DC United announced that Francis Doe, who had been on trial with DC then signed with the club on April 22, has received his work permit. He will be available for Sunday’s match at Colorado.

Last season DC started the season at 0-3-1. After that start DC went on to go on a 13 game unbeaten streak. This season, before the match started, DC was in a similar spot at 1-3-0. After a classic DC United match, DC walked away with 3 points, the first time since playing Toronto FC on April 5.

Jaime Moreno added two more goals off of two penalty kicks to the all time leading goal scoring record. Santino Quaranta is making a statement after being with DC for a couple seasons then a couple of other teams then back to his stomping ground of DC. He scored another goal in this match to make the lead even bigger for DC. Finally DC United’s Designated Player, Marcello Gallardo, also scored again. He is fitting into the missing spot left by Christian Gomez.

What is next for DC? They travel away to take on Colorado. Could DC be settling into what they did last season and go on an unbeaten streak? They need to work as a team. It seems in the games that they fell apart in, they were not flowing in the game as a team. DC has the talent, some may say the best in the league, but if they can not find their flow, they fall apart quickly.

So it’s been a couple of days after this match. This was a good and bad match for United. There were some flaws in the play of the match. The backline once again seemed lost. Granted the altitude may have had an effect on the entire team,. We will see as they move on to take on Toronto FC Saturday as their home opener. There were some good signs on the offensive side of things. Fred seemed to try to get control on the offense and helped by Gallardo. Emilio seemed to be off in this match. There were a couple of good chances, but he was unable to finish. I think we will see a different United side since the stadium was 7,000+ feet about sea level. Hopefully Pachuca will seem off due to the the difference of elevation in the opposite direction.

In other news, Cezar, who has been training with United and was on loan from Atletico Minero, has been let go and will not be offered a contract from United. They did not hesitate in filling his spot. United acquired the rights to Toronto FC Superdraft choice Mike Zaher. He will train with the squad and work towards a roster spot.

On the Jaime Moreno front, after an interview with Steven Goff of the Washington Post, he said that he was hoping to see at least one half very soon, and Tony Soehn responded by saying that they are going to be careful not to push him too fast too quick.

Check out my Twitter page to see my updates throughout the game tonight against CF Pachuca. I will be posting new information as I hear about it leading up to kickoff and my thoughts of the game as it’s going on.

This has been a very busy time for United. The first game of the season and the first loss of the season came for United against the Kansas City Wizards at CommunityAmerica Park in Kansas City. We still did not see Olsen or Moreno play, though Moreno was on the bench for this match up. I have reason to believe we will see Moreno on the field, at least as a sub, for tonight’s matchup against Pachuca in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup. Due to the saving of minutes for the Kansas City match and the match tonight, I don’t feel like United played up to it’s potential. Granted there were some questionable no calls by the referee in the first half of the match. I noted that during the rebroadcast on Comcast Sportsnet that the head of referees was at the match and the ref may have been questioned after that showing. We will see how things go as United takes on Toronto on Saturday. On a side note, Toronto, even with thier loss, had between 2,000-2,500 fans travel to Columbus so it will be interesting to see how many they bring to RFK and the home opener.

I have to start by saying this was a very poor showing by the United reserve team. Here are the starting lineup for United.

DC United
12 GK Carvallo, Jose
5 D Kirk, Quavas
21 D Carroll, Pat
17 D Murphy, Dane
22 D Cordeiro, Ryan
36 M Barlow, Jeremy
15 M Dyachenko, Rod
16 M Stratford, Dan
8 M Moose,Justin
27 F Cezar
25 F Quaranta, Santino

United starting going downhill starting in the 2nd minute where Mike Burke put one in for the Kickers. Then in the 35th minute Kickers saw the back of the net again when Kelvin Jones hit a header from Ben Hunter. The Kickers last goal came from a Mike Burke penalty kick.

This was not a good match for this team. The team saw three cards. Dyachenko in the 52nd minute and Kirk in the 61st minute both saw yellow. In the 64th minute, Barlow saw an immediate red on a dangerous tackle form behind. Richmond only saw one yellow card in the 72nd minute for Luke Vercollone.

The team as a whole looked very lost. They did not have any kind of play maker on the field until the 67th minute when Clyde Simms came on the field for United. Simms is a former Kickers player, but I feel as though he came on too late for United.

I would have liked to have seen the first team take on the Kickers. I feel as though the result would have been much different. I was kind upset that the only first team players that played were Santino Quaranta, Rod Dyachenko, and Clyde Simms. I know that since this was an exhibition they didn’t want to risk any injuries, but no one traveled with this team. As long as this is not a true example of all of the reserve players, then our team is going to be just fine.

This has been a tight game every time these two teams meet. Saturday, DC United will play it’s last pre-season match up before the first kick of the 2008 MLS season when they take on the Kansas City Wizards, Saturday, March 29 at 8pm EST. DC pulled off a huge win in their last outing beating Harbour View FC 5-0 in the CONCACAF Champions Cup First Round.

First off, be prepared to watch the bench play this one. Even though this is a good match up and DC’s last before the start of the season, they will give the bench a lot of playing time in this one to avoid injuries. Here is my take on watch we should expect.

