three games, three difficult opponents and obviously nine points," Preki said.
• Now sitting firmly in a playoff position, the D.C. United game is the second of five consecutive matches at The Home Depot Center. Of Chivas USA's final 11 matches, eight are home games.
• "We know we haven't been getting much respect from out in the soccer world. We haven't been mentioned in the discussions between the first and second place teams," said Bornstein. "It's all been Houston and Dallas. We've been coming up the charts. Now we're catching up in points because we're making up those games we had tucked away."
D.C. UNITED
D.C. United went to FC Dallas and came away with an impressive 4-0 victory, extending their winning streak to six games -- longest in MLS this season -- and giving them 42 points on the season. That pulled them level with the idle New England Revolution atop the Eastern Conference and the overall standings in the race for the MLS Supporters' Shield, but United also have a game in hand.
LAST MATCH
• D.C. United hadn't lost since July 22, a 1-0 defeat by the New York Red Bulls, while FC Dallas was returning to action after seeing their six-game unbeaten run put to an end by Houston two weeks previous.
• When the teams first met this season, D.C. United held a three-goal lead after 50 minutes at home before the Hoops came storming back to claim a share of a 3-3 draw. There would be no such comeback this time.
• It took Ben Olsen just four minutes to put United into the lead. Clyde Simms stepped in front of a clearance and headed to Olsen some 25 yards from goal, and he ripped a drive that beat Dario Sala inside the right-hand post.
• Olsen doubled United's lead in stoppage time just before the break. A Marc Burch cross found Luciano Emilio at the far post, and Sala covered his ground well to stop his point-blank effort. But Olsen was there to punch home the rebound for his second multiple-goal game on the season.
• United put the game away with two goals in the opening five minutes of the second half. In the 47th minute, a cross was half-cleared, only to Christian Gomez just outside the top of the area, and he lashed home a quick shot for the 3-0 lead.
• Then three minutes later Gomez found Fred on the left side of the area. The Brazilian skipped across the top of the box before driving home a low shot past Sala inside his left-hand post, sealing FCD's worst-ever defeat in their Frisco home.
• Here's Soehn's team (4-3-1-2): Troy Perkins - Bryan Namoff, Bobby Boswell, Greg Vanney, Marc Burch - Ben Olsen (Domenic Mediate 62), Clyde Simms, Fred - Christian Gomez (Rod Dyachenko 81) - Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio (Devon McTavish 51). Substitutes Not Used: Nicholas Addlery, Guy-Roland Kpene, Justin Moose, Jay Nolly
• "Sometimes when a team gets time off, it's hard to come back," Soehn said. "Dallas had a little time off and that took away from the crispness that they had. Sometimes it's a harder thing to overcome. We caught them on a day when they weren't that sharp."
TEAM NEWS
• It was the third consecutive game D.C. United has scored goals in the opening eight minutes of the match. Olsen scored the opener in the 3-1 win against New York after just six minutes of play, then Fred scored the only goal in the win away to Toronto FC in the eighth minute.
• "We have a habit lately of getting an early goal and it's a lot easier to play when you get one early," said Soehn. "We had a feeling they might be a little flat for having time off and made sure that in the first 15 minutes, we wanted to set the tempo of the game. I thought we did a good job of that."
• With the two goals, Olsen now has two multiple-goal games this season. He had a hat trick in a 4-2 win against the New York Red Bulls on July 10 at RFK Stadium.
• "Benny has added a lot of offense this year," Soehn said. "We put him back in the spot where he originally started and he understands how to play that role well. He catches a lot of defenders on the back side. The shots he takes and the chances he creates are from being a veteran."
• Olsen had scored the opener against New York on Aug. 22, but then sat out United's win against Toronto FC last weekend. He came off for Domenic Mediate in the 62nd minute. Like Olsen, Luciano Emilio did not play against TFC, also resting an injury. He started against FCD, but with the four-goal bulge, he wasn't given a chance to regain the MLS scoring lead on a night when New York's Juan Pablo Angel and Kansas City's Eddie Johnson each scored their 14th goals, tying the Brazilian.
• "He (Emilio) looked good," Soehn said. "Once we had the lead, it was important to save him for the next game. He had a bit of a muscle strain and we want to make sure we rest him. He trained all week and we were just being cautious."
• On their way to winning the Supporters' Shield a season ago, United had a season-high six-game winning streak, from June 21 to July 15. The club record is 11, set in 1999, which included three wins by shootout.
• "It feels really good to be playing like this," Burch said. "All over the field, people are finishing up front, people in the back are stopping goals and the midfield is keeping possession. Troy (Perkins) is keeping the ball out of the net and everything is going well right now."
• Said Soehn: "We're playing with a pretty good mentality right now whether we're home or away. We're moving the ball around and are pretty opportunistic. When we get our chances, we're dangerous and it's not just one guy. It's several guys."
