Pontius, United Overwhelm New York in U.S. Open Cup Play

Said offsides were prevalent in the game's opening salvo -- N'Silu twice and Gomez once in the first three minutes alone. The Red Bulls activated an incredibly aggressive offside trap, nearly pushing the back line to the center midfield. D.C. saw it, and immediately went on the offensive. As soon as they were able to stay onside, one knew the avalanche was coming.

Pontius and Fred had the game's first real chance. A lovely play in from the right beat the trap and Pontius, one on one with the keeper, went in hard towards Cepero -- fooling the keeper, he spotted a breaking Fred at the wide post. His pass was too hard though, and Fred couldn't handle it, but it opened the floodgates: from then on, it was a nightmare for New York and a delight for United.

In the seventh minute, Boyzzz Khumalo broke off a pass from the back-in-form Christian Gomez, and after a couple of nice interlocking runs, Pontius earned a corner. On the ensuing corner, Gomez and Pontius connected for what was the first tally of the match. After some initial confusion with Bryan Namoff looking for the short corner, Gomez eventually ceded to effortlessly flick one into the box -- New York's defenders froze, and Pontius headed the ball gracefully into the far side of goal, across a sprawling Danny Cepero. 1-0, United.

Khumalo, with his fountain of hair (who troubled New York all night with his pace) added another in the 18th minute. After another pretty Gomez feed through a bad trap by New York, all Khumalo had to do was make his way around Cepero, and the rout was on. Brandon Barklage surely sealed it in the 21st, when a fortunate bounce came to his foot -- he slammed it home, an incredibly satisfying goal to go up three. D.C., though, showed absolutely no mercy. In the 26th, Fred made a couple of moves after receiving a feed from Pontius; his shot then parried off of Cepero's chest and somehow bounced back onto his. There was absolutely no way that Fred could miss, and he chose the path of hardest shot, rather than walking the ball past the goal line, making it 4-0 after a half hour of play.

Just for good measure, midfielder Dane Borman took a crushed ball right to the face near the end of the first half. A more poignant metaphor for the Red Bulls play couldn't be made, even though Richards did manage to grab a meaningless goal back right before the stroke of halftime.

We're not really sure what, if anything, New York manager Juan Carlos Osario could have said to his men at the break. But whatever it was, involving midfielder Jorge Rojas in the second half plan was the one spot of brilliance for the visitors. One can hardly blame Osario for making three changes at the interval, but Rojas was the difference in the second 45.

Anyone who has watched the Black-and-Red this season knows that a consistent effort for a full 90 is a tough ask for this team most of the time; after going up 4-0 in the first 30 minutes, it wasn't going to happen last night either. Rojas made an immediate impact on the match. After a few sloppy clearances from United's backline, he pounded a shot past Wicks' right side, cutting the deficit to two shortly after the restart. D.C., though, took back the three-goal advantage after Fred - who looked sharp all game - cut across Red Bulls fullback Jeremy Hall and laid an absolutely gorgeous cross into the box. Holding there for what felt like forever, Pontius, in a mirror image of the game's first goal, caressed the ball against his forehead into the net, extinguishing whatever chance New York had left.

A handball in the 60th minute from defender Greg Janicki led to a penalty; Rojas converted from the spot for his second goal in fifteen minutes to bring the score to 5-3. At that point, all that was left was for Gomez, captain Bryan Namoff, and Pontius to receive their curtain calls, and for the sparse but vocal crowd to sing "Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye."

It sounded mighty nice.