WASHINGTON -- There aren't likely to be any meaningless matches for D.C. United as the season's stretch run unfolds in the coming weeks, but the hectic span beginning with Sunday afternoon's contest at New York and concluding with Tuesday night's U.S. Open Cup semifinal against the New England Revolution presents a particularly demanding challenge for Tom Soehn and his troops.
Thanks to CONCACAF Champions' Cup participation, D.C. endured its share of schedule congestion early in the campaign, but the more grizzled members of the squad have appreciated a more measured routine lately and this week those veteran legs will once again have to come to grips with a compressed recovery time.
"You know, I was getting used to just having one game per week," joked United defender Bryan Namoff. "But unfortunately we're going to be right into that with Sunday-Tuesday, so it's going to be critical to really have the depth in our team, especially trying to play 48 hours after Sunday's match."
Points are at a premium in this year's competitive Eastern Conference race and neither United nor the Red Bulls can easily afford to drop points to their Atlantic Cup rivals at this stage. But deep runs in knockout tournaments are hard to come by as well, and D.C. is desperate to move closer to the Open Cup final and the hardware it offers, especially when doing so means knocking off New England, Major League Soccer's dominant side this year.
"It's a such a difficult decision -- on which game you place more importance on right now," said Namoff. "It is a conference game and with our Eastern Conference [teams] being so close to one another in the standings, it's crucial we're able to get that victory, especially being on the road. And not only that, just taking a long time to get to an Open Cup semifinal game -- both games are almost equally important."
Those decisions further complicate the balancing act required of Soehn this week: hunting for a positive result at the Meadowlands while keeping his first-choice side fresh for New England's visit. Little surprise, then, that the Black-and-Red are fervently hoping for a strong start in Sunday's clash.
"Yeah, it's going to be tough to handle that," said United defender Devon McTavish. "It's an important game in New York and we need to get a result in that, and keep moving up the table, and the Open Cup game is just as important. So we're trying to get to the final of the Open Cup and hopefully we'll be able to do that. In terms of managing the game, that's going to be up to Tommy, and hopefully we can get an early goal to try to control the game up in New York."
Despite some hard times this summer, a raft of recent foreign signings and the return of Juan Pablo Angel offer New York cause for optimism against their old rivals from the capital city, and will be mindful of United's 4-1 blowout win at RFK in their first meeting on June 14. Joe Vide is one member of the Black-and-Red who's particularly eager to make his mark on Sunday, having begun his career in New York before leaving for San Jose via the expansion draft, eventually making his way to D.C. via waivers last month.
"I can't wait. It'll be a little different -- when I was in New York you're supposed to hate D.C., and now it's vice versa," said Vide, who performed well in his first United start last week, a 2-0 win against the Kansas City Wizards. "But I'm definitely looking forward to going back. The fans up there were always great to me. We're going to go up there and try to get a winning streak going and help ourselves move up the standings."
Marc Burch's red card in the Open Cup quarterfinal against Chicago means he'll be given a full 90 minutes on the Giants Stadium FieldTurf this weekend. But another limitation on Soehn's calculations has just been lifted, as the U.S. Soccer Federation handed United a pleasant surprise with news about Vide and Ivan Guerrero, originally thought to be cup-tied by their involvement in San Jose's unsuccessful play-in match against Real Salt Lake on April 30. But the play-in match has been deemed to be distinct from actual tournament play, so both are in fact eligible to play against New England.
Questions linger about the extent to which important players like Marcelo Gallardo, Gonzalo Peralta and Santino Quaranta will figure into this week's action as they recover from injury. As they heal, Soehn will soon be able to call upon a much longer list of talent, but then the issue of fitness and recovery rises to the surface as he works the returnees back up to full speed.
"There's some easy ones. Marc Burch is going to play a lot of minutes [against New York] because he can't play in the Open Cup game," said Soehn last week. "But we're getting some guys back. I joked around that there was a herd of guys running around the field getting healthy [during training]. But it's nice to see that we're making progress on some of those guys and it will give us a few options. Obviously we'll have to be careful not to rush them back. Their fitness is going to struggle. Some of our young guys now have gained some valuable experience for situations just like this."
Meanwhile, the red-hot Revs have lost just one match in all competitions since May 3 and will enter RFK Stadium full of confidence. Given the typically tight nature of cup semifinals, the team that scores first figures to have a tremendous advantage -- something that has been crucial for United all season, in fact. The Black-and-Red have lost just one match all year in which they grabbed the game's opening goal.
"When the team scores first here, we start to play very strong," acknowledged D.C. striker Luciano Emilio. "It's very important that the team, when we play at home, we need to score first."
So for United, the task is clear: three days, two huge matches, and no room for slow starts or hiccups.
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