United on mission to bring down Rio Tinto

WASHINGTON ? The last time D.C. United hit the road, a two game road trip to Portland and Los Angeles yielded four points.

On Saturday night, DC will look to continue success away from the nation?s capital, this time against Real Salt Lake (9 pm ET, watch LIVE online). To achieve that, Ben Olsen?s men will look to emulate the efforts of two weeks ago.

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USA reaches semifinals with convincing 2-0 victory over Jamaica

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Preview: D.C. United at Real Salt Lake

Real Salt Lake return home following a two-game Eastern swing to take on D.C. United, Saturday night at Rio Tinto Stadium. United haven't won in five seasons in Utah, since winning there in Real's inaugural season. RSL took one point on their travels after a 1-1 draw in Philadelphia last time out. United saw a five-game unbeaten run come to an end in a 4-2 home loss to the San Jose Earthquakes.

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Clay Matthews Led the NFL in Untouched Sacks

Filed under: Packers, NFL Analysis

Clay Matthews is one of the best pass rushers in the league, so you would think that no matter where he is, offenses would want to make sure that he's always accounted for by their pass protection scheme.

So it might surprise you to learn that Matthews led the league in unblocked sacks last year. There were four different sacks when Matthews was able to come through completely untouched to bring down the quarterback. Initially I believed that this was a credit to Dom Capers' scheme, which managed to confuse defenses enough to let the Packers' best pass rusher come free, but in checking back over my notes it's more of a credit to Matthews' ability to read a play on the fly.

Twice Matthews came on a delayed blitz where the offensive line did not account for him because it appeared he was not rushing. It's difficult to say if these were designed delayed blitzes or simply plays where Matthews was able to rush late because he was either asked to spy (one of the sacks was of Michael Vick) or because his assigned man in coverage stayed in to block.

 

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DC look to learn from lopsided loss to San Jose

WASHINGTON ? D.C. United returned to the training pitch Tuesday morning, ready to move on from Saturday?s 4-2 defeat against the San Jose Earthquakes.

But for a young team, there was also an awareness of using the loss as a learning experience, a stepping stone to bigger and better things in a long season.

According to head coach Ben Olsen, the showing in training was a good start.

?It was a festive practice today,? he said. ?It was pretty high energy and you like to see that response from a group after, physically, I thought we got a little beat up on the weekend.?

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Zayner eager to shake injury woes

WASHINGTON ? It?s been a long, frustrating and injury-plagued season for D.C. United defender Jed Zayner in 2011.

A hamstring injury picked up in the season opener against the Columbus Crew has dogged him since mid-March, limiting him to only two league appearances and 131 minutes.

It?s also nullified any sort of contribution the 26-year-old hoped to have in his first full season with United.

?It?s been a long two-and-a-half-months ? [especially] seeing the boys go up and down,? Zayner said.

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Jaime Moreno Q&A

On Tuesday, June 21 D.C. United's newly-formed Under-23 side will begin its season on the campus of Mary Washington against Fredericksburg Hotspurs at 6:00 p.m. ET. The Black-and-Red were originally slated to begin their inaugural U-23 campaign tomorrow at home against the Northern Virginia Royals, but the impending arrival of the United States National Team ahead of Sunday's Gold Cup action forced that contest to be moved to a later date. 

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