WASHINGTON — Although D.C. United are barely a third into the season, it’s already time for some revenge.
Saturday night’s meeting with the Colorado Rapids (7:30 pm ET, Direct Kick, MatchDay Live) offers a chance for DC to redeem themselves after what occurred back on April 3, when Ben Olsen’s squad traveled to Commerce City, Colo., and lost 4-1 against the defending MLS Cup champions.
Coming off a win and a tie last week, United can use this weekend’s game against the injury-decimated Rapids to show how far they’ve come in the month since the two teams last faced off.
“We took a beating over there, so I think it’s time for some revenge,” defender Dejan Jakovic said. “They have a few injuries but are not a team to take lightly.”
Colorado enter Saturday’s match with injury issues. The always-dangerous Omar Cummings is out, as is Caleb Folan, who tormented DC’s back line in April to the tune of two goals. However, striker Conor Casey is set to make a return to the Rapids lineup and will be a handful for a United defense that showed marked improvements last week.
“Anytime you lose like that, you always want to get back and show them that you can play,” said defender Perry Kitchen, who missed the April matchup because of Under-20 national team duty. “It’s definitely going to be a big game for us.”
The score line of the previous matchup did flatter the Rapids to an extent. After going down a goal early, DC’s Santino Quaranta grabbed a 71st-minute equalizer. But under a minute later, Colorado came right back down the field and regained the lead, opening the floodgates and tacking on two goals in the game’s last 10 minutes.
“They won 4-1 and you watch the game, it wasn’t a 4-1 game,” forward Josh Wolff said. “We got back into it, and the most difficult part was when we tied it up, we gave up a goal straight away again and that was something that happened in a game earlier as well.
“It’s certainly on our minds that we lost. [Saturday is] a game at home that we’ve got to get three points in.”
Think you know the game? Test your powers of prediction with MLSsoccer.com's fantasy game,Pro Soccer Picks. Play NOW!
