Maicon Santos' (above) go-ahead goal in the 61st minute helped D.C. United to a 3-2 win tonight over the visiting New England Revolution at RFK Stadium. With the win United vaulted over idle New York Red Bull and into first place in the Eastern Conference. Photo: Martin Fernandez.

Chris Pontius and Hamdi Salihi scored second-half goals twenty minutes apart to push D.C. United to a much needed 2-0 win this afternoon in Toronto. United (5-3-3) was coming off a terrible defensive performance just three days earlier in a 5-3 loss in San Jose and posted the shutout with yet another retooled defensive backline.

D.C. United players Danny Cruz and Brandon McDonald have been disciplined by MLS following Saturday's FC Dallas match at RFK.
MLS released the details in an official league announcement yesterday afternoon.
From MLSSoccer.com News Release:
NEW YORK (April 3, 2012) – The Major League Soccer Disciplinary Committee issued the following actions based on games in Week 4 of the MLS Regular Season:

• Danny Cruz (D.

In the first part of our FM scouting series, we looked at United's new DP forward Hamdi Salihi. Now it's time to turn our attention to central defender Emiliano Dudar...

click to enlarge

What jumps out immediately is Dudar's marking ability and aerial power, the later of which, given his size, was to be expected.

Fans of D.C. United here is a your chance to meet some of you favorite United players as they will be making appearances during the week around the Metropolitan area. As part of D.C. United's...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

D.C. United v Toronto FC
8/6/2011, Saturday, 7:30 PM
RFK Stadium

Last Four Head-to-Head:

4/16/11 3-0 D.C. United (a) (Pontius x2, Davies)
3/12/11 2-2 Draw (n) (Davies, Ngwenya; De Rosario, Santos) (Carolina Challenge Cup)
10/23/10 2-3 Toronto (h) (Quaranta, Moreno; De Rosario x2, Santos)
9/11/10 1-0 D.

'Olsen's Orphans' need to find a home and find it quickly.

Right now D.C. United is teetering uneasily on the edge of playoff contention and threatening to tumble into the abyss of the "there's always next season" lowlands alongside an increasingly red-faced Steve Nicol and two Canadian teams that fire their coaches more often than Charlie Davies changes goal celebrations.

Najar wears No. 14 for United. McDonald inherits No. 2. (via Goff)

Oh no! Didn't poor Brandon McDonald get the memo about the curse?

So I was part of the way though prepping a series of posts on probable moves for DC United in the summer transfer window when...

McBoom!

De Boom!

Boom goes my post series.

Hmmm. The best laid plans of mice and fullbacks, eh? Instead of tossing out the whole thing, let me just post what would have been the key conclusions in that series and look at how the moves for De Rosario and McDonald address (or don't address) what I saw as the outstanding needs for United at the midway point.

Tuesday D.C. United announced it had acquired defender Brandon McDonald from the San Jose Earthquakes in a clear attempt to help shore up the defense. With that news still hot off the wire United...
[[ This is a content summary only. Visit my website for full links, other content, and more!

D.C. United acquired rugged defender/midfielder Brandon McDonald from the San Jose Earthquakes today in exchange for allocation money. The 25-year old was originally drafted in 2008 by the Los Angeles Galaxy and played 16 games for them before getting picked ...