A potentially pivotal stretch for the Black-and-Red starts with tonight's USOC game against the Strikers
For D.C. United, the easiest path to a trophy, as well as a return to the CONCACAF Champions League, starts with tonight's US Open Cup fourth round match against the NASL's Fort Lauderdale Strikers. Five games lie between United and a fourteenth major trophy, but in knockout competition those games are almost never easy. Take last year, for example: Despite playing a Pittsburgh Riverhounds side whose star player at the time now only occasionally appears for United, the Black-and-Red were forced into extra time before they could dispatch the USL club.