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.

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In case you missed the announcements on Twitter last night, here are the winners from the 6th Annual United Awards Reception:

• Volkswagen Most Valuable Player: Clyde Simms
• Defender of the Year: Bryan Namoff
• Fans' Choice Award: Chris Pontius
• Goal of the Year: Bryan Namoff's diving header vs.

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The 6th Annual United Awards Reception isn't the only United Awards Reception going on tonight. Because it's also time to announce the winners of the 2009 Benny Awards!

1. The Richie Award for the most underrated player goes to Bryan Namoff
2. The Nelly Award for the best newcomer goes to Dejan Jakovic
3. The Convey Award for the best rookies goes to Chris Pontius
4. The Donnety Award for the biggest disappointment goes to Danny Szetela
5. The Grosy Award for the ballsiest player goes to Ben Olsen
6. The Freddy Award for the biggest story goes to Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace
7. The Harkesy Award for the greatest leader goes to Ben Olsen
8. The Popie Award for the best defender goes to Dejan Jakovic
9. The Etchy Award for the team's MVP goes to Dejan Jakovic
10. The Benny Award for the highest ADR rating goes to Chris Pontius

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By defintion, the Etchy Award goes to DC United's most valuable player. The winner of the award should be the player who United can least afford to live without, and who gives the team the best chance of winning. I'm going to present this award a bit differently because I want to give you more choices and less bias. Click to continue reading...

The playoff scenarios are mind-boggling.

It is actually possible for United to find its way into the MLS Cup playoffs regardless of win, loss or draw tonight, but the likelihood is very slim if the Black-and-Red come away with anything but a victory in Kansas City. The Wizards cannot make it to the post-season, but will certainly come out hoping to put on a show for their fans in the last home game of the year.

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By definition, the Popie award goes to United's best defensive player in 2009. The award's namesake is former national team defender Eddie Pope. Not only is Pope widely recognized as the best defender in United's history, but he is also responsible for the most important goal in United's history.
Last year's winner was Bryan Namoff with over 50% of the vote. Click to continue reading...

By now, everyone knows what need to happen tonight - D.C. United needs to win to keep its playoff hopes alive.

The team will have to do it without several key players, as Bryan Namoff (concussion), Josh Wicks (dislocated shoulder, MCL sprain), Santino Quaranta (ruptured plantar plate), Ben Olsen (red card suspension) and Chris Pontius (yellow card accumulation) will all be watching from the sidelines.

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On Tuesday, Bryan Namoff, Ben Olsen, Santino Quaranta and Devon McTavish were on the runway for the 'Walk This Way' fashion show, put on by former Survivor contestant Becky Lee. Becky runs Becky's Fund, an organization she started to fight domestic violence.

You can see the guys in the video above beginning at the 55-second mark.

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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.

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A crowd approaching 25,000 is expected tonight for D.C. United's must-win battle versus visiting Chivas USA. With only three games remaining in the regular season, and United on the outside of playoffs (standings) looking in, the team is looking to go on a run beginning tonight. Chivas USA currently sits in the second (of four) wild card spots, but with every team within a few points, they're in need of a win, too.

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Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win in the competition.

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Two massive CONCACAF Champions League matches loom tonight for the remaining two MLS squads in the competition. D.C., in need of a win to boost their chances of making a rather unlikely quarterfinal bid, face lowly San Juan Jabloteh (8pm, FSC) of Trinidad & Tobago who have yet to win in the competition.

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After dropping a 2-1 decision to the San Jose Earthquakes, United will be looking to get back to the win column with a Champions League match against San Juan Jabloteh. The Trinidad & Tobago side finds itself at the bottom of Group B without any points. A win over Jabloteh and a Marathon loss to Toluca tomorrow would give United a berth in the quarterfinal stage of the tournament.

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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?

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After a 15-day break from League play - a time during which two Champions League games were played - United returns to domestic action this afternoon with its 27th MLS match versus the visiting San Jose Earthquakes. Though results from six League games last night largely went United's way, the team finds itself a single point out of playoffs heading into today's a game.

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Ok. So I know at first this title makes no sense at first. Think of it this way...United needed to score 2 more goals than Marathon to jump into second place. They did this...and they scored another to solidify it. Emilio, who has been in a real scoring drought this season, put in the first and the last goals.

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In just a few hours D.C. United will take to the pitch with their CONCACAF Champions League life on the line. Honduran club Marathon is visiting, fresh off a 7-0 humiliation against Toluca. Adding to their misery is the political unrest that forced the club to hop on a bus to El Salvador just to make the flight up.

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United faces a near must-win tonight at RFK Stadium when it faces Honduran side CD Marathon in its fourth CONCACAF Champions League match. After last week's win in Trinidad & Tobago over Jabloteh, D.C. finds itself in third place in Group B, three points behind tonight's visitors. A win for the Black-and-Red would draw the team even in the standings and put it in a position to advance into the knockout stage of the tournament heading into the final two games of group play.

