FC Cincinnati vs DC United Prediction: Christian Benteke has to start the game!

FC Cincinnati will play their next game against DC United in the domestic league. They entertained Mexican club Monterrey a few days ago in the CONCACAF Champions League round of 16 and it ended in a defeat for FC Cincinnati, which makes the tie tricky ahead of the return leg in Mexico. But FC Cincinnati have to put that behind them and focus on the new season.

DC United have started the season as they had hoped, although not 100% but there's been glimpses of promise within the team. And given their experiences last season, the fans have a lot of reasons to be excited ahead of the new season.

FC Cincinnati

It's hard to swallow a defeat in a two-legged clash and there's a bit of anxiety running in the minds of the FC Cincinnati team. They fancied picking up the CONCACAF trophy, or atleast making it to the final stage, but now they will have a mountain to climb to advance from the Round of 16 stage. 

FC Cincinnati had a draw and a win in their opening 2 matches of the season. The most recent game was the 2-1 win over Chicago Fire a week ago. Aaron Salem-Boupendza gave FC Cincinnati the lead in the 39th minute and Miles Robinson scored the second goal in the 68th minute. 

FC Cincinnati manager Pat Noonan was left disappointed that the team failed to turn up against Monterrey in their latest game. He deployed the 3-4-1-2 as he had in the previous league games. The team played well but it just wasn't their day. According to stats, they had 56% possession, 4 shots on target and 6 corner kicks. They also created 3 big chances during the game.

Despite the defeat to Monterrey, Pat Noonan is expected to retain the same 3-4-1-2 setup ahead of the game against DC United. Corey Baird and Aaron-Salem Boupendza both missed 2 big chances to score against Monterrey and the team paid for it. Surely Pat Noonan will encourage the strike duo to perform better.

DC United

DC United are going beyond expectations of the fans and the neutrals. Although the season is just at the beginning stages, DC United are feeling very good and they might just establish themselves as a proper team this season. After beating the New England Revolution on the opening day, they went on to play a 2-2 draw with Portland Timbers away from home last weekend.

Portland Timbers had the game under wraps by the 61st minute after grabbing a 2-goal lead. But DC United had other ideas and they fought back and scored 2 goals to end the game as a draw. 

The DC United manager Troy Lesesne was pleased to see his team fight back against Portland Timbers and he has to give a lot of credit to the spirit within the team. And besides the result, DC United performed really well in that game. They had 59% possession, 8 shots on target, 8 corner kicks and they had 6 big chances during the game. 

Ahead of the trip to Cincinnati, Troy Lesesne will have a decision to make on the attacking end of the team. Christian Benteke was on the bench in the 2-2 draw despite scoring a hat trick in the game before. It might be the right time to feature him in the starting lineup ahead of Cristian Dajome.

Head to Head

FC Cincinnati and DC United have played 11 matches against each other. DC United won 5 games while FC Cincinnati won 2 and they played a draw in 4 matches.

Analysis and Predictions

DC United surely has the attention with their recent performances and it's not like FC Cincinnati are playing bad either but at the moment, no team can neglect DC United no matter how good they are. So this should be a very tight game between two teams that are in great form.

According to the h2h, FC Cincinnati are without a clean sheet in the last 5 meetings. 4 of the last 5 meetings ended with more than 2.5 goals and less than 4.5 cards.

• DC United to Play More than 3.5 Corners at 1.62 Odds
• Both Teams to Score at 1.615 Odds
• More than 2.5 Goals at 1.69 Odds