With last year's late-season meltdown on their minds and their first march scheduled for late February, D.C. United players braved the cold this past week for their first pre-season training sessions of 2012. more ›

Just in case you thought Major League Soccer was not-too-serious about helping to facilitate D.C. United's exit from Washington -- even though they've been surveying Baltimore residents about potentially relocating United to the city -- well, think again. more ›

In fairness, the frantic final minutes of the last meaningful match D.C. United will play in 2011 was a microcosm of the season as a whole: promising and full of chances, but inevitably disappointing. more ›

Maybe it's just destiny. Maybe this D.C. United squad just isn't meant to be playing into the postseason. While I hate to be pessimistic about the squad's chances to break a years-long playoff drought this year, it's hard not to think such things after what happened in the waning moments of Saturday night's match. more ›

Is there any stopping Dwayne De Rosario? Not if you're Real Salt Lake. more ›

D.C. United, led by Chris Pontius, Dwayne DeRosario and debutant goalkeeper Joe Willis, put on a solid display in defeating the Vancouver Whitecaps 4-0 on Saturday. more ›

Has there ever been a crazier D.C. United match than the one that took place at RFK Stadium on Saturday night? Possibly -- but if there had been, the memory of it has likely been replaced for the 11,684 who were on hand to witness the home side earn a 3-3 draw with Toronto FC. more ›

Blame the heat if you must, but D.C. United certainly wilted last night. The club's woes inside RFK Stadium continued, as they dropped a painful 1-0 decision to New England. more ›

Will the additions of Dwayne De Rosario and Brandon McDonald be enough to break D.C. United's lengthy playoff drought? That certainly looked the case on Saturday night -- that is, until the 84th minute. more ›

Someone had to be the first player punished for a publicly derided rash of dives and embellishments, and it looks like D.C. United forward Charlie Davies is taking the first slap on the wrist. The MLS is fining Davies $1,000 for an 83rd minute dive against Real Salt Lake that led to a penalty kick and a controversial, game-saving 1-1 draw. The fine is seen as the first player punished retroactively by MLS for diving, setting a precedent for all players moving forward. more ›

Offensively, D.C. United got off to a flying start on Saturday. Unfortunately, that euphoria lasted all of two minutes -- then San Jose's Steven Lenhart took over. more ›

It'd be easy to write off D.C. United's scoreless home draw with FC Dallas on Saturday night as a disappointment -- after all, the team certainly could have used the three points, especially when it seemed the only thing standing in their way was the hands of Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman. But the defensive effort provided by the team -- especially on the heels of an April in which they allowed four goals three times and three goals once -- was impressive enough for head coach Ben Olsen and most of the 11,504 on hand at RFK Stadium. more ›

After a pair of demoralizing losses in league play, including the club's worst home loss in years, D.C. United rebounded with an invigorating 2-1 victory over Seattle last night. Charlie Davies, Josh Wolff and Andy Najar anchored an impressive offensive performance, while Bill Hamid made several key saves to earn the club its first MLS points since mid-April. more ›

by DCist contributor Travis Clark The hustle is there. The willingness to fight tooth-and-nail is prevalent. But what D.C. United has lacked all season, mired in one of their worst starts in league history, is goal scoring. And once again, that failure to produce a goal cost them, this time losing at the hands of the Colorado Rapids, 1-0. more ›

Wherever you earn your paycheck, chances are your first day was a bit nervy. But then someone showed you where the coffee was. Maybe you met a nice HR rep while you were filling out your paperwork. And then someone took you out to lunch, and you thought, hey, this isn't going to be so bad. more ›

If we were to make the obvious comparison between D.C. United's season and Groundhog Day after five regular-season games, we'd be right about at the point in the film where Phil Connors is prepared to check out -- permanently -- rather than handle one more repetitive day in a place he can't stand. But just like Bill Murray's legendary weatherman, United won't find their way out of the limbo they're stuck in until they can piece together one honest day -- or at least an honest ninety minutes. more ›

Cup competitions are the true equalizers. Take, for example, administration-battling, Premier League relegation fodder Portsmouth's journey to this year's FA Cup final -- and that's a club that was considering not playing seven players in said final because they cannot afford to pay their contract bonuses if the team wins the trophy. The point isn't to harp on Portsmouth, but rather to acknowledge that the best team will usually win out in the marathon that is the league. In the knockout, though, any team is but a bad surface or a lucky bounce or an off-night away from pulling something worthwhile out of the morass that a season in limbo often is. more ›

