Following the announcement that D.C. United rookies (and roommates!) Chris Pontius and Rodney Wallace will be part of an 18-player delegation that will travel to South Africa as part of the Generatoin adidas program, Communications intern Matt Sincaglia sat down to ask them about the upcoming trip.

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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. Click to continue reading...

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.

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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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Plenty of fans were saying last night that this match was like a microcosm of our season. I disagree. A microcosm of our season would have included DC United grabbing an early lead and taking it into halftime. It also would have included many chances to go even further ahead, but we would have had multiple goals disallowed and/or our opponent would have scored after some poor officiating. Click to continue reading...

DC United's playoff hopes pretty much ride on a win in Kansas City in the last match of the season, but the Wizards have nothing but pride to play for and DC has had about their best week of the season after improbable results against the Crew and in Mexico against Toluca. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Freddy Award goes to the biggest story for DC United this year. This award should go to the individual who has created the biggest stir around DC this season. The award's namesake Freddy Adu wasn't only the biggest story in DC when he was on the team, he was also the biggest story in MLS. Click to continue reading...

Darrius Barnes is currently leading the way for the rookies. (Getty Images)

Its finally Friday, though I will admit this week has flown by for me due to it being a four-day work week and things being fairly steady on both the regular job front and this place. I had planned to do more than what had been posted today but I blame the weird rainy weather here in Dallas for me not getting around to some of it.

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Last week I made a big mistake in reading too much into the results of a win against a weak opponent. Learning my lesson, let's just say that this match was a pleasure to watch. This is the second time this season United has scored five goals, and it looked like the boys were having fun out there.
Does that mean though that they will carry this momentum into the match Saturday against Chivas? Click to continue reading...

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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By definition, the Convey Award goes to DC United's rookie of the year. The award's namesake is Bobby Convey, who coincidentally is on the other side today. Convey was very promising in his short time here in DC, and started 18 matches his rookie season, which sounded like a lot until this year.
Last year's Convey Award went to Ryan Cordeiro with a huge 76% margin. Click to continue reading...

By definition, the Nelly Award goes to the United player who has made the most significant positive impact in his first year with the club. The award's namesake Ryan Nelsen became a starter shortly into his first season with United, and would go on to guide the team to an MLS Cup in 2004.
It's a testament to the total failure of our 2008 acquisitions that not one of last year's nominees is still on the team.

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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.

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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...

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...

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...

Boy did I miss the feelings of 2008. Poor motivation in international tournaments, decent possession but few shots on target, costly individual mistakes... This is deja vu all over again.
1. In his first bit of extended time, Danny Szetela stood out in an otherwise mediocre midfield. Click to continue reading...

Win or lose, some of our guys looked like superheroes out there. I was so impressed with the way that Fred, Rodney Wallace, and Bryan Namoff were able to run so hard for 120 minutes straight. True warriors. Way to wear the shirt, boys.
This was a fun match to watch, as I felt like both teams really wanted the win. Click to continue reading...

Danny Szetela after the game:

More from:

• Tom Soehn
• Rodney Wallace
• Andrew Jacobson

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This match exhibited nothing but a lowly underperforming team working harder than a much more talented team. DC came out to a quick 2-0 lead, and apparently they thought they didn't need to do anything else for the next 70 minutes. That wasn't true.
There was also some definite bad luck for San Jose. Click to continue reading...

Well, the whole two half things has never been more apt. I don't know what Tommy said to the team in the locker room, but it worked something special.

The first half was honestly the worst 45 minutes of soccer I've ever seen. I'm counting Screaming Eagles pickup games in that assertion.

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A 1-1 tie would have been a pretty good prediction going in, and isn't a bad result for us. But it feels good to say that this team deserved better. DC United dominated in scoring opportunities, with 11 shots on goal to Columbus's 3. But they were a bit more effective at converting their few opportunities, as we let the Crew off the hook far too often with failed chances and weak shots straight at the keeper. Click to continue reading...

Football supporters love a home-grown hero. In a time when it's impossible to bump into our idols on the Tube or in the pub after a match, it's becoming more and more difficult for fans to relate to players. They earn huge amounts (in Europe, at least) and have impossibly attractive wives, girlfriends and cars.

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16 games in to the season, with a two week break from MLS action, I can think of no better time to deliver to you the second annual installment of the Mid-Season Review. In this space over the next 10 or so days, we will take a look at the Acquisitions, Departures, and Trades that United has made since the end of the 2008 season, and then wrap it all up with a Summary. Click to continue reading...

The story of this game could be one of matchups, of lineup construction, or of the coaching philosophies, but for me the story is the three players vying for the MLS Rookie of the Year. While Stefan Frei deserves much praise, offense almost always sells, and in this case there is quite a bit [...] Click to continue reading...

It seems like all the buzz these days in comments at the Seattle Times, or at GoalSeattle, or even in the seat right next to me is how much Fredy Montero sucks. Words like lazy are thrown out. Poor passer. Bad Touch. Lucky first week. While certainly all of these may apply [...] Click to continue reading...

Colorado Rapids striker Conor Casey is leading Major League Soccer's race for the Golden Boot, but Real Salt Lake midfielder Kyle Beckerman is making a run at the league's Golden Ankle award.

He is tied for the league lead with five yellow cards in 11 matches.

So as the Rapids prepare to travel to Utah to face RSL on Saturday, The Tuesday List looks at yellow cards and fouls.

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This one hurts. Hurts more than any other match this year. Losing 1 point here because of a faux penalty call hurts worse than losing 2 points to LA Galaxy earlier in the year because of a faux penalty call. Maybe that's because it was to one of our fierce rivals who look to be making a push up the table now that Twellman is back, or maybe it's because we deserved much better here. Click to continue reading...

Ready for a little trip..? Triumph of the Hydra A few days ago, we had a nice little back-and-forth regarding DC United rookie Chris Pontius' multi-position versatility and its potential impact on his development as a young player. Since the... Click to continue reading...

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                                           Photo by ISIphotos.com

If the thought of having Rodney Wallace suit up as the U.S. national team's starting left back one day gets you excited as a USA fan, you shouldn't give up on that possibility actually taking place.

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                                           Photo by ISIphotos.com

If the thought of having Rodney Wallace suit up as the U.S. national team's starting left back one day gets you excited as a USA fan, you shouldn't give up on that possibility actually taking place.

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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.

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So my prediction of a lineup change came true; sort of. Jack Jewsbury and Hercules Gomez were back in the lineup for KC sending Michael Harrington and Roger Espinoza back to the bench. Still this made no difference because the Wizards again struggled to score and came from behind to tie D.C. in a game that was so bad that it can only be topped off by their last weekday game, a poor display vs.

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DC United struck first with an opportunistic goal from Rookie Rodney Wallace, but KC rallied in the second half and got a goal from Josh Wolff to share the points. With the point United takes sole possession of the Eastern Conference lead at least until Saturday's slate of matches. Click to continue reading...

It's Wednesday night soccer at the CAB when DC United comes to town to take on the Wizards. Wizards got a week off after a tough (and underserved) loss on the road against Toronto, while DC has come back to beat the worst teams in the league, NY and Dallas the last 2 weeks.

DC comes in with the MLS player of the week Jaime Moreno who will try to keep their team's comeback streak alive.

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