bit further up the Eastern Conference table.
Only four points separate the teams, so tonight is a must-win for the Black-and-Red.
Since the season has been on hiatus for the Leagues Cup, the Black-and-Red have signed fullback Eric Davis and forward José Fajardo in an effort to add some missing depth to the roster. With the recent departures of Taxi Fountas, Victor Pálsson, and Lewis O’Brien, the additions come at just the right time.
Will D.C. United claim all three points in New Jersey tonight? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Key Player: Christian Benteke
Benteke leads the Black-and-Red with 3.3 shots per match and has been rock solid up top this 2023 season. D.C. United will look to Benteke to strike early, but he will have to outwit Carlos Coronel, New York’s outstanding goalkeeper, so clinical finishing will be the requirement of the night.
Watch Out For: Omir Fernandez
Fernandez is tied for the honor of club-leading goalscorer with five goals across all competitions. His game-winner against NYCFC on August 3 was the go-ahead the New York Red Bulls needed to advance, proving his ability to deliver under pressure.
Challenges: The Red Bulls are hard to beat at home, with the second most wins (131) and most points (443) in the league at home. The pressure is on the Black-and-Red to take all three points on the road and hold onto their playoff spot.
Previously: D.C. United previously met the New York Red Bulls in May for the Open Cup and suffered a 1-0 loss. This is their first meeting in regular season play this year.
New York Red Bulls Availability:
Out: Serge Ngoma (hamstring), Lewis Morgan (hip), Steven Sserwadda (knee), Dylan Neals (hip)
Questionable: Cory Burke (hip)
D.C. United Availability:
Out: Martin Rodriguez (knee), Mohanad Jeahze (leg), Nigel Robertha (thigh), Mateusz Klich (red card)
Location: Red Bull Arena, Harrison, NJ
Kickoff time: 7:30 pm ET
Referee: Jon Freemon
Available streaming: MLS Season Pass on Apple TV (tonight’s match is free to watch!)
Will be interesting to see what we have left.
Bupkus.
Depends what you mean. If “Bupkus” is a collection of players unlikely to hold onto a playoff spot, yep. But I think we have a handful of pieces we should secure and build on next year, but the FO should absolutely be shedding a ton of debris from the salary budget.
This is probably getting old, but this is a must win! DC has a handful of teams with a game in hand breathing down their necks. Need to show up on the road tonight. Plenty of rest, got some reinforcements. No excuses.
This really is a must-win match! I couldn’t agree more. If we’re hoping to hang onto that playoff spot we’ve got to bring the grit tonight.
Time to start the rebuild for next year. It’s always a good day to fire Dave Kasper.
About 14 minutes in, and gotta say, don’t hate our shape. Without that one asshole, Benteke is taking up central positions and others are revolving around that nicely. I still think we’ll regret not getting someone to spell Durkin and Canouse, especially with Palsson gone, but we’re doing better than I had feared
Agreed. Looking well-organized so far. An expectedly herky-jerky game. No real tempo or chances thus far.
22 minutes in, think the formation is still fine, gotta get more out of Pirani and Dajome. If they can get in the game and ask questions of that backline, we’ll be in good shape this game
Well, that was quite a game in the 28th minutes all of a sudden, massive counters both ways
Durkin given a yellow for a clean slide tackle. Man I really missed these MLS officials.
Durkin gets a yellow, looking at the bench, it seems our central options are Asad and Hopkins, neither of whom are the profile we really need in this situation.
Klich is sorely missed. Would be a huge lift against RB press/counter-pressure. I don’t think the Canouse-Durkin midfield pairing really suits this game, but DC don’t really have any other options but to drop Pirani deeper and/or bring on another attacking player.
I’m going to say I’m pretty happy with Pirani so far. He made a decent connection with Santos earlier, won a free kick, and is gaining some traction in the Red Bulls half. I don’t think it will be perfect yet, but I’m happy to see something.
I disagree about Klich being a big reason we’re not doing better. But maybe I’m showing my bias, I haven’t thought he’s had a DP impact for a while, maybe not even Sax McCarty level contributions
I’m curious if there is a way he can be better utilized. It feels like there has been something “off” for a bit, even though he is clearly a quality player.
