Throughout most of the rivalry's history, the series has been fairly evenly matched between the Revolution and United, with both teams tied in total all-time wins, 37 all.

D.C. United and the New England Revolution's longstanding rivalry dates back to the inception of Major League Soccer in the mid 1990s.

[5] The two teams played their first match against one another on April 27, 1996 with the Revolution hosting United at the now-demolished Foxboro Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts, southwest of Boston.

[citation needed] Entering the early 2000s, the Revolution had more fortune in MLS play, in part thanks to the leadership of Steve Nicol, while United fell on harder times.

The 2004 Eastern Conference championship game has been called by pundits and American soccer journalists one of the best matches in MLS Cup Playoff history.

The 2004 United squad was boasted by players such as Ben Olsen, Christian Gómez, Jaime Moreno, Freddy Adu, and Brian Carroll.

Despite this, pundits and players have emphasized the importance of the matches between the two sides given the rivalry's history,[13][14] and the clubs routinely jockeying for wild-card berths in the MLS Cup Playoffs.

Around the same time, New England signed formed D.C. United and U.S. national team manager, Bruce Arena as their head coach.

New England set a transfer record selling Buchanan to Club Brugge, Buksa to Lens of the French Ligue 1, as well as Turner to Arsenal in the Premier League.

In addition, United won the 1998 Copa Interamericana, an infrequently-held and now-defunct super cup between the champions of CONCACAF and CONMEBOL.