D.C. United’s full schedule for the 2011 season was unveiled Thursday amid news that the team will start the year without one of its top two goalkeepers.
Steve Cronin, who was acquired from expansion Portland in a December trade that sent goalkeeper Troy Perkins to the Timbers, will miss the next 8-10 weeks after suffering a broken wrist during United’s preseason training session in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Wednesday.
Cronin was expected to compete for the starting job with D.C.’s other top keeper, Bill Hamid, who has yet to complete his rehabilitation from shoulder surgery last fall. Hamid is expected to play his first matches since surgery when the team participates in the Carolina Challenge Cup in Charleston, S.C., at the beginning of March.
United also has Chase Harrison, who joined as the team’s third goalkeeper last season, and recent draft pick Joe Willis. General manager Dave Kasper said the team does not have immediate plans to find a replacement for Cronin.
Midfielder Junior Carreiro also is expected to miss the next 4-6 weeks after spraining his left ankle in D.C.’s 4-0 preseason win over Florida International on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the team brought trialist Charlie Davies from Florida to Washington on Thursday for medical testing and evaluation. Davies was expected to rejoin the team Friday.
“I think by early next week we’ll have a final decision,” Kasper said of Davies.
As for the schedule, United will visit the first of two MLS expansion teams when it plays at the Timbers on May 29. Both the Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps will visit Washington in August. D.C. will play the first of three nationally-televised games on ESPN2 when it hosts New York on Apr. 21.
United’s toughest stretch of the season includes three trips out West during a four-week span in late May and early-to-mid June, and a two-day turnaround after an Oct. 12 visit to Vancouver before hosting Chicago on Oct. 15.
Major League Soccer, which was criticized for the release of its full schedule just over a month before the regular season starts, has not scheduled games on Aug. 10, Sept. 3-4, and Oct. 8-9, which are FIFA World Cup qualifying fixture dates.
A record nine MLS games are scheduled for Saturday, March 26 — the most on one day in league history, and the only time in 2011 that all 18 clubs are in action on the same day.
