About a month ago, everyone was wondering when DC United would finally win two matches in a row. Now we’re all wondering how far they can go. Last night, DC traveled to PPL Park and defeated the Philadelphia Union 1-0 on a second half Chris Pontius header to give the Black and Red their fourth win in a row. It was United’s first win at PPL Park and their second total win over the Union and there will be many more to come.
Unfortunately, I was unable to watch most of the match since it was on Galavision, and I couldn’t watch it on MLS Live. I want to send my thanks out to those who stream the games on other various websites as I was able to see a little of the first half. I was very happy when the match ended last night. I felt relieved to see United give a little payback to the Union for the Open Cup loss a couple of weeks ago. What was even better was Freddy Adu’s excuses after the match.
But in all honesty, this match result should have been expected. I was getting a little concerned when it hit 70 minutes and the score was still 0-0. But thank goodness for Pontius’ head and Boskovic’s free kicks. And speaking of Boskovic, he now has an assist in the last three matches – all of them wins. So that leaves me torn on the whole issue. With a mostly healthy team, Boskovic found himself sitting on the bench again, and a DP should never be sitting the bench. But whenever he gets in the match, he’s a game changer. So what should happen? I’ll let the readers answer that for themselves.
Bill Hamid turned in another stellar performance last night. In the first half, Hamid came up with a few huge saves which kept Philadelphia off the board. You can say what you want about him, but Hamid is definitely one of the top 10 MLS goalkeepers right now and arguably the top five. I’m really looking forward to seeing how he stacks up against Juventus on July 28th. That will be an exciting match for sure.
Overall, this was a good win. In fact, many of the players felt it was the biggest win of the season thus far. Winning these hard gritty away matches are always important, and something I feel the team couldn’t do in 2010 and 2011. And yes, I’ll admit Philly outplayed us in a lot of areas, especially in the first half, but United was able to find a way to win through it all which shows how good this club really is. DC will have one more match vs Philadelphia later this season, but up next is a more important match: The New York Red Bulls. Depending on the result later today vs. Chicago, next week could determine first place in the Eastern Conference.
(image courtesy of DC United)
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