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DCU, RBNY set for Atlantic Cup clash

Aug 29, 2014 - 11:57 PM Washington, D.C. (SportsNetwork.com) - D.C. United and Red Bull New York will square off at RFK Stadium on Sunday in the latest installment of the Atlantic Cup.

D.C. United returns home still atop the Eastern Conference, despite suffering a 4-1 loss to the Los Angeles Galaxy at the StubHub Center on Wednesday.

The Red Bulls, meanwhile, cruised past the Montreal Impact in a 4-2 victory at Red Bull Arena last weekend to hang on to fifth place and the final playoff spot in the conference.

Bradley Wright-Phillips bagged a brace in the win to bring his season tally to 20 goals, enough to break the single-season franchise scoring record, previously held by Juan Pablo Angel.

"The thing that goes unnoticed about Bradley are the little things," said RBNY head coach Mike Petke. "His positioning, the way he moves, him cleaning up his first touch, which six, seven, eight months ago it was lacking (with) him. He's scored 20 goals but he's really cleaned up a lot of his game and he's really stepped up and become a phenomenal player for us.

"As far as Juan Pablo Angel: yes, I played with him. He's a phenomenal goal scorer. If anybody's going to beat the record, I think Bradley certainly deserves to. Juan Pablo is a legend for this club and hopefully we have Bradley around for as long as we had Juan Pablo."

Thierry Henry scored the club's other two goals against Montreal as the Frenchman has now recorded multiple goals in a game seven times in his MLS career. Henry also recorded his 11th assist of the season, moving bringing the former Arsenal striker into a tie atop the league assist chart with the Galaxy's Robbie Keane.

United's loss at the StubHub Center on Wednesday was made all the more disappointing by the fact that the club had just taken a vital three points from a resounding 3-0 victory at Sporting Kansas City.

The four goals D.C. conceded in the defeat to the Galaxy were a season-high.

"I think it just comes down to us getting the job done," DCU defender Bobby Boswell said after the game. "I can make excuses and say it's traveling, but we prepare properly; they give us ample time. They put us in a position to have success and we just have to go out and take it. We've done it a couple times this year on the road. We've gone out and gotten good results.

"It's a tale of two games, from Kansas City to here. I think they probably watched that game and maybe they had a little bit of a different game plan, and it seemed to work for them tonight. Like I said, we were great in Kansas City, we were not good tonight. ... Obviously we can't just keep giving up a bunch of goals. That's the most frustrating thing from a defensive standpoint."