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By definition, the Richie Award goes to the most underrated player on the United roster. The award's namesake Richie Williams was probably the hardest working player on our championship teams in the 90s, but flew mostly under the radar when compared to the better known players.
Last year's winner by a wide margin was Clyde Simms, earning over 50% of the vote. Click to continue reading...

Feels like I just wrote that same headline 2 weeks ago. I don't mean to try to use this as an excuse, but it's worth pointing out that the last match Seattle played was here in DC on 9/2. In the mean time, United played two other matches during that week and a half that the Sounders were resting.
After a terrible start from United, I felt similar to the way that BDR felt earlier this week - like this match could have easily gotten out of hand. Click to continue reading...

This is the fifth in a recurring series where we look at the DC United season, five games at a time.
Results: 2-1-2. 4 GF, 4 GA
Standings: Third place in the Eastern Conference
Statistical Leaders: Josh Wicks (3 clean sheets); Namoff, Burch, Moreno, Emilio (1 goal each), Gomez (1 assist)
Most frequent lineup:
What we liked:

• Discovering our starting XI – I've often wondered during this season if we're ever going to have a single consistent lineup that can be used every week.

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You may have seen Luciano Emilio's goal last night in the team's 1-0 win over the visiting Wizards, but did you really take note of the hustle and awareness seen on the play from the Brazilian?

Jump ahead to the 2:05 mark to watch the goal again:

Take a look at who Christian Gomez plays the short corner - Senõr Emilio.

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Back again. I missed out on commenting about our victory last Saturday against New England which brought some renewed enthusiasm to the KC faithful. This was mainly due to the fact that there was way too much soccer to watch with the WC qualifiers over the weekend. A good dose of soccer overload which was great

I did watch the game against NE but did not really get overly excited because KC really needed to get a streak going after the string of goaless games before one could cheer wholeheartedly and think about a turn around.

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That wasn't exactly how I wanted to see us play against one of the worst teams in the league, but a win is a win, and somehow I still feel like we earned this one. It definitely took this team 30 minutes or so to settle in, and gave up way too many chances during those first 30 minutes, but we looked like the better team in the second half, and ultimately we prevailed. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United's Bryan Namoff and Santino Quaranta discuss Wednesday's game versus the Kansas City Wizards at RFK Stadium.

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So I'm watching the Redskins get killed in yet another preseason game and I'm thinking about the strategy that they've used over the years in developing their rosters, and how that compares with DC United.
The Redskins have a tendency to sign players that they think are good, and then try to make them fit within the system of whatever coach they have at the time. Click to continue reading...

Week 24 threw up a few little surprises in Major League Soccer, including defeat for both Houston Dynamo and Columbus Crew, another win for New York Red Bulls and something vaguely resembling consistency from Real Salt Lake.
The week's action began in Salt Lake last Wednesday, where RSL thumped Chivas USA 4-0. Click to continue reading...

Take it for what it's worth, but Yahoo has Bryan Namoff on the way out (I'd imagine after the season's over) to the Greek league. As Namoff has become the absolute stalwart of the defense, the team would have a hard time replacing him. However, for Bryan, you'd have to understand the move to make one real payday.

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Not too many goals to pick from this week with all the 1-0 games we saw. So this week all the goals are included in the list.

My favorites were Beckham's and Richards. What did you all like?

Order of goals: Dane Richards, Julien Baudet, David Beckham, Pablo Campos, Bryan Namoff, Steve Ralston, Wells Thompson, Ramon Sanchez, Pablo Campos (Chivas game), Fabian Espindola, and Robbie Findley (1 and 2).

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QUESTION
Should US Soccer have a Fans Representative on their World Cup Bid committee?
STARTERS
Congrats to the Richmond Kickers who won the USL Second Division Championship on Saturday night!
dN
Freddy Adu has been sent on loan from Benfinca to another Portuguese team Belenenses aka Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses. Click to continue reading...

Coming off of last Sunday's thrilling, come from behind 3-2 victory over the Colorado Rapids, the Fire put in a very disappointing performance tonight, falling to longtime rivals D.C. United 1-0 at Toyota Park. Bryan Namoff scored the lone goal of the match in the 11th minute, when he flicked home a fantastic Christian Gomez free kick from the top of the 6 yard box.

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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. Click to continue reading...

Though United is currently out of the playoffs as things stand, a couple of positive results over the next few weeks would put the team in solid position to qualify for the post-season down the stretch. The Eastern Conference standings remain tight, and even when you include mid-table teams in the West, all are within a handful of points.

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If I was going to look at our remaining schedule and pick one match that would probably end scoreless, this would not have been it. You know the league has got to hate when two of its marquee teams finish with a scoreless draw. I certainly expected a couple of goals once the match seemed to open up late in the first half, but some good defending combined with quality performances from two of the lesser known goalkeepers in the league preserved clean sheets for each team. Click to continue reading...