Moments after D.C. United’s last-second 2-1 victory over visiting NYCFC on Friday evening, I descended into the bowels of RFK Stadium to attend to my post-game duties.
After listening to a much-relieved Ben Olsen deliver his usual post-game media address, I trudged down a narrow hallway towards United’s locker room. There was water everywhere.
Murky puddles had long formed on the field at RFK. Four inches of rain had fallen on the D.C.-area, and much of it had worked its way through the stands above, filtering through several feet of concrete and raining down on the stadium’s interior corridors. I passed a poncho-clad security guard just outside the locker room.
“The building,” he told me, “is crying tears of joy.”
That’s a funny way of describing the porous nature of MLS’ oldest-venue, a 50-year-old goliath who’s useable lifespan expired long ago. At that moment, though, it fit pretty damn well.
D.C. broke a six-game winless streak, wiping away Frank Lampard’s first-minute strike with a Fabian Espindola equalizer and a last-gasp Alvaro Saborio game-winner. The 2-1 victory pushed united into the playoffs and pushed NYCFC—league debutantes boasting several of the most recognizable names in world soccer—to the brink of elimination.
For a while, it looked like there wouldn’t be any tears of joy at RFK on Friday. Quite the opposite. In what long ago became an alarming trend, United allowed a goal in the opening minutes of the match. The opening minute, actually.
Forty five seconds in, NYCFC midfielder Andrew Jacobson swung a ball in towards Spanish international David Villa in the box. Villa’s attempt at goal was kicked away by United ‘keeper Bill Hamid, but the rebound feel to Lampard in the box, and his awkward, right-footed attempt was good enough to find the empty net.
The former Chelsea man’s tally marked the seventh time this season United have given up a goal inside of the opening five minutes of a match; in three of their past five home matches, they’ve given one up in the opening two.
“I cant explain the starts,” Olsen said after the match. “We’ll continue to work on them. We’ve tried just about everything short of an exorcism to sort out the starts.” (We’re thinking Olsen missed a prime opportunity to do so during the pope’s recent visit.)
D.C., however, came charging back. They looked sharp throughout the remainder of the first half and came out on the front foot in the game’s second stanza, nearly equalizing on efforts from Perry Kitchen and Espindola in opening minutes. Espindola actually found the back of the net in the 52nd minute, but his goal was disallowed when he was correctly ruled offside.
United midfielders Chris Rolfe and Chris Pontius also chipped away at a rapidly thinning NYCFC back line, but efforts from both missed the mark. Still, it seemed it would only be a matter of time before United struck pay dirt.
At the 73 minute mark, United broke through. Pontius—who was excellent on Friday night—collected the ball near the far sideline, cut inside and whipped a 20-yard shot towards goal. A fully outstretched Saunders parried it away, but couldn’t corral it; Espindola was all too happy to knock the rebound home at point blank range.
NYCFC—badly needing a win to keep their already faint playoff hopes alive—pushed for the winner. It opened up gobs of space for United to exploit, and they did so expertly.
“We talked about that,” Olsen said. “As the game goes on, [if] the score was level or they were losing, there was going to be tons of space and they were going to bring on good reserves like Poku, Shelton—they’re a handful. They’re not a fun team to play offensively but I was very happy with how we dealt with that down the stretch and how we used their aggression against them.”
Deep into stoppage time, D.C. found their winner. Chris Pontius drew a free kick 30 yards from goal with a lung-busting, 40-yard run. Saborio, who moments earlier had miffed a wide-open look at goal, atoned for his earlier misstep, muscling his way towards a Fabian Espidola service in the box before smashing home the winner at close range.
The win comes at a fortunate time for United, who are heading into a bye week. A draw would’ve been much tougher to stomach over the break. D.C. can now focus on building off the result and crawling back towards the top of the table (D.C. are in second place, but have played two games more than several surrounding teams.)
“It’s good,” Rolfe told DCist. “This is good. We needed that, we needed a win. We needed a win like that, I think that helps. And now with next weekend off it’s gonna be a lot better for us psychologically coming off a win, clinching the playoffs and not having to worry about any of that stuff during our two weeks. That will allow us now to look back on this game and the past couple of games and figure out what we need to do better and give us some time to work on that.”