Clyde Simms will be heavily watched by both DC and Richmond. Simms is a former Kickers player and will see significant playing time in this one. He has been working well in the center of the field and will help to move the ball up the field for United.

I am curious to see if Wells will be in goal for this one or if we are going to see the debut of Jose Carvallo. I have feeling Caravallo will get the start seeing as Wells has sealed his place as starting keeper for United.

This could be a good match for Franco Niell to get some good workouts against American opponents. Since he is much shorter than most players in the MLS (he stands at 5′4″ tall), this will gave he a good idea what he is up against. I think a lot of people will be impressed with this guy.

Kickoff is at 7pm EST for this one. I will have my post game notes sometime after the end of the match.

DC United will face the Mexican club Pachuca CF in the semi finals of the CONCACAF Champions Cup.

The first leg of the competition will take place on Tuesday, April 1 in Mexico and the second leg will take place Wednesday, April 9 at RFK Stadium. I will post times and television information as I find out.

Just a reminder, DC United will be taking on the Richmond Kickers of USL on Saturday, March 22 at 7pm. Be watching for my pre game notes prior to the kickoff!

All I can say to start this one off is “WOW!” United took this leg 5-0 and 6-1 aggregate. This was very impressive playing by the entire United squad. It is good to see the chemistry starting to build with this new squad, even with the start of the MLS season still 2 weeks away. Here are a few notes I have based off of this match.

Devon McTavish is starting to make a statement with this team. He had one goal in each half of this match. He was also attacking the goal as much as possible, especially with a hard hit with the HVFC goalkeeper Miller. With this kind of play, he is starting to  take on the missing role of Josh Gros and the temporarily missing Ben Olsen.

Marcello Gallardo did what I said. He started to become the playmaker he was brought in to be. He had the assist with the first McTavish goal. Granted he did come off in the 72nd minute without a goal, I think he showed that he has come to play.

Fred has broken into the role of playmaker and goal scorer.  Not only was he able to put one goal into the back of the net and have an assist on an Emilio goal. Not only was he playing strong offense, you could find Fred dropping back and helping in the defensive back line. It’s good to see him being able to switch roles so quickly.

Santino Quaranta made an immediate impact with an early shot that resulted in the goal by Emilio off the reflection to assisting in the second goal scored by McTavish. It was good to see that evne though he had short stints with other teams that he could come into this match and begin making the plays that are necessary for United’s success.

I think that one of the biggest factors for United’s success is the difference in playing pitch between this and the pitch they played on in Jamaica. The pitched used by Harbour View is in midseason and was torn up due to the play it has seen. The pitch at RFK Stadium is freshly put down after the changes made with the departure of the Washington Nationals. I think United players, team, staff, and fans are all happy to see the baseball field almost completely gone (expect for a few emblems and the dugout). United and other away teams are now going to be happy to play at RFK once again without having to deal with the dreaded infield from the baseball field.

DC United will now move on in the next leg of the CONCACAF Champions Cup to take on the winner of the Pachuca CF vs CD Motagua matchup, which is tomorrow at 9pm EST, sometime between April 1-3. These two teams are currently tied on aggregate going into this match up 0-0.

United’s next match is Saturday, March 22 as they travel to Richmond, VA to take on the Richmond Kickers of the USL in an exhibition matchup and their last preseason match before the start of the MLS season. Kickoff is at 7pm EST.

This is DC’s chance to win this one. Since the away goal rule is not in effect, they will not be able to use that to their advantage. Luckily this leg will be taking place at RFK Stadium, without the Nationals field being a problem. Here is my pre-game thoughts as to what DC United needs to focus on in order to walk away with a W.

DC is going to have to find a way to win this one with out their captain. Jamie Moreno is slated to be out 2-4 weeks due to a hamstring injury that he received during the first leg against Harbour View. The question will be who will have the starting position? I see Neill getting more playing time since he took Jamie’s spot after the injury in the last match. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Rod Dyachenko or even Santino Quaranta, who has resigned with the club in the offseason.

Marcelo Gallardo needs to step up into his role as DC’s Designated Player and the shoes of the recently departed Christian Gomez. At times during the first leg, we saw that he could start to set up plays and took control of the kicks that were set aside for Gomez. I would say that if scored a goal in this match he would be set in his ways.

Will Benny be ready? If not, will McTavish be able to fill his role for a second straight match? It would be nice to see Olsen in for at least part of this match, maybe just 45 minutes, though nursing the ankle may keep him out until the start of the MLS season at Kansas City.

WATCH THE BACK LINE! Even with the new Gonzalo duo in the center postions of Martinez and Peralta, DC needs to avoid letting HVFC getting those easy runs past the back line. On Wednesday, it seemed as though they were making those runs look so easy against this new back line of DC.

Also, how will Harbour View be effected with their visa issues? 2 players, Kameel Wolfe and Rafiek Thomas, an equipment manager, and their chef all were denied visas into the country after an interview process with American officials. I am thinking that this may greatly effect the flow of the game for Harbour View.

Remember, if this leg remains a draw at the end of regulation, we will go into two 15 minute halfs. No golden goal or silver goal rules apply. After this time, if no one has won it is off to penalty kicks to decide this one.