DC United @ Chicago Fire: Preview, time, and how to watch
DC United heads to the shores of Lake Michigan to take on the Chicago Fire this evening. DC United hopes to get back in the win column after two straight losses to Austin FC and Inter Miami.
The early season schedule has not been kind to the Black-and-Red. After opening at home against the Supporters’ Shield holders, the team will not see Audi Field again until the first weekend in April. Head coach René Weiler was not thrilled about being away from home so long to start the season against several teams that made the playoffs last season.
“I’m not really pleased that we have so many away games,” Weiler said. “And of course it was nice to have this game against Miami [in Baltimore] and all of the spectators. But yeah, [it’s] crazy. We play only two games in Audi Field in the first nine games and we know where we come from, but it is how it is. So we have to prepare how we have to prepare…We want to play our best possible game and to get out anything. That is the only thing what we can do. And when we have the game not at home, then we can’t change it. So, we do the best out of it.
The Chicago Fire early on are 1W-1L-1D, losing to the Houston Dynamo in their opening match. They won their home opener in big fashion against CF Móntreal and last weekend drew the Columbus Crew on the road. They’re coached by former USMNT head coach Gregg Berhalter, who took the Fire to the playoffs last season to end a long drought. They’ve held clean sheets in their past two matches.
Weiler hopes that DC United can figure out a way to get more goal production. So far, the club has scored two goals in three matches, both by Designated Player Tai Baribo. “This is a good number, but we’ve only scored two goals with only one player scoring these two goals,” Weiler said. “We have to be more decisive and capitalize our chances.”
Complicating things is the injury report. Aaron Herrera remains out due to a lower leg injury, as does Gabriel Segal. Hakim Karamoko is out due to illness. However, the biggest story will be the absence of Louis Munteanu, who has been ruled out due to a lower leg injury. Romanian media has reported that there are concerns that his injury is a “serious muscle injury” that could keep him out long enough for Munteanu to miss Romania’s important World Cup playoffs coming up later this month. DC United has not commented on the severity of the injury, but the Designated Player will not be on the field tonight for the Black-and-Red.
DC United vs. Inter Miami CF
Location: Soldier Field, Chicago
Kickoff time: 8:30pm ET
Available streaming: Apple TV
The Draft Kings commercial before kickoff is more distasteful after last week.
I only watched the halftime show of the Super Bowl, but I did at least tune in at the reported kickoff time that night to
make sure it was on the right channel for later. Again, reported kickoff time. And it immediately went into a sports betting promotion LIVE in the stadium! A dude just glazing sports betting for at least a few minutes!
It’s a cancer that is being juiced instead of managed.
Of note in the lineup, Markovic is not available. 2 goalies on the bench tonight
Jason Anderson reporting that it’s purely precautionary over a minor knock.
Staff doesn’t want to risk it becoming worse. Means they see him as a meaningful part of the season, but don’t want to lose where he could be developing
Well we just got screwed on that goalkick that should’ve been a corner.
That said, I’m not sure the last time I saw this team sustain pressure in and around the box like that.
It legitimately felt like the ref was tired of the play
Nice to see them starting to create some pressure in Chicago’s end, but still haphazard. Without a quality shot yet.
As for the refereeing, that was a miss, but I don’t think as egregious as Bartlett arm-tackling a man in the open field on a break. And maybe we just got a yellow for a dive as a makeup. I’m sure the ref heard it from the booth that he got the goal kick call wrong.
Crazy denial of a corner kick after Hopkins’ shot is deflected about as strongly and as obviously as I’ve ever seen
This ref has to be kidding us with that one
Live, I thought for certain he was going to call a penalty on that one.
It didn’t look like a foul, but a dude goes down in the box and you expect the call.
Exactly.
Good call for simulation on the Chicago attacker, yellow thoroughly deserved for that nonsense
Makes the failure to perceive that deflection all the stranger
Hopkins needs to cool down.
Hopkins has to be careful now
He’s also going to have to figure out how to keep his head more, he’s on track for yellow card accumulation pretty quickly in the season
While the use today was appropriate, I feel like Apple’s one talking point on Murrell is that bicycle kick.
It genuinely is pretty lame broadcasting. But, it’s what you get when you have a conglomerate centralize coverage without local understanding. Indifferent as fuck.
Baribo gets his 3rd on a corner!
VAR Crap.
They’re gonna chop it off for Hopkins obstructing the sightline
And its coming back for offsides on Hopkins….
Strict letter of the law, it’s an offside foul. What I find silly about that is the refs never call offside when a player is blocking the goalie. The thinking is always about did he interfere physically, should the goalie have been stronger, etc. They never just call it offside for being the way.
If it takes that long to figure it out, it’s not clear and obvious
I’ll take “things that wouldn’t happen to Miami” for 500, please.
I asked this on Bluesky but I will ask you all here as well. Do any of you care about win probability.
Me I don’t. The whole point of sports for me is today is the day anything could happen.
It’s pretty silly. It’s like, 1-0 in the 89th minute, 98% chance of a win
Yeah, great info, computer. 🙄
Actual fans shouldn’t give a shit, but it’s just another sign about how “prediction markets” are covering everything.
Agreed. I guess a better way of putting is, stuff like that seems like its for casuals or fans who don’t want a deeper understanding of the game.
You can tell that no one that has watched MLS for any length of time came up with that concept for these broadcasts. MLS is the peak “anything can happen” league
It’s also just something that has no real relevance as a constant metric to check back in throughout the game. If you wanna show it as a data point at the start, whatever, but it’s completely stupid to keep referring to later.
