Looking to bounce back from their defeat against Chicago Fire, New York Red Bulls welcome DC United to the Red Bull Arena on Saturday.
The visitors, on the other hand, have lost their most recent two games away from home and will be seeking to bring an end to this poor run.
Match preview
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New York Red Bulls were denied a second win on the bounce last time out when they fell to a 1-0 home loss at the hands of Chicago Fire.
Slovenian forward Robert Beric came up trumps for the Chicago-based side when he put them ahead shortly after the half-hour mark with what was just his third goal in 22 league outings this season.
Prior to that, Gerhard Struber's men picked up a 1-0 victory over Columbus Crew three weeks ago, when John Tolkin scored the only goal of the game to end their run of seven outings without a win.
New York Red Bulls have now managed two wins and four draws from their last 12 outings, and this poor run of results has seen them drop to 12th place in the Eastern Conference table.
They will now go up against an opposing side who have been dominant in recent meetings between the sides, claiming 10 wins and five draws from the last 18.
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Meanwhile, DC United kept hold of their spot in the playoff places last time courtesy of a 3-1 victory over Philadelphia Union at the Audi Field Stadium.
After an own goal from Steve Birnbaum put Jim Curtin's side ahead midway through the first half, the Black-and-Red hit back with three goals to turn the game on its head through Ola Kamara, Yordy Reyna and Ramon Abila.
Prior to that, Hernan Losada's men suffered defeats at the hands of Nashville, New England Revolution and Atlanta United in the three games leading to the win, while conceding 10 goals and scoring five.
With 30 points from 22 games, DC United are currently seventh in the conference standings, and Losada will hope his side can build on their performance last time out to strengthen their position in the top half of the table.
They follow this game with a home tie against Chicago Fire next Thursday, while New York Red Bulls take a trip to the Mapfre Stadium to face Columbus Crew.
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Team News
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New York Red Bulls will have to cope without the services of Aaron Long who sustained a severe Achilles injury in the game against Philadelphia Union back in July.
He is joined on the Metro's injury table by Youba Diarra and Cameron Harper, who are presently recuperating from muscle and knee injuries respectively.
Major doubts are also cast over the availability of Venezuelan midfielder Cristian Casseres, who has missed the last two outings through a hamstring problem.
Meanwhile, the visitors head into the game with a relatively long injury list, including Bill Hamid and Paul Arriola, who are both out with muscle injuries.
Brendan Hines-Ike (hip), Adrien Perez (ankle), Nigel Robertha (groin) and Donovan Pines (foot) are also on the club's injury table and will sit out the game.
New York Red Bulls possible starting lineup:
Carlos; Duncan, Reyes, Nealis, Tarek; Davis, Tolkin, Clark, Amaya; Fabio, Klimala
DC United possible starting lineup:
Kempin; Odoi-Atsem, Brillant, Birnbaum; Yow, Asad, Felipe, Skundrich, Mora; Reyna, Flores
We say: New York Red Bulls 2-1 DC United
New York Red Bulls have struggled for results for most of the season and find themselves at the wrong end of the table.
While DC United have suffered a slump in form in recent weeks, they will head into the game in high spirits following their convincing win over Philadelphia. However, we predict the hosts will claim all three points and extend the visitors' poor away form.
Top tip
Data Analysis
Our analysis of all available data, including recent performances and player stats up until an hour before kickoff, suggested the most likely outcome of this match was a New York Red Bulls win with a probability of 53.96%. A draw had a probability of 24.6% and a win for DC United had a probability of 21.39%.
The most likely scoreline for a New York Red Bulls win was 1-0 with a probability of 12.56%. The next most likely scorelines for that outcome were 2-0 (10.28%) and 2-1 (9.57%). The likeliest drawn scoreline was 1-1 (11.68%), while for a DC United win it was 0-1 (7.14%). The actual scoreline of 1-1 was predicted with an 11.7% likelihood.
