DC United get their kit off We can't really imagine this getting past too many Premier League PR teams, but in the cut-throat world of American sportainment footballers will quite literally jump at the chance to bare all for ESPN magazine. In a quote that sound like it has come straight from his last therapy session, Ben [.

Luciano Emilio and DC United have a lot of question marks. (Getty Images)

The 2009 expansion draft is only a week and a half away here. Today we move forward in our look at each club's potential protection lists with DC United. The Black-and-Red are still without a head coach so don't be shocked if somethings here could change depending on who takes over this club.

DC United saw their season come to a close after this weekend with their draw at Kansas City and FC Dallas winning at Seattle. The time has come to decide what the team needs to do next season. This is the second season in a row United has not made the playoffs with winning the Supporter's Shield the 2 years prior.

Not that I have a particular affinity for Real Madrid or Kaka --although he is without a doubt the best chaste footballer from Brazil currently playing in Europe-- but I do appreciate the dramatic music and editing of this video. That and it's always a treat to see Ben Olsen get thrown to the ground in HD.

Well, here it is. The guys were pretty brave, eh?

From the left: Chris Pontius, Bryan Namoff, Clyde Simms, Jaime Moreno, Santino Quaranta and Ben Olsen.

Dan Steinberg of D.C. Sports Bog has the full story. The issue hits newsstands tomorrow.

In terms of US National Team history very few days have matched yesterday in terms of pure drama. Just three days after Team USA equaled its worst ever loss to Brazil and six days after the national teams worst loss to Italy since 1934, the US found itself in a position to clinch passage to the semifinals of the Confederations Cup.

Last night was the big Couture for a Cure fashion show to benefit Bryan Namoff's wife's (Nadine) campaign to become the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Woman of the Year. Devon McTavish, Chris Pontius, Rodney Wallace, Clyde Simms and Mr. Namoff (of course) all strutted their stuff down the aisle. Oh, and so too did Ben Olsen who was not shy.

Of all the decisions to be made on head coaching positions in Major League Soccer this off-season, perhaps none is being watched more carefully than the New York Red Bulls' decision on whether to keep Richie Williams as head coach.

Hiring Williams would seem like a no-brainer for a club that watched him take a hopeless team and transform it into a respectable one that posted more points in eight matches (11) than it posted in its first 22 (10).

DC United hosts Marathon on Sept 24 at RFK Stadium for CONCACAF Champions League. Last night Marathon took on Toluca. Toluca just helped United have a chance to go further in the Champions League by beating Marathon, by 7 goals! This could be the best opportunity DC has had since competing in the Champions League in the last 2 seasons.

As some have heard at this point, Josh Wicks is going to be out 4-6 weeks because of a dislocated shoulder and torn MCL. Milos Kocic is the next in line for goalkeeper. Bill Hamid is not available for league matches, only CONCACAF Champions League.

With Kocic in goal, how does DC work with this?

ESPN Magazine's "Body Issue" hits US stands Friday and this year, the lads of DC United will be featured along with USMNT and AC Milan defender, Oguchi Onweyu.

In what can be conservatively called a Bad season, Kansas City came back to tie D.C. United and kill their chances of moving into the playoffs.

Kansas City started with a different look using Kamara and Zoltan at the same time but kicking Kei off to the wing and leaving Zoltan up top with Josh Wolff; yes an improvement but not by much since Wolff did look slow on a couple of breakaways.

And around the interwebs we bounce. Off we go! USA! Bradley calls 24 for the qualifiers, including a couple of guests, one of whom is United's own Luis Robles...oh, yeah, right. Might have been nice for him to follow the Jacobson track back to...

This weekend had set itself up really nicely for DC United. After losses by Seattle and RSL, and ties by Colorado, Chivas, and Toronto, DC United only needed a home victory against the worst road team in the leauge in order to move into 5th place. But the underdogs continued to impress. Not only did United lose, but they really deserved to lose.

Received this via Behind the Badge - D.C. United's Official Blog.
Ben Olsen, Bryan Namoff, Santino Quaranta, Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace helped create a video showcasing the history of D.C. United rookie pranks.

Beninho said... "I was never that great of a soccer player, but I fit in. I had a knack of fitting in and working hard and doing what I needed to do." Bull. Shit. The body of work you left argues much to the contrary, sir, unless you want to change...

Quiz Time! Quick, what's the capital of Pennsylvania? If you said Harrisburg, chances are you might be from the Keystone state, though those of you not from around these parts might be forgiven for thinking otherwise given the dueling "P" cities...

Or, Rodney Wallace May be a Dick, and That's Okay

I'm going to be terribly unfair to Rodney Wallace and take one comment from the Patrick Stevens profile in the Washington Times completely out of context:

Wallace lived in Costa Rica until age 9, when work brought his parents to the D.

Two main points learned from this match: 1) Houston is really good. 2) The DC defense isn't.
Can you imagine how great this team would be if Dwayne De Rosario was still on the roster? This is already an all-star midfield, with Stuart Holden, Brad Davis, and Ricardo Clark all playing the best of their careers.

DC United is Major League Soccer's most storied and most successful club. Since becoming a founder member of MLS in 1996, United have piled no fewer than twelve pieces of silverware into the RFK Stadium trophy cabinet, including four MLS Cups.

Many of United's finest players are still in the team, from habitual record breaker Jaime Moreno and creative ace Christian Gomez to legendary midfielder Ben Olsen.

Ok folks, the games finally start counting for something. We'll start to see less of players like Brandon Barklage, and more of the Jaime Moreno's of the world. And that makes me excited. This Sunday, United travels to the Home Depot Center to visit one of the sadder cases in MLS in the last [...]

