D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. which competes in Major League Soccer (MLS). It is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league since its inception, in 1996.
Over the club's history, D.C. United has been considered to be the flagship franchise of MLS, having won 12 international and domestic titles or honors. Domestically, United has been one of the most successful MLS clubs. United has won the U.S. Open Cup twice, and holds an MLS record for most MLS Cup and Supporters' Shields apiece, winning each honor four times. United was also the first club to win both the MLS Cup and MLS Supporters' Shield consecutively.
On the international stage, D.C. United has competed in both the CONCACAF Champions League and its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. The club is also the only American soccer club to ever compete in a CONMEBOL (South American) competition, participating in the 2005 and 2007 editions of the Copa Sudamericana. In 1998, the club won the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. Subsequently, United won the now-defunct Copa Interamericana, a CONCACAF-CONMEBOL super cup, in 1998 against Vasco da Gama of Brazil.
The team's home field is the 45,596-seat Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium, owned by the District of Columbia and located on the Anacostia River. The team has proposed building a new 24,000-seat soccer-specific stadium at multiple possible sites in the Washington metropolitan area. The team is owned by the consortium D.C. United Holdings. The team's head coach is former long-time starting midfielder Ben Olsen, who has coached the team since 2010.
Players such as Jaime Moreno, Marco Etcheverry, and Eddie Pope are among the team's most successful stars. D.C. United has a strong fan base, with three supporters' clubs and one of the highest attendance averages in Major League Soccer. The club's official nickname is the "Black-and-Red" and home uniforms are black and white with accents of red. The team's name alludes to the "United" appellation commonly found in the names of soccer teams in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
Read more about D.C. United: History, Colors and Badge, Stadium, Club Culture, Ownership, Broadcasting, Players, Team Management
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—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)