By definition, the Harkesy award goes to the United player who has demonstrated outstanding leadership ability. The award's namesake John Harkes is known as Captain For Life. Not only was he our team's first captain, but he was literally our team's first player.

1. United's captain this year is Jaime Moreno, and although Jaime is not the typical in-your-face Beckham style captain, I think he gets his point across. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Freddy award goes to the player who created the biggest story this year. Not necessarily as a distraction, but just a story that created a lot of buzz and got people talking about the team. The award's namesake Freddy Adu was easily the biggest story for MLS as a whole in the 2004 season. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Grosy Award goes to the player with the most cajones. In general, the nominees for this award are players who aren't afraid to play through injury and leave it all on the field. The award's namesake Josh Gros was famous for his work rate, and his career with DC United has seemingly ended way too soon, thanks to the numerous concussions he'd received throughout his time here. Click to continue reading...

No Namoff. No Peralta. No Olsen. No Fred. No Moreno. No Emilio. No matter.

Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup for tonight's match in San Jose. These are the men charged with bringing a result back to the Nation's Capital:

Louis Crayton; Gonzalo Martinez, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Mike Zaher; Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Rod Dyachenko, Marcelo Gallardo, Ivan Guerrero; and Francis Doe.

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Prior to D.C. United's victory over the Colorado Rapids I honestly predicted the final score to be, D.C. United 3 – Colorado 0. Now, it's true that I always predict that D.C. United will win 3-0, but for the first time since August 5th of last season I was correct. I owe it all to Quavas Kirk.

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With his one-time shoe-string shot to give the team a 1-0 lead, I could have sworn I was watching Benny Olsen. Or maybe Benny Feilhaber. But definitely somebody named Benny. Nope, it was Joe Vide. That goal really made me wish I was listening to Dave Johnson and Thomas Rongen do the broadcast. I could just hear Rongen saying his usual "Shoelaces. Click to continue reading...

Manchester City face a tough task to qualify for the UEFA Cup after a shock loss to FC Midtjyllandat.Danny Olsen goal scored the only goal of the game.Man City will have a tough time now........."Mark Hughes may still be getting used to life at his new club but he will understand now why Sir Alex Ferguson likes to refer to the City of Manchester Stadium as the "Temple of Doom".

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With the dark red and blue colors of Barcelona pouring out of my ears at this point, it is my pleasure to turn our attentions back to the MLS season and a huge upcoming rivalry game. The resurgent DC United is in town, looking to quell the hopes of their Red Bull rivals.

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Due to a limited budget, I haven't made it to too many United games this year, but this was a game that I feel was probably much better to watch in person than on tv. Good atmosphere at RFK as always (and the lights stayed on!), but it seemed like less attendance than usual. All in all, a pretty exciting game, including a frantic final 10 minutes that had my usually quiet section standing throughout. Click to continue reading...

Surrender.

I hate to say it, but some people are right, we're done with Superliga, regardless of the result of the Houston-Chivas match. Yes, I know there might be a mathematical chance, but we don't deserve to advance. Run up the flag, play the subs, we're done like a Five Guys burger. Sometimes you need to know when you're throwing good money after bad, and so it is with Superliga this year.

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Quick impressions from the SuperLiga opener at RFK Stadium, a 2-1 win for Chivas over D.C. United:

* Which team was in preseason? If you lined up all 22 players on the field for a sprint across the field, the Chivas players would probably come in first through 11th. They ran fast and played fast. Click to continue reading...

D calls me out again, this time for my Olsen - Rizzuto post below, which I think it was really his way of drawing attention to it. But it's what reader "Big C" wrote in the Comments that I have to respond to. He wrote:

...for other MLS fans throughout the country, it didn't feel like the playing field was exactly level.

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D calls me out again, this time for my Olsen - Rizzuto post below, which I think it was really his way of drawing attention to it. But it's what reader "Big C" wrote in the Comments that I have to respond to. He wrote:

...for other MLS fans throughout the country, it didn't feel like the playing field was exactly level.

Click to continue reading...

With United's Open Cup debut scheduled for tomorrow evening at the Maryland SoccerPlex, the coaching staff has some really interesting roster decisions to make. Last year, United took a Harrisburg Islanders squad way too lightly, and supposedly have learned their lesson. Even though the Rochester Rhinos are currently struggling in USL, DC should take this opportunity to earn a Champions League birth seriously. Click to continue reading...

After a couple of underwhelming victories the past few weeks, this win was just what United needed to not only continue their unbeaten streak, but also gain some confidence going into Superliga. Recently, United has been beating lesser opponents while giving up too many goalscoring opportunities. But in this match, against inarguably one of the most talented offensive teams in the league, DC dominated possession, dominated the scoreline, and performed admirably well on defense. Click to continue reading...

With the July 1st salary guarantee date looming just a week away, that is the question that we ask about two players: Jose Carvallo and Franco Niell. Both were brought to this country in the offseason that saw the additions of five new South American players. Three of those players (Gallardo and los Gonzalos) have earned regular roles in the starting XI. Click to continue reading...

I'm slowly starting to calm down enough to admit that that was a pretty exciting and fast-paced game. But for United it was again a tale of two very different halves. Or maybe I should say a tale of the first 30 minutes and the last 60 minutes. Preki made tactical changes at halftime that clearly worked. Click to continue reading...

Last night's match showed alot more than just how good Chicago is this season. It showed how United is really not that great even after the massive amounts of change was went through over the offseason. It also showed how poor a coach Tom Soehn is.

First things first, Chicago was the better club and deserved to win last night. Click to continue reading...

Ben Olsen gave an interview on Elliot in the Morning yesterday. Not quite as many juicy tidbits as Burch's interview, but still totally quality stuff:

On his ankles: "The right one turned out alright and the left one I had to go in again. And we're trying not to go in again, we're trying to look at other options, see what's going on. Click to continue reading...

Our boy Burchie gave an interview on the Junkies yesterday morning. Listen to it here (4/4, Segment 10) or download it here. For a transcript of Marc's previous interview with the Junkies, check out the Edgell archives.

Burch on Ben Olsen: "He could shave before he gets to practice and then by the time he leaves he's got a full grown beard. Click to continue reading...

On this the first actual week of DC United's 2008 campaign for international domination, we take a look at the probable starting lineup for the opening Champions' Cup match Wednesday against Harbour View.

Of the 11 starting roster slots, I think 10 are pretty much locked up, and the last 1 is only available due to the injury of our hero. Click to continue reading...