On Sunday DC takes on the Copycats United (Seriously, they copied United, Black-and-Red, and amazing league debuts thanks to South American talent).

DC are the only team besides Vancouver to win every game played against Atlanta and the 'Caps have only played Atlanta once, compared to DC's three.

Ezequiel Barco and Brandon Vazquez are definitely out for Atlanta, while Michael Parkhurst (who by the way has had two own goals against DC) and Leandro Gonzalez Pirez are questionable.

Atlanta had a very embarrassing showing against the Houston Dynamo, losing 4-0 (I don't care how many unstoppable shot Guzan saved, they were hammered and that's that). That match includes a missed penalty by Miguel Almiron and horrible set piece defending by Atlanta. With Stieber, Asad, Segura, Moreno, and Acosta all options, the Five Stripes are destined to have some trouble in that department.

Now it's time to look at our team.

Here is my projected starting lineup for DC:

---------------------------------Mullins (Mattocks)---------------------------

Asad------Acosta (Harkes)-------------- Stieber/Segura------- Arriola

----------------------------------Moreno (Durkin)---------------------------------

Fisher--------------------- Birnbaum---------------Brillant-------------DeLeon

-----------------------------------Ousted----------------------------------------------

After Orlando, Mullins might start, plus after a good 75 minutes, the Atlanta defense won't want Darren Mattocks running top speed at them.

Joseph Mora will be out due to visa complications.

Ousted is favorite to start, but Clark may be given a chance to prove himself.

The Atlanta d-mid will be a ruin this game because due to lack of defenders, Larentowicz will have to drop down, so with Carmona out of the club, they'll have to rely on Nagbe, who isn't a true defensive midfielder, so expect the AAA to wreak havoc upon the other United's defense, without any strong shields guarding them.

If Brillant and Birnbaum are truly a worthy pair of center backs, then I hope they'll be up to the task of defending Gressel, Almiron, Villalba, Martinez, and Nagbe because it is not easy.

I think that we should all look for who wins in midfield, because face it, these are two of the deepest midfields in MLS going toe to toe.

I hope that DC will be looking to exploit the weaknesses that Houston showed MLS and if we're lucky, Atlanta might just have another bad day.

Another thing I'm hoping DC does is get on the scoreboard early, because it was 4-0 Houston halftime. What happened next 45? Almiron missed a penalty, Guzan was forced into spectacular saves, and even more!

Anyway, I think that DC will run out 2-1 winners full time.

Z.P. Siegel, signing off.