United News and Notes

I am off to Baltimore today to cover the big Orioles-Rockies showdown, so I'll make this quick:

-- Kpene (groin) remains out and will not play Sunday. Simms (ankle) jogged on the side and appears doubtful for Sunday. Wilson (foot) continues to rehab on the side.

-- United lead investors Victor MacFarlane and Will Chang will be at Eastern Market at 10:30 a.m. Sunday prior to the Red Bulls match to present a check for $50,000 to the merchants impacted by the recent fire.

-- London-raised Kasali Yinka Casal, who hates the D.C. heat, was jogging with some of his mates at the scorching training grounds when he turned with a defeated grin and said, "I'm done!" (Don't worry, he hasn't bought a ticket home yet.)

-- Ben Olsen and Jaime Moreno were involved in a nasty collision during a half-field scrimmage. It looked and sounded bad. Neither was injured, although Olsen got the worst of it.

"My esophagus is sore," Olsen said, laughing. "He's a big boy. I was on the ground and looked up and hoped he was on the ground too, but he was just standing there like nothing hit him."

I will take a closer look at United's attacking woes in Sunday's paper (and online at washingtonpost.com beginning late Saturday evening) and will be back here with United-Red Bulls pregame stuff an hour or so before kickoff. Meantime, if you're in the area, Crystal Palace USA will host Charlotte in a USL2 match Saturday at 7 p.m. in Annapolis and the Washington Freedom, which was featured in the Style section today, will play its home opener against Western Massachusetts at Maryland SoccerPlex Saturday at 7.