WASHINGTON – D.C. United entered the return leg of their CONCACAF Champions League quarterfinal on Thursday in need of a minor miracle: down three to Costa Rican side Alajuelense, they’d need to keep a clean sheet and put up a trifecta of their own to advance to the semis.
And they’d have to do it in conditions that could best be described as dismal; ahead of today’s winter weather, RFK Stadium was drenched in sheets of near freezing rain, the pitch torn up more and more with every cut and pivot.
But it proved to be too steep a mountain to climb. United managed a pair of goals—an early Jairo Arrieta strike and a Fabian Espindola penalty kick moments from the death—but both were washed away by Alajuelense midfielder Johan Venegas’ 71st-minute dagger, a deflected shot which essentially put the series to bed. The 2-1 victory brought the aggregate score across both legs to 6-4, knocking United out of the competition.
D.C. weren’t granted any favors by a referee who failed to control the game; a battered and bruised playing surface that’s clearly struggled to cope with the area’s recent shitty weather, or the fact that only a fraction of the announced 8,000 fans actually showed up (though really, who could blame anyone for staying in last night.)
After the match, however, nobody seemed to be making any excuses.
“This wasn’t about the ref or the field tonight. This is about the first leg,” United head coach Ben Olsen told DCist after the match. “It’s the second time we’ve done it and we need to learn that lesson that in this competition format, such as the MLS playoffs, you have to show up both legs and go about it in a dire way. We didn’t do that.”
That’s right, it is the second time this has happened in under six months. United doomed themselves to failure on Thursday night via their poor showing a week earlier, where they were comprehensively dismantled by the Costa Ricans and dug themselves a three-goal deficit. Similarly, they were eliminated from the 2014 MLS Cup playoffs after dropping the opening match of their conference semi-final series to the New York Red Bulls before putting in a respectable performance in the return leg, (one which left them just short of advancement.)
Alajuelense bucked a bit of conventional wisdom, choosing to press for an early dagger instead of bunkering in, and they nearly got their first at the quarter hour mark. Ticos defender Porfirio Lopez ran onto an in-swinging corner kick, redirecting the effort goalwards. United keeper Bill Hamid—back in action after recovering from a back injury—smothered the effort. Four minutes later, the Costa Ricans would nearly get the opener again on an audacious 50-yard effort from Ariel Rodriguez, one barely tipped over the bar by Hamid as he tracked back towards his own net.
Thirty-six minutes in, United would make it interesting. Nick DeLeon would collect an Espindola pass at the right edge of the box, sending it towards the penalty spot with a low, driven cross. The service deflected off a Alajuelense defender and directly into the path of an onrushing Arrieta, who one-timed it past the outstretched arms of Alajuelense keeper Dexter Lewis.
A game that was already testy boiled over just before halftime. D.C. head coach Ben Olsen was shown to the locker room after a vocal exchange with the referee; shortly thereafter, players from both sides were shown yellows—six in total were issued in the first half—after a post-whistle shoving match.
D.C. pushed forward from the get-go in the game’s second half. Espindola nearly doubled United’s lead in the 51st, controlling the ball 10 yards from goal before sending a right-footed attempt inches wide of the near post.
Against the run of play, the Costa Ricans put the game away in the 71st minute. Armando Alonso played a looping ball forward, a pass which United defender Chris Korb managed to push aside.
Unfortunately for D.C., Korb’s misplayed clearance ended up at the feet of Johan Venegas, whose deflected effort eluded Hamid and doused United’s hopes of a comeback. Espindola’s late PK after substitute Michael Farfan was brought down in the box — a minute from the full-time whistle — was too little, too late.
D.C.’s elimination leaves the Montreal Impact as the lone MLS entrant remaining in CCL play; United will look to re-group before welcoming that very same Impact side to RFK to open the 2015 MLS season this coming Saturday.