It may well be he’s too much of a hybrid player to really excel in a starring role long term. Hard to fit him into a front three, a double pivot, or a pure playmaker role, he’s an in between contributor. Bielsa for a lot out of him, but I don’t know if that’s a DP for me.
I can admit to being a bit let down by the DP tag when watching Klich’s game too (really doesn’t stand out and wow you in any one way). I think where he shows up are in all the areas that are easy to overlook, he is a very tidy player, great at link up play and great at making the pass that leads to a chance. He leads DC in key passes (7th of the league there too), behind O’Brien is the second most involved player in DCU possesion and leads the team is assists. I think as far a historical DC DPs go Klich is a good one, at a league wide level a player you hope would be bought down long term.
Would be intrigued to have him as a TAM player, but still don’t know how he fits in any specific formation in MLS, and wonder if clarity of roles might win out over quality of touch as the team moves forward, particularly as he ages
and 100%… Klich is very much missed! I was disappointed when I remembered his suspension.
If Canouse picks up a yellow tonight, he’ll pick up a yellow card accumulation suspension.
Will… I can’t take any more of these yellow card accumulation suspensions! *cries in soccer supporter*
This is very different from the most murderball of murderball games we got in Sept 21 in Harrison.
I’m looking forward to seeing how Pirani can link up with KDP and Klich in future matches. He’s had moments already, but DC still shaking off the rust.
I’d like to see more from Pirani, but that’s a long ways from wanting to see less of him.
Williams gets a yellow. Arguable whether either was truly deserved, but one thing’s for sure- we don’t have the depth to yellow card foul our way to the playoffs, so this better stop
Poor Pirani gets cleaned out from behind and ref doesn’t even give him a second look. Welcome to MLS I guess, kid.
Baffling inconsistency can be checked off his debut bingo card, for sure
Of ref calls, I mean, he’s been growing into the game in my view
Agreed. Solid first game. Looking forward to seeing how he grows into the squad down the stretch. I really liked his quality in the ball and effort off of it.
I miss the FMF refs from League’s cup. Where is the whistle?
Just tuned in. Pirani looks promising but the DC players are getting rocked as soon as they release the ball and the ref isn’t doing anything to stop them because his head has already turned to follow the ball. Really need the ARs to back him up or there’s going to be blood soon.
Miller goes walkabout, we survive barely
Pirani wins a good free kick spot, Santos strangely is the taker and definitely wastes it
Redbulls making a push with fresh legs, way too much emergency defending at this point
KDP has struggled to get involved so far, but the whole team is struggling right now so I don’t really blame him. Still, I think Asad would have been a better sub. He’s better at holding possession and he’s able to draw fouls pretty regularly.
Game is opening up, the balance may well ride on how many minutes of stoppage the ref adjudicates, but I do not trust this ref
I have a brilliant idea- how bout Santos isn’t a free kick taker?
Geez. Terrible service all day on set pieces. Such a waste with all the height DC has.
Fajardo’s one contribution is… a really dumb foul that leads to the losing goal, most likely
Seriously, I have no idea what he was doing behind that player. What does he think he will accomplish?
He’s a forward trying to adjust and show effort. Most forwards aren’t great at just containing players and think they need to make tackles to be effective on defense.
It was a bit boneheaded but it starts because KDP was frustrated and hacked his man instead of just containing.
I’m not inclined to call that weird move a show of “effort,” if anything, it was a very slow moving situation
Well that’s game…
Did Miller not set his wall up correctly?? How does that get in the near post?
Players have gotten too good at exploiting Benteke physicality to draw fouls. The Metros defender sticks out an arm into his path, causing Benteke to push him over and the red calls it as a foul.
Then Fajardo gives away a free kick and the wall isn’t far enough to the side to keep it from curling in. This dropped point is really going to hurt.
DC is missing the playoffs. This team has no momentum and even fewer ideas. Only now that they are down 1-0 does DC have a sense of urgency. This team has looked comfortable all season despite having no reason to be.
Was ok with a lot of the game, but admittedly I’ve been of the opinion we’ve been in the off-season since O’Brien and Palsson went and that one asshole shit the bed. Sometimes thinking you’re good enough is a curse, and I’m uncertain if Rooney staying is even desirable next season.
