D.C. United had not won back to back games since 2009; they now have two sets of back to back wins in a single month. This game was all about the depth that United has built. It sounds like a cliché at this point, but its still true: this is a game that D.C. United would have underperformed in during the past two seasons. Through injuries prior to and during the game, they have been missing the wingers and forwards that brought them back after the slow start to the season. The back line has been missing the talisman that calmed them after that same slow start. Ben Olsen mentioned after the game that the team has been dealing with tired legs, but were able to gut through this performance. This is the type of game that teams who are challenging for the top of their conference win, and in a similar fashion.

This year they are able to not only grind out results, but still look good doing it. Players that we all expected to do well but didn't at the start of the season, like Hamdi Salihi and Branko Boskovic, put their stamp on this game. Chris Korb continues to get better and better at right back, to the point that he may be a viable starter whenever Robbie Russell decides to hang it up or is no longer effective. This is the kind of game that United had to win to prove that they are among the top in the Eastern Conference, and they did just that. United are now on 24 points and could move into second if Sporting Kansas City's score stays tied.

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Attention Canada! I am Barney from America, and I am here to fix your backward ass country. Number one, get real money. Don't know what board game this came from, but it's a joke. Number two, and this is the biggy, quit letting awesome [soccer players], like [Dwayne De Rosario], get away. Because guess what? You don't want [him]? I'm planting my flag in [him], if you know what I mean, which you probably don't, and getting the hell outta here. You may now return to being pointless.

(How I Met Your Mother, season 5, episode 5)

They say that 0-8-0 is the most dangerous record in soccer. I don't know who "They" is, but I'm pretty sure its been said before. If it hasn't, then I'm saying it for the first time now. And I'm also lying.

Toronto FC hasn't won or tied a single game in 2012. They are literally pointless. Just like their country.

Game time: 7:30 PM

Television: Comcast SportsNet

Projected starting lineup: Tonight's lineup for D.C. United is tougher to predict than other lineups have been recently. Not because the team is struggling to fill gaps left by injuries, but because players are suddenly getting healthy. I agree with Benuski that Dejan Jakovic will return to the starting lineup for this match, but not Emiliano Dudar quite yet. Jakovic will allow Daniel Woolard to move back to the left, with the suddenly reliable Chris Korb shifting the right and Brandon McDonald staying in the middle. Bill Hamid will be in goal. Ben Olsen has some tough choices to make in the front six, other than Perry Kitchen. Will he rest some healthy veterans? I'm predicting Andy Najar on the left and Danny Cruz on the right, with Branko Boskovic getting another start in the middle. Dwayne De Rosario and Hamdi Salihi will stay up top.

Prediction: Although Toronto is better than their record (I guess they couldn't possibly be worse), I expect the same result as the last time these two teams met. That would mean a 2-0 victory for D.C. United.

What are you drinking? I'll be on the road back from taking my little girl to Sesame Place, so I'll probably be drinking coffee from some Wawa. But Benuski will making his RFK Stadium press box debut tonight, so join him in the comments thread.

This is your place for pre-game, in-game, and post-game discussion.

Didn't I just cover this team? And didn't I just make a joke similar to this one after we played Houston twice seemingly within three days?

Yes and yes. D.C. United is once again playing Toronto FC. The venue has changed, but the opponent remains the same. If you're starting to feel like you're in Groundhog Day, that's because you apparently are. It could be worse; Bill Murray and Chris Elliott are pretty awesome.

If you think this is getting repetitive, imagine how TFC fans feel: United was their last MLS opponent. They've had Voyageurs Cup matches since - a 2-0 win in the second leg at home to knock out the Montreal Impact, and a 1-1draw in Vancouver that was very nearly an invaluable 1-0 win until Eric Hassli did this - but it's still back-to-back league games against the Black-and-Red.

Lest we start to feel overconfident about facing a team that's lost all eight of their league games and just capitulated at home against us, it's worth noting that TFC has a good record in recent years at RFK. The Reds have somehow managed 3 goals in each of their last three visits to the District (two 3-3 draws and one 3-2 win in Jaime Moreno's final game for the club).

In general, these games have been bizarre. A perfect example came last season: TFC got an early red card for Bill Hamid, a goal when the referee would not let us complete a substitution for no apparent reason (leaving us down a center back when the goal was scored) and still ended up only managing a draw against Dwayne De Rosario, who played that game entirely by himself.

Toronto's uptick in results since we last met has me thinking that our win at BMO Field might have been the breaking point for their players. Since then - and an obligatory "clear the air" meeting - they've managed to win a game while down a man for 65 minutes against a half-decent Montreal side, and they didn't win in Vancouver only via a ridiculous goal. They even managed that result against the Whitecaps without Torsten Frings, who did not travel to DC either.

In other words, this isn't necessarily the same sad-sack group we strolled past in second or third gear a couple of weeks ago.

