Preview: DC United vs. Columbus Crew
- By Joseph Schoenbauer Sat, May 07, 2005
Background
Just under a month ago DC United and the Columbus Crew squared off in Columbus for the first time this season. At the time, DC United was still reeling from their hugely disappointing performance against Pumas UNAM in Mexico while Columbus was coming off a somewhat equally disappointing 3-0 defeat in league play to the New England Revolution. On the night, Columbus managed to come away with a 1-0 victory courtesy of an early goal from Edson Buddle. Despite resting many key players for the game, DC United still managed to create the better chances, especially after Moreno, Gomez and Eskandarian all came on as second half subs, and were unfortunate to not come away with at least a draw. Emotions ran high throughout the game for several of the DC United youngsters, including Freddy Adu, who was involved in a shoving match with Frankie Hejduk after a foul in favor of Adu was called in which Hejduk thought Adu fell over a little too easy.
Form
After winning their opening league game against CD Chivas USA, DC United has not won since. Including their 2nd leg against Pumas UNAM, they have lost 3 times and tied 2 in 5 games. Of the meager 4 goals they have managed to score during this period, only Santino Quaranta's goal against New England has come from open play.
Since Columbus's defeat of DC United, they have lost to Colorado 2-0 and to Chicago 2-0. In both games their potentially lethal offensive trio of Edson Buddle, Ante Razov and Kyle Martino failed to live up to their high standards. Against Chicago, their defense was run ragged by an inspired performance from ex-DC United winger Justin Mapp, who bagged the decisive goal in the 14th minute.
Team News
DC United has been dealing with several key injuries from the beginning of the season. Bryan Namoff and Dema Kovalenko are still out, while Steve Guppy and David Stokes are still recovering as well from their recent setbacks. However, Brandon Prideaux has shaken off his hamstring problem and Alecko Eskandarian looks to be recovered from his thigh strain, meaning he could lineup alongside Jaime Moreno from the beginning. If Coach Nowak feels Eskandarian is not fit enough to play the full 90 minutes, Santino Quaranta will most likely keep his place up top in the starting 11. With Eskandarian in the lineup, Quaranta could fill in for the injured Guppy in midfield. The other option would be to slide Ben Olsen out to the right and have Clyde Simms partner Brian Carroll in the center of midfield, which is how they played against Kansas City last week.
Columbus Crew has been busy in recent weeks signing new players and getting them involved in the team. The speedy Cornell Glenn saw his first action as a second half substitute last week after being acquired from FC Dallas. Luis Gallardo, an 18-year old Panamanian U-20 International has also just been signed. Perhaps their biggest acquisition will be Guatemalan International Mario Rodriguez, who will look to slot directly in to the right midfield role, pushing Frankie Hejduk back to right back. Both David Testo, who had been starting at left midfield, and Stephen Herdsman are out for this game while steady midfielder Ross Paule is unfortunately out for the season after failing to recover correctly from his most recent concussion.
Key Players
Alecko Eskandarian is having a tough season to date. He has failed to score or assist in the League this season and has been guilty of missing some easy chances as well. After recovering from a thigh sprain suffered against New England, Alecko will be looking to get his season on track, and to get DC United's season going along with it.
After failing to score in their last two games, the Columbus Crew will be looking to Mario Rodriguez for some offensive spark. He is yet to get his feet wet in MLS and a few good early performances will allow him to settle into a Columbus Crew side who has never had a history of scoring lots of goals.
Starting 11's
Columbus Crew: (3-5-2) Busch; Hejduk, Fraser, Marshall; Rodriguez, Szetela, Elliott, Wingert, Martino; Buddle, Razov
DC United: (3-5-2) Rimando; Prideaux, Boswell, Petke; Quaranta, Olsen, Carroll, Gros, Gomez; Moreno, Eskandarian
Prediction
A team of DC United's quality rarely struggles to find the back of the net on a regular basis for this stretch of time. With their supporters cheering them on, they should be able to create enough chances to put one or two away against Columbus and get back to winning ways. DC United 2-1