I had a sliver of hope coming into the game. Now the math is just against DC. They haven’t won a league match since the 4th of July. I have a strong feeling Hernan Losada will get Montreal into that ninth spot that DC is in. Which would be pretty funny, I’ll admit.
And yet the roster was clearly constructed to “win now”. It’s baffling how incompetent this front office is and it really shows you how good Olsen was at rolling with the players he got.
The team is an unreserved improvement over last year. We were just TERRIBLE last year. Why they thought they could make the leap from that to “win now,” and why they thought that these particular players would “win now” are very good questions to ask.
Fajardo’s “quality” as shown tonight really baffles rhe brain as far as why we picked him up. Fletcher should be getting those minutes, at least he doesn’t do that
While I do think Fletcher should get more shots, there’s clearly something the coaching staff sees that says he’s not ready for a big role yet. I think the best thing for him would be some extended time with Loudon.
As for Fajardo, my guess is that he was brought in more to be Benteke backup. Hurtado seems to have fallen down the depth chart (and was a panic buy to begin with) and Fletcher doesn’t have the strength yet to fill that role. I think Fajardo can get a pass for tonight and hopefully he can be more effective next time.
Dajome is the player that annoys me the most right now. He puts in decent effort but his football iq isn’t that high and he gets knocked off balance way too easily.
Dajome is probably a wildly unbalanced player who we got for some magic beans. He has strengths, but not a ton of solidity to his impact
Thats a rough one. Most DC were ever gonna get out of a game like that was a draw. Four shots total and not a single one on target. RB were pretty dire going forward as well, but the only side that could really reasonably claim their efforts deserved a goal.
Game felt more like an early season affair, drab and lacking both quality and intensity. This Rooney experiment was always gonna be a tough one with his desire to be back in Europe so soon. Without playoffs this feels very much like a team in limbo, not one picking up steam after a dismal previous season (especially when the club sitting above you in the standings is a dismal MTL side coached by Losada – some credit there for getting that team anywhere near the playoffs).
On the postive side Pirani looks bright and can hopeuflly slot into a role behind Benteke. Just need to get a player like that more involved. Unfortunatley, that only addresses one departure, the FO has done absolutely nothing to fill the gigantic hole left by the departure of O’Brien.
This may be an unpopular opinion, but O’Brien was good, but not great and not the reason DC is losing game after game. If you look at the last month or so of games, his passing fell off and he was getting his pocket picked constantly. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy to have him back, but he was far from a DP. Personally, I don’t think he left a “gigantic hole” either but that’s just me.
I agree he feel off a bit and gigantic might have been an overstatement on my end, but I’ll at least try to back it up a bit more substantively. O’Brien contributed 1 G/ 1 A and 23 key passes. Third best in key passes behind only Klich and Benteke (2nd best on a per 90 basis). Very impressive for a two way CM who didn’t take many set pieces and ties well into how integral O’Brien was to DCs possesion game. Here O’Brien accounted for 10.9% of DCs touches (most of an any outfield player) this season with a 81% pass completion rate. DC where averaging about 50% possesion this season. In the few games since the departure of O’Brien that has dropped to about 40-45%. Still too small a sample size, but his departure will likely have some impact there.
Between him and Klich, it was pretty fun to have two people at once in the midfield that could retain possession of the ball.
I think that Pirani indirectly fills that hole by allowing Klich to play further back. Klich has been good at a lot of things, but he’s better a little further back imo. Play him with Canouse as the double pivot and have Pirani in front of them. The issue is that one of KDP/Dajome/Fajardo needs to step up as Bentekes partner to take some of the weight off of him and we really really need the wing backs to increase their chance creation.
KDP looked more effective in his limited minutes last night than Dajome did all game. I think he’ll be better at linking up with Benteke and Pirani and also is just better on the ball, so DC can actually retain possession and have some fluidity in the attack.
Another frustrating viewing experience. I don’t know how to fix it, the players just aren’t good enough.
Not to pick on Fajardo endlessly, but that kind of pickup… are we stuck with that? This isn’t trying to single out a tree, but trying to zoom out and look at the forest of contracts
I think Davis’s contract was through the end of this season with two team option years. Fajardo’s might have been the same, but I’m not certain.
Well on the bright side of things earlier today the US beat Canada in the Rugby Americas North Sevens Final and booked their spot in Paris next summer at the Summer Olympics.