D.C. United to play friendlies in Indonesia?

Even though the current season is by no means over, parts of the D.C. United organization must always be looking towards the offseason and next year. And it is in that vein that we see a paper out of Indonesia reporting that United and the reigning Indonesian Super League Champions, Sriwijaya FC, are negotiating a visit by the Black and Red. It is likely that this would be a similar sort of affair to the LA Galaxy tour of Indonesia last year, and would occur in early to mid December.

If Sriwijaya is able to book D.C. United, they will then attempt to get other clubs to participate as well, with Arsenal as the team named in the newspaper article. This seems highly unlikely, as Arsenal would be right in the middle of their season; games against teams from Australia or Japan seem much more feasible. But even without higher quality competition, a tour by itself would be useful for raising the international profile of the club.

All of this comes as no surprise whatsoever, as one of United's new team owners, Erick Thohir, is from Indonesia, he was one of the primary organizers who brought the Galaxy to Indonesia, and it was this visit that sparked his interest in MLS and eventually led him to purchase D.C. United. A one-off game in Indonesia seems highly unlikely, so we will be on the lookout for more rumored friendlies over the coming weeks.