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The last time that D.C. United faced off with Toronto FC, the Reds were desperate because they had yet to earn a point during the MLS regular season. Much has changed for both teams since then, but that fact certainly hasn't. TFC has yet to earn a win or tie so far this season, and they're desperately hoping to change that at RFK Stadium on Saturday.

Since it was just two weeks ago that United earned a 2-0 win in Toronto, and just two weeks since we exchanged three questions with Duncan Fletcher of Waking The Red ahead of that match, we asked just one question to SB Nation's resident TFC expert this time around: What's changed?

WTR: What's changed? Actually quite a bit. That defeat and the very defensive way TFC played in that game seemed to lead to a bit of an existential crisis, and the most depressing set of post game interviews ever. Since then though, after a clear the air meeting, we're on a 2 week unbeaten streak, knocked Montreal out of the Voyageurs Cup, and came within an Eric Hassli injury time wondergoal of keeping a second consecutive clean sheet. Even with that goal, TFC got a 1-1 tie in the away leg of the final, with the return leg going this upcoming wednesday. If only we didn't have to think of this whole league thing.

A big part of that success is the potential (too early to tell just yet) fixing of the biggest problem they've had all year, centre backs. The Montreal game was the first time Adrian Cann got paired with 19 year old Doneil Henry, and they looked quite good together. The Vancouver game was the first time in a long time we played the same cb partnership in 2 straight games, and again, it worked nicely. They'll hopefully be together again against DC, and I guess we'll see how they do in an MLS game.

There's also been a bit of a shuffle in the coaching ranks, with Aron Winter's right hand man Bob de Klerk moving from assistant coach to a vague "Technical manager" position amid our already bloated management structure, and former player and captain Jim Brennan moving from under 17 academy coach to assistant manager. There's all sorts of theories about what it all means, why it happened, if this is the beginning of the end, a compromise to delay the end, or a strengthening of his position for Winter. I'm not entirely happy with it, and think it'll weaken the first team, but I guess time will tell.

Torsten Frings took shots in his shoulder to play against Montreal, then had to miss the game against Vancouver because his shoulder felt like shit, so who knows if he'll play on Saturday, but Danny Koevermans is back from injury, he came off the bench on Wednesday and may well get the start up front. And that's about it really.

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This is a must win game for D.C. United against Toronto FC. And so is the next one against the New England Revolution. After winning against the Colorado Rapids, the team can bounce back from a somewhat disappointing three game road stretch with a very good shot at the full 9 points. As we talked about the last time that United played Toronto FC, they are not a team to be taken lightly, even with their current point total. They do have talented players, and a desperate team can do things that you do not expect. Maybe its a vestige of the past few seasons, when United did not have much depth, but I do not think you can rest any players in this game just because it is against Toronto.

If United is able to get full points from the next few games, it would put them on 27 points going into the summer slowdown, in which United have five league games in two months and only one of those at home. After the summer slowdown, its a race to the finish with 11 games in August and September. If United can bank points now, they can spend those last few months battling for the top of the league and not battling to make the playoffs.

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This wasn't supposed to be an easy game. Martin didn't think it would be. I didn't think it would be. At the very least, the Colorado Rapids got last week off - in contrast to our exhausting game in the sauna that is Houston this past weekend - and were also giving arguably their best player in Conor Casey his first start since an achilles tendon tear last season. Oscar Pareja's side was also missing only two starters, a figure Ben Olsen would probably kill for right now.

Instead, a front-to-back show of quality by D.C. United lead to a quite comfortable 2-0 win. The attack created enough chances that Matt Pickens could end up in the Player of the Week running despite giving up two goals; the midfield shut down the Rapids via a higher work rate, smarter positioning, and more judicious use of the ball; and the defense kept Colorado in front of them all night long, leaving Bill Hamid with little to do.

I won't tell you this was a world-class performance; rather, I'd call this the kind of game MLS's elite teams turn in on short rest against decent opposition. You'll see similar results when, say, the Seattle Sounders host a rested, healthy New England Revolution, or when the San Jose Earthquakes have a Wednesday night game against the Montreal Impact.

You know what that means: Lots of 5s beyond the jump!

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We went into the 2012 season thinking that Dwayne De Rosario and Hamdi Salihi were going to score the majority of goals for the club. De Rosario was coming off an MVP season that finally saw him get the paycheck he deserved, and Salihi entered with a goal-scoring record that rivals only Jaime Moreno.

Since then though, we've seen other players step up. We've seen Maicon Santos and Chris Pontius battle for the team lead in goals while being unexpectedly named the top forward pairing by Ben Olsen. We've also seen rookie Nick DeLeon prove to the league that he was taken far too late in the first round of the MLS Draft by adding three goals of his own.

So what happens to D.C. United then when all three of those player go down injured? The stars show us why they're stars. That's what happened against the Colorado Rapids tonight at RFK Stadium. De Rosario and Salihi each secured goals, with United claiming three points in a 2-0 victory.

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