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Wizards-United Preview

Sep 9, 2009 - 8:51 PM By NICOLINO DIBENEDETTO STATS Writer

Kansas City (6-10-6) at D.C. (7-5-12), 7:30 p.m. EDT

Playing five of their remaining six games at RFK Stadium could be just what D.C. United need to emerge from the logjam of teams trying to reach the MLS Cup playoffs.

United begin a key five-game homestand Wednesday night when they face the Kansas City Wizards.

D.C. (7-5-12) has won twice in nine games (2-3-4) following a 4-1-5 stretch that appeared to be putting the club in solid playoff position. Instead, United are tied with New England, Salt Lake and Chivas for the final two wild-card playoff spots while sitting one point behind sixth-place Seattle and two ahead of 11th-place Toronto.

"We've got to stretch the five games at home and we need to take care of business and I feel like we are in control of our own destiny and we've got to take care of business at home," coach Tom Soehn said.

United are 5-0-5 at RFK Stadium, collecting 10 points in the last four games there (3-0-1). The only other remaining unbeaten team at home is Columbus (7-0-4), the reigning MLS Cup champion and D.C.'s opponent in the finale of the homestand Oct. 17.

United, however, failed to capitalize on home-field advantage last Wednesday, falling 2-1 to expansion Seattle in the U.S. Open Cup final.

D.C., which won the Open Cup last season, will host the Sounders in league play Saturday.

Before that, United will need to show some improvement from Saturday's 2-all tie at Dallas. They capitalized on a controversial penalty-kick goal from forward Jaime Moreno in the 58th minute after Dallas defender Daniel Torres was issued a red card for allegedly tripping Santino Quaranta in the box on a breakaway.

"We have to be positive these last five games going into this home stretch, it's been a little tense and we fought hard (Saturday)," Quaranta said.

United are 10-1-1 against the Wizards at RFK after dropping the first two meetings there in MLS' inaugural season of 1996.

The teams played to a 1-all tie at Kansas City on May 6 and end the regular season there Oct. 24.

The Wizards (6-10-6), who are nine points back of the final playoff spot, are looking to build on Saturday's 4-2 victory at New England and win consecutive games for the first time since April 5-11. The victory over the Revolution was Kansas City's largest scoring output of the season and ended an 0-5-2 stretch that saw the club get outscored 12-1.

"It's great, but at the same time, our performances need to get better," said interim coach Peter Vermes, who got his first win in four tries after replacing the fired Curt Onalfo. "If our performances keep getting better, we continue to give ourselves a good chance to win points."

Josh Wolff scored two goals Saturday, ending a nine-game drought. The forward leads the team with eight goals and found the net once on four shots against United in May's meeting.