Saturday's D.C. United-Real Salt Lake matchup features the hottest team in Major League Soccer taking on a winless side languishing at the bottom of the standings, but several subplots make this a fascinating contest regardless of the sides' vastly differing fortunes at the moment.
D.C. was far and away the class of MLS for the first half of last season, racing out to a 13-1-6 record powered by a 14-game unbeaten streak that ran deep into the summer. Until a July 29 trip to Salt Lake City, in fact.
The Black-and-Red had grabbed a 1-0 first-half lead over struggling Real, and looked to be fully in control of proceedings until referee Abbey Okulaja awarded two very late penalty kicks that led to a dramatic 2-1 victory for the home side. In retrospect, United's seemingly unstoppable momentum came crashing to a halt that night at Rice-Eccles Stadium as the club sputtered down the stretch, going 2-6-4 in league play and never really recapturing their top form.
Having switched coaches and shuffled their roster in an attempt to resuscitate their 2007 campaign, RSL again find themselves flirting with crisis as D.C. comes to town - and United are aware of the parallels.
"Yeah, same situation," said midfielder Ben Olsen. "They were a bad team and we kind of let that one go - that's the understatement of the year. But that's on our minds. We remember that, we remember the feeling of letting that one slip away and hopefully we won't let that happen again."
Troy Perkins certainly remembers last year's luckless trip to Utah - it was his birthday. This time around, he's eager to see his teammates take their scoring chances with more ruthlessness and extinguish the hopes of a desperate RSL side featuring several former United standouts.
"That's a team you've got to finish off early, and when you do that, the rest can cure itself," said the D.C. goalkeeper. "Obviously they have a couple players that used to be with us. ... The fact that we're playing on turf and at altitude, we've got to take that into consideration as well."
RSL midfielder Freddy Adu's first match against his former team has been one of the more highly anticipated dates on the MLS calendar, but that occasion has been pushed off due to the U.S. youth international's participation in the FIFA Under-20 World Cup. Plenty of familiar faces remain, however: Nick Rimando and Alecko Eskandarian left D.C. in the offseason, while Eddie Pope and Carey Talley both began their long MLS careers in the nation's capital.
Rimando and Eskandarian will undoubtedly have extra motivation on Saturday. Rimando lost United's starting job to Perkins last season and struggled early this year before rebounding with a series of strong performances between the posts.
"Nicky just works his way through things," said Olsen, who performed Rimando's wedding ceremony in December 2005. "The guy is just such a hard worker. When things are down, he doesn't quit. He gets after the weights, and he wants more crosses, more shots. He's going to figure it out, and that's what he's done so many times. It was just a matter of time for him to get back to playing the way he plays."
A longtime United fan favorite, Eskandarian already scored against his old team last month while wearing the colors of Toronto FC After four years in D.C., the hard-charging striker has been unsettled by two trades in the last six months, but remains a livewire threat up top.
"Yeah, he's not happy about what's been going on with him in the past couple weeks, going from one place to another," said Perkins. "He's going to be up to his typical antics and we've got to be able to take advantage of that."
United head coach Tom Soehn is less concerned with RSL's record and the history between the teams, instead focusing on maintaining the good habits that enabled his squad to move past an early-season slump and set off on their ongoing seven-game unbeaten run.
"I think you guys worry about the past more than we do. For us, no matter what the team's record is, you have to go in and maintain what you're about," he said after Tuesday's training session. "We think it's a great opportunity to get three points and we've got to do the things that changed the streak and continue to do those things, and the results should take care of themselves."
Charles Boehm is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
