DC United vs. Columbus Crew MLS pick

Expect a tooth and nail encounter as two sides gagging for points square-off on Saturday.

DC may be third in the Eastern Conference but they are just three points behind Sporting Kansas City, and a single point behind the New York Red Bulls, and they have that...wait for it... all important game in hand to play. DC will want the three points to make an assault on the summit of the Eastern Conference, and as Sporting have just won twice in their last five, DC will fancy their chances and the soccer odds will reflect this. As for Columbus, they NEED the points as they are third bottom in the Eastern Conference and have two teams two points or less behind them (Toronto and Philadelphia). They may have played just 17 games, but position is how you measure a team and the Crew need to start climbing the table.

A fine line between comedy and tragedy

Looking at Columbus’ last five makes very sobering reading for their (remaining) fans, they are on back to back defeats and with just four points from their last possible 15. By comparison DC may have lost their last game but they do have three victories in their last five. We’re just past the halfway mark of the 2012 season and United are third in the Eastern Conference with 33 points. Improvement looks to be the order of the day as last season United only amassed 39 points in total.

DC’s form and record is enough for me to dip back into Mrs Richardson’s shoe fund and splash some cash on a DC victory. But as Mrs Richardson holds terribly tight to the purse strings she wants more reasons than that before she’ll led me invest next week’s food budget on DC. Thankfully, I got plenty of reasons to give.

Best begun is half done

“You look at us on paper and obviously in the preseason, you see the talent," DC’s Christopher Pontius (not the cast member of the MTV series Jackass) said. "It was just about clicking. The first couple of games we weren't. We started jelling after that and things started falling into place." Pontius has a point, looking back at last season there was no D.C. United player selected for the MLS All-Star game, but now they  have two: midfielder Dwayne De Rosario and forward Chris Pontius.

That’s reason enough to bet ON DC United, now some reasons to bet against Columbus Crew

The Gods of football are frowning on the Crew

In their last game Sporting Kansas City robbed Columbus of three points. Despite the Crew having nearly 62 percent of possession and only facing two shots on target, the Crew lost 2-0. Columbus  are 11 points and four wins behind DC in the Estern Conferenc, which is considerably less frightening when you consider that they do have two (all important) games up their sleeve, but as a wise man once said, “a point in the bag are worth two up the sleeve.”

If it wasn’t for bad news...

Columbus also announced on Tuesday that Bernardo Añor suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee during their game against Sporting Kansas City when he was leg-whipped by Kamara in the 63rd minute, still, he somehow managed to finish the match. Top points for heart but Añor will be going under the knife later this month and is expected to be out for up to 10 months, undergoing rehabilitation

The real tragedy is that he becomes the third Crew player to suffer a season-ending injury. As goalkeeper William Hesmer and forward Tommy Heinemann are also out for the year and

Is there a doctor in the house?

Worse still for Columbus, second-year defender Rich Balchan has missed this entire season with a sports hernia, and the club was recently forced to part ways with a three defenders  (including one-time starter Shaun Francis) in order to comply with league roster rules.

Misery knows company

If that wasn’t bad enough for Columbus (and therefore good enough for my bank balance) the Crew are further depleted. The MLS Disciplinary Committee has suspended forward Emilio Rentería for one game for his head butt of Sporting Kansas City’s Paulo Nagamura.  Renteria, who is the team's most-used forward (1,210 minutes played, 79% of the season), was (only) issued a yellow card at the time, but when the incident was reviewed after the game, Renteria was send to the MLS naughty step.

Slight consolations

DC will be without one key player of their own this Saturday after goalkeeper Bill Hamid got himself sent off in their last game against Houston. The last two meetings between these sides have gone the home side’s way, 3-1 to DC last March and 2-1 top Columbus last October, and Saturday’s match is at the Columbus Crew Stadium — Columbus, Ohio. But it’s not enough...

Soccer Betting Prediction: DC win and the game goes over!