U.S. Open Cup all that remains for lowly D.C.
The Major League Soccer regular season doesn’t officially end until October, and the playoffs last until nearly Thanksgiving.
But D.C. United’s entire year is on the line in Wednesday night’s U.S. Open Cup semifinal. All but assured of missing the MLS postseason, United has turned its attention almost entirely toward its only chance of salvaging a measure of dignity from an awful season.
“We need to win,” United defender Marc Burch said. “Everybody in the club has said that we have to win this game. We have to get to the final, and hopefully win the final also.”
But to get to the championship for a third straight season — D.C. won the nation’s oldest knockout competition in 2008 and lost at home in the final to Seattle last year — United must go through the Columbus Crew, who sit comfortably atop the MLS Eastern Conference with three times as many victories as last-place D.C. in league play. The teams also meet again on Saturday as part of their regular-season slate.
While Columbus played a full strength lineup last weekend, D.C. interim head coach Ben Olsen held back a host of his regular starters on Sunday against Chivas USA in Los Angeles in order to preserve them for the Open Cup. Forward Danny Allsopp (stomach illness) should be available as should Chris Pontius, who saw a short stint as a substitute last weekend after missing the previous match due an ongoing hamstring problem.
“This will give us a chance, if we can get past this game, to get some silverware out of the season,” Allsopp said. “It’s something that we can play for as well as try to improve in the league and do well for Ben. It can be a real positive thing for us.”
Branko Boskovic will miss the match while he is on international duty with the Montenegrin national team for a pair of 2012 European championship qualifiers. United defender Jed Zayner (ankle sprain), who was acquired from Columbus in a trade last month, also will be out, but he was ineligible for the match, having already played for the Crew in the U.S. Open Cup this year.
