While United supporters recovered Thursday from a night of celebrating their club's U.S. Open Cup victory, the team packed their bags and flew cross-country to begin preperations for tonight's League match against San Jose. It's tough sledding for the Black-and-Red this weekend. United faithful in the Nation's Capital are dealing with Hurricane Hanna.

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No, not Jaime Moreno. Cardenas.

Yes, the former Los Angeles Times writer has landed on his feet in the world of press relations. He's now the newest member of the Galaxy media staff.

I have to say, it's nice when there's someone around who understands what it's like on the other side. Click to continue reading...

D.C. United withstood a strong challenge from the Charleston Battery on Wednesday night at RFK Stadium to claim the U.S. Open Cup by a score of 2-1, the second time in history that the club from the nation's capital has lifted the Dewar Trophy, having also won in 1996.

It didn't take long for the home side to pull ahead, with last year's MLS MVP Luciano Emilio striking just four minutes into the match. Click to continue reading...

(Photo by Chris Leon)

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Tom Soehn has named his starting lineup for tonight's championship battle against the Battery. The same players who started Saturday's game against New York will take the field, with the only change being Santino Quaranta moving to the middle of thte park and Joe Vide pushing out wide (where they played the second half).

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Every road point counts as the march to the playoffs continue. Satudays Primetime game featured lots of back and forth play, with 0 goals to show for it. The evening ended in a 0-0 draw But its a draw that feels like a win - a road point during an important playoff race, given to us by a choking Jaime Moreno!

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Kickoff is about an hour away. Tommy's main changes come in the back line tonight, as he shuffles a few guys around, while Santino Quaranta moves from the attacking midfield spot to the right flank. Here's what they'll look like at the first whistle:

Louis Crayton; Gonzalo Martinez, Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch; Santino Quaranta, Clyde Simms, Joe Vide, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio

And here's what the 4-4-2 formation will look like:

------------Moreno-----------Emilio------------------------------------------------------------------------Guerrero--------------------------------Quaranta---------------Vide----------Simms----------------Burch-------------------------------------Martinez------------McTavish--------Burch-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Crayton------------------------ Click to continue reading...

United and the Red Bulls meet at RFK Stadium tonight for the third and final time this regular season. Somewhat amazingly, both teams have earned a 4-1 win at home earlier in the year (United on June 15 and New York on August 10), which means tonight's game will determine the Atlantic Cup winner - given to the team that wins the season series between the two rivals.

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The Red Bulls will finally be injury free when New York takes the field vs. DC United on Saturday night at RFK (7:30p, FSC). The Red Bulls have lifted themselves into the playoff mix by picking up nine points at home over the last three Sundays, but if New York is to solidify its hold on a playoff spot, RBNY must figure out how to get the maximum points on the road. Click to continue reading...

The big news out of the locker room this evening is that Ben Olsen has been named to the 18-man roster for tonight's game. Benny has been training for the last week and a half and is attempting to salvage the season after numerous ankle surgeries over the last nine months. His lone appearance of the season came on June 29, when United beat LA 4-1 and Ben came on as a 75th minute substitute.

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For the record, here are my player ratings from the two matches I missed while on vacation, based only on descriptions of the games given by Fullback, BDR, and Goff.

8/10/08: 4-1 loss at NYRB
Top shelf: Jaime Moreno
Call: Fred
Rail: Zach Wells, Pat Carroll, Marc Burch, Devon McTavish

8/12/08: 3-1 win in USOC Semi-finals vs NE:
Top shelf: Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio, Santino Quaranta
Call: Brian Namoff, Zach Wells, Ivan Guerrero
Rail: None

The other big thing that I missed while I was out was the formal acquisition of new starting goalkeeper Louis Crayton, and the other transactions surrounding that move. Click to continue reading...

The New England Revolution reestablished their place at the top of the standings with a 2-1 victory against D.C. United in front of nearly 15,000 at Gillette Stadium on Wednesday night.