Prescient for this game.
We may be forced into some emergency defending, but this is the type of game Bartlett really earns his salary. He’s having a great game
Peglow really unlucky that went right at Brady’s foot, vicious, unpredictable strike.
If Pirani had been able to get anything on that shot….
Why aren’t we subbing yet?
This game seems to be calling for Kijima’s speed and work rate.
I’ve been disappointed he hasn’t gotten some time in the pivot with Peltola
Servania has been generally adequate, but we have a chance to push for something here with a bit more connectivity and progressive play
So what happened?
When the coaches got a bit of a dialogue, and I saw Baribo being the main plaintiff about something other than a contact… he’s from Israel. He’s Jewish.
We’ll find out, but I wonder
If there was a moment for the ref to make an announcement… that was it.
Clark for Pirani…interesting
Well shit VAR screwing DCU tonight.
Goddamn it
https://bsky.app/profile/joseumana.bsky.social/post/3mh2v2n6pl22e
From José Mauricio Umaña on Bluesky
“According the MLS Spanish broadcast, there are claims of discriminatory language being used from fans in stands in Chicago towards #DCU striker Tai Baribo. The ref spoke to Baribo and both coaches. Play has continued.”
Yep, antisemitism investigation to come. Had a hunch.
Looked like Hopkins is just tired, and jumped wrong, but it is a PK
Come on, Johnson
A night Jackson Hopkins will definitely want to forget.
We’re leaning on him a lot for impact, he’s taken a lot of hits in these games, and he was wiped about 12 minutes before. He didn’t mean that as a handball, but we need to be able to sub when the need it.
That’s game
I was wrong!
Peltola is our best player. 💯
That was unexpected…
A goal by…Peltola?
I’ll take whatever we can get….
Where’s Brendan, when we need him? Did Peltola just screw up his chance for most minutes played (by a non-goalie) for DCUnited without scoring a goal?
He was fourth on the leaderboard, and comes off in his 61st game. A very worthwhile showing, but not quite like Junior Moreno, who was in something like his 90th game when he first scored (and then promptly went on to score a bunch for Cincinnati).
Chris Korb holds the record with 121 games played for DC and never scoring. Brandon Prideaux is next at 116 games and notably no assists either. Joseph Mora is third at 97.
Kye Rowles is now the active leader at 35 games and no goals (sixth overall), and Brandon Servania is right behind him at 34.
Fortuitous deflection that didn’t take much off the velocity of the shot, but it’s still clutch for him to get that shot off at that critical juncture and have it end up on frame
I hope that’s just a cramp for Peglow.
Our offensive floor drops significantly without Peglow. Hope he can bounce back in the coming days
How is Murrell that slow?
What the heck is going on?
Potential handball for a Hail Mary ball going out of bounds when the player wasn’t even looking at the ball as it glanced off an arm, he’s just swinging it to run.
Would be a bad soccer call
But, it’s ours to take
Crafty play by
Baribo, Bartlett, I guess, with the push in the back, causing the defender to stumble and commit the handballThat’s some really wacky interpretation of the handball law wording that has no relation to the sport, the spirit or history of it.
When’s the last time DC got a call that bafflingly silly to get a result?
MLS is unhinged
That gets called against DC 100% of the time, so I’m good with it going our way for once
Darth Garber trying to Jedi mind trick us after the missed calls last week.
12 minutes of stoppage time
Kurokawa needed to succeed on that play, and did
Haven’t had a left back do that in an epoch
Is this apple crew particularly bad or is it me?
Devon Kerr was REALLY biased today
Blow the motherfucking whistle
LOL
Put this one in your scrap book, folks.
Ref forced our defense to clear the ball about 6 more times than they should have had to, but that’s a win.
Thank you, Peltola.
Dear Win Probability, That is why you play the game. Love Me
5th place! And can’t finish this weekend lower than 6th place.
Not a good team, but they have been in every game right up until the end.
This team keeps competing and I like that. I feel like they are like a piece or two away from being a solid playoff team.
I’d say the current squad allows us to (finally) add attacking depth and quality in a transfer window.
We can build on this eventually.
I suspect Louis Munteanu won’t last- and I’m suspicious of the nature of how he got here from that league, doesn’t feel soccer based- but we can use DP mechanics and figure out how to augment this.
The backline being made up of players competent enough to do their roles in conjunction is something we haven’t had.
Peltola is an all star if we have one.
Yeah Peltola has really settled in and now and has gotten better every season.
We have one week in the transfer window. Can we find a Louis replacement?
I imagine they might have to get him off the roster first, and he’s out for an indefinite period of time with a muscle injury, sounds like.
I would love if we managed to sell him in the summer. It would be for a loss, but that’s no skin of fans’ noses.
A win’s a win. Both teams can point to some annoying tickytacky calls that cost them goals in either direction. Probably a just result on the whole.
Peltola is everywhere and is doing a great job influencing the game. We need to be cleaner on the ball in general – better first touches, better crosses, better shots. Though Baribo has 3 goals now, he needs to be more generous when he’s not in the box. He had two guys in much better shooting positions but didn’t bother to make a pass and elected for a difficult shot on two occasions. Then he seemed to get mad at Pirani for taking a shot (a bad one, but from a great position) rather than passing to him? We definitely need more guys to score so that he trusts them when they call their own number.
We also need to be faster and not let teams reset after turnovers.