Vacations are great. It is a time to relax, take care of the little things at the house, and get caught up on some of those books that you tell your friends you have already read. But even on vacation a person’s attention will still be on their job and what is about to come next.
That has been the mindset for D.C. United (10-6-5, 35 points) over these past two weeks. With the club’s July siesta over with they turn their attention back to Major League Soccer and their opponents on Saturday night, F.C. Dallas (9-5-5, 32 points). The match will be played at Toyota Park in Frisco, Texas at 9pm EST and will be shown live on COMCAST Sportsnet in the DMV, TX-AR 5 in Dallas and MLSLive everywhere else.
FC Dallas ends up short against DC United in ATX Pro Challenge.
Photo Credit: FC Dallas
While the team may have been in action on the pitch for the past two weeks, the club was quite busy. Of course the big news this week was that the club had acquired Alvaro Saborio from Real Salt Lake in exchange for Luis Silva. While this is a move that will certainly benefit United for the remainder of the season Saborio will be unavailable for this match due to Costa Rica in the Gold Cup. Without Saborio, Silva, and Fabian Espindola (who is suspended after receiving a red card in their last match against Seattle Sounders FC) D.C. United coach Ben Olsen will likely go with the pair of Conor Doyle and Jairo Arrieta up top with Chris Rolfe as the left midfielder.
The other major news for United as it pertains to this match is that the club will also be without goalkeeper Bill Hamid. Hamid had wrist and knee surgery this past week and will be out for the next 4-6 weeks. Hamid had already missed the past two matches and was replaced by backup goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra.
Losing Hamid will hurt against a high-scoring offense like F.C. Dallas. Although they will still be without Blas Perez due to international duty with Panama, Dallas will welcome back forward Tesho Akindele ( 2 goals in 2015) and defender Moises Hernandez after their respective national teams exited the Gold Cup. FC Dallas coach Oscar Pareja likes to operate out of a 4-4-2 with midfielders Mauro Diaz (4 goals) and Fabian Castillo (7 goals) using their pace to break open defenses. With the Dallas offense finally clicking (they have outscored their opponents 7-0 during the last three games) Akindele is coming in at the perfect time to up his goal load.
If United are to get three points out of this match then Taylor Kemp and Chris Korb will need to sit back some and focus on the Dallas counter-attack. There is perhaps no faster player in the league than Castillo and Diaz is really effective right now in placing balls into space for him. If the outside backs can mark him carefully it will force Dallas to the center of the pitch and against United’s strength in center-backs Bobby Boswell and Steve Birnbaum and defensive-midfielder Perry Kitchen.
With F.C Dallas having won three consecutive matches and having not lost to United at home since 2007 it would seem to have the advantage. But given that Hernandez is not certain to start and the club is still without Watson due to the Gold Cup duty United will have their opportunities. With Saborio coming in, it may be the final opportunity for players like Doyle and Arrieta to show that they can be consistent contributors.
DC United
