It was a game that last year’s United probably would have lost. But in a sign that the team is growing, if painfully, in Ben Olsen’s first full season as head coach, D.C. United battled back to save a home point against defending league champions Colorado in front of 12,499 at RFK Stadium on Saturday night.
Not that Olsen, always the bulldog, was happy with the 1-1 result.
“To a man, we weren’t sharp enough from the get-go,” said Olsen, sounding like he’ll be working the team hard during a two-week league break. (United plays Dutch club Ajax in a friendly next weekend.) “This is part of a process that needs to get better with our young group. The complacency…do we think we’re a little better than we are?” Olsen asked.
In Olsen’s defense, the first half was hardly pretty. Within the first quarter of the match, the Rapids’ Drew Moor had put the visitors on top, and it appeared as if the Rapids might be ready to take the game by the scruff, despite missing several key players like Omar Cummings. On their goal, Colorado took advantage of more sloppy defending — Moor hopping on a loose ball in the penalty area after the backline failed to clear its lines. Things then got worse for United when Olsen was forced to substitute both of his strikers — Charlie Davies and Josh Wolff — before halftime due to injuries.
Santino Quaranta and Joseph Ngwenya, though, proved able replacements and provided a boost to United’s attack, causing trouble for the Colorado defense. Ngwenya had a penalty claim denied by referee Terry Vaughn after he was dragged down by midfielder Jeff Larentowicz shortly after the restart. Vaughn, though, couldn’t refuse the second infraction in the penalty area: Rapids defender Kosuke Kimura clattered into Chris Pontius; Vaughn pointed to the spot and Pontius calmly slotted away the attempt to level matters in the 62nd minute.
Both sides had chances to claim the three points in the waning moments, but both Wells Thompson and Ngwenya’s chances went begging. But Olsen made sure his team knew that they threw away the chance to pick up a nice win against a injury-hit team at the end of a long, opposite-coast road trip.
“We’re not good enough in the first forty-five, and essentially it probably cost us two points,” said Olsen.
