D.C. United 2 (Emilio 16th minute, Gomez 73rd minute)
Real Salt Lake 1 (Beckerman 32nd minute)
MLS Player of the Week Luciano Emilio scored his league leading 19th goal and Christian Gomez got the game winner with his 7th as D.C. United beat Real Salt Lake 2-1 at RFK Stadium. With the win, United became the first team to clinch a berth in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
It was an ugly win for United as there were 39 fouls called, eight yellow cards issued and each team missed a penalty kick. Ben Olsen, Christian Gomez and Fred were among the yellow card recipients and due to their past card accumulation, they will miss United's next league match at Chicago on September 23. In my opinion, missing the Chicago game will help Olsen and Gomez. These two take a pounding each game and the rest will help them. Down the stretch it is going to be interesting to see how Head Coach Tom Soehn manages playing time for his players. I'd like to see some reserves get some valuable playing time in the last five games but you want to keep your starters fresh too. The goal is the overall best record and top seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs (MLS Cup 2007 is at RFK Stadium) but you don't want your guys banged up. Stay tuned.
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