San Jose (3-7-2) at D.C. United (5-7-1), 3 p.m.

Washington, D.C. (Sports Network) - D.C. United will try to continue its surge back into contention in the Eastern table when it hosts the expansion San Jose Earthquakes on Sunday at RFK Stadium.

United, which started the season 2-7-0 is currently on a four game unbeaten streak (3-0-1) that has seen it go from last to within nine points of leaders New England heading into Saturday's Major League Soccer fixtures.

"I'd rather we be first," D.C. coach Tom Soehn said of his team's current place in the standings. "Right now all we can do is control what's going forward. We can't look back. As long as we stay consistent now and keep putting results together and good performances together, we're going to be happy with that because that's what we have now."

United is coming off an impressive 4-1 win over the New York Red Bulls which was led by a Luciano Emilio hat trick.

"We just want to build consistency," Soehn said. "After you look back you say we've done this for two months in a row, and now you say you're there. ... Obviously we're creating a lot of opportunities, I thought that was a positive. I've said this before, when Luciano [Emilio] does get one, they start to come in bunches and they're starting to come in bunches, but there are still things to work on."

San Jose is currently last in the entire league with just 11 points after 12 fixtures, but after a 0-0 tie at Real Salt Lake last week in which the team played the entire second half down a man, it has something to build on.

"What it does, it allows Salt Lake to not get three points," San Jose coach Frank Yallop said. "And in our division, as we know, it's tight as anything. On the road, in division games, we don't want to lose. A tie is fine. Then in your home games against the division you want to try and get a win. Salt Lake will be upset that they didn't win, but it evens itself out in the end. They might not have been lucky, but we've been unlucky in games and haven't won. That's just the way it shakes down."

Despite the 'Quakes' current place in the standings, they are still only three games out of first in the Western Conference.

"Being an expansion franchise everybody expects us to lose every game," San Jose defender Kelly Gray said. "But, we've got the players and we can do it - we can win a lot of games this year. We've shown it in some of the games that we've played. It's just an attitude. We've got to bring in the right attitude day in and day out. We're turning that corner, we're getting close."

Both teams will be missing forwards due to international duty on Sunday, with D.C.'s Francis Doe representing Liberia and San Jose's Kei Kamara representing Sierra Leone.