Tonight, DC United will come back home to RFK Stadium to face off against Toronto FC, who recently found success qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League group stages. DC won the first match earlier this season taking away a 3-0 result at BMO Field. However, TFC coach Aron Winter has made a slew of changes since then, which means that whatever form Toronto was in a few weeks ago means nothing now. This is almost a completely new team.
DC comes into this match with a dismal 2-3-5 record at home. Maybe the stadium is starting to have an effect on the team in a negative way. In their last eight matches in RFK, DC United is 0-4-4 with their last win coming against Seattle on May 2nd. This is arguably the biggest reason why DC is not near the top of the Eastern Conference table. They have four away wins which leads the Eastern Conference, yet they have only two home wins which is second to last in the conference. If DC is able to turn their home performance around, that will drastically change their season, and they have a good chance to do that in their next two matches vs. Toronto and Vancouver (who not only have struggled throughout the 2011 campaign but have also not won a single away match this season).
Despite their 2011 record though, Toronto FC is definitely not a team to take lightly. They are on a small hot streak at the moment after two 2-1 wins in the Champions League qualification round, and a large amount of recent signings, both international and domestic, makes this team unpredictable. We don’t exactly know if Winter has made this team better or worse, but while the team is still getting used to each other, DC needs to take advantage of the low chemistry.
DC United comes in with Dwayne De Rosario on a hot streak of his own after his brace last Saturday which earned him MLS Player of the Week honors. Chris Pontius and Andy Najar did well to set him up for each goal as well, yet DC will be without Najar for the Toronto match due to the red card he earned in the last match. Probably the biggest difference DC has seen this year is the defense. They started out young and inexperienced, but with Dejan Jakovic back from injury and Brandon McDonald having a stellar year since he was signed, DC’s defense has the looks of what it was in 2007. Maybe this older and more mature defense is what DC needs to begin a good home win-streak.
Some pre-match good news came into RFK Stadium this week as well. Devon McTavish and Santino Quaranta were able to participate in full training this week. McTavish has been out for the entirety of the season thus far after sustaining a concussion in preseason training, while Quaranta has not trained since May for the same thing. Also, starting forwards Charlie Davies and Josh Wolff have also returned to training. Davies has missed the last few matches with knee problems, and Wolff had a hamstring injury. All four players were thrilled to train again.
With all the players coming back from injury, DC finally has some depth to a roster that, not long ago, was very thin. With the exception of Najar, they have most of their big stars available and able to play against a team that is starting to gain talent but hasn’t played together a lot. I predict this match will be the first league win at RFK since May and will help get DC back on the right track.
(image courtesy of Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
