DC United defied the odds at sold out JELD-WEN and gave the Portland Timbers their first home loss in league play on Sunday night 3-2.
United opened the game up according to plan as rookie Perry Kitchen scored off a Blake Brettschneider header in the 13th minute to make it 1-0. Everything seemed to be going well until yet another referee controversy came about in the 65th minute when Portland was awarded three penalty kicks attempts after the head official determined that United keeper Bill Hamid had stepped off his line during the first two. After two failed attemps by Kenny Cooper, Portland’s Jack Jewsbury finally converted to even the scoreline at 1-1. Moments later, DC United earned their own PK after Portland was called for handling inside the box. Chris Pontius only needed one try to make it 2-1 with just 15 minutes left. Josh Wolff scored to make it 3-1, and only at the end was Portland able to score to make it 3-2 at full time.
After the match, DC United coach Ben Olsen was less than satisfied with the officiating. “Bad calls happen every week in this league. It’s what our league is right now.”
The result will bring smiles to all the DC United fans, as they have not found themselves on the losing side of a league match since April 29th. United came into the match with numerous injured players including play-makers Charlie Davies, Santino Quaranta and Dax McCarty. To counter, they played stellar defense during the play of game and especially during set pieces, which seems to be Portland’s strong point. This time, they were able to capitalize on their offensive chances. Also, rookie Blake Brettschneider contributed on two of the three DC goals, making him tied with Andy Najar for most assists during the season.
On the losing side, Troy Perkins has to be disappointed with this result considering he apparently carries a personal vendetta against his former team for the events of last season which he used for motivation for this match. It’s not over yet, as I’m sure he’ll look for revenge on the return match on August 27th.
It all seemed to come together for DC tonight which is great timing considering how hard it is to play in Portland. However, the fans there deserve a shout-out considering they stayed until the final whistle and were rewarded with a late goal of their own to make it close to the end. It’s clubs like Portland that are making the MLS better each day.
With the win, DC United are now third place in the Eastern Conference standings with a 4-4-3 record (15 points). They will stay on the west coast this week as they travel to Los Angeles to take on the Galaxy at the Home Depot Center this Saturday (11pm EST FoxSoccer Channel).
(image courtesy of Craig Mitchelldyer)
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