WASHINGTON – During D.C. United’s Friday morning training session, news broke that Saturday’s game against Portland was going to be postponed because of the threat of Hurricane Irene.
And it wasn’t a happy development for the home side.
Looking to rebound after back-to-back rough performances on the road, DC now must wait two more weeks to play again after Saturday’s game against Portland was postponed to a still-undetermined date.
“We were looking forward to the game, especially after the past two games we’ve had. It’s a bit of a bummer,” midfielder Chris Pontius said. “Maybe now’s the time we can get some legs back and get some people healthy.”
The rescheduled date for the game is expected to be announced next week.
After a disappointing road swing last weekend – the team managed just a single point from trips to Chicago last Thursday and Kansas City on Sunday – DC were fired up to try and right some of those wrongs in front of a home crowd.
However, the chance to play Saturday was already under threat because of the expected arrival of Hurricane Irene in the DC area starting early Saturday. Late Thursday, the kickoff time was bumped up from 7:30 pm to 2:00 pm in hopes of getting the game in.
But by mid-morning, news that the game was going to be moved came down.
“You could definitely tell some guys were upset,” goalkeeper Bill Hamid said. “Guys wanted to get out there and get three points in the bag.”
There is a silver lining to the situation, however, as DC now have two weekends off to rest and prepare for the grind of 10 more games as they battle to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
Instead of playing, the team will train on Saturday before the normal day off on Sunday, and then they’ll follow the schedule as previously planned. It will impact Tuesday’s reserve match up in Toronto, as some first teamers will travel to get some playing time.
“We’ll probably see some starters in that team rather than just an entire reserve crew like normal just to get some guys some minutes that need some up there,” assistant coach Chad Ashton said.
Travis Clark covers D.C. United, College and Youth soccer for MLSsoccer.com. Follow him on Twitter: @travismclark.