The Revs got off to an early lead through Taylor Twellman and then added a second on an impressive strike from Jeff Larentowicz just a few minutes after halftime.

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Jaime Moreno is really, really good at soccer. Here's video of his goal in tonight's 2-1 loss, his ninth of the season and 121st career tally.

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Shoot.

The team departs early tomorrow morning to head back to the District and will turn focus towards the visiting Colorado Rapids on Saturday. The guys were - not surprisingly - disappointed with the result tonight. A number of players commented on what they thought was a poorly officiated match - it certainly looked like Fred got pulled down in the box in the second half - but most thought the team could have played better.

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Despite knocking on wood as often as possible, I hate to admit that I called this. DC United was consistently crappy early in the year, and was consistently victorious just before the start of Superliga, but at all other times of the season, we've been horribly inconsistent. The team once again failed tonight to string together victories. Click to continue reading...

1 week ago, DC dispatched a New England reserve side and advanced to the finals of the US Open Cup. This week, DC plays NE again. The faces have changed, but may the result be no different. Again, Matt Reis will not be playing, but NE looks to have more of its attacking options with them, [...] Click to continue reading...

Following Saturday night's 1-0 win over the Fire, the team gathered in the locker room around the lone TV to watch US swimmer Michael Phelps and his team compete in the final swim of the Olympic meet - the 400 medley relay. As you probably know, Phelps was going for his record eighth gold medal. What follows is a photo essay of the team's reaction during the last two legs of the swim.

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We're about an hour from kickoff now, and Head Coach Tom Soehn has named his lineup. The big change is that newcomer Louis Crayton - who was officially signed yesterday - will get the start in goal ahead of Zach Wells.

Here's the full squad: Louis Crayton; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Marc Burch, Gonzalo Martinez; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

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With a trip to the U.S. Open Cup final on the line, here is the team Head Coach Tom Soehn has decided to go with this evening:

Zach Wells; Bryan Namoff, Devon McTavish, Gonzalo Peralta, Gonzalo Martinez; Fred, Clyde Simms, Santino Quaranta, Ivan Guerrero; Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio.

And this is how they'll lineup:

--------Moreno---------Emilio----------

----------------Quaranta-----------------

Guerrero---------------------------Fred

-----------------Simms-------------------

Martinez------------------------Namoff

----------McTavish--Peralta----------

------------------Wells-------------------

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One of the only positive things to come out of last night's match was Jaime Moreno's 120th career goal. Remember after last week's goal when Jaime said he couldn't remember the last time he had scored with his head? Well, he did it again last night and his tally is up for the Sierra Mist Goal of the Week.

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Given the result of last night's game, being in the post-game locker room was no picnic. Moods deteriorated even more on the bus ride home, courtesy of a six-hour trip that saw the Black-and-Red arrive at RFK Stadium after 2:00 a.m. this morning. The team was given a bit of extra time to sleep this morning before reporting to training for recovery/pre-game preparations.

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Photo by ISIphotos.com

When Jaime Moreno scored what seemed like his 100th career goal against the Red Bulls on Sunday you got the distinct feeling that the season was ready to slip away for the New York squad.

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Let's talk about swimming! Oh, wait, wrong blog. But, man, that 4x100 team last night? Totally brilliant, I was yelling at my tv and Jason Lezak (and my mother, who was on the phone with me at the time). Anyway, back to less exciting things. First, the u23s. They were so close to being brilliant. And I don't care what anyone says, they should have and deserved to win. Click to continue reading...

Lifton: The only other time in MLS history when the NY/NJ Metrostars/Red Bulls beat DC United by more than one goal was on September 28, 1997, the last game of the regular season, after United had clinched the Supporters Shield and the Metros had already been ruled out of playoff contention. Jaime Moreno, by the way, scored [. Click to continue reading...

This week's addition of MLS game of the week was not too difficult to choose. When you have a game featuring Jaime Moreno, Luciano Emilio, and Juan Pablo Angel, and the game has five goals in it, you have to choose it. What did you guys think of the game? Was it worthy of [...] Click to continue reading...