New York (4-3-3) at D.C. (4-7-1), 7:30 p.m.

Washington, D.C. (Sports Network) - D.C. United hopes to continue its improved form as of late when it hosts Eastern Conference rivals Red Bull New York on Saturday night at RFK Stadium in Major League Soccer action.

D.C., which started the season 2-7-0 is 2-0-1 in its last three and looking like it's starting to snap out of its slump. The key to that turnaround has been the improved play of defending league MVP Luciano Emilio. The Brazilian has goals in all three games of the modest unbeaten run.

"I said all along with Luci, you don't want to be the first one he scores on, because he is going to start putting them in regularly," D.C. coach Tom Soehn said.

The last goal he scored was in stoppage time at the Chicago Fire - who had the best record in the league at the time - in a 2-1 comeback win last week.

"I wouldn't want him running at me," Soehn said of Emilio's winning goal. "I know he had two defenders on him, but you could see what his intentions were: He was going to get a shot off, and a good shot it was."

"They left a lot of space for us, and I thought I could go through and shoot," Emilio said. "I had the confidence to do it."

The Red Bulls are just two points up on D.C. in the Eastern table, but have two games in hand. They are coming off a 1-0 home win over Chivas USA in which a late Juan Pablo Angel goal was the difference.

"I'm pleased with the result, but I believe we still need to improve," New York coach Juan Carlos Osorio said. "In general, I think we got what we deserved. We limited a very good team to only a few chances, so I have to be pleased we put a team on the field that could have done better. This is something we just have to build on."

Angel, who has been battling back and hamstring injuries all season, aggravated the injuries in scoring the goal vs. Chivas USA. He is officially listed as questionable on the team's injury report.

"I was very sore in my back and in my hamstring as the game went on and I think it was 10 minutes before the end of the game, I went to trap the ball down and I felt it go very tight," Angel said. "I don't think I pulled it but it's very short right now. I hope it's nothing serious but I'm not really happy with how things are going this year."

The Red Bulls will probably also be without forward Jozy Altidore, who is in the process of finalizing a transfer to Villarreal of the Spanish La Liga while forward Oscar Echeverry and midfielders Claudio Reyna and Dane Richards are also listed as questionable with their own injuries.

D.C. is relatively healthy, although it will be without two starters who received red cards in the win at Chicago - Marcelo Gallardo and Bryan Namoff.