D.C. United is an American professional soccer club based in Washington, D.C. that competes in Major League Soccer in the Eastern Conference of the league. The franchise is one of the ten charter clubs of MLS, having competed in the league since its inception in 1996.

D.C. United is the most decorated club in MLS, having won thirteen international and domestic titles over the club's history. It was one of the most successful clubs in the early years of MLS, winning eight of its thirteen titles between 1996 and 1998 under head coach Bruce Arena. United holds the joint MLS record for most Supporters' Shields, has four MLS Cups, and been crowned U.S. Open Cup champions three times. It is also the first club to win both the MLS Supporters' Shield and MLS Cup consecutively.^[6] On the international stage, D.C. United has competed in both the CONCACAF Champions League and its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions' Cup. The club won the 1998 CONCACAF Champions' Cup. Subsequently, United won the now-defunct Copa Interamericana in 1998 against Vasco da Gama of Brazil. This is the only intercontinental title won by an MLS club.

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 plans to build a new 24,000-seat soccer-specific stadium at Buzzard Point just a few blocks from Nationals Park by groundbreaking and starting construction on the new stadium 2015 with an opening date of 2018. The team is owned by the consortium D.C. United Holdings. The team's head coach is former long-time starting midfielder