DC enter Saturday’s game against the Portland Timbers riding a three game winning steak, while Portland dropped their last game 2-1 to Real Salt Lake. The end of the MLS season is full of injury reports as DC’s best player, Dwyane De Rosario is out for the season, as is the Portland Timbers prolific striker Kris Boyd. Kris Boyd who leads the Timbers with 7 goals this season, is likely to be out for the rest of the season (4-6 weeks) after he suffered a groin injury a few games ago. Eric Alexander looks to orchestrate attacks for Portland with his team leading 6 assists, while goalkeeper Troy Perkins looks to keep DC off the score-sheet.
The Liberian midfielder, Darlington Nagbe looks to keep his scoring touch as he currently has 6 goals for Portland, and has started in 27 of Portland’s 29 games this season as he plays alongside Jack Jewsbury in the midfield. United’s Perry Kitchen as well as the entire back line should have a much tougher time breaking down the experienced midfielders as well as the work horse of Bright Dike up top looking to get on the scoresheet against DC. On the flip side, DC’s offensive pressure of Pontius, Boskovic, DeLeon and now Saragosa look to link up with either Pajoy or Maicon Santos up top. Just like DC’s center back, Brandon McDonald, Portland have their own reliable, solid defender of Hanyer Mosquera who not only is active on the defensive end, but also is known to get forward on counter attacks.
DC must pick up points on the road as DC enter a two game road trip against Portland and Toronto. Portland is never easy to travel to however, as not only is Portland on the other side of the country, but their fans are rambunctious and the atmosphere is always electric. DC have struggled on the road this season, sporting a lowly 3-9-1 record, however this is a new team at the conclusion of the season. United are much more confident in their abilities and this can be seen through Perry Kitchen pressing forward involving himself in the attack, Andy Najar running relentlessly down the flanks, and Boskovic doing whatever he is called upon to do. At the moment, it seems as if DC have almost picked up their tempo of play without De Rosario because of his absence. The DC teammates have a mutual understanding that their only way to win is as a unit, in defense and offense, and this sure helps with Bill Hamid coming off back to back clean sheets. Midweek, DC coach, Ben Olsen was quoted as saying “I think the guys have all raised their game a little bit” after their 1-0 victory over Chivas USA.
If United want to continue their recent success into Saturday nights game, Chris Pontius their interim captain, needs to become more involved. Having just signed a new contract a few weeks back and given the responsibility of captaincy, he needs to find himself more centralized distributing the ball out wide to DeLeon and to his support cast. Pontius will be in charge of keeping possession throughout the game and more clinical in front of goal, and his leadership hopefully will escalate as well. Sure, DC need to improve on the quality of their crosses into the box and management at the ends of games but there have been far many more positives. For instance, Boskovic seems to have a fire ignited within him to prove to Ben Olsen he is 90 minutes ready and can do whatever it takes to help his team out with his lone goal on Sunday night. Yes, DC have won three straight but there has certainly been no blow-outs of their competition. What it comes down to as Olsen said perfectly is that “We’ve put ourselves in a pretty good position but now we have to go away for two games and that has been our Achilles heel”. These next two games contain immense implications for DC’s playoff hopes, and a win Saturday night in Portland would sure lead them further in the right direction.
(image courtesy of Getty Images)
