DC United will be visiting TQL for the first time today when they travel to Ohio to face FC Cincinnati. United are embarking on a daunting stretch of seven games in 29 days during the toughest time of summer, and they do as the injury rate from their attack rises again. Nevertheless, they are favored in order to achieve a positive result against the hosts, who have now been five games without a win after a brief recovery in form.
Key player: Kevin Paredes
Cincinnati tends to leave a lot of space between the lines and in the transition, and that means Paredes (no matter where he pitches) should be a big factor in this game. While Joe Gyau, the player he is likely to see the most tonight, isn’t slow, there’s a general lack of speed in the Cincy Elf, especially when Paredes hits a punch and a 1v1 with the 36 year old Geoff Cameron at right-center back.
Cincy will be aware of this and will likely take steps to prevent that from happening. Paredes needs to get his off-ball movement right and anticipate the moments when he can adjust himself to receiving the ball in dangerous places rather than just expecting them to appear. It’s important that he remains proactive and selective and that United keep finding ways to feed the ball left.
Location: TQL Stadium (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Kick-off time: 7:30 p.m. Easter
Estimated DC United from 11: (3421) Bill Hamid; Andy Najar, Frédéric Brillant, Tony Alfaro; Julian Gressel, Junior Moreno, Moses Nyeman, Kevin Paredes; Drew Skundrich, Yamil Asad; Ola Kamara
Bank: Jon Kempin, Steven Birnbaum, Chris Odoi-Atsem, Joseph Mora, Felipe Martins, Griffin Yow, Yordy Reyna, Jovanny Bolívar, Erik Sorga
United are facing a bottleneck, with Nigel Robertha taking only the last defeat on the injured reserve. Sorga, who had just finished his first 45 minutes in months on loan with Loudoun, was called back to the first team as United begin another three-game-in-eight-day stretch.
While much of today’s line-up this year is pretty straightforward following Hernán Losada’s patterns, it is still an open question whether Nyeman or Felipe will start here. There is also reason to believe that if Paredes continues to play, Mora could start, and Birnbaum will also be pushing for time.
The biggest source of confusion, however, is with Kamara supposedly questionable even though it’s not on the injury report. If he fails, it is not clear whether Losada will bet on Reyna (experienced but not a real striker) or Bolívar to take the lead.
Estimated Cincinnati from 11: (4231) – Kenneth Vermeer; Joe Gyau, Geoff Cameron, Gustavo Vallecilla, Ronald Matarrita; Yuya Kubo, Haris Medunjanin; lvaro Barreal, Luciano Acosta, Allan Cruz; burner
Jaap Stam’s team feels pretty evenly balanced despite their struggles. Matarrita and Cruz are back from Gold cup Duty and should increase the quality of the team, but it is not exactly clear where they will intervene. He and Barreal could swap flanks, or we could see Cruz on the right and someone like Isaac Atanga on the left.
Stam has also given Caleb Stanko more time lately and could opt for him over Kubo or Medunjanin for tactical reasons as he is both more defensively solid than Kubo and more agile than Medunjanin. Or we could see Kubo rise into the wing opposite Cruz.
Referee: Rosendo Mendoza
Available TV: NBC Sports Washington, TeleXitos
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What do we have to say ?: That latest episode of Filibuster focuses on this game with Laurel Pfahler from Queen City Press while we had a few too United statistical analysis yesterday.
What are you drinking?: There are a number of selters in the game. Lemon? Grapefruit? Tangerine? Really exciting things here.
This is the place for all of your pre-game, in-game, and post-game discussions. Vamos no lucho revenge!
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