The first not-quite-third of the season ends tonight for D.C. United (3-4-2), which hosts Colorado (4-3-2) in its tenth league match of the year. A two-week break follows – can’t forget about next Sunday’s friendly against Ajax, of course – and United would certainly like its vacation, of sorts, to be a pleasant one.
Oh, and the Rapids thumped D.C. the last time the teams met in the third week of the season.
“Revenge factor, and if you look at the standings, this game can bump us up in the East,” United midfielder Chris Pontius said. “You always have the revenge factor that they beat us, 4-1, at their place. But for me, it’s a very important game because we have this game and then a break in league play, and it’d be nice to go into that break sitting pretty high up in the East.”
With that in mind, United will go to back to essentially its strongest starting lineup – Bill Hamid, Perry Kitchen, Ethan White, Dejan Jakovic, Daniel Woolard, Andy Najar, Clyde Simms, Dax McCarty, Pontius, Josh Wolff, Charlie Davies.
With much of tonight’s build-up centering on Davies and his audition for a return to the U.S. national team, here’s a leftover from his visit with the media yesterday. I asked Davies about what it’s like to be back in the U.S., where he’s known so well and idolized so much, as compared to his experience in Europe. As it turns out, for Davies it isn’t a dramatic change.
“The only difference for me is being able to go to a movie theater, I’d say, which I’m extremely happy about because I love movies,” he said, “But I’d say that’s the only difference, than and being closer to friends and family. But other than that, it’s still the same stuff.”
A couple other notes:
*Hey, the game is on TV. Comcast SportsNet, Tony Limarzi on the call with Thomas Rongen.
*D.C. United announced that it will partner with Ajax and the Dutch Embassy to hold a soccer clinic on May 20 in conjunction with next weekend’s friendly against the famous Dutch club. Of course, the biggest celebrity will be an American, former U.S. national team star John O’Brien, who spent part of his career with Ajax. Current Ajax and Dutch national team members Maarten Stekelenburg, Gregory van der Wiel and Demy de Zeeuw will also participate. Want to see Ajax before they arrive? They have a pretty big match on Sunday.
*Prior to tonight’s game, the Virginia-D.C. Soccer Hall of Fame is set to honor new inductees Thomas Rongen, Dennis Viollet, Keith Tabatznik, Jill Ellis, Julie Shackford, Rob Ukrop, Bill Willis and Jeff Skigen.
