Photo by DC United 2011
D.C. United fans, break out the champagne glasses: we’ve got a winning streak on our hands!
With a win April 22 against New York and a wet-and-wild 3-2 victory over the visiting Houston Dynamo on Saturday night, United did something it hasn’t done in nearly three years: it won two games in a row. Even better, the black and red remain unbeaten in their last seven outings, winning or tying every match they’ve played since March 18.
If the Red Bulls were a cakewalk, the Dynamo made it all-out dogfight. D.C. United gave up and reclaimed the lead on two different occasions, displaying the grit and fight that are fast becoming trademarks of head coach Ben Olsen’s squad.
“I’m obviously proud of the guys tonight,” Olsen said after the match. “Losing the lead twice and coming back shows a lot of spirit. There’s something to this team, they’ve got a little bit of chutzpah.”
Olsen also broke a streak of his own: he used the same starting 11 in consecutive matches for the first time all season.
Much as they did earlier in the week, D.C. United wasted no time setting the tone for the match. Eleven minutes in, forward Chris Pontius found himself on the receiving end of a longball from defender Brandon McDonald. Pontius rounded past Houston goalkeeper Tally Hall at the 18-yard line and sent a perfect cross to Maicon Santos, who headed the ball in, giving United an early 1-0 lead.
The hometown team headed into the locker room after the first 45 up by a goal, but did so after suffering a major blow a minute before halftime when defender Emiliano Dudar aggravated a hamstring injury that kept him out for several games earlier in the month. With Dudar was forced to leave the match, Olsen re-shaped his defense, dropping defensive midfielder Perry Kitchen into the back line and inserting Marcelo Saragosa into midfield behind Dwayne De Rosario.
It didn’t take long for Houston to take advantage of Dudar’s absence, as a relatively unmarked Will Bruin evened the score just five minutes into the second half. United bounced right back, however, as De Rosario notched his first goal of the year. What at first looked like a cross towards Chris Pontius ended up finding its way past Houston’s keeper, bouncing off of the far post and into the net.
Houston, however, would not go down easily. Bruin scored again in the 59th minute, striking a blistering shot directly at Willis, who had trouble handling the wet ball. “It was in tight,” Willis said. “I didn’t push it out, and it just got under me.”
But United, undeterred, put the match away in the 70th minute when De Rosario used some nifty footwork to lose his mark and find defender Daniel Woolard in support. Woolard crossed the ball into the area, finding Santos who made his second goal of the evening.
United next visits Western Conference-leading San Jose on Wednesday, followed by a visit to last-place Toronto this weekend. With the consecutive wins monkey now off their back, United can move on to focusing on breaking a much longer, more important streak: four seasons, no playoff appearances.
“The first thing DeRo said was, ‘Let’s not let up,’ ” midfielder Danny Cruz said. “And he’s right. Yeah, two in a row is great, but we’re not satisfied.”
Team Notes: Saragosa was playing his first game in over a month, having missed time due to the illness and death of his father … The rain again kept many away from RFK Stadium, as the announced attendance failed to break 14,000 … Neither of DCU’s designated players (Hamdi Salihi and Branko Boskovic) saw any action during the game.
