If you look at D.C. United’s Twitter feed from Saturday, you’ll find that 12 minutes after the team happily announced a first-choice starting lineup for the first time during preseason, its preseason finale against Columbus at the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, S.C., was cancelled due to weather.
In order to get that group – Bill Hamid, Daniel Woolard, Dejan Jakovic, Brandon McDonald, Robbie Russell; Chris Pontius, Perry Kitchen, Branko Boskovic, Andy Najar; Dwayne De Rosario and Hamdi Salihi – on the field for valuable playing time together, the team was scheduled to have a closed-door scrimmage later Monday following its kickoff luncheon at the Wardman Park Marriott.
At that luncheon, the team celebrated its continued off-the-field work in the community and introduced its players for this season.
The first one? Rookie supplemental draft pick Lance Rozeboom, making his addition to the roster all but official, even if he wasn’t wearing a suit jacket like the rest of his teammates. D.C. United general manager Dave Kasper said the team also expects to announce one more signing before the end of the week. Trialist Ryan Richter remains in contention. In response to the quirky nature of the D.C. roster with respect to the MLS roster rules, Kasper said the team will likely have seven players on its off-budget roster – which should mean they’ll start with the minimum of 18 on the salary cap portion.
United also announced its local TV schedule with Comcast SportsNet, with 15 games on its initial broadcast schedule, 16 if the home game against Montreal on April 18 is included – particulars of that broadcast have not been determined yet. Saturday’s season-opener will be on CSN+ while the Wizards are on CSN.
D.C. United is scheduled to appear on the NBC Sports Network five times, ESPN twice and Galavision twice. But even though many open dates remain on the TV schedule, only two or three matches won’t be available to see at all. It’s worth pointing out that United has a partnership with Comcast where both contribute to production costs. Other teams may have more expansive TV offerings, but they also pay for them in their entirety.
Also, John Harkes is back in the booth after spending the last five years with ESPN – replacing Thomas Rongen, who took over as academy director for Toronto FC – but on Saturday he won’t be with Dave Johnson, who is entering his 17th year as United’s play-by-play voice since Johnson still has Wizards radio duties. Oh, and games again will be called this year from the Comcast studio in Bethesda, not on site.
D.C. renewed its live Spanish coverage on WDCN 87.7 FM and at www.lanueva877.com.
