DC United are now officially back in a playoff spot. After Saturday night’s 2-1 victory against the New England Revolution, United moved to 44 points in the Eastern Conference which is good for 5th place, only two points behind the Houston Dynamo with a game in hand. With DC’s 2-1 win Saturday the New England Revolution are now mathematically out of MLS Playoff contention.
Chris Pontius proved to be my Man of the Match tonight at RFK Stadium against the Revs as he provided a goal and an assist. Although DC lacked their creative talisman Dwayne De Rosario, Pontius was able to control the midfield and provide key moments of brilliance which ultimately sealed the victory. With tonight’s win at RFK Stadium that brings DC United’s home unbeaten streak to 14 games (10-0-4), a streak which spans all the way to March 10th of this season. A unique statistic that many would find interesting is that when Chris Pontius scores or gets an assist for DC their record now stands at 9-1. This game was truly a game of two halves with New England controlling the first half, while DC came out of its shell in the 2nd half with substitutes Lewis Neal and Salihi. DC United fans should be extremely content with this victory, however tentative as well because there was a lack of creativity throughout the entirety of the first half, and came out in spurts in the 2nd as DeLeon and Najar provided a much needed spark. For those United fans out there, Jay Heaps, the coach of New England, has yet to record a win against his friend and rival Ben Olsen as both young coaches continue to make a name for themselves and their respective teams.
The first half was full of hard-nose defending and a few moments of brilliance. As the first half closed the score read 1-1 as Kelyn Rowe of New England and Chris Pontius of DC United got onto the score board. There were plenty of fouls conceded for both sides as neither team did anything spectacular on the offensive side of the ball. Diego Fagundez was most definitely the creator and the link between the midfield and the forwards causing havoc. Although Lee Nguyen and Fagundez were pivotal in the attack for New England, Perry Kitchen and McDonald were always there to quell the threat. Entering the game, Chris Pontius had not scored in the past six weeks; however, Saturday night would change all of that. Throughout the first half, Pontius provided the link up with the forwards by sending in crosses to Pajoy and Santos who were both unable to create any real scoring threats. Pontius was able to begin the counter attack on numerous occasions but the Revolution defense was there to also shut down any potential threats. At the same time, Pajoy was the more active of the two forwards by relentlessly chasing down defenders showing his coach, Ben Olsen, his great work ethic. However, both forwards from DC lacked creativity while on the other side of the ball, Rowe and Alston looked much too comfortable coming along the flanks providing crosses. For the most part, the first twenty minutes of the game, New England was in complete control up front as well as their back four were solid.
The first real pressure on Matt Reis in New England’s goal was Boskovic’s 24th minute long distance shot from around 45 yards out which was excellently saved by Reis. The diving effort from Reis kept the scoreline at 0-0 until the 29th minute when Kelyn Rowe put the Revolution up 1-0 from a shot that glanced the crossbar and beat Hamid. The buildup play was simply majestic as Diego Fagundez’s unselfish play created a chance that the rookie Rowe finished calmly. Only three minutes later United got one of their own courtesy of Chris Pontius in the 32nd minute off a crafty back-heel assist from Boskovic, good for Pontius’ 11th goal of the campaign. The latter part of the first half turned out to be very open as both DC and New England were prone to counter attacking soccer, which did not please DC coach Ben Olsen in the slightest.
More production was found from Nick DeLeon in the second half with his pace along the right side of the field. Shortly after the momentum started to swing DC’s way, substitute Lewis Neal calmly placed home a pass from Chris Pontius atop the box in the 63rd minute to make it 2-1 in favor of DC. Pontius provided the excellent individual effort beating two defenders along the left hand side and a perfectly weighted pass to Neal, sealed the deal. After this goal, the second half saw much more “chippy” play from both Santos and Clyde Simms thus receiving yellow cards. Perry Kitchen controlled the game and DC defender McDonald, made a few key clearances from the back. The final ten minutes proved to be very testy with Feilhaber’s efforts superbly saved by DC’s goalkeeper, Hamid to keep the score at 2-1 DC United. This game was truly a game of two halves and DC received the result desired and it was well earned at that.
DC United’s next game is away against the Philadelphia Union at 8pm on Thursday, September 20th. As the records stand, DC is 13-10-5 and the Union are 7-13-6. I personally, along with many other DC United and Canada supporters, wish Dwayne De Rosario a speedy recovery and that his presence was missed tonight on the field.
(image courtesy of dcunited.com)
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