Call it the opposite of last week. This was a more entertaining match, with United having stretches of strong possession and creative attacks. At the same time, Real Salt Lake had the edge over the course of all ninety minutes, and the result is a fair reflection of a game where RSL was one goal better than United.

With DC United's comeback 2-1 win over FC Dallas in the books, the Four Fs looks closer...

Forward
While it's hard to quibble too much with two second half goals, that this team ever trailed in this match is troubling. Similar to the New England match, DC United had outplayed its opponent, and still found themselves needing to score to level the match.

After seeing his play last night against Hondura's, and then reading this story in the Washington Post, I'll have a different view of Santino Quaranta the next time we see him on the pitch (Saturday against Haiti?)

Santino Quaranta's right hand was throbbing, the consequence of a Toronto player stepping on him during D.

This is the best our team has looked in quite a while. DC United just worked harder in this match, which is great to see. We won most of the 50-50 balls tonight, which has been rare the past few months. The team's first win against an MLS opponent since 7/18 couldn't have come at a better time.
The only thing I didn't like about our performance was the number of fouls given in close range.

DC United made a major statement in CONCACAF Champions League Group B play on Thursday night, beating Marathon 3-0 at RFK Stadium. Due to the political situation in Honduras, Marathon had to travel six hours by bus to reach an open airport in Guatemala. "They had a long couple of days getting here and unfortunately for them, they weren't 100 percent," DC midfielder Ben Olsen said.

This was clearly a match between two teams going in different directions. Chivas was starting guys like Maicon Santos, Jesus Padilla, and Yamith Cuesta - all who joined the team in August and have already claimed starting jobs. They haven't been afraid to bench their veterans like Razov, Galindo, and Marsch and have instead sought out better players.

Before we get to the award, an announcement...
Over the next two and a half weeks, we'll be running a contest here with some pretty cool prizes to give away. And to win them, all you have to do is vote for the Benny Awards! The team's hooked me up with the following prizes: a DC United/Volkswagen team scarf, the 2009 DC United media guide, and a Gatorade/MLS towel.

Was it just me or was there a veiled barb in there directed at the FO? You know, the part about maybe the coach shouldn't shoulder the blame, maybe the players should, maybe the MANAGEMENT? But Benny couched that by spewing the Payne party line...

The voting for attacking midfielders has gone pretty much as anticipated so far, with heavy support for three fan favorites in Quaranta, Pontius, and Barklage, and an obvious dissatisfaction with Fred and Allen. The only moderate surprise to me has been that Gomez and Szetela are not both closer to the 50/50 mark.

Luke Wileman reports Turf Removal Starts At BMO Field New coach, new grass, different result for TFC in 2010? Late note: The CFL Argos are once again talking about playing at BMO. Uh Oh.

How did you feel about MLS Cup being played on turf?

Best of luck to Ben Olsen.

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Yesterday, Ben Olsen and Devon McTavish were invited to participate in the White House's annual Easter Egg Roll. Both players read to the kids in attendance and ran mini-soccer clinics. A couple of Washington Redskins - kicker Shuan Suisham and guard Derrick Dockery - were also on hand.

More photos from the event on our Flickr account.

What a meh week following a meh result, that I couldn't see. Gotta love when a game isn't on, and you have to catch whatever you can online. So, we all know now that DC lost 2-1 off of a goal by Javier Morales. Before that, United-Slayer Beckerman smacked the crossbar. So, after the first goal by RSL, you really felt that the field tilted their way.

Saturday night, DC United faces a tied-for-last-overall FC Dallas team for the second time this year. The difference, of course, is that this match matters in the scheme of the MLS season. That isn't to say that the US Open Cup qualifier didn't matter, but progress toward the playoffs is more important than progress in the USOC.

A ton of photos in youtube form from the Couture for a Cure fashion show a couple of weeks ago. Ben Olsen, Santino Quaranta, Bryan Namoff, Rodney Wallace, Chris Pontius and Clyde Simms all took part in walking down the runway to benefit Nadine Namoff's Woman of the Year campaign.

Photo by ISIphotos.com

Former U.S. Olympic team midfielder Danny Szetela is on his way back to Major League Soccer, but he won't be coming back to Columbus or heading home to New Jersey.

It almost seemed as if Real Madrid were human when they failed to plant any goals into DC United's net during the first half of the match last night. DC goal tender Josh Wicks made some amazing saves that stunned both fans and Real Madrid strikers alike.

Real Madrid's Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo (L) vies with DC United's Chris Pontius (2nd L), Christian Gomez (2nd R) and Ben Olsen (R) during a friendly match on August 9, 2009 at FedEx Field in Landover, Maryland, as part of Real's pre-season tour of Canada and the US.

Given the unfortunate results of the Chicago/Chivas and Marathon/San Juan matches last night, a WIN for DC United on Saturday has now become all the more crucial. The number of playoff spots at stake just dropped from 3 to 2 with the Fire's victory. What's worse though is that the loss by Chivas USA means that Columbus has now clinched the Supporter's Shield, and therefore will have nothing to play for in their final match against the Revolution on Sunday.

2009 was a rough season for Ben Olsen and DC United. (Getty Images)

We knew going into 2009 that the calendar for DC United could be a fairly packed one. Possibly Champions League matches, US Open Cup title to defend, summer friendlies, and of course the regular season slate. It turned out to be just the case as DC United played a schedule so packed this year it definitely raised some eyebrows about how little depth MLS clubs really do have.