UNION (4-2-3-1)

M’Bolhi

Gaddis-Edu-Valdes-Williams

Okugo-Nogueira

Le Toux-Maidana-Wenger

Casey

Bench: MacMath, Fabinho, Carroll, Fred, Cruz, Brown, Ribeiro

D.C. United (4-4-1-1)

Hamid

Korb-Boswell-Birnbaum-Kemp

DeLeon-Kitchen-Arnaud-Franklin

Silva

Espindola

Bench: Willis, Inkoom, Opare, Jeffrey, Neal, Johnson, Pontius

Preview 

- Ethan White is apparently not healthy enough to go with his hamstring strain, so the Union field arguably their best 11 players today, with Maurice Edu in central defense and Amobi Okugo returning to the midfield. Okugo-for-White is the only change from last weekend’s lineup.

- Changes abound for Ben Olsen’s squad, with a first-choice lineup out after the reserves did the job midweek in the CONCACAF Champions League. Fabian Espindola leads the line, interchanging with Luis Silva. Using Sean Franklin in the midfield instead of Samuel Inkoom or Chris Pontius (the former has been used a lot lately; the latter is still rounding back into form after a long absence) is a defense posture, but with Pontius and Eddie Johnson on the bench, that can easily be changed.

- The battle to watch here is in the middle of the pitch. Perry Kitchen has emerged as one of the most tenacious holding midfielders in the league, while Davy Arnaud has proved to be a veteran box-to-box contributor. Okugo and Vincent Nogueira, respectively, will have to match those two in kind.