New York Red Bulls play host to DC United on Saturday night looking to catapult themselves up the Eastern Conference table.
At a time when the home team sit in ninth position, DC United are down in 14th spot after a four-game losing streak.
Match preview
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On the back of last season's appearance in the MLS Playoff final, New York Red Bulls would have hoped for a strong start to this campaign.
Instead, they have accumulated just 12 points from their opening eight matches, winning on just three occasions, to sit in the bottom half of the standings.
Sandro Schwarz can be delighted with his team's defensive work courtesy of only conceding seven times across that period, yet netting just nine times is undermining their work.
More encouragingly, though, New York Red Bulls have only lost one of their most recent seven MLS games, albeit that to a New England Revolution side that sit below them in the standings.
Since then, a 2-1 victory has been posted over mid-table Chicago Fire, a result followed by a goalless draw at Orlando City who sit one place above them.
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As for DC United, they were bidding to bounce back from last season's 10th-placed finish, only to prevail from one of their eight games since the start of the campaign.
That came at home to Western Conference strugglers Sporting Kansas City, Troy Lesesne now tasked with trying to end a four-game losing streak.
Despite only losing 1-0 at home to FC Cincinnati last time out, a total of 13 goals have been conceded during that poor run of form.
Furthermore, DC United have shipped 12 strikes in just three away encounters during 2025, a natural cause for concern ahead of this encounter.
Team News
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With Omar Valencia and Serge Ngoma having both reached three yellow cards for the campaign, Schwarz will be forced into making at least two alterations.
Cameron Harper and Sean Nealis may come into the side, Dylan Nealis potentially moving to right wing-back to accommodate the return of his brother.
Having pushed high-flying Cincinnati all the way, Lesesne may be against making many changes to his DC United XI.
Although Christian Benteke drew a blank in that game, the Belgian veteran has netted five times in eight starts this campaign.
Gabriel Pirani is an option to be recalled in the final third having been dropped for the previous match.
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Coronel; S. Nealis, Parker, Eile; D. Nealis, Stroud, Donkor, Carballo, Harper Forsberg, Choupo-Moting
DC United possible starting lineup:
Barraza; Bartlett, MacNaughton, Rowles; Herrera, Servania, Kijima, Schnegg; Stroud, Peglow; Benteke
We say: New York Red Bulls 2-1 DC United
Although the Red Bulls have been inconsistent during the opening two months of the campaign, we cannot ignore the dismal run of their opponents. With that in mind, we are backing the home side to come through in a competitive encounter, potentially helped by a fast start.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Darren Plant
