Photos by Francis Chung.
D.C. United’s encounter with the Montreal Impact on Saturday afternoon had all the makings of an unwatchable soccer game: two teams fresh out of pre-season playing their third match in a ten-day span. And doing so on a field that, less than 24 hours earlier, had been covered by some eight inches of snow.
And for a while, that scenario played out, with the two clubs wrestling through a largely forgettable first half. The field—about a third of which was frozen—seemed to play as large a role in the action as the players did; workers at RFK had worked dutifully through the night to make it even remotely playable.
For either team to extract a result, they’d have to find a difference maker.
United managed to do so, riding a second-half strike by Costa Rican forward Jairo Arrieta to a 1-0 victory over the Impact, their first season-opening win since 2011.
Arrieta and Chris Pontius combined 19 minutes in to create United’s first scoring opportunity, the former Columbus Crew forward connecting with Pontius about 30 yards from goal. Pontius swerved left, then right before striking a left-footed shot that eluded Montreal Keeper Evan Bush—and also the goal, rolling a few feet wide of the far post.
At the 35-minute mark, Montreal left back Donny Toia gave United goalkeeper Bill Hamid his first touch of the match, a speculative effort from 25-yards out that Hamid easily parried away. Midfielder Chris Rolfe capped United’s opening efforts off a few minutes from the halftime whistle, chipping an attempt goal-ward from the right side of the box that was dealt with easily by Bush.
D.C.’s 59th minute strike came via a lovely combination between midfielder Davy Arnaud, Rolfe, and Arrieta. Arnaud fed Rolfe at the midfield stripe, Rolfe played a looping ball to Arrieta, hitting him in stride near the top of the box, and the former Crew playmaker tucked his effort just inside the far post from 18-yards out, easily beating Bush.
D.C. nearly put the game away for good two minutes later on a combination between Arrieta and Pontius — Pontius chested the Costa Rican’s service down and struck it from seven-yards out, an effort that clanged off the underside of the crossbar, missing the goal line by inches.
Montreal’s only legitimate chance of the match came in the 76th minute when defender Hassoun Camara’s point-blank effort was cleared off the goal line by a well-positioned Conor Doyle. The Impact howled for a hand-ball, though the attempt seemed to strike Doyle in the chest.
In the 81st minute, wide man Justin Mapp challenged Hamid again, streaking in towards goal before colliding with the D.C. ‘keeper. Hamid dusted himself off and rose to help Mapp up, but immediately grimaced when he saw Mapp’s right elbow, which was badly dislocated. Mapp left the match and would not return.
United will get an early season respite, and early bye week before traveling north to meet the New York Red Bulls on March 23rd.