D.C. United supporters, in addition to being some of the loudest and most fun-loving sports fans in this town, are also among the heartiest, cheering and singing until the end regardless of the score. That steadfast devotion to the club means that it's a rare sight to witness D.C. United fans leaving the lower bowl of RFK Stadium before the final whistle. But the frustration of yet another defeat on a very chilly and blustery evening was too much for several fans to bear on Saturday night, as a late pair of goals by Chicago sent United to their fourth straight league defeat to open the 2010 season, 2-0. more ›

He may have had a good excuse to not be paying attention -- having just spent weeks hammering out a vital labor contract that likely saved his league -- but MLS Commissioner Don Garber showed no signs of understanding D.C.'s fragile financial state yesterday, expressing public frustration regarding the city's failure to build D.C. United a new stadium. more ›

Yes, there will be a D.C. United season this year. more ›

On the surface, there wasn't much separating D.C. United and the Chicago Fire heading into their match at RFK Stadium last night. Both teams had scored and allowed the exact same number of goals -- 20 for, 17 against. Both held large margins in the way they score, namely, from the run of play -- United had scored 70% of goals in open play, the Fire, 65%. United had not lost at home, while Chicago boasted a spotless record on the road. more ›

Say what you will about United's performance this season on the whole, but even the most pessimistic of supporters would have a difficult time arguing that this year's encounters with our rivals to the north, New York, have been anything but enjoyable. In the first two matches -- one, a thrilling, last-minute, two-goal comeback at Giants Stadium, and the other a game in which United led by four after 30 minutes in the Open Cup -- D.C. has earned positive results amid an ocean of mediocre draws. As they should: the league's runner-up last season, the Red Bulls currently wallow in dead last at an anemic 2-7-3, having only managed to score more than two goals in a game once this year. more ›

From the start, it just seemed like a match that one goal would win. After all, the evening's opponents just so happened to be winless (0-4-0) on the road, without a single goal to their name. But unfortunately for United, that vital tally never came -- the team couldn't avenge their loss to Real Salt Lake earlier this season and sent 16,089 away kissing their sisters after last night's 0-0 draw at RFK. more ›

If there was anything to glean from United's 5-3 whupping of the New York Red Bulls last night, it was that any analytical recap angles this writer planned to explore went out the window after United struck four times in the opening 30 minutes. Oh, and that Chris Pontius is really, really good in the air. With apologies to topics like goalie Josh Wicks and how he compares to United's other keepers and United's incredible bench strength, last night's win -- which earned United a place in the First Round Proper of the U.S. Open Cup -- was simply about one side running roughshod over the other for 45 minutes, and, of course, the further emergence of United's newest goal-scoring phenom. more ›

D.C. United takes a break from a seemingly endless string of stalemates in league play to continue their Open Cup defense tonight at RFK. The country's oldest soccer tournament, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup, unfortunately doesn't save places for defending champs -- despite bringing home the cup last season, DCU have to play in the early qualifying rounds this year because of their poor league finish last year. Up to speed? The Black-and-Red dispatched of FC Dallas with ease in qualifying round one, and tonight their rivals, the New York Red Bulls, make the trek down I-95 to battle for a spot in the Round of 16. more ›

The U.S. Open Cup is one of those tricky tournaments for a coach to figure. Great history, nice tradition, and anyone who supports professional soccer in this country has to pull for this tournament—which, at its best, could pit aging, part-timer amateur teams against the likes of David Beckham in a rinky-dink stadium just about anywhere—to continue to grow in prestige and prominence. It's a goal that requires clubs to take it seriously, which means sending out quality teams and, you know, actually caring. DC United's Open Cup title last year didn't exactly make up for an otherwise poor season, but it did give die-hards and players a chance to enjoy one of soccer's most satisfying moments: the lifting of the cup in front of the home fans. more ›

It has been well-documented that there is a significant divide between player salaries in Major League Soccer. For a league that's still getting its legs after only thirteen years in existence, it is easy to see why that is -- as the league tries to bolster its image and fanbase with larger signings in the Beckham mold, developmental players are de-emphasized. With time, salaries for lower-tier players should rise as the league finds success. But the thorny issue remains in the present: there are a large amount of professional soccer players in the United States that don't even come close to making a living wage playing professionally. more ›

Well, it was almost too appropriate. more ›