losses to New England (0-2) and D.C. (3-4) -- Djorkaeff was slowed by injury. "Guevara played very well," coach Bruce Arena said after the season-ending win. "His ability to hold the ball, passing, combining that with Youri makes us a little different because we certainly have not been the best passing team. We have difficulty keeping the ball." ... In addition to the two losses and two draws in league play, United knocked New York out of the U.S. Open Cup in a 3-1 quarterfinal victory. "I don't know why we struggle against them," John Wolyniec said. "The last couple of times we played well for stretches and we showed we can play with them. Maybe we didn't get the results we wanted, but the playoffs are a different story. If we can get a win Saturday, that would set us up huge going into D.C." ... The Red Bulls have had three coaches this season, Mo Johnston starting before Richie Williams took over on an interim basis June 27, until Arena took charge after the All-Star break. "It's been a crazy year. When you have a lot of changes, it's tough to find your identity as a team, and with Bruce coming in, he didn't make wholesale changes right off the bat, but he's been slowly changing and building toward something that he wants," Wolyniec said. "Two more weeks is two more weeks for him to make the changes that he wants and for us to come together as a unit." ... Over New York's final seven games, only Amado Guevara (five goals, three on penalty kicks) and Jozy Altidore have scored goals. However, Arena said he wasn't concerned. "You don't concern yourself with that," he said to the Daily News. "You concern yourself with results. It's all about trying to win the game Saturday. I could care less who scores the goals. If one of those two guys again scores I would not be that depressed."
UNITED UPDATE: Striker Alecko Eskandarian could be ready to return to the United starting lineup for the first time since Sept. 3. Suffering from hamstring tendonitis, he missed five games before making reserve appearances in the final two contests of the year, including a 45-minute stint last weekend. "I think he's ready to play," United head coach Peter Nowak said to The Washington Post. "Esky brings a lot of emotions and a lot of energy to our game. This is so important in this stretch." Said Eskandarian: "I'm ready to play 90 minutes. I was kind of upset that I didn't get to start this last game and just play as much as I could until I burned out. I wanted to get a good game in and work on my fitness. But even the 45 minutes I was in there, I felt fine and felt like I could've gone another 45." ... His addition to the United attack could be a vital touch. Two of the club's three shutouts on the season came in the last five games, and since the All-Star break, United have scored 14 goals in 10 games, but only one player has scored more than one -- Christian Gomez (who scored seven). The others have come from Jaime Moreno, Freddy Adu, Matias Donnet, Josh Gros, Facundo Erpen -- and two own goals. "I feel like we're playing almost too slow sometimes, where we are just going side to side in the midfield instead of looking at our forwards' runs and slipping a through ball or even hitting a long ball," Eskandarian said to the Post. "We're a great team in terms of combinations, but we can mix it up more. It's taking too long to get into the attack, and defenses are outnumbering us and just waiting for us." ... While Gomez has shown MVP form, Moreno's goal vs. New York on Sept. 23 was his only one since the All-Star break. "We have enough creativity in this team," said Nowak. "[If we] just rely on Jaime and Christian that they're going to provide this thing, then of course they will. The rest of the team must know what their roles are and must know the jobs they have to do."
