D.C. United remain unable to find consistent form in the friendly confines of RFK Stadium. On Wednesday night, the Black and Red suffered a dispiriting 2-0 loss to Seattle Sounders FC, as profligate finishing and a second-half collapse once again doomed them to dropping crucial points at home.
The result left them with a 3-4-1 record at RFK—a mark on which they will need to improve considerably if they hope to stay in contention for an MLS playoff berth.
Late goals by Jordan Morris and Joevin Jones were enough for Seattle to overcome the absence of standouts Clint Dempsey and Nelson Valdez due to international duty. United, on the other hand, sorely missed U.S. national teamer Steve Birnbaum’s stout presence on the back line and the creativity of midfielders Patrick Nyarko and Chris Rolfe, both of whom were held out due to recent concussions. Forward Alvaro Saborio was also absent after being called up to Costa Rica’s national side.
Despite being shorthanded, D.C. started the game in promising fashion, playing some dynamic attacking soccer spearheaded by Luciano Acosta’s incisive passing and beguiling dribbles. They outshot the visitors 10-3 during the first half, but only one of those attempts was on target—a 27th-minute header by Kofi Opare that was saved off the arm of Seattle defender Dylan Remick on an arguable handball. Former Sounders winger Lamar Neagle was eager to score against his old club, but none of his five shots were on frame.
Having spent considerable energy without a goal to show for it, the Black and Red came out sluggish and impotent in the second half, unable to generate the kind of chances they had in the opening stanza. Anchored by goalkeeper Bill Hamid in his second game back from injury, the D.C. defense held on in the face of mounting pressure from Seattle, but finally cracked in the 79th minute. Hamid made a diving save on a shot by Joevin Jones, but the rebound went straight to the feet of an onrushing Morris, who put away a right-footed finish from 12 yards, much to the delight of the sizable Sounders contingent amongst the crowd of 15,174.
The strike seemed to knock the wind out of United, who conceded again just four minutes later. Marcelo Sarvas was dispossessed in his own half by Seattle’s Osvaldo Alonso, who picked out Jones making a run into the penalty area. The speedy left back beat a hard-charging Hamid to the ball and one-timed it into the net to put the game out of reach.
After the match, United head coach Ben Olsen bemoaned his team’s inability to capitalize on its early opportunities.
“Scoring goals would help,” he said. “It’s not the first time in soccer where you don’t take your chances and the second half you get punished for it. The few very good chances we had, we failed to finish off.”
On the squad’s second-half woes, he added: “We looked leggy, we looked like we had less juice than they did. We had good some performances, and we had some performances that were not that great. Again, something is a little off. Not all the guys were here tonight.”
United (4-6-4, 6th in Eastern Conference) will have a couple of weeks to regroup as MLS goes dark in deference to the group stage of the Copa America Centenario. The Black and Red will play a U.S. Open Cup match against the NASL’s Ft. Lauderdale Strikers at the Maryland SoccerPlex on June 15 before returning to league action in Houston three days later. Their next game at RFK will be against the New England Revolution on June 22.
