For the third time in four years, D.C. United and the New York Red Bulls—league originals, whose distaste for each other has only intensified over the years—met in the postseason, with the Red Bulls taking a 1-0 victory as the teams opened their home-and-away series in front of 19,525 fans at RFK Stadium.
The RBNY win leaves United perilously positioned for the away leg, where they’ll need at bare minimum a 1-0 victory to force added time and, potentially, PK’s, or something beyond that to end the series outright. It’s a big ask from a crew that, in two visits to Red Bull Arena this year, have been thoroughly outclassed and outscored 5-0.
D.C. had their moments in the opening stanza but never seemed to find the flow of the game; they struggled to string together passes against New York’s high press and ceded control of the game late in the second half, switching off momentarily on a set piece.
In the 72nd minute, US national teamer Sacha Kljestan lined up over a free kick 25 yards from goal, drifting in a cross towards the top of the 6-yard box. Former United midfielder Dax McCarty, now the Red Bulls’ captain, shook his defender and was all alone at the far post, nodding it past Hamid and into the back of the net.
The Highlights:
The Good: Steve Birnbaum and Kofi Opare. It’s difficult to find a ton of positives with United’s performance on Sunday evening. Birnbaum and Opare, however, were steady. With lock starting center back Bobby Boswell absent—serving a suspension earned mid-week for an off-the-ball incident in United’s knockout round victory over the New England Revolution—many had wondered how Opare and Birnbaum would fare in central defense. Though unfamiliar with each other, the two performed admirably, and neither was at fault on New York’s goal, where midfielder Perry Kitchen appeared to lose his man.
The Bad and the Ugly: D.C.’s inability to string together passes and put shots on frame. United head coach Ben Olsen will be the first to tell you that he probably doesn’t care much about this, but D.C. set some dubious marks on Sunday—they became the first team, in the history of the league, to record zero shots on goal in a home playoff game. They also put together, by a comfortable margin, the worst passing percentage of any team in any game this year (54.7 percent).
Much of that has to do with United’s game plan against the Red Bulls, who can be lethal when they press and force turnovers high up the field—instead of knocking the ball around on what looked to be a sub-par playing surface, D.C. chose a direct, route 1 approach, knocking balls over the top, hoping to win aerial battles, etc. It did not always work.
In the absence of Chris Pontius, who missed the game with a hamstring ailment he picked up against New England (after the match, Olsen declined to speculate on how long the winger might be sidelined) D.C. were also forced to alter their gameplan up top, dropping creative playmaker Chris Rolfe back into Pontius’ slot in midfield and inserting Alvaro Saborio in his place. That, too, failed to pay dividends.
The Rest: The return leg is set for next Sunday, 3 p.m., at Red Bull Arena in Harrison, NJ. ESPN will televise. As mentioned, D.C. needs at minimum a 1-0 victory to force added time. Let’s see what happens.
Let’s get on to the important stuff, now. Can we talk, for a second, about what the hell former Chelsea legend Didier Drogba thought he was doing to Columbus goalkeeper Steve Clark last night in the Montreal Impact’s semifinal match against the Crew?
The #DrogbaLegLock spawned a whole host of photoshops. (alright, fine, I started this whole thing.)
