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DCU hits the road to face Impact

Oct 24, 2014 - 11:27 PM Montreal, QC (SportsNetwork.com) - After clinching the top spot in the Eastern Conference, D.C. United will be preparing for the postseason as the club travels to Saputo Stadium on Saturday to face the Montreal Impact, which will be attempting to close out a disappointing campaign on a positive note.

The two sides enter the match at opposite ends of the conference standings, and both certainly have different goals for Saturday's game, as United will be using the fixture to stay sharp for the playoffs.

Montreal, meanwhile, is already assured of finishing on the bottom of the East, and after three successive draws, the Impact would love to claim three points before heading into the offseason.

United found themselves in a similar position last season to Montreal as the team managed a league-worst three wins en route to just 16 points in 34 games.

But after a 2-1 win over the Chicago Fire last weekend, United goalkeeper Bill Hamid was able to reflect on how far this team has come in just one season.

"It feels amazing, honestly. Last year was hell, but coming into this year, you know, we gained that experience," Hamid said when thinking back to last season. "We knew that we weren't going to allow that to happen to us anymore, so game by game we just focused in and week by week we focused in on each team that we had coming up. We didn't look to the future, we just looked at the present and we dealt with teams every week. It was honestly a great regular season. Now going into the playoffs, we need to continue that confidence and that rhythm and get as many wins as possible."

United brings a five-match unbeaten streak into Saturday's contest, and you can bet that head coach Ben Olsen would love his team to head into the postseason on a winning note before beginning the quest for the club's fifth MLS Cup title.

Chris Pontius managed to get his first goal of the season to open the scoring for United against the Fire, while Eddie Johnson tallied a goal of his own in the 53rd before Chicago pulled a goal back through Harrison Shipp 23 minutes from time.

It will be interesting to see if Olsen decides to rest any of his starters in Saturday's game, or if he would prefer to keep them sharp for next weekend's playoff contest.

The Impact can at least take a bit of solace from the fact that they knocked rivals Toronto FC out of playoff contention last weekend with a 1-1 draw.

Toronto needed a win at home against Montreal to keep its slim playoff hopes alive, but after Warren Creavalle put TFC ahead in the 20th minute, Montreal answered through Felipe Martins in the 39th.

Montreal then had chances to win the game in the second half, but in the end, the Impact settled for a point and a promising performance.

"Obviously, we wanted the three points today, but it does feel like a win," said Impact goalkeeper Evan Bush after the result with Toronto. "We got the result we needed to knock them out and we're happy about it. For about 25 minutes in the second half, I thought we played our best soccer this year."